With 800,000 federal workers out of work, what do we tell those so-called “security forces” who are still working? Among the 800,000 are those who protect our food supply, health services, community safety and environment. While no less critical to our country they are being kept from doing their jobs by Trump’s government shutdown while the Border Patrol stays on to support the further militarization of our border. The Union of Border Patrol employees has opted to be pawns for ...

I was heartbroken to hear of the deaths of two Guatemalan children within 10 days who were in Border federal agency custody in the deserts of New Mexico, as I am sure most of you were. But I also worry about NPR’s new report that Trump allowed only 62 Syrian refugees into our country this year, compared to Obama receiving 12,000 a year, and my grandparent’s home country of Lebanon receiving more than a million in the last 6 years.

By ...

Three-quarters of a century ago, a thoughtful Quaker named Thomas Kelly deftly pegged the dilemma, that you, me, and many other people are challenged by: “We feel honestly the pull of many obligations, and try to fulfill them all.”

But then, Kelly turned his attention from the problem to the resolution, “We have hints that there is a way of life, vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If we ...

What stories do we tell about the world, our loved ones and “adversaries” when we are left to ourselves, during times of fear?

A few weeks ago, I was with a cousin of mine who lives on the Lebanon-Syria border who had been captured or kidnapped and put in a wooden box — a casket, really, for eight days, without any contact with his family or friends, just a little water, bread, and use of a bathroom while his fate was ...

Although most of the Central American Caravan is still a thousand miles away from the border, Trump’s first troops arrived there with orders from the Pentagon not to get directly involved!

So while they are waiting 5-7 weeks for their presumed adversaries to arrive, why don’t we give them a four week vacation (without their guns) in the villages of northern Mexico so that they can rehumanize rather than dehumanize Latinos. We can put them to work helping farmers bring in ...

US citizens have 20-30 days to organize to join and accompany Central American refugees for the last 100-150 miles of their journey to the border. A handful of Central Americans on that human rights pilgrimage have already sued Trump in US courts for his violations of US law.

What we need to organize are small groups of 5-7 friends in two cars who can go south of the border and help their group with car shuttles as they accompany Central Americans, ...

Daybreak broke upon me on the Lebanese shores of the Mediterranean with heartbreaking news: my old friend, chef and co-author Kurt Friese has passed away in Iowa City. He was cofounder with his wife Kim of Devotay restaurant of Slow Food Iowa City, and of Edible Iowa River Valley magazine.

I met him at the first big national gathering of Slow Foodies in Vermont, and we stayed friends ever since traveling for a year together with Kraig Kraft to coauthored: Chasing ...

Our President, Senate and judicial system have spoken, but they did so without deeply listening to many, if not most of you. So it is up to us – as plain-clothed citizens – to bring this country back into a state of decency, of true dialogue, of collaboration, and of restorative justice.

They obviously have the power by our Constitution to make certain decisions, but we should not cede to them the power to “right the ship” – that is our ...

On Sunday, biodiversity conservationist, writer, environmental historian, Curt Meine, took me through the Badger Lands Project facilitated by the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance. It is a spectacular example of how how biocultural land restoration can bring together diverse partners and begin to heal long-standing wounds in a rural community.

Today the Ho-chunk nation, Wisconsin DNR, descendants of early Anglo farmer-homesteaders, the USDA Dairy Forage Resource Center, the Bluffview Sanitary District, the Savannah Institute and University of Wisconsin are all playing roles ...