by Tom DeWolf | Jun 19, 2010 | Gather at the Table, Race, Oppression, Privilege
The editor of Beacon Broadside–the blog of my publisher Beacon Press–asked me to write an essay in connection with Juneteenth. The request came just after an incident in which my friend Sharon Morgan was subjected to a stupid, racist comment about...
by Tom DeWolf | May 28, 2010 | Books, Reviews, Coming to the Table
When I got The Other Wes Moore last week I anticipated reading it once I finished a couple other books I’m presently reading. But when I read the first couple pages I stopped with the other books and dove into this one. I simply couldn’t put it down. How...
by Tom DeWolf | May 20, 2010 | Coming to the Table, Race, Oppression, Privilege
I turned on my computer this morning, checked my e-mails, read Doonesbury, and then began perusing a few news sites; a ritual I follow pretty much every day. When I got to CNN.com I was stunned by two faces at the top of the page. My friends Betty and Phoebe Kilby...
by Tom DeWolf | May 16, 2010 | Movies, Reviews
I’m not sure that anyone loves America more than Pete Seeger. He’s been a lifelong supporter of the labor movement. He was at the forefront in the struggle for Civil Rights. Pete and his music have been used to support peace and end war. He’s always...
by Tom DeWolf | May 10, 2010 | Books, Reviews, Healthy Living
The latest effort to contain the oil spill that has poured millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico encountered a setback 5,000 feet underwater, officials said Saturday, meaning oil will continue gushing into the ocean for at least several more days, and...
by Tom DeWolf | May 5, 2010 | History, Genealogy, Race, Oppression, Privilege
I’ve thought a lot over the past month about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s decision to revive the practice of “recognizing” April as Confederate History Month. It is easy, and perhaps accurate, to chalk it up to politics. There has been no...
by Tom DeWolf | May 2, 2010 | Race, Oppression, Privilege
“We stood in El Mina slave dungeon, on the Cape Coast of Ghana on a recent trip to West Africa, overwhelmed by despair, grief and rage. Without needing to verbalize it, we were both imagining what reaching this spot must have felt like for some long-ago,...
by Tom DeWolf | Apr 30, 2010 | Trauma and Healing
It isn’t often that I become excited enough with a magazine that I want to tell all my friends about it. Today is one of those days. The latest issue of Peacebuilder (Spring/Summer 2010), from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite...
by Tom DeWolf | Apr 27, 2010 | History, Genealogy, Race, Oppression, Privilege
Do you think less often these days about the devastation and mass deaths Haiti recently suffered as a result of the January earthquake? That would be normal. It’s no longer in the news. Other stories have taken its place in the news cycle. Perhaps you made a...
by Tom DeWolf | Apr 25, 2010 | Healthy Living, Movies, Reviews
We all want to be healthy. I think we can agree on that whether we agree with government efforts to reform access to health care or not. We each make a choice regarding our health every time we eat something. All this is pretty obvious, right? If there is one thing I...
