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Showing posts from June, 2014

Freedom Summer

A PBS documentary, “ FreedomSummer,” which aired on Tuesday, rivals any movie for the gravity of its content, its emotional impact, its stirring music, and the nobility of its characters. Besides, these actors are real, not fictional, and they portray real events. The Blacks of Mississippi, the most bigoted state in the Jim Crow South, were transformed by a thousand courageous young people from the North who entered every corner of the state. They emboldened its disenfranchised citizens, and succeeded.   What a story! I never tire of Civil Rights programs and they usually stir up tears. No movie actor portraying a hero tops the expressive passion of Fannie Lou Hamer speaking her truth at the Democratic National Convention. I relish her retort to Adam Clayton Powell who was cooperating with LBJ to undermine the movement. How many hours have you spent picking cotton?   How many beatings have you taken? The story affects me as one who always sides with the underdog and one who

New kind of power

LCWR models a new kind of leadership while   Catholic sisters' shift toward equality and contemplation as the marks of leaders—“wholearchical” rather than “hierarchical.” Dominican Sister Mary Hughes noted that her congregation had dropped the term “superior.” Those who disagree are not the enemy. We will listen, we will be respectful and, in the end, we will teach them.   Womenpriests also model a kind of authority that contrasts with the patriarchal governance of the official Catholic Church, as illustrated on this page of our website for Mary Magdalene First Apostle, titled New Kind of Power. Samples of the shift: Control and domination         Stewardship and dialogue Compete                                  Cooperate Suppress feelings                   Value feelings Exercise power over others     Exercise power with others Authority from above              Authority from all A utocratic power is fading as societies gravitate toward more democratic