This is a tribute by Pieter and Meryl Horn to their fellow South African Sam Pono who passed away on September 25. My wife Susan and I had memorable experiences with Sam in 1977 during the depth of apartheid when we took part together in the musical production referred to in this story, in the early 90s as the country […]

Rev. Bill Wigmore interviewed Susan and me for his Podcast “Father Bill W.” He has spent years exploring the roots of the AA movement. His work documents how the Oxford Group, now Initiatives of Change, provided the basis of the 12 steps. (See his book The Power of Two Way Prayer) This interview draws on our family background with the […]

Tanya Gonzalez is the executive director of the Sacred Heart Center in Richmond, VA, which serves the growing Latino community through collaborative partnerships offering medical, consular, and tax preparation services as well as food assistance and referrals for a variety of basic needs. This month she received a Changemaker award from Initiatives of Change USA and a Community Educator Award […]

A recent article in the New York Times is headlined “Finding God in the App Store.” Apparently, millions are turning to chatbots to seek spiritual advice. “Trained on religious texts, the bots are like on-call priests, imams or rabbis, offering comfort and direction at any time. On some platforms, they even purport to channel God.”  Clearly, people are desperate to find […]

Two pioneers of Hope in the Cities (Initiatives of Change USA) left us in recent weeks. Jesse Frank Williams, III, (Jeff) was one of the first people I got to know when my wife and I moved to Richmond, Va, in 1980. He became a trusted friend and an ally in the work of honest conversation on matters of race. […]

In a recent column in the New York Times, Ben Rhodes writes that it’s a mistake for those on the left to promise that “America will be back” after Trump leaves. “That ignores the enormous mistakes elites made over the last three decades and the political context that allowed Mr. Trump to return to power with the mind-set of an arsonist. […]

At this time of intense political and social polarization when constructive change seems a distant hope, I find myself reflecting on experiences in Richmond, Virginia. In 1980, when my wife and I became new residents of this former center of the interstate slave trade and capital of the Confederacy, we found a city in transition and turmoil. The first Black […]

(I wrote this blog five years ago. It seems even more relevant today.) In the summer of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered one of the greatest speeches in US history. Just two years earlier, Congress had passed the Fugitive Slave Act which required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state. Douglass himself had […]

The winter edition of Governing Magazine headlines a story, “How one city cut its poverty rate by more than a third.” Ten years ago Mayor Dwight C. Jones of Richmond, Va., set a goal some believed to be impossible to achieve. Nearly 27% of Richmond residents lived below the poverty line, twice the national average. The goal was to cut […]

In an op-ed column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Paul Williams writes about Collie Burton III who died November 11, just six days before he would have turned 94. “Whether he was hosting international gatherings, helping to create a more equitable voting system in Richmond or bringing Black and white clergy together to break bread, Collie devoted […]