A recent op-ed in the Daily Beast by Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Ian Marcus Corbin, a philosopher at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Fellow at the think tank Capita, declared, “The left needs a spiritual renaissance. So does America.” The writers point to the failures of neoliberalism – rampant consumerism, economic inequality, loss of community – as the […]

In 1849, Henry Brown escaped from slavery in Richmond, Virginia, by arranging to have himself mailed in a crate to Philadelphia. Henry “Box” Brown as he became known, was among some fifty-five men owned by William Barret who had sold Brown’s pregnant wife and child to another slave master. Most of the men worked in Barret’s tobacco factory. Brown’s story […]

Incidents of people of color, particularly Black men, meeting their death at the hands of police occur with heartbreaking frequency. This week, I took part in a deeply moving Zoom call with some of the Initiatives of Change USA network in a dozen cities, including alumni of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship and Caux Scholar programs. The expected agenda for the […]

When my siblings and I were children in the UK, one of our favorite people was Paul Petrocokino. He was a tall, very gifted musician, who was a passionate promoter of Handel’s music and composed in his style. Paul, whose father was Greek, and his American wife, owned a 17th century English country manor with extensive grounds in Hertfordshire where […]

Sports can spring surprises. On the first day of the FIFA World Cup, Saudi Arabia astonished the football world by defeating Argentina. Although Argentina recovered to qualify for the final 16, two other highly rated teams were eliminated: Belgium was stunned by Morocco; and Japan defeated Spain (although Spain still qualified) and knocked out Germany in the process. There will […]

I was going to write about racism or threats to our democracy. But instead, this blog is about one person. A man who is truly at peace with himself and lives to share that peace with others. Leroy can be found most days outside a garage where I take my car for oil changes or inspections. He sits on a […]

Little is known about the remarkable woman whose resilience and determination resulted in Richmond’s most notorious slave jail becoming the birthplace of today’s Virginia Union University. Yet Kristen Green, through meticulous research and vivid imagination, has illuminated the story of Mary Lumpkin and placed her in the context of the struggle for freedom and dignity in America’s brutal environment of […]

Alumni of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship Program met in Richmond, Virginia on June 9. Representatives from every cohort since 2004 took part. They shared what they most remembered from their experience and what has been most impactful for them in their work. High on the list were the building of a diverse community over the course of five weekends, the […]

Watching the moral collapse of the Republican party and the enabling of white nationalism by its leadership, I was reminded that retiring Senator Robert Portman (R-OH) is among those who stand for a very different vision of America. He was one of more than 100 national and local leaders of all racial and political backgrounds who put their names to […]