ClassACT HR73 ClassACT News

Register for our 5/19 Learn at Lunch with Environmental Voter Project's Nathaniel Stinnett

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:14:48 GMT

Register

Learn at Lunch with Nathaniel Stinnett of the Environmental Voter Project

Data science, behavioral science, and mobilizing environmentalists to vote

Join Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder & Executive Director of the Environmental Voter Project, to learn about the organization's cutting-edge work using behavioral science to turn non-voting environmentalists into consistent voters. Nathaniel will describe the latest data and messaging techniques campaigns use to mobilize voters and provide insight into the climate movement's political opportunities in the 2026 midterms.

ClassACT's Environmental Forum in Harvard Magazine!

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 21:24:24 GMT

We are honored to share that our 3/30 Forum Environmental Protection in America: Reviewing the Past and Looking Ahead to the Future of Nature, has been featured in Harvard Magazine in a detailed write-up by Olivia Farrar, framing our discussion as a "Harvard alumni panel examining the impact of the Endangerment Finding."

Give it a read here

Missed our 3/23 Rapid Response Training? Check out the recording and resources here!

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:19:39 GMT

CLICK FOR RESOURCES FROM FORUM

Missed the training? Click below to watch. Edited by Rick Brotman '73.

Learn more here.

Watch Video Teaser for our 3/30 Environmental Forum!

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 20:09:02 GMT

Environmental Protection in America: Reviewing the Past and Looking Ahead to the Future of Nature

With “Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out US Climate Regulation” (New York Times, 2/10/26), has disruption, division and non-stop controversy in our country and the world reduced the focus on climate change and the environment? Not for the members of ClassACT’s working group. Please save the date and register for a crucial discussion and calls to action by experts in environmental history, law and policies.

As part of the broader ClassACT HR73 "Democracy@250" plans for the year 2026, the Environment & Climate Change Working Group will host a Conversation intended to 1) trace the history of the Anthropocene and environmental protection in the US 2) provide perspectives on the declining federal involvement in environmental issues and climate change 3) address developments in local, state, and global commitments in this arena, and 4) articulate actions that need to be taken for the protection of our environments as democracy continues to erode in the United States. The panel will feature Dr. Jason Clay ‘73, Executive Director & Senior Vice President at the World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Historian Dr. John McNeill from Georgetown University, American Historian of Science Dr. Naomi Oreskes from Harvard University, and Environmental law and Energy Policy Professor Dr. Sharon Tisher’ 73 from the University of Maine. Dr. W. John Kress ‘73, Botanist and Smithsonian Director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet, will moderate.

Register for 4/22 Meet Our Bridges: Children's Orchestra Society

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:05:49 GMT

On April 22nd, join us as we introduce the Children's Orchestra Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to "teaching the language of music" to children and teens. The mission of the Children's Orchestra Society is to cultivate and nurture children and teach them teamwork and life skills through music-learning and performing in orchestral and chamber music settings. Members of COS receive excellent training in classical music and opportunities to perform in concerts with their peers as well as with well-established musicians. Classmate and Executive Director of COS Yeou-Cheng Ma will take you through the society's mission, work, and organizational needs.

Check out our March Newsletter!

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:34:57 GMT

Read

Highlights Include:

-Voices of Democracy: Our Classmates and Friends // Iran: A Country in Transition, with Bahman Mossavar-Rahmani '73

-Recap on Learn at Lunch with Jim Engell '73: How to Write an Op-Ed

-Updates from our Bridge Partners: White pony Express, Wings of Hope Global Collective, and FoolProofMe

REGISTER for 3/23 Resist! A Rapid Response Training with Nat'l Immigration Project

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:37:53 GMT

Register

Presented by ClassACT HR73 & JusticeAid

Featuring the National Immigration Project

As the response to immigration becomes more volatile, many citizens and community members want to get involved. This free training, facilitated by the National Immigration Project, will discuss the ever-evolving immigration landscape and provide practical and effective response tactics for those who encounter ICE actions.

What are your rights? Which tactics are appropriate and effective when confronted with an immigration enforcement action? What should you do if ICE attempts to detain you?

Bearing witness, testifying against improper action, speaking up, attending a rally or vigil, or even donating—is resistance. The training will help teach you about your rights, realities and different ways you can help.

Panelists from the National Immigration Project Executive Director Sirine Shebaya, Director of Advocacy Caitlin Bellis, and Rapid Response Coordinating Attorney Gracie Willis will teach you about your rights, realities and different ways you can help.

Learn at Lunch with Jim Engell: How to Write and Submit an Op-Ed

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 22:31:37 GMT

Monday, February 23, 12:00 - 1:00pm ET on ZOOM

Beginning in 1978 Jim Engell AB '73 taught literature and then also environmental issues at Harvard. He retired in 2024 as Gurney Research Professor of English and Comparative Literature. For 20 years he taught a course on rhetoric, too. Its online HarvardX version, "Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking,” has enrolled more than 900,000 learners. In that course he includes writing op-eds and speeches and has published op-eds in major and local newspapers. He believes that education in writing and speaking should include a sense of civic engagement.

Jim will present pointers on writing and submitting an op-ed and a letter to the editor. These pointers are not specific to a particular issue, they are applicable to almost all issues. You’re able to submit an op-ed or letter to the editor of many newspapers and publications, not your local ones only. There will be ample room for questions.

Missed our Culture Counts Forum? Watch the videos here!

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 22:39:40 GMT

On Monday, January 26th, ClassACT HR73 hosted our first Culture Counts Forum, The Arts and Humanities in Our Time. Panelists included world-renowned multimedia artist Laurie Anderson; award-winning playwright and educator Mfoniso Udofia; socially engaged comedian Hari Kondabolu; and visual artist/environmental activist Alexis Rockman. The forum was moderated by renowned jazz guitarist and bassist Jerome Harris ’73. If you missed it, check out the video and topical resources gathered from panelists and attendees below!

CLICK FOR RESOURCES FROM THE FORUM

Check out our January Newsletter!

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:39:15 GMT

Read

Highlights Include:

-Voices of Democracy: Our Classmates and Friends, Fred Bartenstein '73

-ClassACTion Alert: Act Now to Support Local Non-Profit Journalism

-Save the Date // 1/26 Culture Counts: The Arts and Humanities in Our Time Forum

Register for our 1/26 Culture Counts Forum!

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:32:08 GMT

Culture Counts: The Arts and Humanities in Our Time

Monday, 1/26 7:00 - 8:30pm ET on ZOOM

As museums and libraries scramble for funding, and binge-watching supplants reading, ClassACT HR73 has stepped into the void to launch its newest focus group on culture. The classmates who have joined this committee have begun to consider challenges like our society’s emerging anti-humanistic strains, as well as the algorithmization of our personal cultural choices, a trend that threatens to separate us all from each other.

To begin the conversation about what the humanities and arts mean in a time when tech lords and influencers seem to talk over us all, the committee will present the online forum “Culture Counts: The Arts and Humanities in Our Time.”

Culture Counts is honored to include the world-renowned multi-media artist Laurie Anderson as a panelist. Anderson’s musical compositions and performances, her stage presentations, and her drawings, videos and sculptures have expanded the frontiers of the arts. In 2021 she gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard, and in 2024 she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The forum’s panel also includes the award-winning playwright, storyteller and educator Mfoniso Udofia, whose plays have been produced by San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater and the Huntington Theater in Boston, and whose screenwriting credits include Pachinko and Lessons in Chemistry. Joining her will be the socially-engaged comedian Hari Kondabolu, who has written for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and has appeared regularly as a panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” Visual artist and environmental activist Alexis Rockman, whose paintings and drawings depicting the effects of climate change have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, completes this extraordinary panel.

Moderating the forum and heading the new Culture Counts working group is renowned jazz guitarist/bass guitarist Jerome Harris ’73. Jerome has published scholarly essays, toured on six continents, recorded with klezmer clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer, and worked with three NEA Jazz Masters including the legendary tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

-By Jacquelyn Swearingen '73 and Jerome Harris '73

Register for our 2/4 Webinar with United Nations Association of Greater Boston!

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:58:28 GMT

WEDNESDAY, 2/4, 7:00 - 8:00PM ET, ON ZOOM.

On February fourth, join us for a behind-the-scenes preview of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston and their 2025 Annual Report, featuring an inside look at how UNAGB empowers more than 5,000 students each year through Model UN and global education programs. During this session, UNAGB will walk participants through each of its core bodies of work, including youth leadership development, curriculum-based global learning programs, and community partnerships, while sharing new impact insights, student outcomes, and stories from across Greater Boston. The webinar will also highlight UNAGB’s vision for continued program growth and broader regional reach leading up to 2030, as the organization deepens its commitment to cultivating the next generation of globally minded leaders and civic changemakers.

Founded to advance understanding of the United Nations and its mission at the local level, UNAGB engages students and community members in learning experiences that build skills in diplomacy, negotiation, public speaking, and collaborative problem-solving, all grounded in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Participants will gain a firsthand look at how Model UN programming fosters empathy, cross-cultural awareness, and civic responsibility, and how UNAGB is expanding access to these transformative educational opportunities across diverse school and community settings.

Voices for Democracy: Ryan O'Connell and Peter Olney

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:28:44 GMT

Voices of Democracy: Our Efforts, Our Stories

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of our country, ClassACT HR73 has chosen an overall focus for the year’s activities: Democracy @250. In addition to planned democracy-themed events and activities, we are featuring a new section of our monthly newsletter, “Voices of Democracy.” We want to hear from you, whether Democrat, Republican or Independent, about your efforts to promote democratic values, ideas and actions during these challenging times.

Many of our classmates and friends are working locally in their neighborhoods, communities, and volunteer organizations. Others are working on a state or national scale. Some write, some march, some speak, some create. All contribute.

Each month we will tell the stories of one or two of these efforts through video and other visual arts along with written articles. So please share with us how you are channeling your energies and actions to promote democracy and the continuing formation of a “more perfect union.”

Please click below to fill out an informational form and we will be in touch with you.

*Please note: The views and opinions expressed by classmates in our Voices of Democracy Series are those of the individual, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of ClassACT HR73.

This month we feature two classmates, Peter Olney and Ryan O’Connell. Read Ryan’s description of his newsletter on Substack.

The Wall Street Democrat by Ryan O’Connell '73

Read Ryan's recent article on Venezuela

Read Ryan's article on Ukraine

I launched my Wall Street Democrat newsletter in 2015 to fill a gap that I saw in the media. I offer an alternative “take” on key political events and trends, as a counterpoint to voices on the left and the right that often dominate press coverage. I provide a moderate Democratic perspective, often criticizing politicians from both parties. I spent my career on Wall Street, as a lawyer and then an analyst, so I frequently comment on economic and market trends as well as politics. You can subscribe to my articles free of charge on Substack (wallstreetdemocrat.substack.com).

Peter Olney '73

Click on the image below to hear Peter’s thoughts on the current political climate and his long involvement with the labor movement in this country. Video created by Rick Brotman '73.

Missed our webinar introducing KidsCareEverywhere? Watch it here!

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:17:59 GMT

Missed our 12/9 Meet Our Bridges webinar introducing KidsCareEverywhere? You can watch the recording (edited by Rick Brotman '73) here, and view Ron Dieckmann '73 and Margie Hogan's slides from the webinar here.

Check out our December Newsletter!

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:17:09 GMT

December 2025 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

-Voices of Democracy: Our Classmates and Friends, with Ryan O'Connell '73 and Peter Olney '73

-Environment & Climate Change Working Group Updates

-Save the Date: 1/26 Culture Counts: The Arts and Humanities in Our Time Forum

Read

Missed our webinar on planned giving? Check it out here!

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:19:21 GMT

If you missed our Bridge Toolbox Series webinar on Planned Giving, featuring Julie Sakellariadis '78 and Nick Sakellariadis '73, fear not! We include some few follow-up items:

1. The recording of the webinar, edited by Rick Brotman '73.

2. The slides from the webinar.

Missed our Forum on the US Military? Check it out here!

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 16:48:01 GMT

In case you missed our Forum last week titled “The Changing Role of the US Military," we enlisted three military experts to discuss the normative aspects of US military history, current deviations from those norms, and ways in which military and non-military citizenry alike can champion the US armed services’ commitment to their founding principles.

We write with some materials from the forum, which include:

1. Recordings from the forum, a full version and an 11 minute version, edited by Rick Brotman '73. We encourage you to share with your friends!

2. Panelists' calls to action from the forum (you can scroll down the linked webpage to access these).

3. Resources from the Forum: we asked our panelists to provide us with links pertinent to their talks, and additionally gathered material from our audience in the webinar chat. We have organized these materials by topic and provide links to them all here.

Check out Our November Newsletter!

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:44:46 GMT

Read

Highlights Include:

-Coats for Kids Drive: Ole & Nu Fellas Social Aide & Pleasure Club

-From HR85: 11/19 An Alumni Climate Action Town Hall With Harvard Overseer Nathaniel Keohane

-From IMPACT '75: 12/4 Creating New Pathways to More Effective Democratic Action in Low-Income Communities Webinar

Benazir Bhutto Leadership Fellow Tahsina Nasrin, In Her Own Words

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 17:48:37 GMT

Click above to watch Rick Brotman '73's interview with Tahsina Nasrin.

Last month we announced ClassACT HR73’s 8th Benazir Bhutto Fellow, Tahsina Nasrin of Bangladesh. A career civil servant and diplomat with over 12 years of experience in governance, public administration and foreign affairs, she is a Mason Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she is focusing on development policy, leadership and negotiation, global governance, climate policy and the integration of generative AI into public sector innovation. Please take a look at this short video, created by Rick Brotman ‘73, in which Tahsina discusses her experiences in a variety of international settings and, now, the connections, insights and knowledge gained through the program at HKS. She says, “I think I have found the place I belong.” Welcome, Tahsina!

Learn more about Tahsina here

REGISTER for 11/18 Planned Giving Bridge Toolbox Series Webinar

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:55:57 GMT

In order to help our Bridge Partners to further their objectives, we are offering assistance in a variety of skills related to the success of non-profits via the Bridge Toolbox Series. These webinars are recorded and archived on our website for public use.

Many nonprofits derive almost all of their funds from cash gifts. This webinar will discuss alternative fundraising vehicles that can enhance charitable giving and are easy, readily available options for donors.

Julie Wilson Sakellariadis '78 and Nick Sakellariadis '73 are the volunteer leaders of planned giving both at Harvard and at the New York Botanical Garden. Among other topics, they will cover the potential impact of estate gifts, the donation of appreciated securities, and the power of gifts from IRA’s for those over 70.

REGISTER for 11/11 Forum on the Changing Role of the US Military

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 14:59:32 GMT

As National Guard and regular troops appear in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel on the streets of America’s largest cities, ClassACT HR73 is hosting an online forum to address “The Changing Role of the US Military.” The panel discussion takes place on November 11, 2025, at 7:00 pm and will focus on the Trump Administration’s deployment of the armed services within US borders. Examples include the policing effort in response to this past summer’s anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles and subsequent interventions of both National Guard and regular troops in Washington, DC, and other major urban centers. Panelists will also consider the deployment of troops in newly created “national defense areas” along the southern border to support operations of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The US military has historically been seen as an apolitical force committed to defending the Constitution, whatever party holds Congress and/or the White House, and has assumed a domestic policing role only in cases of extreme unrest. The current administration’s rhetoric and its engagements, whether actual or intended, suggest that that historical standard no longer holds. Forum panelists will assess the normative aspects of US military history, current deviations from those norms, and ways in which military and non-military citizenry alike can champion the US armed services’ commitment to their founding principles.

Our panelists for the evening include three distinguished national security experts:

LTG (Ret.) David W. Barno, Professor of Practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and co-author of Adaptation Under Fire: How Militaries Change in Wartime
Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at Harvard Kennedy School, CNN Senior National Security Analyst, and author most recently of The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters
Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony

The panel will be moderated by Leigh Hafrey ’73, Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, ClassACT HR73 Board Member, and author of War Stories: Fighting, Competing, Imagining, Leading.

Register for 10/30 Learn at Lunch with Jacki Swearingen

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:15:07 GMT

Register

The Media and the Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity: Reporting in a Troubled Age

With Jacki Swearingen '73

After a year of fires ripping through Los Angeles neighborhoods and the boreal forests of Canada, after historic floods in places such as Texas and Pakistan, the ravages of climate change loom larger each day in our individual and collective lives. Reporting on the causes of rising temperatures and droughts along with biodiversity loss, as well as the resulting disasters, has become an increasingly important task for journalists around the world. Yet these journalists now must file their stories about the current administration’s assault on renewable energy, about global deforestation, and about aggressive mining in the oceans and remaining wildernesses just as today’s media landscape is shifting to digital modes. How can journalists best meet the challenge of alerting us to the threats to the Earth and the policies that endanger it or offer hope of protection?

Join us October 30 at 12:00 pm for a ClassACT HR’73 discussion led by Jacki Swearingen ‘73 about doing environmental journalism at a time when the press itself is under threat.

New ClassACT Culture Counts Working Group Forms

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:15:29 GMT

ClassACT HR73 folks have periodically voiced a desire for more activity focused on the arts (our last arts-related forum was “When the Stage Goes Dark: Performing Arts in COVID Time” in 2021!). Recent developments in technology and governance are having pervasive effects on America’s arts and humanities enterprise, sparking concerns about its base of support, future direction, and even its shape and definition.

Given culture’s role in citizenship, the selection of Democracy @250 as our 2026 theme provides a unique opportunity for attention to the state of our country’s arts and humanities from a democracy perspective. We have formed a Working Group to help with the crafting of upcoming forums and other events; you’re invited to join the group and pitch in. Please email us at (classacthr73@gmail.com) if you wish to do so.

Check out our October newsletter!

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 18:39:50 GMT

October 2025 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

- Announcing our 8th Benazir Bhutto Fellow, Tahsina Nasrin!

-Call for Submissions: Voices of Democracy: Our Efforts, Our Stories

-New ClassACT HR73 Arts and Culture Working Group Formed

Read

Register for 10/22 Webinar Meet Our Bridges: Editorial Freelancers Association

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:54:13 GMT

REGISTER

Wed. 10/22 7:00 - 8:00pm ET

On ZOOM

Meet Our Bridges is ClassACT HR73’s way to introduce our classmates and extended community to our Bridge Partners. This October, we feature the Editorial Freelancers Association with a focus on the Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship, which provides scholarships to undergraduates attending an HBCU (historically Black college or university) and HBCU alums attending graduate school. Join EFA's Executive Director Autumn A. Arnett as she touches on the importance of supporting diversity in the publishing industry in the current climate, and why we should be doubling down on, not moving away from, diversity across the board.

Announcing ClassACT HR73’s 8th Benazir Bhutto Fellow: Tahsina Nasrin

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:30:47 GMT

It is our great pleasure to announce that the 2025-26 Benazir Bhutto Fellow is Tahsina Nasrin of Bangladesh.

Tahsina Nasrin and Marion Dry '73

Tahsina Nasrin is a career civil servant and diplomat with over twelve years of experience in governance, public administration and foreign affairs. She is currently a Mason Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she is focusing on development policy, leadership and negotiation, global governance, climate policy and the integration of generative AI into public sector innovation. Committed to advancing sustainable development in Bangladesh, she aspires to apply evidence-based policy approaches that strengthen institutions and foster inclusive technology-driven governance. Her goal is to continue serving the Government of Bangladesh by driving key development objectives and in the future to contribute to global initiatives that promote equity, innovation and shared prosperity.

Look for more information about Tahsina and her work in next month’s newsletter. We welcome her and look forward to providing opportunities for all to engage with her in person and online.

Learn more about Tahsina here

Check out our September newsletter!

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:38:52 GMT

September 2025 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

- From the Chair: The ClassACT HR73 2025-26 Forum Series Democracy @250

Calling all classmates'...Substacks!

-From Our Friends at...ClassACT HR85: An Opportunity for Alumni To Help Harvard With Climate Action

Read

Announcing Our 2025-26 Theme: Democracy @250

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 17:33:51 GMT

This past April 19 marked 250 years since those first battles of the American Revolution erupted on Lexington Green and then spilled on to the road to Concord. That day Harvard alumni like Isaac Gardener, along with six College undergraduates, joined more than 4,000 other Massachusetts militiamen in the first armed rebellion against their British rulers’ efforts to stamp out protests in the thirteen colonies.

Reflecting on the bravery of those Minutemen in his “Concord Hymn”, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Class of 1821, wrote more than sixty years later:

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

Celebrations of the founding of America and its democracy have already begun to ring out across the land. We at ClassACT HR73 join in that wish to keep alive the spirit and noblest principles of our founders, ideas like “liberty, justice and equality for all.”

DEMOCRACY @250

To honor our nation and our democracy, ClassACT HR73 has, for the first time, chosen a theme for the year: Democracy @250. We plan to explore this theme in our online forums, our monthly newsletter and in our ClassACTion Alerts throughout this sestercenntenial year.

Active citizenship has never been more important than it is today. We hear from many of you that you are looking for ways to take action to strengthen our democracy, its institutions, and the rights of citizens, and those who call this country home. We are proud of the work done by members of the Class of 1973 in polling stations, in court rooms, in classrooms and other places where democracy can be nurtured.

Upcoming Democracy @250 Forums 2025-2026

The Changing Role of the US Military
- Tuesday, 11/11, 7:00 - 8:30pm ET
Culture Counts: The Arts and Humanities In Our Time
- January 2026
The Past, Present, and Future of Nature and Environmental Protection in America
- March 2026
Clicking in the Dark: News in the Digital Age
- May 2026

JOIN US!

We invite you to join ClassACT HR73 as a member of one of our working groups:

Justice & Civic Engagement
Environment and Climate Change
Health and Healthcare
Education (Forums and Webinars)
Communications
ClassACT Movement
Our newest group, Culture, Arts and Humanities

We need minds, hearts, and most importantly, folks who want to dig in, develop projects and then work collaboratively to get the job done. The efforts of ClassACT volunteers touch not only the Harvard community but also countless others who listen to our forums and webinars or benefit from the service of our 15 Bridges, the classmate-sponsored nonprofits that we often help advise.

If you want to join one of these committees, please email us at classacthr73@gmail.com and let us know what group is of interest. One of the leaders will be in contact.

IT'S A MOVEMENT...

While our focus this year is on American democracy, our commitment to our international projects is ongoing and vital. We foster democracy across the globe through initiatives like our Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program and our support of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston.

Here at ClassACT we have understood from the start that in working together to create positive change, we can do more together than we can as individuals. Alumni from other Harvard classes can also join ClassACT HR73 to get help starting a ClassACT for their own class. In addition, please consider joining Crimson Courage, the group of Harvard alumni dedicated to supporting Harvard’s fight for academic freedom.

“It is not too late to Change the World!” So as the great African-American spiritual “Hold On” exhorts us to do: “keep your hand on the plow and hold on!”

REGISTER for 9/28 Forum on Reproductive Justice

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:33:36 GMT

Reproductive rights in this country are under threat. The overturning of Roe v Wade continues to erode the fundamental right to comprehensive reproductive care, especially for those who are pregnant - whether they suffer a miscarriage, seek to continue their pregnancy or terminate it. Recent changes to Medicaid policy excluding Planned Parenthood as a provider have exacerbated lack of access – effectively removing the right to choice for many people in underserved communities. A patchwork of conflicting state-specific policies and laws have created more confusion and inequities.

Our panelists will discuss how advocacy, education and litigation can help address these growing threats in our September forum, co-sponsored by JusticeAid, one of Class ACT’s oldest non-profit collaborating partners. The forum will take place on Sunday, September 28 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm EDT.

The panel will include Dr. Jamila Perritt, an obstetrician and gynecologist who is the President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, Karen Thompson, the Director of Litigation at Pregnancy Justice, JusticeAid's 2025 grantee-partner, and Dr. Jenna Tosh, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast. Dr. Vivian Lewis ’73, Professor Emerita of Ob/Gyn at the University of Rochester Medical Center, will be the moderator.

Check out our August 2025 Newsletter!

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 18:21:58 GMT

August 2025 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

-Wings of Hope Update - From Patty Potter '73

-Save the Date: 9/28 ClassACT Forum Reproductive Justice: Is Being Pregnant a Crime?

-Fall 2025 Bridge Webinars

-From Our Friends at Crimson Courage & the Phillips Brooks House Association

Read

Did you miss the 7/10 Freedom of the Press Forum? Watch the recordings here!

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:09:00 GMT

If you missed the Freedom of the Press Forum ClassACT HR73 hosted on July 10th, we have you covered! You can watch an eight minute version or the full recording below (edited by Rick Brotman '73).

Check out our June 2025 Newsletter!

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:53:02 GMT

Read here

Highlights Include:

-SAVE THE DATE FOR July 10th: Press Freedom under Assault: Preserving our Democracy ClassACT Forum

-More than 12,000 Harvard Alumni Sign Historic Amicus Brief In Support Of Academic Freedom and Institutional Independence

-Environment and Climate Change Working Group Goes On the Road and Into Inboxes!

REGISTER for 5/12 Ukraine and Russia: Will Europe Step Up? Forum

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:22:17 GMT

REGISTER

Ukraine and Russia: Will Europe Step Up?

Monday, May 12, 7:00 - 8:30pm ET

As Ukrainians fight for survival and Europeans fear a Russian victory, we invite you to a discussion on the future of Ukraine, Russia and Europe in the wake of Trump’s election. Moderator Ryan O'Connell '73 and panelists Mark Cancian '73, Peter Galbraith '73, and Tom Kent will consider issues like the possible consequences of the United States cutting off aid to Ukraine, and Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine despite previous promises to seek a ceasefire.

REGISTER for 4/23 Meet Our Bridges: Cole Resource Center

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 23:49:24 GMT

Wednesday, April 23rd, 7:00 - 7:45pm ET on ZOOM

This April, we feature the Cole Resource Center, an organization which offers custom guidance to those in our community who face mental health challenges: individuals living with mental health conditions and their family and friends. CRC’s free support services include referrals to resources, job coaching, and opportunities for open, stigma-free conversation. CRC staff share their lived experience and expertise as peers and allies in navigating the journey to healthy and productive living. Cole Resource Center President Ellen Faran ’73 will be joined by four of her CRC colleagues in introducing the work of this small nonprofit and discussing the unique value of non-clinical services in meeting today’s intense needs for mental health support.

REGISTER for 4/9 Learn at Lunch with Bob Dreher '73!

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 23:47:47 GMT

As federal environmental laws and policies are being gutted, people fired and programs defunded, it is more important than ever for citizens to recognize their power and ability to enforce existing environmental laws. Citizen suits against private parties and suits to compel government officials to adhere to those laws can be an effective tool. Drawing on his extensive background as an attorney with US Fish and Wildlife, US Department of Justice, and the EPA, along with examples from his experience with the Potomac Riverkeeper, Defenders of Wildlife and Earthjustice, Bob Dreher '73 will talk about the role that citizens can play in the enforcement of environmental laws. He will also describe the origin of citizen suit provisions and the constraints that apply to citizen plaintiffs. After his talk, there will be time for questions and discussion.

REGISTER for 3/11 Vaccine Forum

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 13:58:31 GMT

This is an especially consequential and timely topic given current levels of vaccine hesitancy and shifting vaccine requirements in the United States. We plan to cover crucial impacts – past, present and future – of vaccines; technologies for developing even more effective, quick-to-market vaccines; new ways to expand vaccine supplies and increase availability; and encouraging vaccine acceptance and trust through better communication about the science of vaccines.

This forum will be moderated by Jonathan “Jono” Quick ’73, MD, MPH, Adjunct Professor of Global Health at Duke Global Health Institutes. Our panel of experts includes Joseph Martin ’73, Ph.D, Research Fellow, Pfizer Bioprocess R&D, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Retired), Pfizer Global Research and Development; Maria Elena Bottazzi, Ph.D, Co-Director, Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Baylor College of Medicine; Francis S. Collins, MD, Ph.D, NIH Distinguished Investigator, National Human Genome Research Institute and Former Director, National Institutes of Health; Heather Lanthorn, Assistant Director, Research and Programs, Duke Global Health Innovation Center; and Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D, MPH, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota.

Resources from our 10th Anniversary party!

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:17:17 GMT

Click here

Fun was had by all on the evening before Valentine’s Day as close to 70 classmates gathered online to celebrate the 10th Birthday Bash of ClassACT HR73.

Attendees were able to share their opinions on a variety of topics in six virtual breakout rooms. These rooms were cleverly identified by the nostalgia of our days in Cambridge. The rooms included: Elsie’s (fine dining, cooking, entertaining); The Fogg Art Museum (Fine Art); The COOP (Literature); Brattle Theater (theater, film, television, and streaming; Charles River (Leisure Activities); and Soldier’s Field (Sports). People hopped from one breakout room to another, so we are in the process of compiling a summary of recommendations (ie. books, restaurants, museums, etc.) to share with all the participants. The positive reactions and responses point to future class get togethers, and we include some of the resources we received in the chat above! They include books, movies, recipes, and theatre recommendations.

REGISTER for 3/5 Learn at Lunch with Jason Clay '73

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:05:57 GMT

Learn at Lunch: Food and the Global Environment, With Jason Clay '73

Wed. March 5th, 12:00 - 1:00pm ET on ZOOM

Producing food has always been essential to human survival. As population and consumption have grown, food production and trade have intensified to address global demand and the need for food security. As a result, the environmental and climate impacts of providing food for the world have increased dramatically. Food production is one of the largest contributors to climate change. It is more complicated to address than either energy or transportation, yet receives only 2-4% of global climate funding. This is a danger sign. Soon food production will likely be the single largest emitter of the CO2 emissions contributing to climate change. Yet, food production, when done right, can reduce and sequester emissions. Jason will explore some of the key issues and trends in this essential human activity that need to be addressed, as well as a few of the strategies he is working on to shrink the footprint of the global food system.

REGISTER for ClassACT's 10th Anniversary Party on 2/13

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:59:46 GMT

10 years, 31 Forums, 15 Bridges, 7 BBLP Fellows, and scores of newsletters, calls to action, webinars and learn at lunches later, the ClassACT HR73 community has changed the world. Whether you are a regular volunteer, bridge sponsor, webinar/ forum attendee or are just beginning to know us, you are a part of ClassACT and we have done this TOGETHER. Now, as we move into our organization’s next decade, it’s time to celebrate US!

Please join us for a Zoom cocktail party featuring our ClassACT community of classmates.

Beginning with the whole group gathering for toasts, you will then have an opportunity to rotate through (or stay in) breakout rooms for lively conversation based on common interests. These will include sports, entertainment, literature, and fine dining to start, but the discussions can lead wherever you want them to go. The party will end by gathering again as a whole group for final comments and toasts.

Mark your calendars for February 13th and tell us you are coming by registering here.

REGISTER for 2/19 Meet Our Bridges: Sports Analytics Club Program

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:35:15 GMT

Meet Our Bridges is ClassACT HR73’s way to introduce our classmates and extended community to our Bridge Partners by letting them create awareness of their mission as well as solicit volunteer help and/or donations. In February, SACP Co-Founder and Executive Director Robert Clayton '73 introduce the Sports Analytics Club Program, which aims to expand STEM education opportunities to underserved high school and middle school students.

REGISTER for 1/5 and 1/12 Democracy Town Hall

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 18:28:04 GMT

Democracy '24 Town Halls

Broken Branch: Is The Supreme Court beyond Repair?

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5TH, 7:00 - 8:30PM ET

With Linda Greenhouse '68, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the New York Times, prolific author, and Dean of the Court’s Press Corps for more than three decades, Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School, and Emily Bazelon, bestselling author and staff writer for the New York Times Magazine. She is a Senior Research Fellow at Yale Law School, Former Senior Editor of Slate, and Co-Host of the Slate podcast “Political Gabfest.”

Capacity limited, to reserve your spot, visit the democracy town hall website above.

From September 15 through the inauguration of the next president, sixteen one-on-one, Sunday-evening conversations among leading national figures in politics, media, culture, journalism and justice.

Featuring Lawrence O’Donnell, Al Franken, Judge J. Michael Luttig, Laurence Tribe, Jon Meacham, Colin Jost, Susan Glasser, Walter Isaacson, Michael Sandel, Norm Ornstein, E.J. Dionne… and you.

Open to the entire community of alumni, students and friends.

Created and produced by Rick Lyon '75 and Kurt Andersen '76 in association with MTJ of the Class of ’75.

COMING UP:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 12TH

Jon Meacham

Pulitzer Prize-winning Biographer, Presidential Historian, Author of many other New York Times bestsellers, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Former Editor-in-Chief at Newsweek.

Evan Thomas ’73

Author of eleven books, including The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson ’74) and numerous New York Times bestsellers. Editor at large at Newsweek, where he won two National Magazine Awards.

Check our our December Newsletter here!

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:33:30 GMT

December 2024 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

-ClassACT's Tenth Anniversary Party Rescheduled for February 13, 2025

-Meet Our Bridges Series: Sports Analytics Club Program, February 2025

-The Future of Vaccines & Vaccine Acceptance, Winter 2025

-Reproductive Rights Forum with JusticeAid, Spring 2025

-Opening Our Toolbox: Highlights From Our Effective Fundraising Webinar

Read

Register for 12/11 Forum on Aging, Loneliness, and Isolation!

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:46:28 GMT

STAYING ENGAGED AS WE AGE: A ROADMAP

Wed. December 11th, 7:00 - 8:30pm ET on ZOOM

To provide perspectives on developing strategies to stay engaged throughout adulthood, ClassACT HR73 will present a forum on Aging, Loneliness, and Isolation. The distinguished panel will include Dr. Laura Carstensen, Professor of Psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy Director at the Stanford Center on Longevity; Dr. Robert J. Waldinger ’73, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of the best-selling The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness; and Dr. Prentiss Taylor ’73, a primary care physician practicing at Advocate Health Care in Metro Chicago. Dr. Vivian Lewis ’73, Professor Emerita and former Vice Provost at the University of Rochester Medical Center, will moderate the discussion.

Register for 12/5 Effective Fundraising Webinar!

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:45:26 GMT

Bridge Toolbox Series: Effective Fundraising Webinar

Thurs. December 5th, 7:00 - 8:00pm ET on ZOOM

Successful nonprofits can state their mission in one simple and compelling sentence. Successful nonprofits make fundraising a core function. And at its core fundraising is about engaging with potential donors. This engagement could be strengthening pre-existing engagement (such as with college alumnae and alumni) or it could be creating new engagement (like that for a new non-profit).

Join classmates and fundraising experts Ken Bartels and Nick Sakellariadis as they focus on these engagement tools to show how to successfully fundraise for your organization.

Check out our November Newsletter here!

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:44:52 GMT

November 2024 ClassACTions Newsletter

Highlights Include:

-Letter from the Chair: Marion Dry '73

-November 20th: Meet Our Bridges // Wings of Hope Global Cooperative

-Maasai Culture and Safari Adventure: Medical Mission, June 2025

-December 11th: Staying Engaged as We Age: A Roadmap

-Keep a NOLA Kid Warm This Winter! Join the Kids' Coat Drive

Read

Want to keep a NOLA kid warm this winter? Join our Kids' Coat Drive!

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 18:13:32 GMT

DONATE HERE

Please SELECT or TYPE "Sue Press, NEW ORLEANS, LA, Gift Registry" when providing an address.

Want to give a NOLA kid a coat to keep them warm this Winter? We hope you will join us by donating a coat/s this year. For the fifth year in a row, ClassACT HR73 will impact children's lives in New Orleans by participating in the annual coat drive sponsored by ClassACT HR73’s Bridge Partner, The Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aide & Pleasure Club.

The Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aide & Pleasure Club was founded by the extraordinary leader and activist, Sue Press and is sponsored by Rick Weil '73. In four previous years, members of the Class of ‘73 have donated more than 100 coats each year, helping keep kids--toddlers to teens--from the Tremé section of New Orleans, warm and dry in the winter. Sue has told us that our donations have been extremely helpful and much appreciated. Please consider donating a coat by going to the Amazon wish list link above!

Please note that the event will take place on December 14th, so make sure to donate before then.

Register for 11/20 Meet Our Bridges: Wings of Hope Global Cooperative

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:25:33 GMT

The Wings of Hope Global Cooperative (501c3) seeks to provide resources to promote good health, education and economic growth that will empower people in need. This Webinar will introduce participants to the role of this nonprofit in empowering people in Kenya, Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Pakistan. Focus will be given to the specific projects associated with the health care needs of the Maasai people in Kenya. Wings of Hope President David Weeks HR’73 will be joined by Transparentdonation.com Founder Krish Bhatia, a Babson student presently studying in England, and Kikanae Punyua, Osiligi (Hope) Foundation Founder and Maasai Projects Manager in Kenya. This intergenerational and intercultural presentation of humanitarian projects demonstrates effective ways to use one’s talents to address global needs.

REGISTER for 11/13 Learn At Lunch: A Post Election Group Gathering

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:24:36 GMT

As a follow-up to our September Forum on “Environment on the Ballot in 2024 and Beyond,” please join us for a special edition of Learn at Lunch in which we come together to process the outcome of the national, state, and local elections, how they intersect with our environmental concerns, biodiversity conservation, and what the path forward looks like for climate justice. Everyone is welcome to bring their thoughts, hopes, and ideas to this session -- this is a space for meaningful and respectful conversation by everyone. Put it on your calendar. We look forward to your participation and insights.

Note: After this session, Learn at Lunch will resume with classmate presentations in Spring 2025.

Check out our October 2024 ClassACTions Newsletter

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 18:27:48 GMT

Read

Highlights Include:

-JusticeAid: Music! Justice! Action!

-Voting: Our Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities

-Save the Dates

-Bridge Partner Updates

REGISTER for 10/20 Democracy Town Hall

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 20:05:24 GMT

HR75 Town Hall Programming

Sunday, October 20th, 7:00 - 8:30pm ET, on ZOOM

From our friends at Marching Toward Justice of the Class of '75:

Democracy ’24 Town Hall with Jennifer Senior, Staff Writer at The Atlantic and 2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Feature Writing (and 2024 Finalist for same category), and Kurt Andersen '76, best-selling author of “Evil Geniuses” and longtime host of public radio's Peabody-winning Studio 360.

This is a 16-part, Sunday-night, one-on-one conversation series, featuring leading national figures in politics, media, culture, journalism and justice, before a live Zoom audience. Open to the entire community of alumni, students and friends.

Created and produced by Rick Lyon '75 and Kurt Andersen '76 in association with Marching Toward Justice of the Class of ’75.

Register for 11/1 for Meet & Greet with new BBLP Fellow Waheed Ahmad

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 15:21:04 GMT

Friday, November 1st, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

St. Botolph Club

199 Commonwealth Ave.

Boston, MA, 02116

George Putnam '73, Waheed Ahmad, Marion Dry '73

The ClassACT HR73 Board and the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Steering Committee invite you to join us in person for a social gathering introducing this year’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow, Waheed Ahmad of Afghanistan. This reception will begin with social time, wine, beer, soft drinks and delicious food, followed by a conversation between Waheed, ClassACT HR73 Board Member Leigh Hafrey, and classmate and former Ambassador, Peter Galbraith. Come learn more about Waheed, his perspective on Afghanistan, and his hopes for the future. More information about Waheed, Leigh, and Peter below. We will plan time for questions from those attending. This is a great opportunity to meet our wonderful fellow and to share time together in a relaxed and beautiful setting.

Please join us.

Register for Bridge Toolbox Series: on Communications, 10/23!

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 15:20:06 GMT

Newsletters? Videos? Facebook? X? Videos? Communicating your organization’s story is an ever-evolving process that involves skills, hard work and a team that, itself, communicates well with one another. By focusing on general concepts, members of the ClassACT HR73 Communications Committee Henrietta W. Lodge, Rick Brotman, and Dick Friedman will present an overview of their efforts to connect with the intended audience, articulate the organization’s goals and promote its various activities. Opportunity for questions, answers, and discussion will follow the presentation.

A BIT OF BACKGROUND:

ClassACT HR73 offers pro bono assistance to nonprofits called Bridge Partners, which are either founded or run by classmates, as well as supporting classmates who are involved in organizations that want to change the world.

September ClassACTions Newsletter Special Edition: Democracy

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:06:29 GMT

READ HERE

During this pivotal moment for our country, we in ClassACT HR73 have been working to encourage our classmates and readers to join in efforts to get out the vote for national, state and local elections this November. We believe that supporting free and fair elections is one of our primary responsibilities as citizens of this great nation. In this spirit, we have devoted the September edition of our ClassACTions newsletter to reflecting on how our love of Democracy informs so many of our endeavors. We also offer ways for you to help others to exercise their constitutional right to vote and fulfill their responsibility.

Marilyn Go '73: Immigration Stories

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:57:31 GMT

Immigration Stories

Marilyn Go

Since retiring from the federal bench, Marilyn Go has pursued her interest in redistricting and voting rights as a member of the New York City Districting Commission, the Justice and Civic Engagement Committee of ClassAct HR '73 and two Asian Pacific American voting rights organizations.

I served as a United States Magistrate Judge for over twenty-five years in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) in Brooklyn. Created under an Act enacted on February 25, 1865, the EDNY was the last court that President Abraham Lincoln established.

One of the most coveted duties of EDNY judges was, and still is, administering the oath of citizenship to new Americans in naturalization ceremonies. The Ceremonial Courtroom where proceedings are conducted has walls adorned by giant murals that Edward Laning painted as part of a series entitled "The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America." Commissioned during the depression by the Works Progress Administration for Ellis Island, the murals depict immigrants "engaged in building railroads, farming, mining and beginning their lives in America."

Like the workers captured in Laning's paintings, the new citizens naturalized in the EDNY come from all corners of the world, ready to leave the Court House to continue the efforts to build America. With joyful faces and great enthusiasm, they give life to the phrase "We the People" – for it is The People who give substance to American "democracy," a term with origins in ancient Greek from demos ("people") and kratos (rule).

In 2015, as part of the Court's celebration of its sesquicentennial, judges of the EDNY shared stories of when they or their forebears first immigrated to the United States. Like new naturalized citizens in the EDNY, the judges or their relatives emigrated from many different places: Antigua, Austria, Belarus, China, Czechoslovakia, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.

One judge had ancestors who arrived in the late 1700s, coming from England shortly after our nation had been formed and long before creation of the EDNY. One judge had great-grandparents who emigrated from Italy and Ireland to settle in Richmond, Virginia, with one great-grandfather serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, an act that may have been dangerous for anyone then residing in Richmond. A number of judges are second or third generation Americans – i.e., judges whose parents were born abroad and immigrated to America or whose grandparents were the first to come to the United States. Some judges are first generation Americans, as am I.

I emigrated to America with my parents when I was almost six. I was fortunate compared to many of the immigrant parents or grandparents of judges who were children when they came to America. Like most other new immigrants, they had to begin working despite their age. One judge's father came with his mother through Ellis Island at age nine and began working 10 hours a day selling fruit and vegetables from a street cart. A grandmother of another judge was 14 when arriving with her family in the U.S. She worked in a sweatshop in Manhattan making ladies’ garments during the day and went to school at night to learn English.

The grandfather of another judge came to America alone when 16 and knew little English. He worked at many different jobs (including delivering milk), but was able to save and eventually pay the way for his parents and all nine siblings to join him. Another judge's grandfather supported his family first by operating a bar, but when Prohibition was passed, opened up a laundry.

The immigration stories of the EDNY judges are the stories of all immigrants coming to America. Some came to escape poverty while others were fleeing religious persecution or political upheaval. Some simply wanted a better life. Whatever the reasons for leaving their homelands, people coming to America held the same dreams of having a better life for themselves and their families. America is a nation of immigrants and what better example than the stories of judges of the EDNY!. That is what democracy is all about – when a ten year old boy selling fruit in the streets of New York would one day have a son who would become a judge.

Immigration is an important component of American democracy and has often demonstrated that rule by The People will not inevitably be rule by the wealthy or already powerful or the well connected. However, as we know so well today, immigrants are convenient political targets, as they have been. One hundred years ago, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which was intended to limit immigration from eastern and southern Europe, and essentially stopped almost all immigration from Asia. This was but one of many discriminatory immigration acts. The Chinese had already been barred from immigrating to the U.S. with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Until the repeal of the Exclusion Act seventy years later, Asians living in the United States were subject to state and federal anti-Asian laws prohibiting them from being naturalized as citizens or from owning land under various Alien Land Laws. The Immigration Act of 1952 (the Walter-McCarran Act) repealed the prior exclusionary immigration laws and permitted people from Asia to immigrate to the United States. One judge whose Japanese grandparents had emigrated to the U.S. in 1902 could finally become citizens. However, the 1952 Act put into place a national origins quota system which effectively limiting the number of Asians immigrants to around 1,000 people annually, less than 3% of the total number of immigrants.

Finally, in 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed and amended immigration laws to favor family reunification, employment needs and refugees. When signing this Act, President Lyndon Johnson stated that the Act supports entry of “those who can contribute most to this country – to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit.” Irrespective of the intended goal of the Act, there is little doubt that immigrants who have come to the United States in the past have contributed greatly to our country.

Meredith Ann Palmer '73: Thoughts on Democracy and the Arts

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:55:08 GMT

Democracy and the Arts

Meredith Ann Palmer

Art Dealer, Foreign Service Art Specialist, Independent Filmmaker

“Cultures get transformed not deliberately or programmatically but by the unpredictable effects of social, political, and technological change, and by the random acts of cross-pollination.”

--Louis Menand, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War

For those of us in the U.S. and the Free World, art for art’s sake seems to be a given.

We can extol the virtues of art to transport us to a spiritual level, to capture the sublime, to reflect the critical ideas of our time, to anticipate the rhetoric and social changes of current society, and yes, to provoke us to think outside of the norms. In democratic societies, artists can freely paint, or write, make films, dance or act as they wish. However, when art bumps up against the restrictions of totalitarian societies, creative expression becomes all about freedom of the individual, or rather the lack thereof. The state mandates what the artist can say, even the technique and subject matter that is acceptable or not in support of the current political position and propaganda of the state. (In the People’s Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, artists were not even allowed to paint plum blossoms because the plum is the first of the trees to flower even amidst the snow of winter. Symbolically, this was equated with hardiness and “revolutionaries,” so the Communist state forbid artists from painting these subjects.) In a totalitarian state, the individual can no longer freely express his or her own ideas as in a democracy, but must follow the mandates of the state or seriously jeopardize his/her own well-being.

It was in my first job directly out of college, as an art specialist in the Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., that I witnessed firsthand this inseparable notion of art and politics firsthand when I was asked to manage the first official art exchanges for the Department of State between the U.S. Government and China (P.R.C.). In 1974-75, “The Chinese Archeological Exhibition,” took place and reciprocally in 1981, “American Paintings from the Boston Museum,” after we signed a Cultural Accord with the opening of diplomatic relations in 1979. I learned what it meant for art and politics to be intertwined in a way that one rarely sees in the democratic U.S., i.e. until the Culture Wars of the 1970s raised its ugly head when Congressional funding for the National Endowments questioned what the artists were allowed to paint or perform.

Of course, there are those courageous artists in these societies who stand up to the edicts of the current political state, who risk being accused of sedition or insurrection, even treason if they express ideas that are contrary to the state mandates -- or that are judged by authorities to challenge the political positions of the current leadership. Naturally, out of a sense of survival and with savvy experience, many such artists can become adept at maneuvering around the government’s mandates by couching their rhetoric in subtle or more obscure ways so as to avoid the authorities. (Filmmakers often depict everyday life as it appears to them in their narratives, sometimes showing the corruption of elements in the society, and even daring to illuminate the injustice of the government punishing its citizens who buck the system. As long as the work of art is not viewed as direct criticism of the state, they can often avoid government interference. However, when political winds shift, what is acceptable and what is not, can change just as quickly.

One of the most successful films that the USG sent to Poland and to other E.European countries--where filmmaking stands at the top of the intellectual artistic hierarchy--was One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest. Couched in this brilliant film of 1975 by Milos Forman, the psychiatric hospital served as a metaphor for power over the vulnerable, for the repressive society under Soviet control. Thus, it was indirect enough to get through the censors, but electrifying for the public and artists in Eastern Europe who saw implications for their own situation.

In 1980, when Poland and other E.European countries were coming out from under the Soviet bloch and developing new political structures, encouraged by our State Dept., my office in Washington sent a festival of films to several of these countries (E. Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania if my memory serves me correctly) by the prominent film director Sidney Lumet. His programs were sponsored jointly by the American Embassy and the new progressive labor union Solidarity. It included the recently released Prince of the City (a criticism of the NY Police Dept. and its corruption), among his other socially-relevant films, including even The Wiz with its black cast.

I recall that at Lumet’s debriefing in our office, he commented that he used to “give lip service to cultural exchange”, but now he “recognized how important these exchanges were” and said that every question he was asked by his peers on this trip was about “freedom” down to what lens he was allowed to use in making his films. He offered to go overseas again for the U.S.G. any time and anywhere that we wished, but sadly we did not sponsor him again, which was unfortunate. His films continued to champion the freedom of the individual, and I often wondered how that overseas trip had influenced him with new insights.

In the visual arts, renegade artists in China during the violent, volatile and repressive time of the Cultural Revolution (1967-1976), would secretly meet in the parks to paint intuitive small, expressionist landscapes, not the mandated social realism of workers in the factories, farmers in the fields or soldiers fighting to uphold Communist ideals. They would make these “experimental” paintings only big enough so that they could quickly hide them in their small “army” bags should authorities come upon them in practice. This first rebellious group in the late 1970s and early 1980s was known as the “No Name” group, who also held private, surreptitious exhibitions for each other in their own apartments, thus later dubbed by scholars “apartment art.” In 1979, the first group of “avant-garde” artists, titled Stars (XingXing), was not allowed to hang their paintings even on the fence around the National Gallery in Beijing, so in protest they joined the famous “Democracy Wall” marches, espousing creative freedom as a democratic right.

By the time the Dept. of State/USIS sent the landmark “American Paintings Exhibition from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts” to China in 1981, the Chinese were starved for information from the West after 10 years of being cutoff from the world during the Cultural Revolution. While their own art schools had reopened in 1978, original American paintings had not been seen, except in small postage-stamp-sized reproductions in a few of the art publications. Thus the Boston Show was “culture shock” to the artists and to the public. At the last minute before it opened, even with a Congressional delegation and Chief Justice Warren Burger in Beijing as the opening U.S. delegation, the Chinese objected to one dozen abstract paintings of the 70 paintings in the collection. In a diplomatic success, but not without some tense days before the opening in which I participated, our Embassy guided the Boston Museum who managed to keep all of the paintings in the show, avoid censorship, and display a unique, unfiltered picture of American history and its art from Colonial times through Color Field painting. Many would agree that this was one of the most successful cultural exchanges ever presented by the U.S. Coming from places as far as Xinjiang province in the West, nearly 300,000 Chinese saw the exhibition in Beijing and 250,000 attended the show later in Shanghai over only two months.We sold out 30,000 catalogs in the first week and printed a second run of the same number which also sold out quickly. To this day, they have not forgotten it.

As a result of the impact of these programs in Communist and other authoritarian countries, I paid even closer attention to the way to respect the arts in developing the State Department program. Despite the program’s mission to influence our country’s effectiveness in foreign relations, I established a policy to keep the arts independent, by presenting them for themselves first, before making any political gains in our international arts program. We made sure that we selected the artists and exhibitions for their merits in achievement and quality, calling on museums and their curators to organize these exhibitions, thus keeping selection at an arm’s length from the government official. This also reflected how our professional arts community -- museums and galleries --was structured, highlighted the staff’s expertise and well-honed practices, and gave a picture of how our professional arts community actually worked. Public diplomacy, indeed, was established to “tell America’s story,” (especially after the Cold War of the 1950s), and we wanted to tell it accurately and dynamically as part of a free and democratic society. To many of us, this was the best way to show our values and support other aspects of our foreign relations.

David Fichter '73: Thoughts on Democracy and the Arts

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:52:37 GMT

Thoughts On Democracy and the Arts

David Fichter

Muralist and Public Artist

The Frost Elementary School, Lawrence, MA, created by and courtesy of David Fichter

“Art is not just to show life as it is but to show life as it should be.” --Paul Robeson

“In the dark times will there be singing? Yes, there will be singing about the dark times.” --Bertolt Brecht

I support community cultural participation, cultural pluralism, and the integration of culture with our democratic aspirations. The struggle for democracy is both political and cultural. In a democratic society, we are each entitled to a name, a song, and a story, regardless of our backgrounds or our wealth. The concept of democracy should include not just political expression, but also cultural expression in whatever form it takes, preferably at a community, grassroots level, leading to healthy relationships based on mutual respect and fundamental values, including respect for our differences.

Last night I watched a beautiful film – Sing Sing - based on the true story of a prison theater program, “Rehabilitation Through the Arts.” What its inmate actors/theater artists made beautifully clear by the end of the film is how essential storytelling and cultural expression are to the human identity and spirit, and how they build a foundation for community. Even in a harsh environment like a maximum-security prison, cultural expression reinforces democratic values of listening and mutual respect. Former President George W. Bush was not someone I could support politically, but one important thing he did was to appoint a director to the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) who started a program to bring Shakespeare to the military and to other underserved communities. My daughter, a theater artist, has led workshops at West Point, where every cadet must perform a monologue from Shakespeare; she feels it is an invaluable and perspective-shifting experience for both the artists and the cadets. I believe we are all more fully human when we have opportunities to explore and share our stories, to have our cultural expressions respected and supported in our communities. Democracy is best served and preserved when the arts are an integral part of our lives.

When I started my career as a public artist in the early 1980’s, I was commissioned to paint a mural on the outside of a neighborhood health center in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lawrence is known as the “Immigrant City” because of its long history as a textile industry powerhouse. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Lawrence attracted waves of immigrants from Europe to work in the textile mills. Since the 1950’s the immigrants have come mostly from Latin America. I was interested in telling the stories of these two waves of immigrants from different parts of the world who both faced similar challenges of prejudice, conflict, and poverty. During the 1980’s, conflicts between those older generations of immigrants and the newer ones (who were fast becoming the majority) broke out in violence. I felt the goal of the mural was to tell the stories of these different generations of immigrants, who faced similar challenges, as a means of bridging divides in Lawrence. The biggest challenges are the issues of power, representation, and democracy. The arts can play a dynamic role in fostering connection and community, the foundation of democracy. Painting outdoors directly on the health center walls, I was constantly interacting with the surrounding community, receiving curious interest and feedback. Young people were especially interested in participating, so I decided I would continue the collaboration over the next 15 years by working directly in Lawrence public schools to create many murals and mosaics with the children of immigrants, providing opportunities for cultural expression which is essential.

Check out our August 2024 Newsletter!

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:24:57 GMT

Highlights include:

-Meet Our New BBLP Fellow, Waheed Ahmad

-Fall 2024 Programming with ClassACT

-The Balance of Power in Wisconsin Could Shift Because of Fairer New Maps

-Meet our newest Bridge: The Editorial Freelancers Association

Read

Register for Harvard-Radcliffe's Democracy Town Hall Online Series

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:18:44 GMT

Harvard-Radcliffe Democracy '24 Town Hall

Presented by the Class of 1975’s Marching Towards Justice

Sunday, September 15th @7pm ET, on Zoom

Democracy '24 Town Hall is a live, online video series featuring notable individuals in American politics, journalism, education, faith, healthcare, culture and the law.

Our weekly, Sunday-night, online conversations (7-8:30 PM ET) seek to promote electoral engagement and positive change among alumni, students and the extended Harvard community.

With an expanding list of topics, the series will focus on issues of social, economic, racial and environmental justice, and the increasing threats to traditional institutions.

Future guests will include Susan Glasser '90, Staff writer, The New Yorker; former NY Times executive editor Jill Abramson '76; best-selling author Kurt Andersen '76; DNC Deputy Finance Director and Women for Harris co-chair Kinney Zalesne JD '91; Morgan Mohr, Harris chief spokesperson on reproductive rights; Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne '73; Biden and Harris pollster Geoff Garin '75; NYT Magazine writer and Yale Law lecturer Emily Bazelon, and many others yet to be announced or scheduled over 16 weeks.

As we approach one of America’s most consequential presidential elections in our history, we look forward to discussing, among other things, our judiciary in crisis, gerrymandering and inequities in our electoral system, the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia, the danger of “alternative facts” in news coverage, and, above all, the 2024 presidential campaign.

On deck, Sunday Sept 22nd:

E.J. Dionne '73

Author and Washington Post Columnist

Professor, Georgetown University,

and a surprise guest!

Register for September 5th Voting Forum from the Right Question Institute

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:16:52 GMT

The Right Question Institute:

Voting Forum Webinar

Thursday, September 5th, 7-8pm ET, on Zoom

How can we increase motivation and determination to vote in low-income communities?

In 2020, the Right Question Institute (RQI) shared its nonpartisan “Why Vote?” Tool with social services, adult literacy programs, and nonprofit voter engagement efforts in 38 states around the country.

On Sept. 5, we will introduce you to the “Why Vote?” Tool and explore ways that you can share it with nonprofit programs and services in your communities and states.

Developed by Dan Rothstein (class of 1977, HGSE 1985) and Naomi Campbell (HLS 2017) and colleagues at RQI, the nonpartisan “Why Vote?” Tool is a free resource that makes it possible for people to name for themselves the value of voting. It has a simple design that helps people see the connection between services they need — such as food assistance, income support, and child care — and decisions that elected officials make. Direct service providers, educators, community organizers, and volunteers integrate use of the tool into their work with people and their efforts to encourage people to vote.

Rothstein and Campbell, along with RQI’s co-founder Luz Santana, create active and participatory webinar experiences. We encourage you to come learn about the “Why Vote?” Tool and consider how you can play a role in making sure it reaches into communities with traditionally low voting rates.

About the presenters:

Dan Rothstein '77, is one of the co-founders of the Right Question Institute (RQI) and the co-author with Luz Santana of Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (Harvard Education Press, 2011). He is also an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he teaches, teaching a course on "Building Nimble and Democratic Minds." Dan has helped develop RQI's voter engagement resources and trained staff of adult literacy programs and nonprofit organizations working in low-income communities to engage low-propensity voters around the country.

Naomi Campbell, HLS 2017, is director of RQI's Legal Empowerment Program, partnering with legal professionals and other service providers working in low-income communities who use RQI's methods to build clients' agency and self-advocacy skills. Naomi also helped develop RQI's unique "Why Vote?" Tool, trained staff of organizations around the country, and supports Executive Director Betsy Smith in promoting RQI's current "Why Vote?" Initiative.

Register for our September 18th Webinar Introducing New Bridge Partner, FoolProofMe

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 19:33:28 GMT

Wednesday, September 18th, 7 - 8pm ET, on Zoom

Doesn’t Every Kid Need Healthy Skepticism in Today’s World?

A September 18th Webinar hosted by HR73's newest bridge partner says “yes.”

And you can be a force in the teaching of healthy skepticism in your state.

This fall, we are bringing the Bridges (nonprofits run or founded by classmates which we assist in accelerating their objectives) to you -- get to know the people, the work, and what you can do to help.

We will start out by featuring FoolProofMe, a financial literacy organization dedicated to teaching students the power of skepticism, and how to identify and neutralize misinformation.

ClassACT Vice Chair, Stan Mark '73, and Ham Fish '73 will both be opening the session.

Can’t attend the webinar?

Talk with FoolProof directly. Email Key Lead, Remar Sutton at Remar.Sutton@foolprooffoundation.org.

Opening doors in your state is as important as helping fund our work.

The Balance of Power in Wisconsin Could Shift Because of Fairer New Maps

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 17:25:29 GMT

The Balance of Power in Wisconsin Could Shift Because of Fairer New Maps

by Marilyn Go

Edited by Jim Harbison, Ryan O’Connell, Jacki Swearingen, Vivian Lewis and Debbie Winn

Wisconsin, a state with 10 electoral votes, has been a battleground state in recent Presidential elections. Along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, this state makes up a trio of Rustbelt industrial states that presidential candidates from both parties have long sought to capture. This November, Wisconsin may yet again be a key step in the path to an electoral college victory.

Wisconsin voters voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1988 until 2016, when former President Donald J. Trump unexpectedly won Wisconsin by a margin of less than 23,000 votes over Hillary Clinton, approximately 0.8% of the total vote. In 2020, President Joe Biden eked out a win over Trump in Wisconsin by even a smaller margin.

The importance of Wisconsin to the Republican Party's plans was underscored by the party's selection of Milwaukee as the site of the Republican National Convention which was held July 15 to 18. (The Democratic Party had selected Milwaukee to host the 2020 Democratic National convention, but activities were primarily held online because of Covid-19 concerns).

However, the glow from a successful conclusion of the Republican Convention in Milwaukee was quickly overshadowed by President Biden’s announcement on July 21 that he would not seek re-election as President. After declaring that she would run for President, Vice President Kamala Harris went to Milwaukee for her first campaign stop.

Another statewide race of potential national impact is the election for one of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seats. Tammy Baldwin, a popular Senator who has served two terms and is seeking reelection, was unopposed in the primary election held on August 13, 2024. In the Republican column, Eric Hovde, a multimillionaire businessman from Madison, ran a self-financed campaign with the backing of the National Republican Committee. Hovde easily defeated State Senator Charles E. Barman, who ran as an “independent” farmer, and Rejani Raveendran, a single mother and an immigrant seeking to "bring the perspective of people and regular moms to Washington." Current polls project that Baldwin will prevail over Hovde.

Democrats hold only two of Wisconsin’s eight Congressional seats. This is partially because Democratic voters are concentrated in the two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison. Another critical factor is that the congressional districts suffer from extreme partisan gerrymandering. Nonetheless, in March 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 in declining to hear a challenge to Congressional maps drawn in 2022. Nonetheless, two GOP Representatives may face competitive races in November, and Democrats are hopeful that the newly competitive local races may boost turnout for in other races.

State Legislature: Wisconsin has been one of the most gerrymandered states in the country for many years and Republicans have held near super-majorities in the Assembly and Senate, despite the "purple hue" of the electorate. Wisconsin has been described as a “democracy desert,”[1] and observers feared that “[a]nti-democratic politicians supported by safe seats and polarization have walked through and begun enacting an authoritarian playbook.” Kleinfeld, Rachel, “Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy.”

However, when Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a special election in April 2023, the majority on the Court shifted from conservative to liberal. With Justice Protasiewicz siding with the three other liberal judges when she took the bench, the Court agreed to hear a lawsuit brought by Democrats challenging the 2022 state redistricting maps adopted by the Republicans legislature as extreme partisan gerrymandering. In December 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the maps, finding that the maps violated the requirement in Wisconsin’s Constitution that districts must be contiguous. The Court did not reach the gerrymandering arguments raised, even though the experts retained by the Supreme Court to review the maps noted that the Republican-drawn maps were gerrymanders which "did not deserve further consideration.” See the Court Report of the Court-appointed Co-consultants in Clarke V. Wisconsin Elections Commission by Dr. Bernard Grofman and Dr. Jonathan Cervas.

In February 2024, the Republican-dominated state legislature and Democratic Governor Tony Evers reached a bipartisan agreement for the first time in 50 years on new redistricting legislative maps. These maps are expected to make many Assembly and Senate races far more competitive this fall. Even though the Supreme Court’s consultants noted that the maps are “tilted toward the Republicans,” in their view the maps are sufficiently competitive that “the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats.” (citing Report above). As commentators have noted, the new maps “could substantially shift the balance of political power in Wisconsin.”

Perhaps spurred by the new maps, Democratic candidates are running for 97 of 99 Assembly seats, in contrast to past elections where several Republican candidates ran unopposed. Republicans currently hold 64 Assembly seats. However, since many districts were redrawn substantially, many incumbents may face contests in very different districts, which will add to the unpredictability of election outcomes.

In the state Senate, the Republicans currently hold 22 out of 31 seats. Because only the seats in even-numbered districts are up for election in November, the Democrats are not likely to win enough races to expand their nine seats into a majority.

In recent litigation of note, Dane County Circuit Judge Evert Mitchell ruled that disabled voters who cannot cast paper ballots without assistance could email absentee ballots from their homes for the November presidential election. On August 1, Judge Mitchell denied a request to stay his ruling pending an appeal by Republicans. This litigation highlights the additional obstacles to voting that disabled people in Wisconsin face in exercising their right to vote.

Demographics: Wisconsin has had steady growth in population and currently has over 5.9 million people, making it the 20th most populous state. The state’s population is predominantly white, although the percentage has declined from 92% in 1990 to about 80% in 2024. Of the remaining population, the 2020 Census indicated that 8.1 % is Hispanic or Latino, 6.6% is Black or African American, and 3.3 % Asian, with the remainder categorized as “other” or “two or more races.” In the remaining group, 1.2 % are Native Americans.

About 70% of Wisconsin’s citizens reside in the major urban areas such as Milwaukee (over 600,000) and Madison (about 150,000). The remaining 30% of the people reside primarily in rural, agrarian areas (see article from UW Applied Population Laboratory discussing the nuances of the urban/rural dichotomy in Wisconsin). Milwaukee has a substantial Black population, and Madison, a university town, has a large student population.

Marquette University Law School has periodically issued results of polls it has taken of Wisconsin voters on their preferences in the upcoming presidential election. The report that Marquette released on August 7 shows the presidential race in a dead heat, with Wisconsin voters preferring Trump over Harris by 1% (50% to 49%) and the percentages reversed among likely voters. The Washington Post reported also on August 7 that based on its average of Wisconsin polls that Harris has a less than 1% lead. Most other polls as of that date show Harris with a very small lead around 1%.

The polls were taken before the announcement by Harris of her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to run as Vice President. Also, most polls focus on head-to-head matches between Harris and Trump, but there will also be a number of third party candidates which could affect polling, as well as outcomes [2]. Already on the ballot are Jill Stein (Green Party) and Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party). As of the drafting of this article, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had filed to be added to the ballot, too. Suffice to say, poll numbers have been changing and will continue to change until the election.

Reproductive Health: Abortion is also a matter of concern to Wisconsin voters, as reflected in the election of Justice Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court discussed above. See New York Times article here (noting that Justice Protasiewicz’s “commanding victory … showed the enduring power of abortion rights and issues of democracy as motivators for Democratic voters”). Immediately following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., all abortions in Wisconsin ceased because of application of an archaic pre-Civil War statute. In a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to halt prosecutions under that statute, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schlipper ruled that the state statute banned feticide, but not abortions performed with a woman’s consent. As a result, abortions are again being performed, but subject to the many pre-Dobbs restrictions existing in Wisconsin, including a 20-week ban after contraception, a mandatory waiting period, and counseling requirements. Judge Schlipper’s decision was appealed directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and is currently pending, together with the following case.

In February 2024, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court challenging the statute raised before Judge Schlipper and arguing that the statute violates the Wisconsin state constitution and a woman’s right to an abortion. In June, the Supreme Court issued an order indicating an oral argument would be held this fall. Whether the ruling occurs in time to affect the outcome of the November elections remains to be seen. Incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin is an outspoken supporter of reproductive freedom who sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023 to restore the right to comprehensive reproductive services nationally. Her opponent, Republican Eric Hovde, is running for the second time. Although Hovde supported the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2012, he changed his view and now says he supports permitting pregnancy termination in the first 12-14 weeks.

Referendum questions: There were two referendum questions [3] on the August 13 primary election ballot to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to give the legislature authority for distribution of funds and require the governor to obtain legislative approval (see here). The referendum was proposed by the Republican controlled legislature as a way to diminish the power of the Governor, who is Democratic, and increase its own power (see here). The voters answered “Yes” to both referenda questions.”No” to both referenda questions.“Yes” “No” to Question 1 and “Yes”/”No” Question 2.“Yes” “No” to Question 1 and “Yes”/”No” Question 2.

What You Can Do. Most importantly, you should be sure that you are registered to vote and that you vote on November 5. You should also encourage people you know to do so. The vote in Wisconsin could be critical in determining who will be President, and the election of one of its Senators in November might determine which political party controls the U.S. Senate. If you have not registered to vote, the deadline for registering online or by mail is October 16, 2024.

However, you can also register in person on election day, November 5, 2024, provided you bring both a Wisconsin approved Proof of Residency and a Wisconsin approved Photo ID. Early voting for this election begins on Tuesday, October 22, and runs through Sunday, November 3. You can also vote by absentee ballot and use absentee-ballot-drop boxes, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed in a 4-3 ruling in early July. Information regarding registering to vote, absentee ballots, and identification requirements for voting in person is available on the website of the State of Wisconsin Elections Commission.

You can also work to increase voter turnout by working with Wisconsin voting rights organizations, including the following:

· All Voting is Local Wisconsin works with key partners, including county clerks across the state and state and local groups, to ensure that elections are run fairly and smoothly.

· Common Cause Wisconsin focuses on election and redistricting reform, as well as other issues concerning the promotion of clean, open, and responsive government.

· Souls to the Polls Wisconsin is a non-partisan voter education and advocacy faith-led organization seeking to strengthen the Black Community by providing voting information and free rides to the polls for Milwaukee voters.

· Wisconsin Conservation Voices runs Wisconsin Native Vote, which registers, educates, and engages voters in tribal communities.

· Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition is a non-partisan organization working to increase voting turnout and participation among members of Wisconsin’s disability community.

[1]Journalist David Daley coined the term “democracy desert” in describing the extreme gerrymandering in Wisconsin which effectively deprived voters of the power to effect political change. See here.

[2] See Gibson, Brittany, et al., “Where third-party candidates could spoil 2024,” (6/25/2024, updated 8/13/2024) (noting that in 2020, Biden won Wisconsin by just over 20,000 votes, which was fewer that the number of votes that the Libertarian Party candidate received in that election).

[3] The referendum questions are written as follows:

QUESTION 1: “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

QUESTION 2: “Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

Meet Our Bridge Partner: The Editorial Freelancers Association

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:55:47 GMT

Meet Our Bridge Partner: The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship Program

A scholarship program for undergraduate students attending a historically Black college or university (HBCU) and HBCU alums attending graduate school.

About the EFA: Founded in 1970, the Editorial Freelancers Association is a national nonprofit professional organization with approximately 3,200 members, including writers, editors, copy editors, proofreaders, indexers, translators, and others who work in publishing, communications, and related fields. The EFA advances excellence among our dynamic community of freelance editorial professionals by providing opportunities for business development, learning, and networking. Our resources help our members and their clients build successful collaborations.

Origins of the EFA scholarship program: The impetus for the program came from EFA members Andrea Reid and Andrew (Andy) Huston, who together formed an ad hoc committee on HBCU scholarships in early 2021. Later that year, the committee proposed to the EFA Board of Governors that the EFA establish and fund a scholarship program for undergraduate students attending an HBCU and HBCU alums attending graduate school.

Andrea Reid—Chairperson, EFA Committee on HBCU Scholarships

“The 2020 societal epiphany that racial inequity had to finally be addressed on a national scale did not mark a racial reckoning, just the beginning of one. The EFA should play a part in the reckoning process by supporting educational equity,” the committee stated in its report to the board. “The entire publishing industry has not equitably provided careers for marginalized groups, and especially not for African Americans. An EFA HBCU scholarship program would be one way to help right that wrong.”

At its November 2021 meeting, the EFA Board of Governors approved the proposed scholarship program.

Program parameters: The EFA provides $5,000 scholarships to undergraduate students attending an HBCU and HBCU alums pursuing a graduate degree. The scholarships are available to students who are Black, African American, or of Black African descent and enrolled in a degree program leading to (1) employment in the publishing or communications industry, or (2) a career that could lead to their becoming a member of the EFA.

Each $5,000 award is paid directly to the scholarship recipient’s HBCU or graduate school in two annual installments of $2,500.

The scholarships, which are awarded in partnership with the UNCF (United Negro College Fund) are named in memory of Ruth Mullen, longtime EFA member and volunteer who died tragically in September 2021. At the time of her death, Ms. Mullen was serving as an EFA co-executive.

The EFA Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship program is administered by the UNCF, the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. Founded in 1944, the UNCF is a groundbreaking organization made famous by its slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” More than 500,000 students have earned degrees with the help of UNCF scholarships.

First cycle: For the first scholarship cycle (2022–2023), the EFA provided two scholarships, both funded by the EFA itself. Mauranne Vernier of Evanston, IL, received the undergraduate scholarship, and Kristen Shipley of York, PA, received the graduate scholarship.

At the time of her application for the scholarship, Mauranne was a junior at Spelman College majoring in English. She served as editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper and as an editorial intern for Spelman’s Blue Record podcast. She also worked as a scripted television publicity intern at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Kristen applied as a 2018 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), where she studied journalism and mass communications with a concentration in public relations. She was an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School and worked for Google, YouTube, and Obvious Ventures.


Mauranne Vernier—Spelman College ’24	Kristen Shipley—Harvard Business School ’24

And now we are pleased and proud to announce that Mauranne and Kristen recently graduated from their respective schools. Read about their accomplishments and future plans at Our First HBCU Scholarship Recipients Have Graduated!

Second cycle: For the second cycle (2023–2024), the EFA funded two scholarships itself, and through the generous donations of individuals inside and outside of the EFA, we raised enough money to fund a third scholarship. Gabrielle Heyward of Rock Hill, SC, and Makiydah Berry of Hartford, CT, were the recipients in the undergraduate category, and Jordan Turner of Lawrenceville, GA, was the recipient in the graduate category.

Makiydah Berry, Jordan Turner, and Gabrielle Heyward

Ms. Heyward is a communications major at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) in Greensboro, NC, where her focus is journalism and media studies. Since receiving the EFA scholarship, she has become a Rhoden Fellow with ESPN and Andscape. Gabrielle has also been inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and she will serve this year as president of the NCAT Section of the National Council of Negro Women and editor-in-chief of the A&T Register (NC A&T newspaper).

Ms. Berry is pursuing a degree in strategic communications with a concentration in advertising at Howard University in Washington, DC. During the past year, she was inducted into Lambda Pi Eta, the national honor society for communications majors. She was also invited to the Vice President’s HBCU Student Leaders celebration for Black History Month.

Mr. Turner is a graduate of Savannah State University in Savannah, GA, the oldest HBCU in the state. He completed his first year as a graduate student at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he is pursuing his MFA with a concentration in screenwriting.

All three of our scholars have successfully completed the first of their two EFA scholarship years and are about to begin their second. Read more about Gabrielle, Jordan, and Makiydah at 2023 EFA Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarships Awarded.

Third (current) cycle: The 2024–2025 application window for the EFA Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship program opened on April 30 and closed on June 17, 2024. This cycle, we are offering four $5,000 scholarships, three of which will be funded by the EFA and one by private donations. Three of the scholarships will be for undergraduates attending an HBCU, and one will be for a graduate of an HBCU attending graduate school. We and the UNCF are currently reviewing this cycle’s applications, and we expect that the awards will be made at the end of August.

Project Goals and Needs: For the inaugural year of the program, we had 54 applicants for the two scholarships the EFA funded. For the second cycle, 157 students applied for the three available scholarships. This cycle, we had 323 applications for the four available scholarships—for every candidate awarded a scholarship, we’ve had to turn down 80 others! We’re thrilled with the response to the program, of course, but saddened that we are not able to provide more than four scholarships a year.

Each $5,000 scholarship requires $5,750 in funding (including UNCF’s 15% admin fee). The EFA has committed to funding three scholarships per year itself. We are aiming to provide at least six scholarships per year, so we need to turn to outside sources to fund the additional three scholarships annually.

ClassACT has already been helpful, by connecting us with classmate Fred Bartenstein, who has shared his extensive knowledge of fundraising and given us many good ideas. We could also benefit from the knowledge of an experienced grant writer, especially one who can suggest individuals or entities whose mission aligns with the EFA’s and who might be especially receptive to a grant application from the EFA Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship program.

To any classmate who might be able to guide us in grant writing, or anyone who has any money-raising ideas at all, we’d love to hear from you. Our email address is hbcuscholarships@the-efa.org.

We have also established a Donate page on the UNCF website. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation, and feel free to post the Donate link on your social media and share it with friends and associates. Thank you!

Thank you to ClassACT: Expressing the EFA’s gratitude to ClassACT, Andy writes, “Andrea and I wish to deeply thank Fred Bartenstein for being so generous with his time and expertise. We'd also like to thank the ClassACT management with whom we have worked (Marion Dry, Stan Mark, Jerome Harris) for connecting us with Fred. Also a vote of appreciation to board member Vivian Lewis for her donation, and to my roommates Richard Gatto, for helping to get our project on the front burner, and Dr. Mark Ferguson and his wife Phyllis Young, for their very generous multi-year donations to the scholarship fund.”

Register for Environment on the Ballot in 2024 and Beyond Zoom Forum

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 21:39:00 GMT

The upcoming national, state, and local elections in November 2024 provide opportunities and responsibilities for all citizens to address and improve our environment. In addition to supporting candidates who are strong advocates of protecting and restoring biodiversity, it is critical to also learn about and encourage the passage of numerous environmental initiatives on the ballot. This forum will bring together leaders who will provide information and insights on the most important biodiversity, conservation, climate change, and energy alternative issues that will be presented to voters in the upcoming elections.

Meet Waheed Ahmad, our new Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:33:38 GMT

ClassACT HR73 is pleased to welcome our latest Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow, Waheed Ahmad. ClassACT Chair Marion Dry ‘73 and ClassACT Treasurer George Putnam ‘73 met with Waheed over lunch at the Charles Hotel earlier this month to welcome him and share information about ClassACT. As an Edward S. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management at the Kennedy School, Waheed is a candidate for a Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration.

Over the course of the academic year, we look forward to introducing Waheed to the ClassACT community through in person and online events. Waheed is our first fellow from Afghanistan. To learn more about Waheed and his work, click here.

Waheed Ahmad has more than a decade of experience at the intersection of national security, governance, and development. He served as a senior National Security staff member of the Afghanistan Democratic Government from 2018-2021. During his tenure, he was responsible for strategy and implementation of security sector reforms, and for developing the 2020 Afghanistan National Threat Assessment, among other projects.

Originally from Baghlan, Afghanistan, Waheed’s passion for public service began during his adolescence. In the early days of the Afghanistan democracy, he led many civic activities in his hometown, including the establishment of a library and sponsoring a radio station for women’s voices.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Balkh University in Mazar, Afghanistan and later pursued a Master of Public Administration degree from State University of New York- Binghamton as a Fulbright Scholar. He has worked at every level of the Afghanistan Democratic Government, from sub-national conflict resolution and community engagement with the Ministry of the Interior to empowering sub-national elected bodies and local councils with the Independent Directorate of Local Governance. In his past roles, he worked closely with the United Nations Development Program, the United States and NATO mission in Afghanistan, and the World Bank, as well as other relevant stakeholders. Waheed has also written many articles on Afghanistan’s security and political challenges that have been published in international news outlets, including a chapter on Afghanistan’s implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He has received several awards, including a top honor from the President of Afghanistan for his public service. He is fluent in English, Farsi, Pashto, and Urdu.

Waheed fled Afghanistan after the Taliban forcibly took power during the U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021. Once in the U.S., he served as Resident Practitioner at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University, focusing on human rights issues in Afghanistan.

Check out our June 2024 Newsletter!

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 19:24:35 GMT

Read

Highlights include:

-Meet Our New Bridge Partner: FoolProofMe

-Inflation, Housing Concerns Could Swing Nevada to Republicans in November, by Jacki Swearingen '73 and Susan Okie '73

-Update on Growing ClassACT

Meet our new Bridge Partner: FoolProofMe

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 16:52:55 GMT

THE MANIPULATION OF CHILDREN ONLINE: What You Can Do to Help Fix This.

23 years ago, Walter Cronkite and a group of young people created the FoolProof Foundation. The Foundation’s goal: To add the teaching of healthy skepticism and caution to the teaching of financial literacy.

After 23 years, FoolProof remains the only major financial literacy resource in the United States focused on teaching the importance of healthy skepticism and caution.

Why aren’t other major financial literacy resources emphasizing the importance of healthy skepticism and caution?

Because the largest funders of financial literacy resources worldwide are the marketing and debt industries. These industries can’t be expected to develop or promote resources that consistently teach consumers to question the industries’ marketing objectives.

The marketer’s role is to sell, not tell all sides of the story. In fact, around the world, the definitions of financial literacy never focus on the importance of questioning marketers’ messaging.

Please feel free to search “definitions of financial literacy” and tell us if we are wrong.

Children are damaged if they do not understand that financial literacy does not exist in the absence of healthy skepticism and caution.

Filling the holes in the cheese.

And that’s where FoolProof comes in. We fill the holes in the marketing and debt industry’s financial literacy training.

Teacher working with students at Ariel Community Academy in Chicago

Our middle and high school financial literacy curricula are unique and respected. Last year, 90,000 middle and high school students spent over 510,000 hours on our web-based resources. We feature peer-to-peer teaching. And teachers love us: Nationwide, 78% or teachers who see a FoolProof presentation sign up and use our curricula.

The giant in financial literacy also respects us.

In April, FoolProof received the Jumpstart Coalition's national “Innovation Award” for our work that “significantly benefited students, consumers, and the financial literacy community at large."

The JumpStart Coalition is composed of 100 national organizations and 51 state coalitions to promote financial literacy.

Five nationally respected leaders accepted the award on our behalf: Sheila Bair, the 19th Chair of the FDIC, Walter Cronkite IV, Neiman Fellows Roberta Baskin and Jim Trengrove, and Washington Post syndicated finance columnist Michelle Singletary. All sit on our boards or strongly endorse FoolProof (pictured above).

An important reality.

Despite FoolProof’s broad reach and support, our opportunity to do dramatic good must start this fall and winter. That’s why we’re talking to you today.

FoolProof tackles the manipulation and safety of young people online.

The web poses a significant threat to the mental and physical safety of children.

In 1973, kids looked at screens at the age of four. They looked at TV screens. But today kids start looking at screens at the age of four months–and the screens are looking back. New research shows that any significant screen time by itself in the first 18 months of life can lead to significant cognitive damage.

And of course, the amount of time kids spend in front of screens increases as they get older. Nine to twelve-year-olds now spend an average of 4-6 hours online every day. For teens, that number increases to about 8 hours per day.

Just looking can hurt.

Kids simply looking at screens for long periods of time is linked to a host of problems including sleep deprivation, obesity, depression, anxiety, and decreased school performance. But that’s only the beginning of the problem.

About 33% of kids online have experienced some form of cyberbullying. Victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who don’t experience it.

Kids are increasingly vulnerable to sexual harassment on social media platforms. About 100,000 children per day are subjected to sexual harassment on Facebook and Instagram, according to internal Facebook and Instagram communications.

And that’s just 2 of the 34 social media platforms that have over 100 million monthly active users.

Even features we all use online without thinking can be more detrimental to young people: The impact of “share” buttons, “likes” and “comment” opportunities trigger chemical reactions in kids similar to the effects of drug use.

It’s a tough world out there to be a kid. Many adults know this and are concerned. But few have the time or understanding to consistently tackle these extraordinarily complex issues.

Middle schools as the battlefront.

Middle school children are primary targets for online manipulation. Middle schoolers are at a developmentally vulnerable stage in life. At the same time, schools are at a developmentally vulnerable stage in their relationship with the web. Cash-strapped school systems are looking for free and online ways to teach traditional subjects–like math and English.

But here’s an uncomfortable reality. Many of the free resources being offered to schools to teach traditional subjects have been developed by the same businesses that are manipulating kids online. Consider the gaming industry.

The commercial gaming industry tackles teaching math to middle school students.

Under the guise of teaching math, about 90,000 middle schools have relied on a “free” game called Prodigy to teach math. But according to experts, it doesn’t teach math. And it can pose a threat to children’s mental health.

Prodigy uses its classroom access to encourage children to play the game at home, where they and their parents are constantly shamed into paying to play.

More than 24 million primary and middle school students—representing half of all elementary and middle school students in North America—have signed up for Prodigy.

This is precisely why consumer advocates, not marketers, need to be in schools when it comes to addressing online manipulation and safety. States are developing those guidelines right now.

How we propose to address the issue.

FoolProof needs to become the battle HQ to help schools prepare their students to be safer online.

We have the respect of the educational and the consumer community to lead this initiative. We must be at the table in every state when those decisions are made.

The businesses that manipulate children online are already at the table.

Team introducing FoolProofMe to juniors and seniors at New York High School

Our first task: Creating a “National Online Safety Hub” for use by educators.

Effective resources are already available to counter issues of childhood safety and manipulation. But few of these resources have been converted into teachable moments or scaled for a national audience. FoolProof has the ability to develop those teachable moments and scale them. And we will include them in our existing curricula.

Our initial focus. Middle school teachers and their students.

Working with experts.

FoolProof is increasing its research and resource development in this area. Fairplay for Kids—the leading child advocacy initiative in the online arena—is FoolProof’s key partner in our work.

Dr. Lennette Coleman, FoolProof's President, talking to a group of students

Timing

FoolProof currently has preliminary resources that address online manipulation. Starting in October we will begin to incorporate these and other resources from respected experts into our middle school curricula. Starting in January, our goal is to add new resources every month.

Why we need your help.

The enormity of the dangers a child faces online makes any thought of a solution daunting. But here’s the reality. The tidal wave of manipulation aimed at children comes down to a single moment of contact with a single child. We can address that moment and help protect that child, child by child, school by school.

How you can help.

Some of FoolProof’s most important achievements have come from people who thought they could not help. You could be one of those people.

What we need now.

We need your help to expand the use of FoolProof’s current financial literacy resources in your city and state. Our new work addressing the safety of children online will be housed in our current middle and high school curricula. To build an audience for our new resources, we need to expand FoolProof’s overall educational reach.

We need contacts.

Help us establish a FoolProof Leadership Council in your state. We need feet-on-the-ground to make a major impact in a city or state. The Leadership Council’s role is to help us have those feet-on-the-ground.

We need funding, of course.

Help us identify funding sources in your state.

FoolProof is a small foundation with a limited budget. We operate nationally with only 6 full-time team members. Our whole team works remotely. Our boards are volunteer based. We currently have only three team members available to travel the country and meet with educators. Just one of our commercial competitors has 200 full-time staff members.

But when FoolProof has the funding to put feet-on-the-ground, we are recognized as the David against Goliath. Our resources are almost always adopted.

Does money really do its job when it comes to FoolProof?

It does.

Take Orlando, Florida.

A $25,000 grant from the Fairwinds Foundation allowed FoolProof to be on the ground in Orlando. The result? In one year, over 13,000 high school students completed over 47,000 FoolProof sessions.

Did they learn anything?

They did. The pre- and post-test financial literacy scores based on standardized testing rose from 46--an F grade—to 84%--a B Grade.

Take Oklahoma.

Over the years, 200,000 students in Oklahoma have completed FoolProof’s curricula. Ask us for details.

A legacy FoolProof would like to create with HR73

HR73 and FoolProof have a unique opportunity: Today, in your community, every child on any device is a target for manipulation. FoolProof has the integrity and software capability to help each of those kids protect themselves. Classroom-by-classroom, school-by-school we can empower them to tackle the financial and emotional issues they relentlessly face in today’s web-driven world.

But to accomplish this, we need a partner with vision, national reach, and integrity.

We’re hoping that partnership can be with HR73 and we hope that partnership can begin with you.

Next steps

First, bookmark this page.

Second, contact us. Simply opening a door for us in one state can change the lives of thousands of children.

Remar Sutton

FoolProof Co-founder and Team Leader

remar.sutton@foolprooffoundation.org

404-229-5094

William Mears

The Manipulation Project Team Leader

will.mears@foolprooffoundation.org

310-923-4191

Third. Learn more about FoolProof.

The Walter Cronkite Project drives the vision of FoolProof.

Review our middle school curriculum to understand FoolProof’s unique approach to teaching.

Our Kids in Poverty website focuses on economic and emotional inequality.

Fourth. Think about a donation. We would appreciate that!

Want more details? Email us and we’ll send you a footnoted copy of this article.

Growing ClassACT: Multi-Class Reunion Event June 1

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 14:36:27 GMT

Since our inception, ClassACT HR73 has made it a priority to share our model with other Harvard classes and alumni groups. ClassACT chair Marion Dry, who is also a member of the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors, has been using her time as a director to share the ClassACT story with HAA leadership. On June 1, leaders from the ClassACT groups of ‘73 ‘75, ‘78 and ‘85 held an open house for reunioning classes in Sever Hall. We shared our stories with our visitors from reunioning classes and with one another while having a wonderful time together.

Click below to watch the video of the June 1 Open House, edited by Rick Brotman '73.

We are growing the movement. Would you like to help us move this along? If so, email Marion Dry with your interest/ideas and let’s talk soon!

Inflation, Housing Concerns Could Swing Nevada to Republicans in November

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 21:28:55 GMT

By Jacki Swearingen and Susan Okie

Edited by Marilyn Go, Jim Harbison and Ryan O’Connell

Nevada, which helped deliver victory to Biden in 2020, now appears close to slipping from the Democrats’ grasp in the November election. The economic woes of the last several years – inflation, higher interest rates, limited housing stock – have contributed to a deep disenchantment among voters in a state where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 2.4 points four years ago. Democrats hope their traditional success with Latino voters and their formidable “Get out the vote” machine can secure the state’s six electoral votes once again, while Republicans point to the widespread discontent as a sign that they will prevail in the fall.

Nevada voters will also make crucial choices about abortion rights and a US Senate race that could decide the control of the Senate. Legislative races will determine whether the Democrats in the state assembly and senate secure a veto-proof majority. All these far-reaching decisions by Nevadans will occur in a state where efforts at making it harder to cast a ballot as well as challenges to election results have grown since 2020.

The Polls That Stoke Anxiety and Hope

A spate of recent state polls has increased Democratic anxiety. Results from the Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on April 30 gave Trump a 45% to 44% lead over Biden in a head-to-head match-up in Nevada, with 11% of voters undecided. More worrisome for Democrats was the May 15 New York Times/Siena Poll in which Trump led Biden by 12 points among registered Nevada voters. Concerns about the economy and inflation ranked at the top for Nevada voters. Sixty one percent trusted Trump to manage the economy better; only 32% preferred Biden to handle it.

“The state has been slowly shifting to the right – not just in polling but in Election Day results,” wrote John Ralston, the esteemed observer of Nevada politics last year in The Atlantic. Ralston added, “In 2020 Nevada was the only battleground state that saw worse Democratic performance compared with 2016, unless you count the more solidly red Florida.” In 2022 Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto won re-election to the US Senate by a mere 9,000 votes.

Five months from Election Day, long-time political observers caution that it is still too early to make firm predictions. Strategists on both sides would be wise to heed Ralston’s warnings about the difficulties of polling in the Silver State. Ralston points out that pollsters often underestimate the number of people they need to survey to get a representative sampling. In addition, pollsters often lack enough bilingual interviewers for a state whose population is one-third Latino.

Demographics and the Latino Vote

Most political experts agree that demographics and voter turnout in one of the nation’s fastest- growing states will play key roles in the election’s outcome. Among Nevada’s more than 3,100,000 residents, about 46% are white and non-Hispanic and about 30% are Hispanic. Nevada’s Black population is about 11% percent and its Asian population is 9.4 percent. Native Americans make up 5.1 percent of its population. The average age for a resident is 38 years.

In recent elections Democrats have counted on strong support from Nevada’s Latino voters to lift them to victory. In 2020 about sixty percent of Latino voters cast their ballots for Biden. In 2022 a nearly identical percentage backed Sen. Cortez-Masto. However, recent polls suggest that this traditional support is eroding, particularly because of Latinos’ frustration with economic problems. Among Latino voters in Nevada polled recently in the NYT/Siena Poll, Trump led Biden by nine points.

Economic Issues Trouble Voters

For both parties, the economic issues that affect individual voters and their families – the cost of groceries, gasoline, mortgages and rent – cannot be ignored by simply touting GDP increases. Nevada’s unemployment rate of 5.1 percent is down significantly from its high of 30.6 percent during the early days of the pandemic, but it remains the highest in the nation. Gas prices hover at $4.80 per gallon, the country’s third highest, even though they have dropped nearly $2 since mid-2022. And in the nation’s worst housing crisis, home prices since 2011 have jumped six times higher than wage increases.

In Clark County, where 73 percent of the population live in or around Las Vegas, the median household income is $5,000 less than the national average. The poverty rate is almost two percent higher. Most adults work long hours for low wages in the casinos, hotels and service industries that shore up Las Vegas, the principal city. Only 26 percent of residents hold a bachelor’s degree. All these factors have helped the GOP to make inroads, particularly with voters who lack a college or high school degree.

Faced with weak poll numbers, President Joe Biden’s strategy is to point to his administration’s economic successes like job growth and affordable housing initiatives. During his time in office Nevada has gained 285,000 jobs. Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan provided $1 billion for affordable housing units nationwide, which his 2025 Budget would build upon with $285 million for initiatives like building new units and increasing rental assistance.

On his recent trips to Nevada, Biden touted the $3 billion allocated in the Infrastructure Bill for the Brightline Rail, the nation’s first high-speed rail, which will connect Las Vegas and Southern California. Groundbreaking for the $12 billion project, which is projected to create more than 35,000 jobs, was April 22.

In contrast, Republicans hone in on the high costs of inflation, particularly for the working poor. They echo Trump’s belief that sharply increasing the production of fossil fuels would lower the cost of gasoline and virtually everything else. Trump’s plan to lease even more public lands for oil drilling and fracking is likely to include the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, where the Trump administration in its final months auctioned off 50 square miles and triggered environmental protests.

The Reid Machine

While Democratic strategists acknowledge the impact of economic worries and border issues on Nevada voters, they remain confident that they have a better ground game in place, particularly in the two most populous counties of Clark and Washoe, the home of Reno. In these urban centers the Reid Machine, named after the late Majority Leader of the US Senate Harry Reid, has delivered victories time after time. Since 2008 the Reid Machine has helped put Nevada in the Democratic column in presidential elections, thanks largely to its partnership with the Culinary Workers Union.

The union’s more than 60,000 members cook in the kitchens and clean the hotel rooms of the flashy hotels and casinos of Las Vegas and Reno. During campaign seasons their volunteer teams register voters and inform them about candidates and issues. When elections roll around, many volunteers spread out to knock on doors and drive voters to the polls in one of the nation’s largest turnout operations.

Biden strategists are counting on this infrastructure to energize voters, particularly in Latino communities because 54 percent of union members are Hispanic. In 2022 they played a crucial role in Cortez Masto’s Senate victory. But they failed to re-elect Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, who no doubt lost votes because of the toll the pandemic took on Nevada’s hospitality industry.

An Unpredictable Election

Adding to the unpredictability of November election results is the large percentage of the more than two million Nevada voters registered as independents. They make up 33 percent, followed by Democrats at 31 percent, and Republican voters at 28 percent.

Moreover, the specter of past voter suppression efforts compounds the uncertainty. “Nevada has a zealous election denial movement that has been a disruptive force in the past two election cycles,” a 2023 Brennan Center study reported.

Four years ago armed vigilantes stood outside the vote-counting center in Clark County, and Republicans sued unsuccessfully to halt the counting of absentee ballots. Election deniers claimed there was mass fraud across Nevada—allegations that the Secretary of State investigated and rejected. In addition, the Trump campaign attempted to get a court order to access voting machine software, but the Nevada courts denied that request. In the 2022 Senate race some local officials tried to substitute hand-counting of ballots for machine tabulation.

In this election cycle a problem that looms is the loss of nearly one-half of the state’s top election officials because of harassment and threats. Those forms of intimidation have also driven away many election workers at individual precincts who kept voting running smoothly and accurately.

This past April Trump and the Republican National Committee announced a “100,000 person strong” initiative to target election workers in Nevada and other states.

On the other hand, some developments bode well for free and fair voting in Nevada. In 2022 Democrat Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar defeated an election denier to become the Secretary of State. And over the last two years the Nevada legislature has passed additional statutory protections against voter intimidation and safeguards for absentee ballots during signature review.

Efforts to tighten requirements for voting persist in Nevada, however. In late May the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that an initiative to amend the state constitution to require voter ID can appear on the November ballot if supporters obtain the necessary 100,000 signatures by June 26. The Supreme Court is considering another case that would tighten mail-in ballot requirements, a proposal opposed by many advocacy groups for seniors and veterans.

Abortion Rights on the Ballot

The likelihood that an abortion rights referendum will be on the November ballot in Nevada has buoyed Democratic confidence in the face of unfavorable poll numbers. The referendum places abortion rights front and center and promises to increase voter turnout. Reproductive rights advocates hope that the Nevada measure will prevail in November, as have similar initiatives in six other states.

Compared with abortion laws in other U.S. states, Nevada’s can be considered middle-of-the-road. Nevada is neither among the states most protective of reproductive rights nor among the most restrictive. Abortion is permitted until 24 weeks of pregnancy have elapsed, a point at which a fetus is considered potentially viable outside the womb. Nevada allows only physicians to perform abortions, not other trained health care professionals. A shield law protects doctors who do so from being investigated by authorities in other states. Women entering an abortion clinic are legally protected from harassment or physical harm.

As in neighboring Arizona, supporters of reproductive rights in Nevada, with funding from The Nevada Reproductive Freedom PAC, have gathered signatures in favor of an ambitious ballot referendum, The Nevada Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment.

The amendment would codify women’s right to abortion in Nevada. An opposing PAC, the Coalition for Parents and Children, is supporting conservative organizations as it seeks to keep the referendum off the ballot.

To place the measure onto the ballot, proponents of the constitutional amendment had to obtain 102,362 validated signatures of Nevada residents by June 26, 2024. In late May Nevada Reproductive Freedom submitted more than 200,000 signatures from all 17 counties to the Secretary of State for validation. If enough signatures are deemed valid, the measure will go on the November ballot. Even if enough voters support the amendment, they must approve it again in 2026 for it to go into effect.

Other Consequential Races

Adding to the high stakes in Nevada this election cycle is a US Senate race that the Cook Political Report rates a “toss-up.” Incumbent Jacky Rosen is a center-left Democrat who has garnered a bipartisan reputation during her six years in the Senate. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rosen has a strong following among veterans, who make up 200,000 of Nevada’s population. In the most recent NYT/Siena poll, she led her Republican opponent, Sam Brown. However, 23 percent of voters were undecided or refused to answer.

Sam Brown, who just received Donald Trump’s endorsement, nearly won the Republican nomination for US Senator in 2022. He is a former Army Captain and Purple Heart recipient who was badly burned in 2008 by the explosion of an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Brown is seeking to appeal to independent voters, and he recently switched his position on abortion rights to support the current law, which allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Despite the closeness of the presidential race in Nevada, Democrats hope to win a super-majority in the state’s legislature. If they can hold onto their current senate seats and flip one Republican district, they will achieve a two-thirds majority in the upper house, matching the one they have in the state assembly. That would allow them to override any vetoes by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardi. The governor set a state record last year for vetoing the most bills in a single session of the Nevada Legislature.

What You Can Do

Nevada has emerged not only as a key battleground state but also as the possible determinant of which party will control the US Senate. Early voting for this critical election begins Saturday, October 19 and runs through Friday, November 1. You can play a role by registering new voters and increasing voter turnout by working with the following organizations:

1. All Voting is Local – Nevada: All Voting is Local Nevada works to protect voting access and pro-voting policies and prevent election sabotage as well as increase language access for all urban, rural and tribal voters in the state.

2. Chicanos Por La Causa Nevada – Chicanos Por La Causa Nevada works to educate voters and to get out the Latino vote, especially among infrequent voters.

3. Nevada Native Vote Project – Nevada Native Vote Project focuses on voter registration, election protection, education and data for Native American tribes in the state, which include the Paiute and the Shoshone peoples.

4.League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada – The local branch of the national League promotes voter education and voter registration.

Register for Learn at Lunch with John Kress '73

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 12:50:49 GMT

To Know Our Trees: A Vital Task and Responsibility for Today and Tomorrow

Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 12-1pm ET

ClassACT HR73 is pleased to announce a ClassACTors Learn at Lunch series in Biodiversity, Climate Change and the Environment…an informal monthly zoom meeting to hear, learn from, and ask questions of members of the ClassACT Environmental Working Group and others.

This discussion, led by John Kress ‘73 Ph.D., Distinguished Scientist and Curator Emeritus, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, is aimed at helping us regain a relationship and respect for Nature through our connection to trees. Topics will include the value of trees, the ecology and evolution of trees, the diversity of trees, and the conservation of trees.

Register for Life at Midlife: What's Next?

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 13:24:28 GMT

On Thursday, June 6, from 7-8:30pm EDT, the Harvard Class of 1998 and ClassACT HR73 invite you to join us for LIFE AT MIDLIFE: WHAT’S NEXT?, a special intergenerational program exploring change and meaning in midlife and beyond.

We hope that many members of both classes will join us for this special opportunity to get to know one another while learning about the challenges we all experience in life and how to consider navigating them. Changes in career, family structure, gender, and priorities can seem daunting in midlife, but they can lead to a greater sense of life well-lived.

Dr. Robert Waldinger ‘73, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, and Alexis Redding '98, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will be moderated by Michael Feferman ‘98, to begin our program and provide us with tools for informed conversation.

Drawing on questions from the 25th Reunion survey of the Class of ‘98, HR’73 classmates, Bobby Clayton, Ron Dieckmann, Anne MacKinnon, and Lindsey Straus will share personal reflections about changes they made in their lives during midlife and beyond, why they made them, and how those changes have impacted their lives.

All attending will then be invited to join breakout rooms to allow us to talk freely with one another about our own experiences, questions, and concerns.

Finally, we will come together for a few minutes at the end to share the takeaways from our rooms.

Voter Suppression, Deep in the Heart of Texas

Fri, 17 May 2024 18:36:07 GMT

Written by Ryan O’Connell; edited by Marilyn Go, Jim Harbison and Jacki Swearingen

The demographics of Texas are shifting rapidly, as its booming cities draw waves of migrants attracted to the state’s growing economy, low taxes, and warm weather.

Between 2010 and 2020, Texas’ population grew by about 16% or four million people, and almost all of them (95%) were people of color. The change stemmed from births (50%) and people moving to Texas (50%). Half of the new residents came from other states (particularly California, Florida, and New York), and half from other nations. Mexicans represented 60% of the foreigners who moved to Texas.

The main driver was a surge in the Latino population. The number of Texan Latinos rose 21% over that decade, and they accounted for half of the state’s population growth, according to Texas Redistricting and Congressional districts. In 2020, the Latino share of the population was almost the same as that of whites (40%), and by 2022, it was slightly larger, according to updated figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Here is the key takeaway: four out of 10 Texans are Latinos.

The number of Black and Asian Texans increased rapidly, too, although from smaller bases. In 2020 those groups constituted 11.8% and 5.4% of the population, respectively. Meanwhile, the white population grew by only 2% in 2010-20.

Source: Pew Research

Growth is Concentrated in The Big (Democratic) Cities

Furthermore, almost 90% of the population growth has occurred in five major metropolitan areas: Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Rural areas and small towns, which tend to be whiter, either have had little growth or have lost population. Since most Latinos, Blacks and Asians lean Democratic, four of those cities have become solidly blue. The fifth city, Fort Worth, is an evolving political mix, but has essentially become purple.

When Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, ran for governor against Greg Abbott in 2022, he carried Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, as shown in the chart below. Fort Worth voters preferred Abbott to O’Rourke, but in 2020 Joe Biden carried the city by a razor-thin margin. Biden carried the other four cities by wide margins.

Source: Dallas County Republican Party

The voters in these four cities have mostly elected Democratic or progressive leaders to local offices. The mayors of Austin and Houston are Democrats, while the one in Austin is a progressive independent. On the other hand, in 2023, the mayor of Dallas switched parties, becoming a Republican. Fort Worth’s mayor is also a Republican.

But the Political Landscape Seems Frozen in Time

Despite these significant population shifts, the distribution of elected officials in the Texas state legislature and congressional delegation remains heavily skewed toward Republicans. Not surprisingly, the Republican Party has retained its dominance, since the state has a unique political culture, and many rural and suburban areas are bastions of conservatism.

There is a strong sense of Texas exceptionalism, shared by Texans of all political persuasions, based on the state’s huge size –it has an area the size of France—and its history as part of America’s frontier. In fact, Texas was a separate country for ten years, from 1836, when it gained its independence from Mexico, until it joined the United States in 1846.

Texans prize the virtues of self-reliance, independence, and grit. Although these are admirable traits, the nostalgia for the frontier days and virtues cannot obscure the reality that most Texans live in large cities or the adjoining suburbs. They work in a complex economy, with large technological and medical sectors as well as more traditional industries like oil and gas.

In addition, many Texans are evangelical Christians, who are predominantly Republicans. Furthermore, turnout tends to be lower among Latinos and other minorities than among whites, partly because of obstacles to voting we will discuss below.

Nonetheless, one would have expected Democrats to win a larger share of state and congressional districts as the number of Latino and other minority voting-age citizens increased significantly.

Why hasn’t this happened?

Fighting Demographic Change

The political establishment, seeing the handwriting on the wall in view of the changing demographic trends, has fought tenaciously to retain its hold on power. Republicans have relied on two main techniques to disenfranchise minority voters: gerrymandering and voter suppression laws.

The entrenched party has redrawn election districts on a highly partisan basis to stack the deck against its opponents. Republican lawmakers engaged in very aggressive gerrymandering in 2010 and again in 2021, as described by New York University’s Brennan Center for Law and Justice:

"Texas also enacted an extreme partisan gerrymander that insulates Republican rule against voter dissatisfaction. Under the new map, Democrats would have to win 58 percent of the popular vote in order to be favored to carry more than 37 percent of the state’s congressional seats. Put differently, even if Texas turned dark blue, Republicans could hold a two-to-one advantage in the state’s congressional caucus."

Texas also has a long history of voter suppression and restrictive voting laws. After the 2020 election its legislature adopted even more stringent measures as it sought to maintain one-party control. We will discuss these in more detail below.

Partisan Split in Texas

Because Texas state officials do not collect or publish figures on voters’ political affiliation, precise numbers on Democratic and Republican voters are not available.

However, here is one possible indicator: since 1995. Republicans have won every race for governor, usually by wide margins. However, the close Senate race between Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2018 demonstrated the growing power of Democratic voters. Cruz won re-election, but only by 2.6 percentage points.

Since people of color have accounted for almost all the state’s population growth since 2010, it seems easy to assume that the percentage of Democratic voters has increased. After all, Latinos still lean heavily toward the Democratic Party, according to Pew Research.

Of course, many Latinos, like other Texans, are Republican, and the GOP may be attracting support from some Latinos concerned about inflation or border issues. But reports of a massive Latino swing toward the GOP in the Lone Star State are probably overblown. Black and Asian Americans remain overwhelmingly Democratic in their political views.

Expanded Voting Options During Covid

During the 2020 election, local officials in Houston and other metropolitan areas devised creative ways to make voting safer and easier during the Covid pandemic. They established drive-through polling stations, which allowed citizens to cast their ballots from their cars. They encouraged early voting and voting by mail as well as providing drop boxes where voters could deposit their ballots.

These new options were particularly helpful for minority voters, most of whom were blue-collar and did not have flexible work schedules. The drive-through polling stations and drop boxes were especially popular, since Houston is a huge, sprawling metropolis and commutes can be time-consuming. These initiatives helped spur good turnout among voters despite the pandemic. From a civic-minded point of view, these new approaches were a great success.

However, the result did not please the state political establishment, since Joe Biden carried the large Texan cities.

Setting The “Gold Standard” for Voter Suppression

Many Republican lawmakers raised issues about alleged voting fraud in 2020, and several leading Texas politicians echoed Trump’s claims about a “stolen election”. In 2021, state legislators enacted Senate Bill 1 (“S.B.1”), which eliminated or imposed severe restrictions on the expanded voting options. The ostensible rationale for these measures was to protect “election integrity”.

However, no significant voting fraud has occurred in Texas in recent years. [1]The goal, and the effect, of S.B.1 are to disenfranchise minority voters, particularly Latinos.

The new law created numerous impediments to voting, including

Banning drive-through voting
Creating barriers to early voting and voting by mail
Imposing new ID requirements especially for voting by mail
Limiting the number and hours of operation for drop-off boxes
Hindering the ability of voters with language barriers or disabilities to get help casting their ballots
Empowering partisan poll watchers at polling stations
Discouraging poll workers’ oversight of partisan poll watchers

The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You

The last two items are particularly troubling, since Texas has a long history of minority voters being intimidated. S.B.1 expands poll watchers’ right to move around and observe polling places, including the ballot transfer and tabulation process. Furthermore, the law makes it a crime for election workers to refuse to accept credentialed workers.

In addition, election workers cannot remove poll watchers for violating certain election laws, unless they have personally witnessed the conduct. So if a partisan poll watcher --perhaps wearing a gun in a state with “open carry” laws-- threatens or intimidates Black or Latino voters and they complain to an election official, an election worker cannot take any action unless he or she sees the intimidation.

S.B. 1 had a very tangible negative effect on the conduct of the 2022 primary election. According to the Brennan Center, 12% of mail-in ballots were rejected for failing to satisfy the new requirements. That was a 12-fold jump in the rejection rate compared to 2020. In some counties the initial rejection rate reached 40%. The rejection rate for minority voters was much higher than that for whites.

Federal judges have already nullified certain provisions in S.B. 1 that pertain to assisting voters and mail-in ballots. In a lawsuit challenging other provisions of S.B.1, the parties held closing arguments in February after a six-week trial before Federal District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio.

Severe Restrictions on Reproductive Freedom

Since 2021, Texas has been one of the most restrictive states for reproductive freedoms, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that banned terminating pregnancies after six weeks’ gestation, with rare exceptions that physicians say are unclear. Doctors who violate the law can lose their medical licenses and face up to 99 years in prison. This draconian measure exacerbates the state’s pre-existing physician shortage, especially for rural communities that need reproductive healthcare.

While Texas does not allow ballot initiatives, reproductive health is among the issues for Texans to consider as they head to the polls in November. Senator Ted Cruz, up for re-election, has been a staunch foe of abortion and transgender health care. Cruz supported the failed Life at Conception Act, which would have provided equal protection under the law to “preborn children” from the time of conception.

Cruz has received endorsements from the Texas Alliance for Life, the Republican Party and Governor Greg Abbott. Cruz’ Democratic opponent, Colin Allred, a three-term congressman, has cited freedom as a top issue, including reproductive freedom and freedom to vote. Allred’s endorsers include the Texas AFL-CIO and the Human Rights Campaign.

Candidates’ stances on abortion in down-ballot races appear to conform strictly with their party affiliation, but the polls of likely voters reflect more nuanced views. Democrats hope that abortion rights will be a winning issue that will drive voters to the polls. However, a recent University of Texas poll suggests that voters may consider border security and immigration more important issues.

What Can You Do?

S. B. 1 has created a serious risk that Texas election vigilantes could intimidate voters or otherwise disrupt the election in November. To help ensure that voters are treated fairly, you can volunteer to serve as a poll monitor. Get in touch with Common Cause Texas.

You can also volunteer with Common Cause to contact voters who need information and support and to monitor social media, so you can report misinformation and disinformation about election issues. You can fill the last two roles on a remote basis.

You can also join Common Cause in advocating that Texas establish an online voter registration program. Texas is one of the few states that does not have such a platform, which would make it easier for voters, including minority voters, to register.

If you are a lawyer or a paralegal, you can volunteer for Election Protection, which provides advice to citizens who want to register to vote or who may encounter problems when they try to vote. If you have a relative in law school, ask him or her to volunteer. You can work from your office or home. EP provides training and materials on each state’s election laws and procedures. Election Protection operates under the auspices of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization with about 100 partners.

Disability Rights Texas helps people with disabilities understand their voting rights, surveys polling places for accessibility, and works with election officials to ensure fair voting.

Mi Familia Vota is a national organization with a branch in Texas that is committed to empowering the Latino community and helping Latinos register and to vote.

[1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/texas-voter-suppression-law-trial

May 22nd: Grant Writing Webinar with Linda Jackson Sowell '73

Wed, 15 May 2024 15:35:21 GMT

Grant Supremacy: The Art of Proposal Writing and Grantsmanship

With Linda Jackson Sowell '73

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Securing grants enables organizations to better serve their communities, ensures consistent funding, and builds credibility...but what is the secret to securing the elusive grant? Our classmate and professional grant writer Linda Jackson Sowell can provide some answers.

During this webinar, Linda will focus on the requirements of a well-prepared grant-seeker, the structure of a grant proposal, the process--relationship building with potential funders ( cultivation, solicitation, stewardship) as well as the communities served, and on how to build a win-win structure between grantmaker and grant recipient for various types of grants.

May 21st: JusticeAid NYC Concert "Soul of Justice"

Wed, 15 May 2024 15:32:47 GMT

May 21st, 6:30pm ET

City Winery, NYC

Remember grooving to the soul music of Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Staple Singers and Ray Charles?

Let’s get it on again! Join HR’73 classmates at JusticeAid’s spring concert, “Soul of Justice”, May 21st at the City Winery in NYC for a terrific evening of music, justice, friendship and fun. One hundred percent of ticket sales and all donations go to support the work of JusticeAid’s grantee-partner Black Voters Matter, and their work in the months leading up to the 2024 election.

JusticeAid has assembled an incredible roster of artists including Lisa Fischer—who performed with The Rolling Stones—Martha Redbone, and 2024 Grammy winner for Jazz Vocal Album Nicole Zuraitis, among others.

To learn more about the artists, buy tickets or make a donation, click here.

Doors open at 6:30 pm for cocktails overlooking the Hudson River followed by the concert and dinner.

Voter Suppression, Deep in the Heart of Texas

Wed, 15 May 2024 15:30:48 GMT

Written by Ryan O’Connell; edited by Marilyn Go, Jim Harbison and Jacki Swearingen

The demographics of Texas are shifting rapidly, as its booming cities draw waves of migrants attracted to the state’s growing economy, low taxes, and warm weather.

Here is the key takeaway: four out of 10 Texans are Latinos.

Source: Pew Research

Growth is Concentrated in The Big (Democratic) Cities

Source: Dallas County Republican Party

But the Political Landscape Seems Frozen in Time

Nonetheless, one would have expected Democrats to win a larger share of state and congressional districts as the number of Latino and other minority voting-age citizens increased significantly.

Why hasn’t this happened?

Fighting Demographic Change

"Texas also enacted an extreme partisan gerrymander that insulates Republican rule against voter dissatisfaction. Under the new map, Democrats would have to win 58 percent of the popular vote in order to be favored to carry more than 37 percent of the state’s congressional seats. Put differently, even if Texas turned dark blue, Republicans could hold a two-to-one advantage in the state’s congressional caucus."

Partisan Split in Texas

Because Texas state officials do not collect or publish figures on voters’ political affiliation, precise numbers on Democratic and Republican voters are not available.

Expanded Voting Options During Covid

However, the result did not please the state political establishment, since Joe Biden carried the large Texan cities.

Setting The “Gold Standard” for Voter Suppression

However, no significant voting fraud has occurred in Texas in recent years. [1]The goal, and the effect, of S.B.1 are to disenfranchise minority voters, particularly Latinos.

The new law created numerous impediments to voting, including

Banning drive-through voting
Creating barriers to early voting and voting by mail
Imposing new ID requirements especially for voting by mail
Limiting the number and hours of operation for drop-off boxes
Hindering the ability of voters with language barriers or disabilities to get help casting their ballots
Empowering partisan poll watchers at polling stations
Discouraging poll workers’ oversight of partisan poll watchers

The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You

Severe Restrictions on Reproductive Freedom

Disability Rights Texas helps people with disabilities understand their voting rights, surveys polling places for accessibility, and works with election officials to ensure fair voting.

Mi Familia Vota is a national organization with a branch in Texas that is committed to empowering the Latino community and helping Latinos register and to vote.

[1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/texas-voter-suppression-law-trial

Our Benazir Bhutto Leadership Fellow, Nazmul Haque, Pioneers Energy Initiatives in Rural Bangladesh

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 21:33:19 GMT

From the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University:

Nazmul Haque, a current Mason Fellow in ClassACT HR73’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, has a long history of developing public-private partnerships in response to climate change in his home country of Bangladesh. His experience was a case study for a recent symposium, “Climate Change, Public-Private Partnerships, and Social Equity: Lessons from Bangladesh” – also co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center and the Salata Institute – in which Harvard practitioners and professors gathered to examine and enlarge upon the examples offered by Nazmul’s career. We spoke with him about his commitment to sustainability, and what the symposium meant for him.

Read full article

May 8th: Learn at Lunch with James Engell '73!

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:24:20 GMT

REGISTER HERE

James Engell AB ’73, PhD ’78, Gurney Professor of English Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Inaugural Member of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the Salata Institute

Please join us for the second of ClassACT HR73 Environmental/Climate Change Workgroup’s “Learn at Lunch” series of seminars. Classmate Jim Engell will discuss how  values from his field, the humanities, are changing traditional environmental economics and altering concepts of international and national energy security. Significant transformations in several fields are needed to avert additional tragic consequences of an energy transition that is too slow.

Slashing emissions, taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and, yes, geoengineering are all required, but essential to their success is a broad mass movement of the kind that propelled civil rights, women rights, and the rights of labor. In addition, central to formulating all climate policies is an awareness of the glaring moral inequalities of climate disruption—wealth inequalities both among and within each nation, as well as issues of intergenerational justice.

Following Jim’s introductory remarks, there will be time for Q/A and discussion.

Here are some resources that Jim recommends:

The Climate Book compiled by Greta Thunberg. “I know of no single book more comprehensive and accessible on almost all aspects of the climate crisis.”
Laudate Deum, a short, pointed 2023 version of the Papal Encyclical of 2015.
Article by Nicholas Stern, Joseph Stiglitz & Charlotte Taylor on new approaches to environmental economics

Contact information: jengell@fas.harvard.edu

Join us TODAY for Beyond the Mission Statement...Financial and Marketing Startup Overview

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:18:46 GMT

You are ready to move beyond the idea and the planning meetings for a new nonprofit. In this webinar, we will highlight key next steps, best practices and resources for launching your nonprofit.

This webinar is led by Martha Stone-Martin, VP of Marketing and Administration for Charles River CFO (CRCFO). CRCFO provides outsourced CFO, accounting and HR services to nonprofits, biotech and technology firms. She has over 30 years of experiencing developing web presences for small firms.

Join us today at 7pm ET - register here!

If you missed our previous webinars, take a look at the recordings below!

Building an App for Your Nonprofit, by John Noran '73, March 27, 2024
6 Steps to Promote Your Nonprofit on Social Media, by Katie Marinello, February 21, 2024

Creating a 501(c)(3), by Leonard Easter '73, January 17, 2024

A Ten-Point Plan for Building a Board of Directors, by Ron Dieckmann '73, December 12, 2023

Check out our April Newsletter!

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 21:24:11 GMT

Highlights Include:

-Celebrating Ten Years of Achieving Change Together: 10th anniversary video and timeline

-March 1 Climate Change, Private-Public Partnerships, and Social Equity: Lessons from Bangladesh: Video Summary

-Florida: Could the Abortion Rights Fight Shift a Red State into a Blue Column?

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Florida: Could the Abortion Rights Fight Shift a Red State into the Blue Column?

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 15:46:40 GMT

By Jacki Swearingen and Vivian Lewis

Edited by Jim Harbison, Ryan O’Connell and Marilyn Go

With each election in recent years Florida has turned redder. In 2018 its voters elected one of the nation’s most conservative governors. However, this November’s outcome is a little less certain because of a recent decision by the Florida Supreme Court that allows a measure to ensure reproductive rights to be on the ballot this fall.

While President Joe Biden is still unlikely to garner Florida’s 30 electoral votes, a surge in voters determined to overturn one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans could benefit Democratic candidates further down the ballot. Although voter registrations for Democrats now trail those of Republicans by four percent, Democrats hope that they can convince the growing number of independents to vote for their candidates this November. Nonetheless, Democrats still face the possibility of reduced turnout because of strict voting laws Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature put in place over the last three years.

Demographic Changes

Just as in Georgia and Arizona, demographic changes in Florida have been accompanied by increased calls from Republicans to stamp out voter fraud. The 2020 U.S Census showed that among Florida’s population of 22 million residents, non-Hispanic white residents decreased to 51 percent from 58 percent in 2010. Hispanics, the fastest growing sector, grew to 27 percent from 22 percent ten years earlier. Floridians who are non-Hispanic African Americans decreased to 14.5 percent from 15.2 percent, and Asian-Americans increased to 3 percent from 2.4 percent.

Voter registration trends show that Florida is not easily pigeonholed into a red or blue niche, despite the outcomes of recent elections. More than one-third of the state’s registered voters are now non-white. The largest segment of Latinos remains Cuban-Americans who have overwhelmingly voted Republican since the first émigrés arrived in Miami in the 1960s. But Puerto Ricans, the second largest group, are more likely to vote Democratic. Indeed, the majority of Florida’s Hispanics are now registered as Democrats or independents, according to the James Madison Institute.

More people aged 60 to 69 moved to Florida than any other age cohort over the last decade. However, those aged 18 to 53 now outnumber Boomers in Florida. More and more of these younger voters are registering as “No Party Affiliation,” which helps to make independents the fastest growing group of Florida voters. Unaffiliated voters constitute 27 percent of registered voters while Republicans make up 37 percent and Democrats 33 percent.

Florida had some of the nation’s closest election outcomes in 2018 – a governor’s race DeSantis won by only 0.4 percent and a Senate race fellow Republican Rick Scott won by a mere 0.12 percent. However, the Covid pandemic contributed to a surge in Republican voters when DeSantis’s stand against lockdowns and other restrictions drew supporters from across the country. As DeSantis moved Florida further to the right on issues ranging from abortion to higher education, he also helped to bring into the GOP some long-time residents, particularly in North Florida who had regularly voted Democratic

Voter Suppression

Anxiety about the fragility of Republican victories as well as hopes of securing his party’s presidential nomination may have led Gov. Ron DeSantis to introduce strict voting control measures in 2021, which the Republican-led legislature speedily enacted. Law SB 90 limits where drop boxes for ballots can be placed, and it requires that the boxes be staffed during hours of operation. The law also restricts who can drop off a ballot for someone else, limiting this role to family members and caregivers, a change that voting rights advocates say places burdens on the disabled and seniors. Voters are also required to provide photo ID, a demand that the late Rep. John Lewis once likened to “a new poll tax.”

DeSantis and others claimed that they were tightening voting laws to combat voting fraud. However, a 2023 Brookings Institution report concluded:

“In Florida, there were nine cases of election fraud between the 2020 and 2022 elections but many of those involved individuals who were confused over whether or not they had the right to vote.”

Despite lack of evidence of any significant voter fraud, DeSantis signed a law in April 2022 that established a new state security office to investigate claims of voter fraud and arrest those charged with it. The new “election police force” ended up arresting only about 20 people in 2022 for casting illegal ballots. Nearly all those accused were shown to lack criminal intent and their cases were eventually dropped.

These arrests stirred fears in some voters that they might be apprehended for voting in error. Many of these citizens were former felons whose right to vote was restored in 2018 by an amendment to the Florida Constitution that 65 percent of voters approved. Nonetheless, DeSantis and the legislature have undermined the amendment by enacting a law that prohibits former felons from regaining their right to vote unless they have paid off fines imposed by the courts as part of their conviction.

The Brennan Center and other voting rights groups challenged this law as unconstitutional, but the US Eleventh Circuit Court has allowed it to remain in place. In the 2024 election cycle an estimated 935,000 Floridians who have completed their sentences but not paid their fines will be unable to vote, according to the Sentencing Project.

Redistricting

DeSantis and the Florida legislature have also drawn fire for enacting a 2022 redistricting map for Congressional districts that voting and civil rights advocacy groups say is racially discriminatory. The reconfigured maps, they argued after the 2022 election, were designed to ensure the defeat of three-term Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat, as well as to dilute the power of Black voters in other districts by moving many of them into overwhelmingly white and conservative districts. Their challenge wended its way through the courts until February of this year, when the Florida Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order saying that it would not speed up consideration of the case in time for the 2024 election. The contested maps will remain in place.

Voter Registration Obstacles

Law SB 7050, which allowed DeSantis to run for president without having to resign as governor, also builds on the changes to Florida election law enacted in 2021. The latest law imposes stringent new requirements on third-party voter registration organizations and quintuples the maximum fines these groups can incur. The measure bars non-citizens from handling or collecting voter applications as part of an effort by a third-party group to register voters. The new restraints have drawn the ire of Hispanic and Black voter advocacy groups, which argued that non-white voters often rely on their organizations to help them register.

Increasing the obstacles to mail-in voting, the new law mandates that voters can pick up a mail-in ballot only if they are unable to vote in person at an early voting location or at their assigned polling place on Election Day. Only family members can now request a mail-in ballot on behalf of a voter.

Finally, critics of SB 7050 maintain that the new law will cause more registered voters to be purged from the rolls. Election officials can decide to remove a voter based on any “official” source rather than relying solely on ID sources specified in existing law. The new law also accelerates the process of removing voters from the rolls.

Outraged by these new rules, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the ACLU and other voting advocacy groups filed two separate lawsuits. The League of Women Voters in Florida said in a statement released the day DeSantis signed the bill:

“The law, Senate Bill 7050, directly targets and drastically restricts the ability of nonpartisan civic engagement organizations, like the League of Women Voters of Florida, to engage with voters, violating their right to freedom of speech and association.”

On March 1 Obama-appointed Chief US District Judge Mark E. Walker struck down the provision in the law that prevents non-citizens from collecting or handling voter registration applications on behalf of third-party organizations. Judge Walker ruled that the prohibition violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, Judge Walker’s decision only prohibits Florida’ secretary of state from enforcing that part of the law; he did not prevent the state’s attorney general from applying it. A second trial is now underway in Tallahassee before Judge Walker in which voting rights organizations seek to extend that prohibition on enforcement to the state attorney general as well.

Voter registration advocates who argue that SB 7050’s restrictions and penalties have already depressed 2024 voter registration drives continue to face challenges in overturning the measure. After Judge Walker’s ruling, Florida officials appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Tallahassee. That case is still pending.

Abortion Rights

In recent weeks the Supreme Court judges, all appointed by Republican governors, have played a pivotal role in the fight over abortion rights. The Florida State legislature passed several bills in 2023 that affect reproductive freedom, including the Heartbeat Protection Act that restricts access to abortion after six weeks’ gestation. The controversial legislation prompted a grassroots effort to mount a ballot initiative to amend the constitution, which garnered almost a million signatures. Proposed Amendment 4 to the Florida State constitution would preserve the right to abortion until 24 weeks. The Florida Supreme Court allowed the six-week ban to go into effect and approved the final language of the ballot initiative on April 1.

For the amendment to become part of the constitution, 60% of voters must approve it. Backers of the proposed amendment include Floridians Protecting Freedom, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters Florida and the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Florida Voice for the Unborn and Florida Council of Catholic Bishops are among opponents to the proposal. Of note, this amendment may not settle the issue as Florida Supreme Court justices have signaled a willingness to separately consider the issue of fetal rights.Down-ballot primaries in August will also provide an opportunity for voters to learn the national and state candidates’ positions on a host of issues affecting reproductive freedom, including access to gender-affirming care, bathrooms and in vitro fertilization.

Important Down Ballot Races

While the presidential election will be at the forefront this November, Florida has a number of down ballot races that could also affect the nation as well. Democrats will select a candidate in the August 20th Florida primary to challenge Republican Rick Scott, the former governor who was elected to the Senate in 2018. Scott is regarded as one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents in this election cycle in part because of his stance on Social Security, Medicare and abortion. Twenty-eight House seats will also be up for grabs, including a new one awarded to Florida after the 2020 Census. Finally, Floridians will have the chance to vote on Amendment 3 to the state constitution, which would legalize the use of marijuana for adults 21 and older.

Get Out the Vote

What role can you play? Take part in this election by registering voters, phone banking and canvassing. Sign up as a poll worker. Help cure mail-in ballots to prevent a ballot from being discarded because of an error that could easily be fixed.

Florida lawyers can lend their skills to organizations like Florida Election Protection Coalition that aids voters who find their right to vote challenged at the polls. Lawyers can also help assess accessibility at polls before voting occurs.

These organizations are also playing an active part in working for free and fair elections in Florida:

League of Women Voters of Florida “registers, empowers, and educates voters” as well as advocates for fair voting laws.

Common Cause Florida advocates for fair voting laws and helps voters with individual questions. Both Common Cause and America Votes helped cure Florida mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.

Black Voters Matter works in Florida and 24 other states to register voters and get them to the polls. Their “We Fight Back” bus tour is headed to Florida May 16 to May 20.

Movement Voter Fund helps support Florida voter organizations that focus on Latinos.

Equality Florida focuses on the LGBTQ community to register, educate, and transport voters to the polls.

The Andrew Goodman Foundation seeks to increase voter registration among college students and inspire them to get out the vote.

The Florida Justice Center helps former felons regain their right to vote.

Celebrating ClassACT HR73: 10 Years of Achieving Change Together!

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:39:54 GMT

We can't believe it's been ten years! Take a look back at this fabulous video created by Rick Brotman '73, which highlights some of the projects ClassACT HR73 has created, organizations we've supported, and most importantly, people we've worked with during the ten years since our inception.

CLICK to watch!

The ClassACTivism Timeline:

Accompanying the video is a detailed timeline our milestones from the last decade.

CLICK for timeline!

Register for Beyond the Mission Statement... Financial and Marketing Startup Overview with Martha Stone-Martin

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 23:39:35 GMT

Beyond the Mission Statement... Financial and Marketing Startup Overview with Martha Stone-Martin

April 24, 2024, 7:00 PM - 7:45 PM

You are ready to move beyond the idea and the planning meetings for a new nonprofit. In this webinar, we will highlight key next steps, best practices and resources for launching your nonprofit.

Martha Stone-Martin is VP of Marketing and Administration for Charles River CFO (CRCFO). CRCFO provides outsourced CFO, accounting and HR services to nonprofits, biotech and technology firms. She has over 30 years of experiencing developing web presences for small firms.

Learn at Lunch with Sharon Tisher '73!

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 23:02:58 GMT

Please join us for the first Environmental/Climate Change Workgroup’s “Learn at Lunch” series of seminars.  Led by Sharon Tisher ‘73, this informal discussion that will focus on developments in climate science, U.S. policy, and international policy as they unfolded in 2023. 

In order to have a lively interaction, Sharon would like you to:

1. Skim the headlines in the new 2023 section of her work,  A Climate Chronology.

2. Please choose any two entries that are of interest to you, particularly as they relate to each other.

3. Sharon hopes that some of you can be prepared to share what interests you about them, and if possible connect to the overriding issues the chronology raises: how we have arrived at where we are now, and what our future will look like. You are not expected to explore the cited resources, but of course may if you wish.

In addition to using the chronology to focus this discussion, Sharon would very much appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement, either during the hour or afterwards. You can contact her at sharon.tisher@maine.edu.

Click here for the full climate chronology!

Michigan: Protecting Fair Elections and Reproductive Freedom

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 15:59:37 GMT

Written by Marilyn Go (voting) and Vivian Lewis (reproductive freedom);

Edited by Jim Harbison and Jacki Swearingen

Although frequently described as a bellwether state, Michigan had also held the dubious reputation of being one of the most gerrymandered states in the country.[1] However, since 2018, Michigan has been in the forefront of protecting voter rights, as well as reproductive freedom. As discussed below, after voters established an independent redistricting commission, Michigan joined three other states in attempting to end partisan gerrymandering and create competitive elections with the drawing of fair maps.

Demographics. Michigan has experienced slow growth since its heyday as the automotive capital of the United States after World War II. After the 2010 Census reported that the state population had decreased from the prior Census, Michigan 's population then grew by less than 2% the following decade. With a population of 10,077,331, as reported in the 2020 Census, Michigan's rank dropped from eighth to tenth most populous state in the country. The population of Michigan has been predominantly Non-Hispanic White, at 76.67%, but the number and percentage of this group has been declining the past few decades. In 2022, the percentage of NH Whites was 74%., while the percentage of Blacks was 14.1%, Hispanic 5.7%, and Asians 3.5%.

However, Census classifications may be too general to capture the diversity within certain groups. Michigan is home to an estimated 400,000 to 490,000 Arabs, a widely varying estimate since Arabs are not separately counted by the Census Bureau. Arab voters are concentrated in major cities and have a voice in Michigan politics. In 2018, Rashida Tlaib, from the Detroit area, became the first Palestinian American elected to Congress and in 2021, voters in Dearborn, which is over 40% Arab, elected their first Arab (Lebanese American) mayor. In Michigan’s recent Presidential primary election, over 100,000 voters selected "Uncommitted" to express opposition to President Biden's handling of the Gaza conflict.

Independent Redistricting Commission. In 2018, Michigan voters passed, with over 61% of the vote, a ballot initiative approving a constitutional amendment establishing an independent redistricting commission to redraw congressional and state legislative districts. The 13-member Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting (MICR) Commission that was created consists of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents randomly selected from 9,300 voters who had applied.[2]

After completion of the 2020 United States Census, the MICR released draft-proposed Congressional maps in December 2021, which the MICR approved with a vote of 8 to 5 and, later, added approved state legislative maps. The Congressional maps drawn by the MICR were hailed by many as being fair, creating more competition, and no longer heavily favoring Republicans. The Republicans, who had controlled redistricting after the 2010 Census, had previously drawn maps with "impregnable majorities”in the Legislature. Michigan is one of four states to create a truly nonpartisan independent commission to draw Congressional maps in 2022. California, Arizona, and Colorado are the others.

Federal Court Challenge to Maps Drawn. However, shortly after release of the maps, a group of Black Michigan voters filed a federal lawsuit in 2022 claiming that the Congressional maps violated both the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs asserted that various legislative districts in and around Detroit were racial gerrymanders and diluted Black voting strength by eliminating or greatly diminishing the majority-minority districts there.

On December 21, 2023, the three-judge court that was convened to hear the case agreed with the plaintiffs. The Court found that the record "overwhelmingly" showed that the MICR drew the "plaintiffs’ districts predominantly on the basis of race" in a manner which violated the plaintiffs' rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The three-judge court similarly found in a related case that maps for more than a dozen Michigan state House and Senate districts around metro Detroit violated the U.S. Constitution by splitting Detroit into districts combined with whiter suburbs. The court enjoined the use of the districts as drawn and directed that new maps be drawn, released for public comment, and submitted to the Court for review by March 1, 2024.[3] The state's application for stay was denied by the Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh on January 22, 2024.

New maps have been submitted in accordance with the schedule set and are now before the court and its experts for review.

The need to have maps redrawn is troubling. As recounted in the December 21 decision, the Commissioners simply failed to understand the requirements of the Voting Rights Act. That should not have happened and could have easily been avoided.In addition, two of the Commissioners resigned prior to completion of their duties, because they lived outside of the state; this is a straightforward matter that should have been disclosed and uncovered prior to the time they assumed their positions.

Michigan’s experience shows how an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission can end partisan gerrymandering and create competitive electoral races by drawing fair maps. However, the pending lawsuits over redistricting illustrate the complexities of redistricting and the many different interests that must be considered in drawing maps. Concerns over partisan gerrymandering cannot supersede legal obligations under the Voting Rights Act, which ensures that historically politically disadvantaged groups have representation.

Other Voting Legislation. This past November, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a series of election bills to increase voter participation and provide for broader access. One measure to expand voter registration included expansion of automatic voter registration to incarcerated people after their release. Michigan had already previously allowed people with felony convictions to regain their voting rights once they're out of prison.

The state legislature also passed bills designed to prevent "chaos," particularly in the event of disputed elections. Among other things, these laws criminalize poll worker intimidation, regulate political ads that use artificial intelligence and tighten the election certification process that former President Trump tried to disrupt following his 2020 election loss.

Political Landscape of Michigan. Michigan is considered a competitive battleground state in Presidential elections. The Democratic Presidential candidate has, since 1992, prevailed in Michigan, except in 2016 when former President Trump won with a small margin of 11,000. Although President Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by a larger margin, he prevailed by making inroads in the suburbs, adding to his advantage in the cities, which are traditional Democratic strongholds.

As a result of a less than two percent increase in population since the 2010 census, as compared to the average 8% increase nationwide, Michigan lost one seat in Congress and will now have 13 Representatives. This was the fifth consecutive time that Michigan lost a House seat following a Census, a change accompanying the shrinkage of the automotive industry there and decentralization in the manufacture of automotive accessories and parts.

In 2022, voters elected seven Democrats and six Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. However, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) is now running for the Senate seat vacated by Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is retiring. Until redistricting maps are finalized, it is not yet clear which Representatives are running for re-election in what districts.

Until the use of the newly drawn maps in 2022, the Michigan state legislature was dominated by Republicans who were in control for over a decade and effectively maintained control through redistricting. Like the prior Congressional map drawn before creation of the MICR, the state legislative maps combined urban areas, which tended to vote Democratic, with surrounding suburbs, which tended to be more Republican. The 2022 electoral districts, which were based on maps drawn following criteria in the 2018 amendment to the State Constitution, the number of state Representatives who were Democrats increased from 53 to 56, while the number of Republican Representatives dropped from 56 to 54. Due to unfilled vacancies resulting from retirement or death, the number of representatives is currently tied at 54 to 54. The Democrats currently hold a small majority in the state Senate.

Reproductive Freedom. Reproductive freedom has been a potent issue in Michigan where voters approved a state constitutional amendment to ensure abortion rights in 2022. The amendment included all matters related to pregnancy, including, but not limited to, pregnancy, abortion care, contraception, and infertility. Governor Whitmer, whose support of the amendment helped her win re-election, subsequently signed a series of legislation protecting reproductive freedom, including legislation that repeals a law requiring women to have a separate insurance rider to pay for abortion, as well as laws that imposed onerous and unnecessary non-medical requirements on abortion clinics designed to force them to close, raising costs for patients, and restricting access to abortion. She has also issued an executive order protecting Michigan healthcare workers from extradition for providing IVF services or pregnancy terminations.

Saying voting rights are “how we secure reproductive rights,” Whitmer noted that some in Congress favor a national abortion ban and urged voters to stay engaged for the upcoming election. There is a congressional proposal, the Life at Conception Act , with 125 cosponsors that would ban nearly all abortions. Although IVF is not mentioned, the proposed legislation uses an argument similar to that of the Alabama Supreme Court, which conferred personhood on frozen embryos. With IVF emerging as another reproductive freedom issue, Michigan politicians of both parties have been working to refine their positions.

Although the filing deadline for candidates in Michigan’s August primary election is April 23, polling already suggests that reproductive freedom will continue to be an issue. With months to go, Michigan voters who care about reproductive freedom have plenty of time to learn more.

Volunteering Opportunites. We encourage all, particularly those living in Michigan, to support or volunteer at organizations that will assist voters in Michigan, including the following:

Promote the Vote – coalition of Michigan-based groups helping voters in historically disenfranchised communities to vote. https://www.michiganvoting.org/
Voting Access For All – coalition of organizations focused on helping people to vote, particularly those who had been incarcerated. https://votingaccessforall.org/
Michigan Fair Elections – coalition of organizations and groups working to support free and fair elections in Michigan. https://www.mifairelections.org/
NextGen America – Michigan’s branch of the nation’s largest youth voter organization working to register and mobilize young people to vote. https://organizing.nextgenamerica.org/state/michigan/

[1]See, e.g., Laura Royden and Michael Li, "Extreme Maps,"https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/extreme-maps.

[2]https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/03/28/how-michigans-redistricting-process-work-and-how-get-involved/4700107001/.

[3] See Agee v. Benson,https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/W.D.-Mich.-22-cv-00272-dckt-000131_000-filed-2023-12-21.pdf (Dec. 21, 2023 decision).

Register for To the Ballot Box! Our Vote, Our Voice

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:18:45 GMT

A ClassACT/ Justice AID ZOOM Public Forum

Saturday, March 16 @ 5:30pm ET

Featuring: Moderator Joy Reid, Harvard ‘91

Panelists Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown

The right to vote and participate in elections should not be a controversial issue, but it has become one. The forum will explore issues related to this right, voter apathy, and voter suppression. It also will discuss how to engage and motivate citizens in local communities and across the country to have a voice, register and vote. Join us for this vibrant and timely discussion.

CLICK TO REGISTER

Check Out Our February 2024 Newsletter!

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 22:48:24 GMT

Highlights Include:

-ClassACT HR73 and JusticeAid Present: To The Ballot Box! Our Vote, Our Voice, March 16 @5:30pm ET (zoom)

-Voter Intimidation Could Be a Threat in Arizona, by Jim Harbsion '73

-@50 Video project: Bill Kristol '73: Preserving Liberal Democracy

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@50 Video Project: Bill Kristol '73 and Preserving Liberal Democracy

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 23:32:38 GMT

In the video below, created by Rick Brotman '73, classmate Bill Kristol '73 discusses how the influence of his parents, along with his undergraduate experience, fueled his career and passion for politics and politicians. Having had the chance to look at the workings of our government from “ five to 30,000 feet,” he provides a steady and important view of the state of liberal democracy in our country.

Click here to watch

Register For Climate Change, Public-Private Partnerships, and Social Equity: Lessons from Bangladesh

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 22:43:47 GMT

*note that this event is in person in Cambridge, MA

ClassACT HR73’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program, along with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) and the Salata Institute, both at Harvard, will host a daylong in-person Symposium focused on mitigating climate change and its concomitant social inequities through public-private partnerships. We hope you will join us for all or part of the day. Refreshments and lunch will be provided for attendees and there will be a reception at the end of the program.

The participants include:

Ambassador Peter Galbraith AB ’73, Senior Diplomatic Fellow, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Marion Dry AB ’73, Chair, ClassACT HR73

Dustin Tingley, Professor of Government, Deputy Vice Provost, Advanced Learning, Harvard University

Nazmul Haque, Fellow, Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program, HKS

Leigh Hafrey AB ’73, Senior Lecturer, Communication and Ethics, MIT Sloan School of Management

Diego Osorio, MC/MPA ’09, Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program

Hélène Benveniste, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

Michael Hiscox PhD ’97, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, FAS

James Engell AB ’73, PhD ’78, Gurney Professor of English Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature
Erum Sattar LLM ’10, SJD ’17, Former Program Director and Lecturer, Sustainable Water Management Program (SWM), Tufts Institute of the Environment

Kimball Chen AB ’73, MBA ’78, Chairman, The Global LPG Partnership

Peter Tufano AB ’79, MBA ’84, PhD ’89, Baker Foundation Professor, HBS

Voter Intimidation Could Be a Threat in Arizona, by Jim Harbison '73

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 22:38:35 GMT

Written by Jim Harbison '73; edited by Ryan O’Connell '73, Jacki Swearingen '73 and Marilyn Go '73

Arizona Demographic Shifts 2010-2022

Arizona, with its rapidly diversifying population and large cohort of independent voters, has emerged once again as one of the key battleground states in the 2024 Presidential election. Outcomes in the Grand Canyon state are likely to be even more unpredictable this election cycle because of changing demographics and a surge in voter suppression tactics like intimidation at the polls.

Until recently, Arizona has been considered solidly Republican. For many decades, Arizona has been a prime destination for retirees migrating to the Sun Belt. The late Sen. John McCain and the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor epitomized the sort of traditional Republicans who preferred fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, and respect for the rule of law. Republicans further to the right like the late Sen. Barry Goldwater also found a place in their state’s GOP.

However, Arizona has a long border with Mexico, and its Latino population has grown 16 percent from 2010 to 2020, compared to a 10.3 percent growth for the state’s non-Latinos. Latinos now make up nearly one-third of the state’s population. Although Hispanics are often conservative on cultural issues, most have a strong affinity with the Democratic Party. The growth in their percentage of the population has helped turn Arizona into a “purplish” state. In 2019, Reuters observed that “voting patterns and results from prior elections show the longtime Republican state of Arizona increasingly balanced on a razor’s edge.”

A Battleground State

As both Latinos and non-Latinos move to Arizona for its climate and economic opportunities, they have created a new political dynamic where no candidate is assured of victory because of party affiliation. As of 2023, out of nearly 4.2 million registered voters in Arizona, 35% were Republicans, 34% were independents and 31% were Democrats. With such an evenly divided electorate, AZ has become a battleground state.

Independent voters may play a particularly important role in the 2024 Senate race. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the incumbent, decided in December 2022 to leave the Democratic Party, where she increasingly defied the Senate leadership on key votes and policies. Sinema now is one of three independents in the Senate who caucus with the Democratic majority. At present she has not yet announced whether she will run for re-election as an independent, and time is growing short for her to decide.

If Sen. Sinema does run, she will likely face Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic Latino candidate, a Phoenix congressman, and a Harvard graduate (Class of 2004). Her Republican opponent in that general election is almost certain to be Kari Lake, an election denier who lost the 2022 Senate race to Democrat Mark Kelly.

At present, Gallego appears to be the frontrunner for this 2024 race, although the volatility of both Arizona and national politics hampers predictions this far out. The Cook Report calls the race a toss-up at this point.

A Hotbed of Election Deniers

Looking at the history of election problems over the last four years, the Brennan Center notes that “Arizona was a locus of election denial and subversion efforts in both 2020 and 2022.” These sustained maneuvers included moves to appoint fake electors, threats to and harassment of local election officials, and unsuccessful legislative attempts to decertify the election.

Although Doug Ducey, the Republican governor at the time, accepted the 2020 election results as valid, far-right Arizona legislators still demanded two audits of the ballots cast in Maricopa, the state’s most populous county. The audits were conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a now-defunct Florida company whose methods and lack of transparency drew widespread criticism. Ironically, the audit results released finally by the Republican-led Arizona Senate showed that Joe Biden’s margin of victory was higher than initially recorded.

Nonetheless, Lake ran for Governor in 2022 repeating her claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent. Lake lost to Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate who had certified the election results in her role as Secretary of State. Lake has continued to deny the 2020 election results in her current campaign for the Senate.

Intimidation at Polling Sites

In another example of the charged atmosphere in Arizona, considerable controversy arose over the actions of some private citizens who claimed to be “monitoring” polling sites during the 2022 election. Some of the self-appointed “monitors” from a group called Clean Elections USA even wore camouflage and carried weapons when they stood near ballot drop boxes. The League of Women Voters of Arizona and other groups representing voters who claimed the monitors were primarily intent on intimidating voters brought suits in federal court. A U.S. District Court judge appointed by Donald Trump agreed, ordering the monitors to stay at least 75 feet away from ballot drop boxes and not to take photos and videos of voters.

Election experts have expressed concern that tactics such as aggressive poll monitoring practices may resurface in 2024 to prevent voters from casting a ballot. Unfortunately, much of the infrastructure that provided a bulwark against such behavior has been weakened since the 2020 election. Many election officials, worn down by threats or harassment, have resigned or retired; 15 of 17 counties in Arizona have lost their top officials since 2020. Several of their replacements stand firmly in the camp of 2020 election deniers.

Native Americans’ Troubled Access to Voting

Arizona has a substantial Native American population, which has traditionally had limited access to voting. These citizens were excluded from voting before 1948 and were required to pass literacy tests until the 1970s. Native American voters were even harassed and intimidated by polling officials as late as 2006.

The erosion of laws to protect election practices in Arizona has compounded these problems on reservations. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021), the Democratic National Committee sued Arizona’s Secretary of State (Brnovich). The DNC’s attorneys argued that Arizona state laws created obstacles for minority voters to cast their ballots. The Court ruled for Secretary Brnovich and significantly weakened the protections provided by Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by making it harder to bring court challenges against discriminatory voting laws.

As one example, Arizona banned “ballot bundling”, in which an individual would collect ballots from several Native Americans, often for a fee, and then deliver the ballots to a polling station. The Court ruled that Arizona had reasonable grounds to believe that the practice could lead to voting fraud and that abolishing the practice would not unduly inconvenience voters.

However, as Justice Elena Kagan pointed out in her dissent, there was little voting fraud in Arizona and no evidence that ballot bundling caused any voting fraud. Furthermore, many Native Americans lived on reservations without polling stations, and they often lacked transportation to voting sites that were in many cases far away.

Some Positive Trends

On the positive side, there has not been a rash of anti-voting rights legislation recently, as many had feared. Support for strengthened voter protection measures in Arizona remains quite popular overall, as demonstrated in a recent Secure Democracy Foundation poll.

There are other bright spots as well. A law passed in May 2023 allows police officers, judges, and others in sensitive positions to strike their names and addresses from the public record to ensure their safety and to shield themselves from harassment. This is a good security measure for those individuals, and hopefully the law will make it more difficult for outsiders to interfere with the smooth conduct of elections. In addition, at the end of last year Gov. Hobbs approved a new Election Protection Manual that spells out correct procedures for all of Arizona’s precincts.

More than 90% of Arizona’s voters voted early, either at a polling place or by absentee ballot. Polls in the state show overwhelming support for absentee voting. However, much of the rhetoric on the far right has sowed the misinformation that this mechanism results in widespread voter fraud.

How You Can Help

The Brennan Center warns that “Given the ongoing level of election denial in Arizona, advocacy groups must remain on alert for intimidation efforts, as they were in 2022.” If you live in Arizona, please consider volunteering as a poll monitor, so you can alert officials of any inappropriate behavior by self-appointed monitors.

Now is the time to get involved in Arizona. The Presidential primary will take place on March 19, and Congressional primaries will be held on August 6. There are many ways to get involved, in addition to discussing the candidates and issues with your friends and colleagues and encouraging them to vote. Voter registration drives help all citizens exercise their right to vote.

Here is a list of non-partisan not-for-profit voting organizations for which you could volunteer or give support:

1) Election Protection Arizona is a coalition of frontline organizations that work with communities most subject to voter suppression. If you are a lawyer, a paralegal, or a law school student, you can volunteer for Election Protection, which provides advice to citizens who want to register to vote or who may encounter problems when they try to vote. EP provides training and materials on each state’s election laws and procedures that enable volunteers to work digitally from home or office. If you are not a lawyer, you can volunteer with EP to help as a poll monitor.

2) The League of Women Voters of Arizona has as its top priority this year Voting Rights/ Election Systems (Security and Integrity of Elections).

3) Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) is deeply involved in registering voters as well as providing ongoing community-based activities, such as seeking fair wages for employees and providing English instruction. In 2022 LUCHA registered 22,000 new Latino voters.

4) Mi Familia Vota Arizona focuses on registering and Latino voters in Arizona and educating them about the election process. The organization offers roles for volunteers in Voter Registration, Phone Banking and Text Banking.

5) Protecting Native American Voting Rights in Arizona offers the opportunity to donate in support of efforts to fight the suppression of Native American voters.

Be sure to read the article in this issue of the Newsletter on reproductive rights in Arizona and the importance of the upcoming elections regarding that issue.

And don’t forget to vote!

Check Our Our January 2024 Newsletter!

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 22:46:06 GMT

Highlights Include:

- ClassACT Launches New Webinar Series:

-Creating a 501(c)(3) With Leonard Easter '73

-6 Steps To Promoting Your Non Profit On Social Media With Katie Marinello

-Climate Change, Public-Private Partnerships, and Social Equity: Lessons from Bangladesh

-Georgia's On Our Mind, by Ryan O'Connell '73

Read

Class Act73 continues with Benazir Bhutto’s Legacy

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:34:46 GMT

December 26, 2023

By Sara Arshad

“Leadership is a commitment to an idea, to a dream, and to a vision of what can be.”

Perhaps the greatest turmoil faced by a young Pakistan was the execution of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1979 by Military Dictory General Zia ul Haq. To the world’s surprise, the Islamic world welcomed the first female prime minister in 1988 in Pakistan in the form of his daughter Benazir Bhutto and I could see a change in the country. Everyone seemed to cherish her win in elections and getting nominated as first lady stateswoman. Whenever she used to appear on television, the entire country became silent and listened to each and every word of her with great respect. She was full of determination and could see the challenges of the Pakistani public with pure heart.

December 27, 2007, was a horrible day for the people of Pakistan when she was murdered because her followers considered her the only hope left with them.

This dreadful and ill-fated day when she was leaving a huge public gathering after delivering her speech in Rawalpindi Pakistan, she was shot and died at the spot. The moment the news of her brutal murder was publically announced, people became enraged and Pakistan witnessed the largest public protests in its history following her murder. That night was eerie and mass protests erupted in all parts of the country unitedly. Several banks, buildings, and ATMs were broken down and destroyed. Means of transportation were burnt. A large number of people took shelter in narrow streets and spent the night under the roof of a cold winter night.

More than 100 people lost their lives in the incidents relating to mass protests due to shootings by the police or from crossfire between different groups during the last 48 hours. Pakistan lost its bravest leader ever and the loss was beyond comparison.

In order to mark her 70th birthday Harvard class 73 organized a virtual event where speakers honoured and acknowledged Benazir Bhutto’s legacy. For me, it was a lifetime experience because having heard stories about Benazir from my family and friends or reading history from different books is immensely different from listening to the classmates of Benazir Bhutto of Harvard batch 1973. It was an emotional yet inspiring learning-based event that had a 60-minute time duration about Benazir Bhutto’s life’s personal reflection followed by a Q&A.

Marion Dry, co-founder and chair of ClassACT HR ’73 shared the story of the creation of the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program and its impact. She shared her experience that Benazir Bhutto was a friend of many in class 1973. She was introduced to Benazir in her freshman year. At that young age, Benazir left a very strong impression at only sixteen which could equal that of seventy.

Moving forward to 2013, some students of class 73 created Act 73. It included programs like BBLP (Benazir Bhutto Leadership Programme) that assisted students from third-world countries to gain a master’s degree from Kennedy’s school. Much of BBPL’s ideology related to human rights and peace matches that of Benazir. It especially promotes education in Islamic countries.

It hardly ever occurs that Benazir Bhutto’s family isn’t present in the talk of her remembrance, even today her sister, Sanam Bhutto along with her husband and son attended. Victoria Schofield, author of “The Fragrance of Tears”, and her friends from Washington attended.

Benazir became the light of people’s hearts. Peter Galbraith further goes into how young she was at every milestone of her life. Only sixteen years of age while entering Harvard, twenty-four when Z.A. Bhutto was assassinated, and 35 when she became the Prime Minister. Benzair faced a big cultural shock while meeting his parents. Usually, the contrast between a Pakistani family and an American family is significant.

Even as an undergraduate, she had a strong political sense. But that did not give much fruit when faced with the dictatorship in Pakistan. Several times, she was confined in forms of house arrest, Karachi Central Jail, and Sukkar Jail.

With democratic relationships and policies almost destroyed, Peter’s meeting with Benazir in 1981 became almost impossible. However, he did manage to send her a note that she replied back to with a smuggled letter. Benazir expressed how the grades and essays, and the talk of politics seemed joyful in Harvard but now she realizes how she failed to fully understand how important they were, as important as the air we breathe and the water we drink. 1987, a supposedly quiet year for Benazir where she got married and started a family, didn’t last long when in 1988 a plane carrying General Zia ul Haqq “literally fell out of the sky and the prospect of meaningful elections became real.” Benazir restored democracy in 1988 after dictatorship and died in 2007 while restoring democracy too. Peter urged her to start a normal life, and though she wanted it, she never acted on the idea.

Laila Khondkar, funded under the BBLP, did several leadership and human rights courses in her year at the Harvard Kennedy School and continues the legacy of Benazir in Dhaka in the form of trying to make a world where women are treated equally in fields such as politics. She talked about the need for collaboration and contribution of different organizations in order to combat social issues. She also collaborated on a future project for Bangladesh with a member of ACT’ 73 called “ Kids Care Everywhere.”

South Asian countries have a deep-rooted history of violence that the next generations carry with them. In order to combat this, Laila states, that only law reforms aren’t enough and that social norms play a big role. Disrespect and violence have been normalized throughout history.

Umar Mukhtar Khan, president of Harvard Club for Pakistan shared a lovely memory with Benazir when she went to his school and he showed her a photo in a photographic exhibition and having met with her at his uncle’s residence. All the speakers had a connection with Harvard University.

Talking about her democratic reconciliation, her stance against extremism, and her progressive politics was strong. Returning to exile in 1986 and subsequently becoming a Prime Minister in 1988, she brought all the stakeholders in Pakistan’s complex political landscapes together and signed the Charter of Democracy with her arch-rivals. She stood like a rock against extremism despite the fact that her life is in danger still she never became biassed which resulted in her fateful murder on 27th December 2007. She made Pakistan a much safer place before leaving through her policies. She believed in women’s rights, minority rights, freedom of the press, and social issues. She was always found standing in front of protecting vulnerable communities.

Her fellow friends of class 73 left a deep impression as Nuala Walsh quoted in her closing remarks that “old photo never fades.” Having received the Nobel Prize or becoming the Prime Minister, Peter Galbraith, and Benazir Bhutto are still Johny and Pinky of class 73. Benazir. Her legacy will continue in people like Laila and many who are pursuing her mission. Excellent moderation was done by Lee. Umar shared his experiences of how Benazir chose leadership and unifying spirit.

Benazir’s job was not easy but she left a strong message to those who are struggling to achieve rights. Her story is shared as a symbol of courage and victory in every corner of the world. Bhutto is another name for courage, determination, and persistence.

“Benazir’s trade of courage and character are only associated with the finest people.”—Nuala Walsh

Full Article: Class Act73 continues with Benazir Bhutto’s Legacy (dnd.com.pk)

Feb. 21 @7pm: 6 Steps to Promoting Your NonProfit on Social Media With Katie Marinello

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:35:10 GMT

Social Media is an essential communication tool for nonprofits looking to raise awareness, build community, and even engage donors. But how to break through the noise to get an accurate and compelling story across? Join ClassACT HR73’s social media manager Katie Marinello, owner of KT World Communications LLC, to learn the basics of creating a digital strategy that bolsters your nonprofit’s mission. If you’ve found yourself confused or intimidated when posting on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, this is the webinar for you!

Katie Marinello is a digital communications consultant with expertise in digital strategy, brand messaging, social media, and email marketing. An early adopter of social media marketing, she started KT World Communications LLC in 2018. Now served by a team of digital experts, KT World Communications has advised nonprofits, small businesses, and artists on how to harness the power of digital media to tell their brand stories. Katie has advised ClassACTHR73 on social media strategy since 2020 and is also Adjunct Professor of Digital and Social Media at Carroll Community College in Westminster, MD.

Prior to launching her business, Katie was a teacher in New York City, online product manager for the Brooklyn Cyclones, and worked for various pharmaceutical, finance, and crisis PR agencies. When not consulting, she fosters rescue cats and can be found supporting the performing arts, women’s and voter’s rights, and prison reform. @ktworldcomm https://ktworldcommunications.com/

January 17th @7pm EST: Creating A 501(c)(3) with Leonard Easter '73

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:32:53 GMT

Setting up a 501(c)(3) involves asking a lot of legal questions in order to arrive at the best answers for your organization. Register now for the upcoming ClassACT HR73 Webinar on Wednesday, January 17th at 7pm EST to learn the legal do’s and don’ts from attorney Leonard Easter ’73, who specializes in navigating the nonprofit world. There will be plenty of time for you to ask your specific questions so you will be able to better understand and manage the best course of action for your organization.

Leonard D. Easter (Harvard AB cum laude) (Columbia Law JD), a NY attorney specializing in not-for-profit and exemption law with a specific focus on 501(c)(3) formation and operations, for local, state, federal and international arts and cultural institutions and organizations, will lead you through how to form a 501(c)(3) organization.

Leonard serves on the boards of various institutions and has produced opera, fundraising performances and other artistic presentations. When he has time to breathe, he is consumed with playing the piano.

Georgia's On Our Mind

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:19:51 GMT

By Ryan O’Connell

Edited by Marilyn Go, Jim Harbison, and Jacki Swearingen

With its robust economy, Georgia has grown rapidly, attracting a large influx of new residents from other states. These waves of in-migration have profoundly changed the state’s political make-up over the last two decades because most of the newcomers are African American. Many of them hold college degrees and are affluent; the largest group has moved from New York State. Georgia’s Latino and Asian-American communities, while smaller, have also grown significantly.

All three groups lean heavily Democratic, and their growth has turned Georgia from deep red into a battleground state. The number of eligible voters in Georgia has jumped 30% over the last 20 years, and Black Americans represent half of that increase. Meanwhile, whites constitute only about a quarter of new voters.

Latinos and Asian Americans represent a relatively small slice of the Georgia electorate. However, their numbers have increased significantly; they account for 14% and 8%, respectively, of the growth in the voters since 2010. Hispanic voters increased by 235% and Asians by 245%, compared to 59% for Blacks and 12% for whites. (Black Latino and Asian Americans have been key to Georgia's registered voter growth since 2016).

Source: Pew Research

These shifts have radically altered the state’s demographic and political mix. In 2000, white voters overwhelmingly dominated the electorate, representing almost 70% of potential voters. However, over the next 20 years, white voters’ share dropped by 11 points to 58%. Black Americans’ share rose five points, to 33% of all eligible voters. Hispanics and Asian Americans’ shares increased more modestly, to 5% and 3% of eligible voters, respectively.

In total, the three minority groups rose to over 40% from about 30% of eligible voters over those ten years. While white voters grew modestly, to 4.4 million from 4 million, minority voters shot up to 3 million from 1.7 million. This trend has created the potential for a significant shift in the balance of power between whites and minorities in Georgia.

Source: Pew Research

Voters in the metropolitan Atlanta region, which is mostly Democratic, now represent 54% of the state’s voters. Other metropolitan areas such as Savannah, Macon, and Augusta also lean Democratic.

In 2018, Stacey Abrams, a Black woman, came very close to winning the race for governor. Then, in 2020, a political earthquake shook Georgia, as a Democratic Presidential candidate won the state for the first time since Bill Clinton carried it in 1992. Georgians also elected two Democrats as Senators, one of whom, Raphael Warnock, is African American.

A History of Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression

On the surface, Georgia, a state with a long history of voter suppression, seemed to embrace multiracial democracy at last. But the reality is far different; old habits die hard.

Georgia is a highly gerrymandered state, and state officials continue to use numerous techniques to diminish the power of minority voters. The state is probably balanced between Democratic and Republican voters at this point. Nonetheless, Republicans hold about 60% of state Senate seats and state House seats. Georgia’s Congressional delegation is also lopsided, with nine Republican-controlled districts and only five Democratic-controlled ones.

Federal Judge Ordered Georgia to Redraw Maps

In October 2023, a federal district judge in Atlanta ruled that Georgia’s electoral maps violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by diluting the power of Black voters. Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia ordered the state legislature to redraw the maps for state and Congressional districts. The legislature did so at a special session beginning November 29, and Governor Brian Kemp signed new electoral maps into law on December 8.

The new maps created an additional majority Black congressional district, as the judge ordered. However, Democrats and Black voters who had brought this case (as well as two other lawsuits challenging State Senate and House maps) objected to the new maps. They criticized the congressional maps for shifting Lucy McBath, a Democratic congresswoman, into a mostly Republican district. Nonetheless, Judge Jones ruled that the redrawn maps complied with the Voting Rights Act and his previous order that an additional majority Black district be created (Georgia Republicans Add Majority-Black Congressional District at Expense of McBath).

Judge Jones observed that “redistricting decisions by a legislative body with an eye toward securing partisan advantage do not alone ’violate’ the Voting Rights Act.” On this issue, Judge Jones cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) that disputes involving possible partisan gerrymandering (as opposed to racially based gerrymandering) are not within the purview of Federal courts.

Under the revised maps, Republicans are likely to maintain their 9-5 majority in Georgia’s congressional delegation.

African Americans are severely under-represented in government on the county level. The deck is stacked against them because of electoral practices and the legislature’s “unprecedented efforts to intervene in local redistricting,” according to the Brennan Center for Law and Justice at New York University (Local Lockout in Georgia).

Large Voter Purges

While Brian Kemp was Secretary of State and preparing to run for Governor, he purged 1.4 million citizens from Georgia’s voter rolls over the course of eight years. In 2017 alone, Kemp knocked 750,000 people off the rolls, knowing that Stacey Abrams would run against him for Governor in 2018.

Some of the purges may have been routine, but many of those eliminated were Black voters. The purges may have been an important factor in the gubernatorial race, which Abrams lost by only 55,000 votes.

New Voting Law Targets Minorities, City Dwellers

The 2020 election triggered a strong counter-reaction in Georgia. In March 2021, the Republican-dominated state legislature rushed through a bill in record time that was designed to suppress the votes of minorities and urban Democrats. The Republicans called the bill, SB 202, an “election integrity law”, even though state audits determined there was virtually no fraud in the 2020 election.

The new law made registering to vote and voting more difficult for minorities and city-dwellers by:

Imposing tougher voter ID requirements
Restricting the availability of mail-in ballots and shortening the deadlines for submitting them
Reducing the number of drop-off boxes for mail-in ballots in Atlanta and other cities
Cutting back the hours for using drop-off boxes
Prohibiting the use of mobile voting buses
Allowing private citizens to file an unlimited number of challenges to voters’ registrations
Banning anyone except poll workers from handing out water and food to voters standing in line

Why the last prohibition? Voters in Atlanta, especially in mostly Black neighborhoods, often must wait for hours in the blazing Georgia heat to cast their votes. The legislature clearly intended to discourage these minority citizens from casting their votes.

Before the 2020 election, Georgia’s Secretary of State supervised most aspects of elections, including tabulating votes and resolving disputes about voting. Secretary Brad Raffensberger, a Republican, discharged his duties honorably and refused Donald Trump’s request that he “find 11,720 votes” to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

However, In SB 202, the legislature drastically cut back the Secretary’s authority over elections and created opportunities for other elected officials to intervene in election disputes. The Secretary of State is no longer the head of the State Election Commission. Instead, Georgia legislators appoint the chair of the commission. These changes could allow interference by partisan actors in contested elections.

Frivolous Challenges to Voters’ Registrations

Activists have abused their new power to challenge voter registrations under SB 202. A handful of conservative activists--six--filed a total of 100,000 challenges in 2022, according to ProPublica (Close to 100,000 Voter Registrations Were Challenged in Georgia). Many of the challenges were frivolous and poorly researched.

These challenges have been used to harass and intimidate voters. And election officials have complained that they must spend a great deal of time reviewing the challenges, which often contain factual errors or focus on minor deficiencies.

What Can You Do?

Even if you don’t live in Georgia, you can help make Georgia’s elections fairer, despite the obstacles created by the legislatures. Helping Georgians to register to vote and monitoring polls are two particularly important ways to help.

The Georgia primaries for Presidential candidates will be held on March 12. The primaries for state and Congressional races will take place on May 21. Early voting for those races will begin on April 29 and last until May 17.

You can volunteer to monitor polls, monitor social media, and contact voters who need information and support. You can fill the last two roles on a remote basis. Get in touch with Common Cause Georgia (https://www.commoncause.org/georgia; 404-524-4598).

If you are a lawyer or a paralegal, you can volunteer for Election Protection (https://866ourvote.org/volunteer), which provides advice to citizens who want to register to vote or who may encounter problems when they try to vote. If you have a relative in law school, ask him or her to volunteer. You can work from your office or home. EP provides training and materials on each state’s election laws and procedures.

If you are not a lawyer, you can also volunteer to serve as a poll monitor with EP.

Election Protection operates under the auspices of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization, and it has about 100 partners, including Common Cause.

The Brennan Center has outlined several steps that Georgia and other swing states should take to ensure that their 2024 elections are conducted fairly and smoothly (Are Swing States Ready for 2024?).

Check out our 2023 December Newsletter!

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:43:51 GMT

Highlights Include:

- ClassACT HR73 welcomes three new bridges

-ClassACT HR73 @50 Video Project: Meet Sylvester Monroe '73

- Pensylvania Supreme Court Keeps Gerrymandering At Bay, by Jim Harbison '73

Read

ClassACt HR73@50: Meet Sylvester Monroe '73

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 22:57:25 GMT

This month’s @50 Video Project features Sylvester Monroe, one of the 139 Black students who arrived at Harvard in September 1969. In this powerful video, produced and edited by classmate Rick Brotman, you hear Vest’s discussion of how he ended up at Harvard and his journey in his successful career as a Black journalist, always with an undercurrent of the “dull pain of cultural isolation.” Vest covered stories about such major figures as Rodney King, OJ Simpson and Barack Obama for Newsweek, Time and Ebony, but there were also important stories that were never brought to light. He provides thoughts on how journalism as “the first draft of history” has omitted the Black perspective.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW VIDEO

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Keeps Gerrymandering at Bay

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 22:50:13 GMT

Written by Jim Harbison; edited by Marilyn Go, Ryan O’Connell and Jacki Swearingen

In our recent articles, we have focused on voting rights issues in the battleground states that may be key to the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election. We have covered developments, some of them adverse, in Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia. This month we turn to Pennsylvania, where the outlook for fair elections is more promising.

Courts have often played an important role in the protection of voting rights and fair elections. As a result, judicial elections have become significant contests in the struggle over voting rights. In the November 2022 elections, when Dan McCaffery won his race to become a Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Justice, the Court swung to a 5-2 Democratic majority. Had the Republican candidate won, the Democratic majority would have remained 4-3. Given the stakes, out-of-state political groups funneled large amounts of money into the race.

Election-reform advocates hailed McCaffery’s election as an important defense against potential gerrymandering and limitations of voters’ rights in the state. To understand why, we need to review some of the history of gerrymandering in Pennsylvania, a state that is split nearly 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has blocked repeated efforts to create highly gerrymandered electoral districts.

In the 2010 elections, a small group within the Republican Party launched Project REDMAP (short for Redistricting Majority Project), a targeted effort to fund key state election races across the country and gain control of state legislatures. Their data-driven, computerized approach succeeded, and it shifted the balance of power in numerous state governments, including Pennsylvania.

The Republicans won the Pennsylvania state House (previously Democratic-controlled) and the governorship, while retaining their majority in the state Senate. With this “trifecta” control, the Legislature drew redistricting maps in 2011 following the 2010 census that were extremely favorable to Republicans. One of the districts drawn was called one of the most gerrymandered districts in the country and was characterized as Goofy kicking Donald Duck. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drawing-the-lines-on-gerrymandering/. The Republican governor, unsurprisingly, did not veto the maps.

The maps were used until a lawsuit was filed claiming the maps were gerrymandered. The case reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in late 2017. On January 22, 2018, the Court held that the maps drawn “clearly, plainly and palpably violate the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” as partisan gerrymandering. The Court ordered that new maps be submitted to it by February 15, 2018. In a 138-page order issued on February 7, 2018, the Supreme Court provided detailed criteria for the Legislature to use in redrawing maps.

Despite the Court’s directions, the Legislature failed to draw fairer maps in a timely fashion. The Court then selected an outside expert to create more balanced maps, which were implemented. In the 2018 general election, the number of Republicans and Democrats in the state’s Congressional delegation, which had been a lopsided 13-5 in the last three general elections, swung to an even 9-9. The new, balanced delegation was much more in line with the even split among Pennsylvanian voters.

Dissatisfied with the State Supreme Court rulings, Republican lawmakers then attempted to change the system for electing justices. Previously, candidates ran on a statewide basis. However, the legislators sought to have judges elected from specific voting districts, even though justices on the Supreme Court have the duty to interpret the law for the entire state and do not represent a particular district’s constituents. Observers noted that some of the proposed districts were heavily Republican and suggested the intent was to change the Court’s composition.

Such a change is only possible by amending the PA State Constitution, which would require making it a state ballot initiative. To do so requires passage of such a measure by a 66.67% legislative majority or passage in two successive legislative sessions by a 50% majority. The bill was passed by the PA House and Senate by 50.5% and 52.0%, respectively, in the 2019-20 session, but failed to garner enough of a majority to allow it to come up for a vote in the 2021-22 session, in which the Democrats controlled the House, and the measure died.

In August 2023, the State Supreme Court issued a significant decision upholding Pennsylvania's expansion of mail-in voting in 2019, affirming another measure in favor of voting rights.

After the 2020 census results, in a required redistricting made more substantial because the number of Pennsylvania’s Congressional seats had declined from 18 to 17, the Legislature again revised the electoral maps. The Republican-controlled House and Senate created a highly gerrymandered set of districts. However, this time the governor, a Democrat, vetoed the legislation to implement the maps. This impasse brought the dispute over redistricting before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court again.

The Court ruled that the districts were overly partisan and appointed an expert to create fairer ones. In the 2022 election, with these new district lines in place, the Congressional allocation for Pennsylvania remained balanced, with eight Republicans and nine Democrats. Furthermore, the State legislature shifted to a Democratic majority, but by just one representative. Meanwhile, the Senate remained in Republican hands.

Although election reforms to expand voter access and protect the integrity of local election officials may be too slow in coming for some, this past September the progressive Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, simplified automatic voter registration for Pennsylvanians when they obtain or renew a driver's license.

So, all in all, in Pennsylvania the prospects look encouraging for taking a balanced approach to protecting the right to vote and not instituting some of the new restrictions adopted in other battleground states like Wisconsin and Georgia. In the short term, courts have ensured that the districting process in Pennsylvania is fair.

Nonetheless, in the long run, having a truly independent commission draw the district lines, following the California approach, would be far superior, as we discuss in our Gerrymandering Primer. Common Cause gives Pennsylvania’s redistricting process a C+ rating because of this structural flaw in the system.

What is essential for classmates who reside in Pennsylvania is to remain vigilant and follow developments in the run-up to the 2024 election. There are still many politicians who, if left unchecked, would seek to enact legislation limiting voting access.

As you may remember, Pennsylvania was one of the states where there were sustained attempts to invalidate the 2020 Presidential election results through political maneuvers and frivolous lawsuits. The Brennan Center for Law and Justice at New York University provides a list and in-depth analysis of current challenges to election rights in the state.

Watch for developments in two key areas:

Decisions on whether ballot curing is allowed, which is still being contested in the courts. One particular case to follow is the ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter in November 2023, which held that mailed-in ballots that arrive on time, but in envelopes without dates handwritten by Pennsylvania voters, should be counted. The decision is likely to be appealed, probably all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Legislative attempts to speed up the counting of absentee ballots, such as by allowing outer envelopes that can be opened ahead of election day. One such legislative proposal failed to pass in April.

As you may recall, Pennsylvania’s slow ballot counting created a great deal of confusion in the 2020 election, which election deniers seized upon as support for their unfounded claims of fraud.

Pennsylvania is truly an example of our democracy at risk, and we must make sure that the right to vote, particularly the use of mail-in ballots, is protected.

@50 Video Project: Meet Jim Harbison '73 and Ryan O'Connell '73

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:41:59 GMT

Two of the more active members of ClassACT HR73’s Justice and Civic Engagement committee are Jim Harbison and Ryan O’Connell. This month they are featured classmates in our @50 Video Project created by classmates Rick Brotman. In a few short minutes, you can learn how Jim and Ryan became strong voices for preserving democracy in our country now and in the future.

Jim tells of his Quaker high school’s emphasis on service to others and his ongoing curiosity at Harvard that fostered a lifelong belief in democracy as an essential component and unifying thread that connects his work on voting rights, helping the unhoused and valuing biodiversity and our natural environment.

Ryan describes how his lively family debates, Latin American experiences after college, Catholic upbringing and Wall Street-focused career influenced his current thinking about our democracy and maintaining and enhancing its rights and opportunities. You’ll enjoy getting to know Jim and Ryan by clicking on the images provided.

For the full list of classmates' videos:

click here.

Check out our November newsletter!

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:54:28 GMT

Check out the communication team's latest newsletter!

Highlights Include:

- Donate to the 4th annual Coat Drive for Ole & Nu Fellas Social Aid and Pleasure Club

-ClassACT HR73 @50 Video Project: Meet Jim Harbison '73 and Ryan O'Connell '73

- ClassACT Webinars on December 12th: A Ten Point Plan For Building A Board of Directors on the Nonprofit World With Ron Dieckmann '73

READ HERE!

A Ten-Point Plan for Building a Board of Directors In the Nonprofit World with Ron Dieckmann'73

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 19:56:40 GMT

Creating a nonprofit organization is a powerful way to advance your charitable cause. An engaged Board of Directors that shares passion, values, and resiliency is critical for ongoing operations and sustainability. Dr. Ron Dieckmann, Harvard ClassAct73 Board Member, is the Founder and Executive Director of KidsCareEverywhere—a California 501(c)3 nonprofit that has trained over 10,000 physicians in 25 developing countries. Ron will take you into his poignant and unpredictable world of technology, disasters, and global health to illustrate his own challenges and mistakes in building and re-building his Board over 17 years.

ClassACT HR73 offers pro bono assistance to nonprofits either founded or run by classmates as well as supporting classmates who are involved in organizations that want to change the world. In order to help these organizations to further their objectives, we plan to offer assistance via a series of webinars that will be recorded and archived on the ClassACT HR73 website for their use and access at any time.

Virginia 2023 Elections Will Be a “Bellwether”

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:18:10 GMT

By Jacki Swearingen ‘73, Edited by Ryan O’Connell ‘73, Jim Harbison ‘73, and Marilyn Go ‘73

As anxieties grow for the 2024 Presidential elections, Virginia voters are preparing for a state legislature election next month observers have deemed a “bellwether.” The outcome not only will determine who controls Virginia’s House of Delegates and Senate, but also the fate of the state’s policies on abortion, gun control and climate change. In addition, winning Republican majorities in both chambers could jump-start the presidential campaign of Governor Glen Youngkin as a possible GOP alternative to Donald Trump.

This November all 140 seats in Virginia’s legislature will be up for grabs. The Republicans have a four-seat majority in the House of Delegates as well as the governorship. Democrats, who won the Senate in 2019, hold a two-seat majority that has allowed them to stop Republican efforts to weaken abortion rights and impose restrictions on some voters. This past August the Democrats’ majority in the Senate also enabled them to halt Youngkin’s proposal that would reduce taxes on corporations and high income individuals.

If the Democrats lose the Virginia Senate this fall, Republicans will have a “trifecta” that will allow them to limit or even ban abortion rights and to overturn the gun control measures like background checks that Democrats established in 2020. In contrast, winning both the upper chamber and the House of Delegates would give Democrats new leverage in budget negotiations with the state’s Republican governor.

If Republicans retake the Senate and hold onto the House of Delegates, Youngkin and GOP legislators would have the ability to enact previously unsuccessful legislation to oppose Medicaid expansion, to allow religious organizations to deny services to LGBTQ citizens, and to eliminate strict emissions controls. Republicans need to win only one additional seat to tie the Senate, an outcome that would permit the Republican lieutenant governor to cast a tie breaker vote.

The struggle for the Virginia legislature is likely to come down to a handful of toss up districts, most of them in the suburbs surrounding Washington D.C. as well as in Richmond and Hampton Roads. Five races in the Senate and nine in the House of Delegates could affect the fate of key issues like abortion on a national as well as state level.

Ten senators and 17 delegates have retired, due largely to a radical reshaping of the electoral districts that was launched by a bipartisan election commission in 2021 to counter partisan gerrymandering. When the maps put forth by that panel failed to win the legislature’s approval, a requirement, the redistricting map was sent to the state Supreme Court for review. The judges appointed an independent special master, who drew up new districts that pitted several incumbents against each other.

Just as in recent contests in Wisconsin and Kansas, Democrats are focusing on what the loss of both Virginia chambers would mean for abortion rights. Virginia currently permits abortion through about 26 weeks, the longest period in any southern state since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Gov. Youngkin has said that legislating a prohibition on abortion at 15 weeks, with exceptions only for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, is a priority for him. Democrats fear that if they lose the Senate, he and Republican legislators will impose a more severe ban that resembles those of Texas and Florida. In fact, Youngkin was caught on tape during his 2021 campaign telling a supporter that he favored a stricter ban but needed to moderate his comments to win independent voters.

Democrats also point to Youngkin’s actions to curb voting rights as an indication that the Republicans would impose even more restrictions if they won both chambers of the legislature. In April the governor reversed Virginia’s policy of automatically restoring voting rights to former felons after they completed their sentences. Former felons can now only have that right restored by the governor’s authorization. And in May, Youngkin’s chief election officer removed Virginia from a multi-state data system designed to keep voter rolls up to date, making it harder for election officials to reach out to eligible voters and encourage them to register.

Educational issues loom large in next month’s election as well. In July Youngkin put in place a K-12 transgender policy that requires, among other measures, that students be addressed with the pronoun for the sex assigned to them at birth. Republican legislators have tried previously to ban transgender athletes and to prohibit the teaching of “inherently divisive subjects.” They have also pushed to allow families to use public funds to pay for private education.

Fueled by rising prejudice nationwide against LGBTQ people and parental dissatisfaction over pandemic mandates like school closings, school board meetings in northern Virginia counties like Loudon and Fairfax have grown contentious in recent years. Parents on the right also railed against history curricula that included slavery and the civil rights movement being taught in public schools, erroneously labeling books or lessons with those subjects “critical race theory.” With school board seats across the state on the ballot this November, these fights are likely to shape legislative contests as well.

County contests for sheriffs, commonwealth’s attorneys, and superintendents touch on local issues like development, crime, and the rise of massive data centers that increase the use of fossil fuels and often leave local residents burdened with the financial and environmental costs. With Virginia’s five percent increase in crime during 2022, Republican candidates are calling to repeal Democratic changes in policing, like controls on racial profiling.

Recognizing the connection between these local contests and larger ones, both parties have worked to recruit candidates who can emerge as state and national leaders. Right-wing factions of the GOP have focused particularly on filling slots on school boards, a tactic that brings ideological struggles down to the grassroots level. Democratic activists have complained they lag behind in this latest fight because they were slow to catch on, just as they were in 2010 when Republicans began to concentrate on taking control of state legislatures.

With growing concerns that this upcoming election could determine the direction of Virginia’s policies and politics for years to come, both sides have stepped up fundraising efforts to make this potentially the most expensive midterm contest in the state’s history. Democratic candidates for both the House of Delegates and the Senate lead their Republican candidates in donations by a combined $15 million to $10.6 million for the period between July 1 and August 31. Republican hopes have been shored up by large sums coming from Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC, which took in $3.8 million during that period, with $1 million coming from Florida billionaire Thomas Peterffy.

The massive and small contributions to both parties will fund the canvassing and ad buys designed to drive the voter turnout key to victory in this election. Early voting began on September 22 and will run through 5:00 PM on November 4. Like his Democratic rivals, Youngkin is urging GOP voters to cast their ballots in advance at an early voting location.

Registered voters in Virginia can also request a mail-in ballot before 5:00 pm on October 27. They can check their registration, locate their polling place and request an absentee ballot.

All voters need a valid driver’s license or other ID in order to vote in this critical election.

It is not too late to help register voters and facilitate voting for all citizens, regardless of political affiliation. Residents of Virginia as well as other states and the District of Columbia can volunteer for or contribute to one of the following non-partisan organizations:

The League of Women Voters protects and expands voting rights through advocacy and education.

Virginia Legislative Elections Guide provides a nonpartisan guide to key votes.

Virginia Civic Engagement Table supports non-profit organizations that assist at polling sites and provide voter protection hotlines.

WorkElections recruits poll workers.

VoteRiders offers Voter ID assistance.

BigTentUSA gets out the vote through phone banking, post card writing, registration drives.

BlackVotersMatter increases the voter engagement of Black citizens. Black Voters Matter is this year’s Justice Aid 2023 Grantee Partner.

Rideshare2Vote increases voter turnout through providing transportation.

See also other organizations listed in the Voting Activism Opportunities posted on the ClassAct HR '73 website.

Voting Rights: Suggested Summer Reading, by Marilyn Go '73

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:31:58 GMT

Update from BBLP Fellow Laila Khondkar

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 12:50:11 GMT

“Instead of selective humanitarianism, Europe should protect the rights of all asylum seekers and refugees.”

by Laila Khondkar

My home country, Bangladesh, is presently hosting around one million Rohingya people who had to flee Myanmar after the genocide in 2017. Around ten million Bangladeshis lived as refugees in India during our liberation war in 1971. One of the biggest sources of income for Bangladesh is the remittance sent by labor migrants in different parts of the world. I have lived in several countries for work and studies, and have experience of working with the Rohingya population in Bangladesh and refugees from Ivory Coast in Liberia. So, the concerns related to refugees and migration is not only a matter of theories to me or something that happens to other people in the news; this is also very close to my heart.

Intensive Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies (7-30 July, 2023) was offered by The François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, in collaboration with the Refugee and Migration Studies Hub at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Attending the course has been a rewarding experience.

The objective of the course was to offer participants both conceptual and practical engagement with key issues related to contemporary forced migration. The course was organized around a multidisciplinary, rights-based curriculum that covered legal, medical, environmental and broader social-science approaches to migration policy and practice. The course included lectures, seminars, interactive class sessions and fieldwork (e.g., visits to camps, simulation on rescuing asylum seekers). It was held in four sites–Athens, Ancient Olympia, Nafplio and Lesvos. Twenty-seven students participated (half of them were from Harvard and half from other Universities across the world). Expert lecturers included distinguished scholars and practitioners from different disciplines and backgrounds: human rights lawyers; medical doctors; social workers; psychologists; educators; child-protection officers; first responders, and national and local governmental actors. Visits to Ancient Agora, the Acropolis, Ancient Olympia and a performance of Medea at Epidaurus theater (2500 years old) were part of the course. We covered a lot of issues during three weeks. I want to highlight a few points that struck me as important.

Having a discussion with two fishermen in Skamnia village was very inspiring, as they rescued people in 2015 when several million asylum seekers reached Greece by boat. Many ordinary people like them tried their best to support those who arrived. According to one fisherman, “We did not think of the race or religion of the person seeking asylum, we just wanted to do our best.” Even when public support to asylum seekers has decreased significantly, I appreciated the initial assistance the local communities have provided. We also met representatives of around ten NGOs that are offering legal, shelter, and other services to refugees and asylum seekers. They seemed very committed and trying to work hard despite funding constraints.

Presently there are an estimated 160,761 refugees and 22,139 asylum seekers in Greece. Asylum seekers have to live in camps on islands. There are few camps on the mainland; those are also quite far from the cities. We visited two camps, one close to Athens and another in Lesvos. The camps are not as crowded as they used to be at the peak of the crisis a few years ago, and the people living there receive food, shelter and some protection services. The visits were guided by the staff of the camps, and we did not have any opportunity to talk to the asylum seekers or organizations working with them. It was not possible for us to verify what we have heard and so I do not know about the quality of the services, or how the asylum seekers are being treated by the staff. The mobility of the asylum seekers is very strictly monitored and there is a strong presence of security guards. In Lesvos, we learnt that the asylum seekers will be moved to another camp which is being built inside a forest. Most of the people we have spoken with consider that camp as a prison.

Those who register as asylum seekers and receive refugee status face a bleak situation. They lose all support and have to earn a living. Most refugees living in urban settings are unable to find work to support their families, as Greece continues to struggle economically in the aftermath of the 2015 financial crisis. The Greek government has been cutting back housing and financial support for refugees since 2019, which means thousands of people are facing destitution and homelessness. I have seen entire families begging on the streets of Athens.

High unemployment rates have taken a toll on the local population as well. A robust integration program is needed to ensure that local residents as well as asylum seekers benefit from assistance. Even when the presentations made by the government representatives emphasized integration of refugees, my observations as well as discussions with people from refugee backgrounds made me think that what is happening is cultural assimilation. Refugees, especially those from Muslim backgrounds, are not able to assert their identity in terms of food, drinks, clothes etc. due to the fear that they will not be accepted by mainstream society.

This is not a humanitarian crisis, but a political one. The European Union adopted border restrictions that have prevented people seeking sanctuary from entering Europe. The EU’s policies mean that Greece, along with Italy, are being asked to shoulder much of the responsibility for the lives of those who have reached Europe. The European Union is giving money to these countries, but they need to do more by accepting refugees.

The refugees from Ukraine were given temporary protection immediately by various European countries. This demonstrates that it is possible to address an issue if there is a political will to do so. Why were Ukrainian refugees treated differently than people from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq? All were fleeing from dangerous situations. The media reporting of the Ukrainian crisis clearly showed biases towards “white Europeans.” Roma people from Ukraine faced discrimination in various countries while seeking asylum. Every human life is equally valuable. Europe should be more consistent in protecting human rights.

During various discussions, it was apparent that it is due to Islamophobia that asylum seekers from Middle Eastern countries face discrimination in Greece. Greeks have memories of the Ottoman empire for almost three hundred years, which is deep rooted in their collective psyche. Many still equate Muslims with Ottomans/Turks, and they do not like the Muslims or are “afraid” of them! What bothered me was that this narrative is so normalized as if it is “justified.” One academic said, “Greek people need more time before they can accept Muslims.” This type of attitude is quite alarming, as xenophobia and Islamophobia may increase with time if those are not addressed in a proactive way through policy, legislation, public awareness, etc.

Migration is as old as human history. However, some passport holders travel more freely than others in the present world. It is worth remembering that more than 75% of all refugees and asylum seekers live in neighboring countries in the Global South. Do Western people realize this? Climate crises, conflicts etc. will make many people flee their own countries. There has to be a process to support them. With declining fertility rates, Europe will need more migrant workers. People try to reach Europe illegally, as going there legally is almost impossible for most people. Having regular migration may be beneficial for all concerned.

The rise of right-wing politics in Europe is a matter of grave concern. The process of “othering” that they do regarding refugees and asylum seekers is dangerous. Is Europe trying to send a very strong signal to the asylum seekers (especially those from Muslim backgrounds) that they should not try to reach Europe? Will Europe continue to practice selective humanitarianism?

The writer is grateful to ClassACT HR73 for funding her participation in the Intensive Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies.

**It should be noted that Laila’s opinions do not necessarily reflect those of ClassACT HR73.

The Continuing Saga of Legislative Efforts to Suppress Voting Rights in Ohio

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 18:15:57 GMT

By Marilyn Go '73

Edited by Jim Harbison '73, Ryan O'Connell '73, and Jacki Swearingen '73

Much attention has recently been focused on a Special Election in Ohio on August 8 to amend the Ohio State Constitution. On the ballot is the question of whether to raise the voter threshold for approving amendments to the Constitution, a change sought by the Republican-led legislature. Critics of the proposal say that it is actually designed to curb current efforts by Ohioans to protect abortion rights in their Constitution, as well as to strengthen the power of the Ohio GOP lawmakers, who currently hold super-majorities in both the House and Senate.

We encourage you to participate in the upcoming election in the following ways. If you live in Ohio, we suggest you familiarize yourselves with the issues raised and make every possible effort to vote in this off-cycle election. This will help to ensure that the outcome reflects the will of the majority of Ohio voters, not a small minority with targeted interests. If you are already registered to vote in Ohio, you may vote by mail, but must request an absentee ballot by August 1 from the Ohio Secretary of State. See instructions here.

We also encourage you to support or volunteer at organizations that will assist voters in Ohio, including the following:

You can also provide support virtually: :

VoteRiders August 3, 7:00 - 8:00pm - Virtual text bank to provide information about new Ohio voter ID laws

Although Ohio is currently viewed as a "red" state, the political landscape in Ohio is complex. In recent Presidential elections, Barack Obama won Ohio in close contests in 2008 and 2012. Donald Trump then won the vote of Ohioans by around 8% points in 2016 and 2020, a far higher margin than in any prior presidential election in Ohio. Notably, since 1896, Ohio has voted for the winning presidential candidate, except in 1944 (Franklin D. Roosevelt), 1960 (John F. Kennedy), and, most recently, Joe Biden in 2020.[1] The state has often been viewed as a key barometer of public opinion on presidential candidates.

Data from the Ohio Secretary of State for 2021 indicates that of the almost 8 million registered voters in Ohio, about 6.2 million voters were listed as unaffiliated. Registered Democrats who generally reside in the urban, northeastern areas of the state outnumber registered Republicans, who primarily reside in the rural areas of Ohio, by about 100,000. The U.S. Senators elected from this state come from both parties: Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican. So do the U.S. House Representatives: 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Sen. Brown, who is up for re-election next year, is likely to face a serious challenge in a race that may possibly affect political control of the U.S. Senate.

At the state level, the Republicans control both the House of Representatives and Senate with super-majorities. According to several political commentators, they have achieved this dominant position through extreme gerrymandering, despite a prohibition against extreme partisanship in redistricting contained in an amendment to the Ohio Constitution. Voters overwhelmingly passed the amendment in 2018.

Notwithstanding this constitutional directive, both state and congressional maps that Republican mapmakers drew have been challenged and found to be in violation of the State Constitution a number of times. In 2022, Republican lawmakers chose twice to ignore orders by the Ohio Supreme Court to revise the overly partisan maps. By letting the clock run out, the legislators used a congressional map previously found inadequate.

Voters have again brought challenges to districts drawn by the Ohio legislature for the current election cycle. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld those challenges and the legislators appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider the case in light of Harper v. Moore, a case in which the Court invalidated partisan maps drawn by North Carolina legislators. Rejecting the view forwarded by Ohio Republican legislators that they can ignore an Ohio Supreme Court order to redraw the state’s congressional district map for the 2024 election, the U.S. Supreme Court emphasized that state lawmakers cannot make congressional redistricting decisions unchecked by state law and courts. Republican leaders have said that maps will be redrawn this summer.

The state legislature has engaged in other efforts to limit the rights of voters. In January 2023, Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, signed a sweeping package of election law changes that, among other things, imposes the state's first (and very stringent) photo ID requirements, shortens the time to request and return an absentee ballot, and narrows the windows after Election Day for returning and curing ballots.

On the ballot for the special election is a proposal to increase the requirements for amending the state Constitution. Ohio is one of 24 states that gives its citizens the power of initiative, which, in Ohio, includes the right to initiate new laws or to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. In 1912, voters approved an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to give citizens initiative and referendum powers, a measure championed by the late President Theodore Roosevelt as a way to force an unresponsive government to address the public’s concerns.

In a vote divided along partisan lines, the Republican-led legislature has scheduled a special election in August to vote on raising the current simple majority threshold (50% of the votes +1) for passing constitutional amendments to 60%. (However, the Legislature did not suggest changing voting requirements for passage of its bills or for voter referendum - i.e., the right of voters to reject legislation passed). The ballot will also include a vote on a proposal to double the number of counties from which signatures are required in order to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot, from 44 counties (50%) to all 88 counties (100%). In addition, the proposed change would eliminate an existing 10-day cure period to fix any errors in signatures collected. If the proposed constitutional amendment is approved, Ohio would become the only state to require citizen campaigns to collect signatures from all of its 88 counties.

Critics of the proposed amendment include bipartisan groups of former governors and attorneys general and more than 240 other groups. They note that the increased requirements may make voter-initiated amendments practically impossible and would greatly enhance the gerrymandered legislature’s power over the Ohio Constitution to the detriment of Ohio voters. The amendment would effectively give 40% of the population a veto power over any contemplated change to its Constitution.

A reason the Legislature seeks to increase requirements for constitutional amendments is, among other things, to thwart contemplated efforts to amend the Ohio Constitution to protect abortion rights. In 2019, the Ohio Legislature passed a law banning abortions after any embryonic cardiac activity is detected. This short time period was highlighted in news reports when a ten-year old girl, who was pregnant after being raped, had to travel to Indiana to get an abortion after the Ohio law went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

A lower state court subsequently stayed implementation of the Ohio law. Nonetheless, abortion rights activists in Ohio have collected over 700,000 signatures to place on the November election ballot a constitutional amendment to protecting a woman's right to an abortion.[2] Polls show that a large majority of Ohio voters support the right to an abortion, particularly for victims of rape and incest.

Despite having acknowledged that the turnout for elections held in the summer is usually low, the Legislature has scheduled the special election for August 8, 2023. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on June 16, 2023, in a 4-3 decision along party lines, that the proposed constitutional amendment may be placed on the August 8 ballot even though the legislature had, earlier in January, outlawed scheduling summer elections.

[1] However, the number of Ohio's presidential electoral votes has declined from a high of 26 in 1964 and 1968 to 16 votes following the 2020 census.

[2] In Ohio, before citizen-initiated measures for constitutional amendments may be placed on the ballot, proponents must meet a signature requirement of 10 percent of the vote for governor, or 413,487 for 2023. See here. The language of the proposed amendment is available here.

Watch the Recording! Zoom Forum Honoring Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 22:04:09 GMT

Did you miss the Harvard Allyship Series event honoring the legacy of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on June 21? We have you covered! Watch the video recording here, and learn more about the event below.

Allyship Series: Honoring the Leadership Legacy of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto AB ‘73

On June 21, 2023, Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan would be turning 70. Her life was cut short by an assassin on December 27, 2007. Benazir believed in democracy, equality for women, reconciliation of religious and cultural differences and education, without gender or religious bias and she was a beloved and admired member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1973.

To honor her and promote her legacy, her classmates, through their organization, ClassACT HR73 founded the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program which provides fellowships to support scholars enrolled in the Edward S. Mason Program (MC/MPA) of the Kennedy School of Government Program.

In this Allyship Series Forum we will honor Benazir Bhutto by exploring her legacy. Peter Gabraith AB ’73, former US Ambassador to Croatia and Benazir’s life-long friend and advisor will speak about Benazir’s life, commitment to her people, and courage. Marion Dry AB ‘73 chair of ClassACT HR’73 will share the story of the creation of the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program and its impact to date, and, Leigh Hafrey AB ’73, a ClassACT board member, will speak with this year’s Bhutto Fellow, Laila Khondkar of Bangladesh, about her mission, her work and her year as the Bhutto Fellow at HKS.

This Harvard Alumni Allyship Series event is being held in in partnership with Class Act 73 and the Harvard Clubs of Ireland and Pakistan.

50th Reunion Recap

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 17:47:50 GMT

50TH REUNION RECAP

BY DICK FRIEDMAN '73, AND THE CLASSACT HR73 COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Amazingly, our 50th reunion has come and gone. Like a wedding, a battle or a coronation, it was months in the planning and anticipation, and over in the blink of an eye.

Click here for full photo gallery of classmate photos

The numbers were eye-popping. Some 484 classmates attended. Total attendance was 722. That is a lot of old people with time on their hands! Longtime friendships were renewed, new ones were made. People scrutinized and caught up with one another. They ate, drank and danced. People took naps. (As ClassACT media maven Rick Brotman said: “It was exhaustive…and exhausting.”) As good a time was had as could be had at this age.

“Cordiality was in the air,” said ClassACT communications committee member Jacki Swearingen. “We all struck up conversations with people we did not know or with their spouses and partners. We all wanted to make each other feel welcome, appreciated and remembered. We used the time to laugh at the follies of youth as well as to reach out to reconnect decades later.”

Classmates and guests were able to sample from a banquet of provocative activities that would do credit to a Gen Ed curriculum. There was news, weather (or at least climate change) and sports. What did we hear, and what did we see?

On Tuesday evening, early arrivals were treated to a showing of classmate Donna Brown Guillaume’s heartrending film Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. Following the release of the Report on Slavery at Harvard last year, this film and the accompanying panel discussion brought home the unspeakable barbarism of America’s Original Sin.

The panel included Guillaume, Vincent Brown (Harvard’s Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African American Studies) and classmate Catherine Clinton, the Denman Professor of American History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sitting together in Sanders Theatre and watching Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson intone the piercing words of formerly enslaved people reminded us all how we had hoped in our youth to redress past injustices and cruelty. “I was honored to be a part of this film when HBO first approached me, and am extremely grateful to classmates who, in planning the 2023 reunion, raised the idea of screening it,” said Donna.

Wednesday morning brought a reunion mainstay: the report on the Class Survey. Ever-jovial classmates Walt Mercer (co-chair with Stan Mark) and Therese Steiner took us through a PowerPoint presentation. (The survey results are available here.) Many thanks for their hard work go to the chairs and Therese, plus classmates on the Survey committee: Marilyn Go, Rich Kelly, Manuel Monteiro, Walter Morris and Rick Weil.) Most of the 481 respondents were happy with how their lives and careers turned out. Looking back at our time at Harvard: “If we could have had a mulligan, 30% said we would have liked to have studied more.” (Three cheers for we of the 70%!) One thing we all seem to want to do in the time left to us: “travel, travel, travel.”

This session was followed by an all-classmate panel titled “What You Believe About Aging Might Not be True,” moderated by Patty Potter and including experts Greg Hinrichsen and Robert Waldinger. (None of whom seemed to have aged very much.) The biggest myth? “Aging is not what we thought,” says Patty “The awareness of having our time being limited leads us to pay attention to what is important, particularly relationships. This can lead to greater happiness and satisfaction than our previous focus on accomplishment.”

Many think that if there’s one event that should be mandatory at every reunion, it’s the Memorial Service—difficult to sit through and for all that, necessary and restorative. There were stirring readings by classmates including Louise Reid Ritchie, Ellen Denniston and Stephen Madsen, and exquisite musical performances by ClassACT HR73 Chair and Co-Founder Marion Dry, Katharine Flanders Mukherji, Yeou-Cheng Ma, Thérèse Steiner, Ken Sullivan and Jerome Harris, plus the reunion choir coordinated by classmate Christopher Fletcher. Most somber, of course, was the reading of the names of the 153 classmates who are no longer with us.

Then it was on to the steps of Widener for some needed sunlight and levity—the taking of our class photo. The embattled photographer must have been wondering which group was harder to handle: us or a bunch of second-graders? The afternoon’s activities closed with an experiment called “Open Mic: Me in Three.” The idea was for each participant to give a talk—limited, supposedly, to three minutes—on “passions, experiences and perspectives that are close to [his or her] heart.” This was the brainchild of Louise Ritchie. It turned out to be charmingly whimsical, thanks to the bravery and talents of, among others, classmates Winifred Creamer, Elaine Denniston, Ned Notis-McConarty, Sarah Ulerick and Ray Urban.

After dinner, where we were serenaded by the Kuumba Singers (introduced by classmate Linda Jackson Sowell), we enjoyed a showing of “Love Story,” which of course was filmed on campus during our freshman year. Classmate Joe Bertagna, who was an All-Ivy goalie for Harvard and doubled as a netminder in the movie, was the master of ceremonies. The highlight was the appearance of ageless former Crimson star and coach Bill Cleary ’56, wearing the same helmet he used while serving as Ryan O’Neal’s stunt double. Spoiler alert: Love still means never having to say you’re sorry. (Sorry!)

Thursday brought out some big guns. ClassACT HR73 sponsored symposia on two of the most critical issues of our time: democracy and the environment. “Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century” included classmates Roger Ferguson, Al Franken, Bill Kristol, Patti Saris and moderator E.J. Dionne. They were joined by Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard. Professor Allen presented three key proposals for reinvigorating American democracy: expanding the House of Representatives by adding more members, setting term limits of 18 years for Supreme Court Justices, and taxing social media-targeted ad revenue in order to invest those funds in local journalism.

Asked about the gap between public support for gun control and abortion rights and recent court decisions and legislation, former Senator Franken (D-MN) pointed to the ways that the gerrymandering of state legislative and House districts has skewed laws and policies in the years since 2010. Later, he got back into comedian mode. When an audience member asked him if he planned to run for president, Al indicated he would not, because if he won, he would then have to take the job.

The second ClassACT panel was “From the Charles River to Half-Earth: 50 Years to 50 Percent,” a continuation of the Environmental Committee’s efforts to support the ideas of the late Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. Moderator John Kress welcomed the contributions of ten classmates: John Adams, Jesse Ausubel, Kimball Chen, Lindsay Clarkson, Robert Dreher, Henrietta Wigglesworth Lodge, Michael Mayer, Anne MacKinnon, Roger Myerson and Sharon Shurts Tisher. Each offered concrete plans for preserving and restoring natural habitats to benefit the Earth’s creatures, and the group announced two new initiatives that classmates are invited to join. John sees this as just a beginning. “Members of ClassAct HR73 are bursting with ideas on how to improve our environments and solve some of the problems that we as humans have created on this planet,” he said. “We welcome everyone’s input and encouragement.”

At the same time that the environmental session was held, Arthur Feinsod was leading five fellow classmates—Kavery Kaul, Marie House Kohler, Sandra Mathews, Louise Reid Ritchie and James Snyder– in a discussion of “The Role and Responsibility of the Arts in Today’s Culture.” Classmate Brian Butler hands the envelope for best performance to Marie for her “dramatic reading, recreating the young girl finding the smutty book in the family library.”

After lunch and before the afternoon symposiums, several classmates walked across the Common to the Radcliffe Yard where there was an Open House. Buildings of interest included the Schlesinger Library which had on display many artifacts from the Class of 73 and other reunion classes. Yearbooks, photographs and strike posters could be viewed. In addition, if you didn't remember your college phone number, you could look it up in the directory of students!

Thursday afternoon’s session—on ”Sports and Society”—promised some literal fun and games. Instead, Sanders Theatre became an arena for a discussion of how sports have changed since we were in school—and generally not for the better. The moderator was yours truly, a classic ink-stained wretch. Intrepid Joe Bertagna was joined on the panel by former All-Ivy basketball player turned sportscasting superstar James Brown, and Radcliffe and U.S. Olympic team rower Charlotte Crane. All spoke with humor and heart, especially when it came to the hijacking of youth sports. The heavily recruited JB (we are referring to James Brown here) was most affecting when he recalled how when as a high school senior he began to have second thoughts about his commitment to Harvard, his mother (nickname: “The Sarge”) told him that he had made a promise to come to Cambridge and he was going to honor it, by gum! Would that happen today, when student-athletes can negotiate ever-higher compensation? (On a personal note: Moderating this panel was one of the most meaningful assignments of my life.)

After a long day, those with energy could relax at a wine tasting conducted by classmate William Nesto.

Thursday night we let our hair down. (What is left of it, anyway.) Our class dinner began with entertainment from the Reunion Choir and continued with old reliable Sundance, which was its usual smash hit. You never saw so many septuagenarians boogying to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash!” (And how many times have we heard “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,,” anyway?) We hope chiropractors were at the ready.

Friday morning, those with extra energy could avail themselves of a small group tour at the Harvard Art Museums of Edvard Munch prints and paintings from the collection of the parents of classmate Phil Straus. Phil says, “The Harvard Art Museums gave seven small groups fantastic docent tours of 24 Munch works on paper. I hope this taste of beauty, emotion, and experimentation will convince you to join us for a show of the whole collection in 2025.”

Friday also brought the final symposium, this one on “Race, Reckoning and Repair: Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery—What’s Next.” Classmate Sylvester Monroe moderated a panel that included classmates Rebecca Sykes and Seth Waxman as well as Richard Cellini, the inaugural director of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program, and Alden Fossett ’21. The panelists took up questions posed in the Report on Slavery at Harvard to discuss the possible ways that Harvard University and its alumni can redress the crimes of slavery that existed from the institution’s founding in 1636. Facing a Supreme Court ruling in the near future that could upend affirmative action, Seth, who argued Harvard’s case before the nine justices, explained the best-case and worst-case scenarios and what they might mean for Harvard’s admission process. “Panel discussions like these are a small but important step toward racial reconciliation because only by listening to each other and learning from each other can we ever get to know each other,” said Sylvester afterward.

Then it was on to the Yard, where we assembled outside University Hall and joined the Alumni Day procession, a joyful and mercifully short stroll in the heat to our seats of honor in front of Memorial Church. There we heard speeches, including the final public remarks by outgoing president Larry Bacow and an excellent oration by NPR’s Mary Louise Kelley ’93 on the primacy of reporting in journalism.

And then…it was all over but the shoutin’. Farewells were exchanged, as well as many a “See you on Facebook.” Anyone who attended every event will receive the Croix de Réunion, awarded by the French government. Félicitations!!

A rumor swept the gathering that after the 50th there would be no more five-year reunions. Taking Mary Louise Kelley’s words to heart, we checked and found that this was not true. The 55th reunion will take place as scheduled in 2028. Optimistically we say: See you there! But first it’s time for a nap.

Voting Suppression Maneuvers in North Carolina

Tue, 16 May 2023 13:17:39 GMT

By Jim Harbison ‘73

North Carolina is a battleground state, with the political affiliations of voters split roughly equally among Democrats, Republicans, and non-affiliated voters. Democrats held a slight lead in voter affiliation as recently as 2020. Despite this political alignment, Republican lawmakers were able to draw gerrymandered voting maps after the 2010 census, and they obtained a disproportionate number of seats in and control of the state legislature and its Congressional delegation. They did so again after the 2020 census.

Advocacy groups challenged those 2021 redistricting plans as partisan gerrymandering that violated North Carolina’s Constitution. In February 2022, the North Carolina State Supreme Court, then with a 4-3 Democratic majority, rejected the maps and mandated a fairer, court-drawn interim map for the November 2022 elections. However, after Republican judges were elected to the Supreme Court from newly drawn districts to constitute a 5-2 Republican majority following the 2022 partisan judicial elections, the Court agreed to rehear the case.

On April 28, 2023, the new majority reversed the Court’s earlier decision, ruling that courts have no jurisdiction over such redistricting disputes. The new majority remanded the case to give the General Assembly the opportunity to enact new redistricting plans, “guided by federal law and the objective constraints in the state constitution.” The decision opens the door for passage of gerrymandered maps in North Carolina, which would remain in effect until the next census in 2030 (See here).

In another blow to voting rights, on April 28, 2023, the State Supreme Court overruled a lower court decision that had invalidated a law disenfranchising individuals who were on felony probation, parole, or post-release supervision. The lower court had ruled that the law violated the North Carolina Constitution because it discriminated against Black voters and denied people the right to vote. As a result, disenfranchisement of felons who have been released from prison remains in place in North Carolina.

Both the NC House and Senate had Democratic majorities from 1999 to 2010, but that switched in 2011, after the Republicans successfully gerrymandered districts in the state (See here) as part of the Republican Party’s country-wide REDMAP project. The state House and Senate have remained under Republican control ever since. What has helped keep balance in the government from a political point of view is that Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has served as Governor since 2017.

That balance is now threatened because a Democratic state representative, Tricia Cotham, switched to the Republican party in April. Republicans now have a veto-proof supermajority in the state House as well as in the state Senate, which enables the legislature to override any veto by the Governor. A sign of what may come is legislation relaxing gun law requirements, which passed through a veto override in March.

A bill limiting the governor’s appointment powers is likely to become law as well because of the new supermajority. And on May 4, 2023 the legislature passed a bill that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy from its current 20-week period, setting the stage for a test of the Republican Party’s new, but slim, supermajority.

With their supermajorities, Republican legislators have also begun assembling and enacting bills that would limit or suppress voting access. The legislature has already passed funding for a Voter ID law; such measures may, and often do, disproportionately affect Black and younger voters. Although the prior Democratic majority on the Supreme Court rejected that law as discriminatory, the new Supreme Court Republican majority reversed the previous decision.

Among the bills under consideration is a proposal to scale back absentee voting (Senate Bill 88/House Bill 304) with a floor vote likely to be scheduled in the near future. The bill would allow absentee ballots to be counted only if received by 5 p.m. on election day. Under current law, ballots are counted if they are postmarked by election day and received within three days thereafter.

The bill would also require voters to mail or deliver their absentee ballots in person to the county board of elections office and would prohibit the use of one-stop voting sites for ballot drop-offs. These provisions could impose onerous burdens on many voters who are homebound, have physical limitations, inflexible work schedules, pressing familial obligations, and/or lack the ability or means to travel to their county board of elections office. Such concerns led Governor Cooper to veto a similar bill in 2021. The fate of this current bill will most likely be different because of the legislative supermajority’s ability to override such a veto.

For those of you who live in North Carolina, write or otherwise contact your representatives to let your concerns be known. You can also express your views on this and a series of other proposed voter suppression bills under consideration on the website of Democracy North Carolina.

In addition, we can all help voters or prospective voters by volunteering for or donating to organizations that provide guidance on registration as well as other voting information and assistance to residents in North Carolina. Such organizations include VoteRiders, a 501(c)(3) entity helping North Carolina residents deal with voter ID laws and exercise their right to vote, and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina. We need to be vigilant and work together to protect the right to vote in North Carolina.

April 2023 Election Updates

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 20:12:55 GMT

By Marilyn Go, Jim Harbison and Ryan O’Connell

We highlight below the results of two elections that we have mentioned in the past few months as presenting opportunities to volunteer to promote voter engagement.

WISCONSIN: SPECIAL JUDICIAL ELECTION FOR SEAT ON WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT

Judicial elections in the United States rarely garner much interest. However, the special election for Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice held on April 4, 2023 was closely followed by political pundits, politicians and voters nationwide. Although this was ostensibly a non‐partisan election, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be evenly split between liberals and conservatives 3 to 3 after the retirement of conservative Justice Patience Roggensack.

The result: Janet Protasiewicz, described as a liberal County Circuit judge from Milwaukee, defeated her conservative challenger, Daniel Kelly, by almost 11 percentage points (54.5 to 44.5 percent). Kelly, a former prosecutor, had previously been appointed by Governor Scott Walker to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to serve the remainder of a ten-year term of another judge. However, he did not win re‐election in 2020.

Political commentators have opined that this election may be a bellwether for the 2024 presidential election, because Wisconsin is a battleground state and because voters have increasingly viewed judicial elections through a more partisan lens. President Biden won the Wisconsin vote over former President Trump by only a 0.63 percent margin, far less than predicted, while Trump carried the state in 2016 by 0.77 percent over Hillary Clinton.

The importance of this election is perhaps best reflected by the stunning amount of money raised and the voter turnout. The two candidates combined spent about $45 million. That amount was almost triple the previous $15.2 million record spent for a judicial election, in a race for the Illinois Supreme Court. Significantly, more than 1.7 million Wisconsin voters cast their ballots, surpassing the 1.6 million citizens participating in the 2020 Presidential election.

The change in the make-up of the Supreme Court may have an impact on a number of significant issues that are currently or will be brought before it. These issues include abortion rights, voting access, redistricting, and legislation enacted by Gov. Walker effectively eliminating collective bargaining for most public employees.

The right to an abortion was a major point of contention in the election. Protasiewicz and Kelly took conflicting positions on Wisconsin's 1849 law banning abortions, which was automatically reinstated after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That law permits abortions to save a mother’s life, but does not allow exceptions for rape or incest.

The redistricting maps drawn by the Republican legislature have also been challenged. Wisconsin is a “purple state,” with voters evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. However, the state electoral districts drawn have been described as “among the most gerrymandered in the nation, a result of aggressive cartography from the Republican majority elected in 2010,” which, despite “a Democratic sweep of statewide elections,” enabled Republicans to retain a 19-to-14 majority in the State Senate and 63-to-36 majority in the Assembly. ( Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court Sides With Republicans in Case on Wisconsin Redistricting.” New York Times. 23 March 2022.) Republicans also hold six of the eight Wisconsin seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republican State Senator Dan Knodl, who also was elected on April 4, indicated before his election that he was open to impeachment of Protasiewicz. With Knodl’s election as State Senator, Republicans now have a super-majority in the State Senate. (Roche, Darragh. “Janet Protasiewicz May Be Impeached by GOP After Wisconsin Election Win.” Newsweek. 5 April 2023.)

VIRGINIA: SPECIAL ELECTION FOR 4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Democrat Jennifer McClellan won the special election on February 21, 2023 for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District. She will succeed the late U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, who died in November at age 61 after winning reelection. McClellan, a state senator, is the first Black woman to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in Congress and will serve the remainder of Rep. McEachin’s fourth term.

Latinos Still Lean Heavily Democratic

By J. Ryan O’Connell ‘73

Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. Sixty percent of Latinos say the Democrats “represent them well”, compared to 34 percent for Republicans. That split is consistent among age groups, education levels and gender (but not all groups of national origin).

Furthermore, the Republican Party has a serious image problem with Hispanics, with two-thirds saying the Republican Party “does not really care” about them. The numbers cited here are drawn from Most Latinos Say Democrats Care About Them, Pew Research Center, Sep. 29, 2022.

However, the Democratic Party cannot take Latinos’ support for granted. A third of Hispanics think the Democrats do not represent their interests well. And close to 50 percent don’t see much difference between the two parties. Nonetheless, although former President Donald Trump won a larger share of the Hispanic vote in 2020 than in 2016, the talk about a big shift of Hispanics to the Republican Party in the 2022 midterms appears to be hype.

Latinos are attracted to the Democrats because of the party’s more liberal approach toward immigration, of course. But most Hispanics also share Democratic positions on key cultural issues such as abortion and gun control.

Almost 60 percent of Latinos say abortion should be legal in some cases, which is close to overall public opinion in the U.S; 40 percent oppose it. That 60/40 split holds true for Hispanic Catholics, who represent almost half of Latinos. Not surprisingly, 70 percent of Hispanic evangelicals oppose abortion rights. However, evangelicals constitute only 15 percent of Latinos.

Hispanics firmly oppose the expansion of gun rights. This is not a group that on the whole supports permitless carry or eliminating background checks. A striking 73 percent of Latinos want more stringent gun controls, while only 26 percent favor greater gun rights. This is in sharp contrast with the overall public, which is divided roughly 50/50 on this issue.

Cubans are a distinct political group among Latinos. About 60 percent lean Republican, probably because many families suffered under the Communist regime in Cuba (Most Cuban American voters identified as Republican in 2020, Pew Research Center, Oct. 2, 2020). The Cubans are concentrated in Florida, where they are very influential politically. They hold conservative views and abhor anything labeled “socialism.”

Still, Cubans represent only five percent of Hispanics in the United States. Mexican-Americans, the dominant group, are 56 percent of Latinos. In the 2022 midterms, they preferred Democratic candidates over Republican by 58 to 25 percent. Puerto Ricans are the next largest, at 14 percent. Dominicans, Salvadorans, and other national-origin groups represent less than five percent of Hispanics.

About half of Latinos say it is very important to establish a way for most immigrants who currently live in the United States illegally to stay here legally. However, 42% think that increasing border security is also very important. Sixty percent of Cubans give priority to increasing border security rather than finding a pathway to legal status for current illegal immigrants.

Latinos: An Emerging Swing Factor in US Politics, Ryan O'Connell '73, Jim Harbison '73, and Marilyn Go '73

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:59:58 GMT

Did you know that one in five Americans is Latino? And that one in six eligible voters is Hispanic? Latinos/Latinas, now the second-largest ethnic eligible voters is Hispanic? Latinos/Latinas, now the second-largest ethnic group in the U.S., are becoming a major force in national politics and a dominant factor in several key states.

(For ease of reference, we will refer to Latinos rather than Latinos/Latinas and use “Latino” and “Hispanic” interchangeably).

Hispanic Americans constitute 30% of the eligible voters in California and Texas, where they outnumber eligible white voters, based on the 2020 Census (Pew Research Center, Key facts about U.S. Latinos). Hispanics represent 20% or more of eligible voters in six states, including hotly contested states such as Arizona (24%), Florida (20%), and Nevada (20%), as well as New Mexico (43%), a Blue state. One politician who might benefit from Latinos’ growing political clout is Democrat Ruben Gallego, H’ 2004, who is running for the Senate in Arizona against the incumbent, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Source: U.S. 2020 Census Data, as reported by Pew Research Center

The number of Latinos rose almost 20% from 2010 to 2020, and they accounted for half of the population growth in the U.S. during that period. As Hispanics have moved to regions throughout the country, they have become an important factor in several other “battleground states.” Latinos represented 5% or more of eligible voters in “purplish” states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia, based on 2018 data from Pew.

Although that percentage may seem low, bear in mind that elections in those states are often won by tiny margins. The number of Latinos is smaller, but growing, in states such as Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, where the electorate is split roughly 50/50.

Like other Americans, Latinos are not a monolithic voting bloc, of course. Puerto Rican Americans and Mexican Americans generally lean Democratic. Puerto Rican Americans and Mexican Americans generally lean Democratic. Cubans and Venezuelans, many of whom fled oppressive far-left regimes, tend to favor Republican candidates. We will discuss the political views of Latino subgroups in greater detail in another article.

We have referred several times to “eligible voters”. Unfortunately, many Hispanics have not registered to vote, so they don’t participate fully in our democracy. However, numerous organizations, such as Voto Latino and Mi Familia Vota, focus on registering Latino voters and fighting voter suppression, on a national level and in specific states.

For a more comprehensive list of such organizations, please see Voting Activism Opportunities on our website.

Richard Golob '73 and the UNAGB

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 23:01:14 GMT

by Jacki Swearingen '73

From an early age Richard Golob ’73 felt a connection to the United Nations, housed in the magnificent steel and glass building that his mother took him frequently to visit from their home in the Bronx. Later, when his family moved to Scarsdale, she founded the local United Nations club and brought speakers on international affairs to talk to Golob and his friends. Then there was the fact that his father bore an uncanny resemblance to Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second Secretary General.

“So every morning the Secretary General would be telling me to brush my teeth properly,” Golob recalled in a recent interview for the ClassACT HR73 bulletin. “That kind of got me interested in the UN at an early age. As a person I’ve always been interested in promoting diversity and equality and tolerance as well as peace and freedom.” he added.

Those early influences have led Golob to a lifelong commitment to advancing the work of the 77-year-old multinational organization charged with helping to keep the peace, aiding refugees in far-flung conflict zones, and pushing to avert climate disaster. Over several decades Golob has focused his support of the UN on helping to lead the United Nations Association of Greater Boston (UNAGB), a nonprofit dedicated to educating, inspiring and engaging students and adult members of the Boston community around issues critical to the mission of the United Nations. Golob served as its president from 2006 to 2017 and currently is a board member of UNAGB, one of ClassACT HR73’s oldest Bridges.

“At UNAGB we understand that in order to solve those global issues, you need to take action at the local level,” Golob said. The UNAGB brings the global and the local together through programs that aim to educate Boston students as well as through partnerships with local non- profits. UNAGB also “has the potential over time using digital technology to reach out to more and more people outside of the Boston area,” Golob said.

Creating “global citizens” both young and old is at the heart of UNAGB’s mission. “It means a person who is dedicated to promoting a sustainable, just and peaceful world,” Golob explained. A global citizen has “the skills of mutual respect and collaboration and nonviolent, peaceful conflict resolution.” UNAGB promotes those qualities through community events such as the U.N. Perspective Series, the Global Women’s Forum, and the UN Day Luncheon.

U.S. Secretary of Labor and Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Ban Ki-Moon, and Model UN Students in Boston

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and the UN Foundation; Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Ban Ki-moon, the former UN Secretary General have all spoken at past UNAGB gatherings.

Ban Ki-Moon and Richard Golob '73

UNAGB begins nurturing global citizenship in students as young as middle school with its Model United Nations program. More than 4,000 students in more than 75 schools throughout the Boston area participate each year in ways such as using UNAGB curricula in their classrooms to learn about international affairs and UN activities. Those who aspire to take part in UNAGB’s annual Model UN Conferences can go on to become delegates from assigned Countries. They have the chance to master knowledge about their nation’s history and current involvement with the United Nations, which they can draw upon when they meet with students representing other countries at the Model UN Conference in the spring.

Richard Golob '73 and Lucia Lovison-Golob

“The Model UN program is especially important in building communications, collaboration, negotiation, critical thinking skills and [the ability] to resolve issues the peaceful, nonviolent way,” Golob said. At a time when intolerance and bullying have become entrenched in schools, role playing as diplomats required to hit on a compromise that satisfies all parties is an exercise that helps to overcome cruelty and prejudice. Students quickly discover that intimidation and name-calling have no place in a community patterned after the best qualities and aspirations of the United Nations.

In 2021 students from 84 schools took part in conferences that led up to the UNAGB Model United Nations that fall. To assume the role of diplomats, they researched the background of their assigned country and then determined the positions that country would take in the Model United Nations and committee debates. They began learning to let go of their personal biases and instead to adopt the viewpoints of the countries they represented. Marshaling those insights, they then had to work out compromises with other student diplomats who were also trying to act for the countries UNAGB assigned them.

“It’s very much an opportunity for young people to take on the perspectives outside their box,” said Golob. “And to think in ways that they might not normally think and understand the perspectives of people that they might not normally interact with. I’;s a great way to build a sense of understanding about the global community, about the differences that separate us and the ways in which we have to work together as a planet.”

Since the start of the Model UN program, UNAGB has striven to include students in Boston’s urban middle schools and high schools. “It has been a great way to lift the horizons of these young people beyond their local areas and to make them understand that there’s a big world out there,” Golob said. A number of those graduates have gone on to careers in international organizations.

Each year at the Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management, the United Nations Association of Greater Boston holds multiple sessions of the Summer Institute in Global Leadership. Students from around the world enroll in courses taught by UNAGB staff and college interns on topics such as climate resilience, human rights and international security. By employing the Model UN methods of role playing and consensus building, the institute instructors teach leadership skills, critical thinking and an understanding of key global challenges. UNAGB adult members– experts in fields such as global health, and diplomats from the Boston Consular Corps–come to speak about their experiences in international agencies, NGOs and diplomacy. While the tuition for these week-long sessions provides funds to sustain UNAGB’s activities throughout the year, the nonprofit is still able to offer scholarships to young people who could not afford to attend without financial aid.

Since the establishment of the United Nations in October 1945, United Nations associations like the one Golob’s mother founded in Scarsdale have taken root around the world. The United Nations Association of Greater Boston, which has existed for more than sixty years, has emerged as one of the leading chapters not only because of its Model UN programs but also because of its educational outreach to the larger Boston community. Originally centered around the interests of a founding group of former diplomats, professors and experts who had spent their careers in multinational organizations, the UNAGB over the years has broadened its focus and adapted to the changing concerns of the United Nations. In the UNAGB’s infancy those preoccupations mirrored the fears and strategies of the Cold War. Now the United Nations member states must deal not only with a war in Ukraine but also with a planet facing the existential crisis of climate change.

When all the United Nation member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, the UNAGB set out to educate a wide audience through their UN Perspective series. Over the last year experts from MIT, Oxfam, and the government of Uganda have joined Perspective Series discussions about Affordable Energy, Gender Equality, and Clean Water and Sanitation. When the UNAGB was forced to move educational efforts online during the COVID pandemic, the recorded forums began to reach a worldwide audience.

To give this audience an understanding of current conditions and positive actions not only globally but also locally, UNAGB now offers a “SDG Action Corner” to measure Boston’s progress toward achieving those goals. For each of the 17 SDGs, the website lists local non-profits with volunteer opportunities and tracks legislative actions on a state and national level.

Boston experts in epidemiology and public health have volunteered to educate the UNAGB audience about Sustainability Development Goals like “Good Health and Well Being.” In 2007 UNAGB presented a Leadership Award to Dr. Barry R. Bloom, the former dean of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, who has worked for decades with the World Health Organization on fighting diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis. “We’ve had many people who have held prominent roles in the WHO and other international agencies, and so in that sense, the Boston community has been very much connected to the UN through its specialized agencies,” Golob explained.

Now following the lead of the United Nations, the UNAGB is reaching out to Boston business leaders to help realize these Sustainable Development Goals. In recent years the United Nations has devised compacts for corporations based on the realization that sustainability challenges will be solved only by involving the business community. In a similar spirit, the UNAGB tries to make Boston corporations aware of climate and sustainability crises along with UN efforts. “Hopefully through relationships with us, people within those corporations become more sensitized” and more willing to implement social governance programs, Golob said.

Richard Golob has worked for decades in the private sector to bring innovations in data sciences and digital transformation to the healthcare and life-sciences sectors. He is currently co founder and CEO of Quantori, a Cambridge-based digital services provider for the life-sciences sector and healthcare industries. The international security scenarios that UNAGB had long discussed took on added meaning last March when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Quantori had its primary development centers in St. Petersburg and Voronezh, Russia where the company employed more than 600 software engineers and other professionals. “We had to do a major airlift of those people to Armenia and Georgia in order to continue working for our clients,” he said.

“We had been operating in Russia for over 20 years and my partners and I, as well as others leading similar companies to ours, had basically helped to globalize the Russian software engineering industry and had brought all of these Russian software engineers and mathematicians and scientists into close contact with the West and with the great pharmaceutical companies and life-science companies. And then in one day Putin destroyed all of it,” he added.

Early in his life Richard Golob wanted to be an explorer. By the time he arrived in Harvard Yard in 1969, he had set his sights on attaining a biochemistry degree. The times were turbulent, however, raising questions about peace and justice that persist today. He left Lowell House and Harvard during his junior year, returning six years later and graduating in 1978. Entering the nascent field of environmental services, he went on to work with United Nations agencies like the UN Environment Programme, the UN Disaster Relief Organization, and the International Maritime Organization. At the age of 50 Golob reinvented himself by entering the realm of software outsourcing and life science informatics and co-founded GGA Software Services, which was later acquired by EPAM Systems. Around that time as well a former member of the UN Disaster Relief Organization, also a Harvard alumnus, reached out to Golob and got him interested in joining the UNAGB.

“All of these areas, environmental consulting and software outsourcing have involved international components and so my involvement with the United Nations Association of Greater Boston is in a sense an outgrowth of not only what my mother’s and father’s impact was on me, but also of my entire professional career too,” he concluded. In the years prior to joining UNAGB, Golob played a key role in many international projects, including the design and construction of the Holocaust Memorial Park in Puchovichi, Belarus; the implementation of a pilot rural electrification project outside Dhaka, Bangladesh which used biogas from cow dung as the energy source; and the preparation of an environmental damage claim for the government of Mozambique following a tanker spill off the Mozambican coast.

Last year the UNAGB secured a space at MIT’s Sloan School with the aid of faculty member and ClassACT HR73 board member Leigh Hafrey. The UNAGB Bridge is now eager for more involvement with ClassACT members who might, for example, speak at events like the Perspective Series. Those classmates who are academics, retired public servants, and business people can serve as a great resource, Golob said, particularly those who can help to educate the wider community about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Participating in UNAGB activities like the upcoming International Women’s Day Forum “Bridging the Digital Gender Divide” on March 7th can also help ClassACT members connect with UNAGB’s initiatives. Classmates with ties to schools can recommend the Model UN program to them, while classmates with grandchildren in middle school or high school can encourage them to participate in UNAGB’s Summer Institute in Global Leadership to learn how to become global citizens. Finally, ClassACT HR73 members can donate to the United Nations Association of Greater Boston to support the organization’s mission and work.

Golob’s work with the UNAGB has only deepened his admiration for an organization whose austere and elegant building mesmerized a small boy from the Bronx. “I’m a big believer in the United Nations. I think it’s in an institution that if it did not exist, it would have to be created,” he said, acknowledging that issues at the Security Council and General Assembly level still have to be resolved. But even with its challenges, the United Nations gives him hope for the future.

“For the members of our class growing up, we were all part of the peace, love and happiness generation. And if we think about an international institution that promotes those ideals, I cannot think of one other than the United Nations that does it better.”

White Pony Express Update

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 21:01:22 GMT

By Jacki Swearingen '73

As Russian air strikes rain down on Ukrainian civilian targets such as hospitals and power stations, the need for food, medical supplies and warm clothing grows desperate during the coldest days of winter. Even as Ukrainian soldiers continue to take back territory in the east, the nation’s citizens still huddle in bombed-out apartments enduring darkness and freezing temperatures.

Relief for Ukraine continues to flow from White Pony Express, the Contra Costa, Ca. non-profit and ClassACT Bridge that began to send supplies last year in the early days of the war. The charity is readying about 15 pallets of bandages, warm coats and boots, and shelf- stable nutritious food to send off in the next few months, said Eve Birge, WPE’s Executive Director.

WPE’s commitment has been constant despite a drop in donations as the war drags on. “Fewer Americans are stepping up to contribute to White Pony Express and other non-profits that are sending aid to Ukraine,” Birge said. “People are still left to struggle. They are still left in this same situation they were in before all of the aid started receding.”

With the direct route into Ukraine’s cities that WPE has established with the help of Olexiy Buyadgie, a Ukrainian-American WPE volunteer, the non-profit has managed to send around 75 pallets to the war-torn country since March 2022. The donations, which initially arrived in Lviv, have then been sent to civilians and soldiers in the Ukrainian cities that dominate the nightly news such as Donetsk, Dnipro, Kherson and Kharkiv. This latest shipment is set to arrive when food insecurity is likely to be at its worst, said Birge.

Donations to White Pony Express can be earmarked for Ukraine by using this link.

Contributors can also purchase essential food items on Amazon through a designated Smiles page that lists the items White Pony Express needs. Those items will be sent directly to WPE’s warehouses in Contra Costa where volunteers will load the pallets that will then be shipped to Ukraine.

White Pony Express, which was founded in 2013 to rescue food discarded by stores and restaurants and to share it with those in need, also draws from the donations of clothing, shoes, and other goods they receive from stores and manufacturers to choose items to send to Ukraine. A recent contribution of seven pallets of shoes from the non-profit My New Red Shoes means that WPE can send three of those pallets off to Ukraine with their next shipment to Lviv. The shelf- stable food they receive from other large corporate donors goes to Ukrainians as well as the residents of Contra Costa County.

In recent months the needs of those with inadequate food and housing in Contra Costa have swelled as well. “Right now with the weather in California, the extreme cold and the extreme wet, the last month has been very focused on provisions to the unhoused,” Birge said. White Pony Express has given out thousands of sleeping bags, ponchos, tarps, coats and boots.

WPE volunteer and ClassACTHR73 member Emily Karakashian ’73 said that the annual cold- weather clothing program has had to grow this year to meet the demands created by unprecedented weather in northern California. “Even before the rain started, it was cold in a way that we just normally don’t see, and then it was followed by the rain.”

While the generosity of White Pony Express stretches as far as eastern Ukraine, the focus of this Bridge remains trying to eliminate hunger in Contra Costa County. The charity, which is poised in the next few months to move to larger headquarters in the center of the county, continues to expand its core efforts to retrieve food that otherwise might go into landfills and then to give it to food banks, charities and individuals who are hungry. “We waste 40 percent of our food, and one third of that could wipe out hunger,” Birge said.

Representatives from across the hemisphere have recently been visiting White Pony Express to learn how its model works in the hopes of exporting it to their own countries. Last year White Pony Express helped a group in the Mexican city of Monterrey develop a model very similar to WPE, and Birge and other staffers plan to go to Mexico City this year to promote the model. On January 13 representatives from the Guatemalan Consulate in San Francisco braved the rain to come to WPE to witness its successes. “They talked about how in their country food insecurity is such an issue, and that so many people are coming to the U.S,” Birge said. The WPE model of combating food scarcity might not only persuade some citizens to remain, but it would also help Guatemalan large businesses become more environmentally responsible by not discarding usable food.

Eve Birge, Emily Karakashian and the other members of White Pony Express hope to share the non-profits model with citizens across the United States as well. ClassACT HR73 members interested in bringing this food rescue model to their own communities should contact Eve at evebirge@whiteponyexpress.org. Everyone can donate to White Pony Express here. ClassACT HR73 members who live in the Bay Area are also welcome to join as volunteers.

Bob Waldinger ‘73 Publishes The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:14:16 GMT

By Jacki Swearingen

In 1938 as civil war raged in Spain and Americans struggled through the Depression, 268 Harvard sophomores began to enroll in a longitudinal study that would eventually follow them to old age and death. Throughout the decades –when they returned from the battlefields of World War II, when they settled into careers and marriages, when their children left home, and when they finally retired – these men continued to send completed questionnaires back to the Harvard researchers. Eighty-five years later their collected responses, along with those of nearly 500 inner-city Boston youths, their spouses and their children, have become key to helping us understand what shapes a life of well-being and purpose.

“Well-being is the bedrock of ‘okayness’ about life, and we see in studying all these lives that relationships build that kind of safety net, that kind of foundation that gets us through all kinds of hard times as well as provides us with fun and joy,’’ said psychiatrist Dr. Robert Waldinger ’73, the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and co-author of the new book The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.

“You can do a lot to strengthen relationships, to create new ones, to heal relationships where there is difficulty. All of that is possible,” he added during a recent interview for ClassACT HR’73’s newsletter. Dr. Waldinger is also a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital.

By giving readers glimpses into the lives of this Harvard cohort, Dr. Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz, the Harvard Study’s associate director, depict the value of relationships for promoting not only contentment but also physical health. Even in old age, when health issues often constrain lives, the power to work on relationships can make pain, stress and other setbacks more bearable. Those study participants who were in satisfying relationships reported fewer declines in mood on even their worst days of pain compared to their more isolated counterparts.

In the eight-decade long study, the researchers found that “frequency and quality of contact with other people are two predictors of happiness.” Nurturing bonds with friends and family members despite the demands of work and unforeseen tragedies mattered more than accomplishments or wealth. The ability to hold on to old friends while making new ones in workplaces, houses of worship, or community groups such as bowling leagues also contributed significantly to happiness. Finding ways to help those we care about and sustaining “deep curiosity” about their lives can end up enhancing our own happiness as well.

One of the original study’s 268 nineteen-year-olds was Ben Bradlee, the great Washington Post editor of Watergate fame. He wrote of his introduction to what was then called the “Grant Study of Adult Development” in the opening pages of his 1995 autobiography A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures. “The study proposed to investigate ‘normal’ young men, whatever that might mean, at a time when most research was devoted to the abnormal. Dr. Arlie Bock, the first Grant Study director, was convinced that ‘some people coped more successfully than others,’ and the study intended to search for the factors which led to ‘intelligent living.’ “

As time went on Dr. Bock’s successors at the Harvard Study of Adult Development looked for ways to expand their subject pool to include people beyond the narrow sample of privileged young men. In the 1970s the third director, Dr. George Vaillant ’55, brought in 456 participants who were part of a 1940-1945 study of boys aged 10 to 14 from some of Boston’s poorest neighborhoods. That study had been launched by Harvard Law School professor Sheldon Glueck and his wife Eleanor Glueck, a social worker. “They were interested in juvenile delinquency, and particularly why some children from really disadvantaged homes managed to stay on good developmental paths and did not become juvenile delinquents,” Dr. Waldinger said, adding that the teens were chosen from homes known to an average of five social service agencies for major familial and social problems.

While that addition allowed the Adult Development Study to expand its socio-economic perimeters, the project still failed to include women or people of color. Twenty years ago Dr. Waldinger brought in the wives of the male participants and more than 1300 of their children to bring the total to more than 2,000, over half of whom are women. Yet because the city of Boston was 78 percent white in 1938, the study still has little racial diversity despite the addition of the immediate family members of the original 724 men. “What that means is that we have a study of Caucasian families. And that’s not what diversity looks like in 2022 in the United States,” Dr Waldinger said.

When the study began in 1938, few Americans identified openly as gay. The participants in both the Grant study and the Glueck study reflected that reluctance to speak publicly. “Most people who were gay got into heterosexual marriages, and many of those marriages fell apart. Some of them did not.” Dr. Waldinger said. Over time a few people came out to the researchers, and some even settled into rewarding partnerships. Nonetheless, some of the original group’s baby boomer children have also been reluctant to be open about being gay. “We know there are many, many gay people who have never come out, even to us,” he added.

“Peggy Keane,” the daughter of one of the members of the Glueck study, recounted the anguish she felt as a young woman who knew she was gay but still married “one of the nicest men on the planet.” Divorced not long after the wedding, she agonized over the pain she had caused her former husband and her devout Catholic parents “for not figuring out sooner who I was.” But at 29 “Peggy” found a partner whom she loved, and she eventually resumed the close relationship she had with her parents, who came to accept her for who she was. Her capacity to weather personal crises by creating new attachments and renewing old ones helped her become the happy 57-year-old woman she is today, according to Dr. Waldinger.

Like all the participants whose stories Dr. Waldinger tells, Peggy’s name and distinguishing details have been changed to protect her identity. “We pledge confidentiality to everyone who participates in our study,” he said. “Some of these people have told us things they have not told anyone else.” Those practices have established bonds of trust that have helped to make the Harvard Study of Adult Development the world’s longest in-depth longitudinal study of human lives. Less than 20 percent of the study’s subjects have dropped out over its 85- year existence. While most of the 724 men from the original two studies have died, Dr. Waldinger estimates about 40 still survive.

Chapters from the lives of participants like Peggy underscore Dr. Waldinger’s conviction that no life is without challenges and difficult passages. For the adolescents of the Glueck study who endured poverty and dysfunctional families, finding work that let them build sustainable lives as well as creating stable families of their own were particularly hard journeys. Yet some, like Peggy’s father “Henry Keane,” who overcame the abuse of an alcoholic father and the vicissitudes of the Detroit auto industry, found well-being in their later years through the relationships they had nurtured. Again and again Henry would return his questionnaire with answers indicating that he was “happy” or “very happy” even though he never accrued wealth or fame. He had made what the authors of The Good Life call the single best choice for securing health and happiness: He had cultivated warm relationships with his family and friends despite the sufferings of his childhood and his own shyness.

Some of the saddest stories in The Good Life are those of the Harvard graduates who began their adult life in postwar America with much greater advantages than Henry. Yet failure to establish and to develop relationships often meant that the questionnaires they returned revealed the loneliness of their lives. “John Marsden,” a lawyer who was among the most successful of the Harvard cohort, too often let his preoccupation with himself get in the way of building the strong relationships with his wives and his children that he so desperately wanted. “He loved his family, but he consistently reported feelings of disconnection and sadness throughout his life. He struggled in his first marriage and alienated his children,” the authors wrote.

One of the biggest challenges many participants from Harvard College faced was coming to terms with their combat experiences in the battles of World War II. In 1948 the Adult Development Study researchers sent them a letter asking questions such as “Did you see combat? Did you ever see anyone killed? Did you kill anyone?” The researchers were trying to understand what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, though PTSD had not yet been defined. They wanted to understand why some members struggled with depression while others seemed able to transfer the leadership skills they acquired in war to peacetime endeavors.

Those who had good relationships with their fellow officers and soldiers, and who could talk about shared traumas with them fared better, Dr. Waldinger said. Those who had warm family relationships before they went to war also were less likely to develop PTSD.

Among the Harvard subjects who survived enemy attacks was a young lieutenant from Boston, John F. Kennedy, who won the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart for rescuing his surviving crew members after their patrol vessel PT-109 collided with a Japanese destroyer in the Pacific. When Kennedy decided to run for a Senate seat in 1952, his campaign requested his Harvard Study records, which now reside in the Kennedy Library. In 2009 his participation was made known when a writer for The Atlantic Monthly found evidence of those records in the presidential library’s archives.

Other challenges like divorce, the illness of a child, or the death of a spouse, would await these young men from Harvard and inner-city Boston as they moved through the Cold War and the cultural transformations of the sixties and seventies. What helped many who reported the greatest well-being was having a person in their childhood who had steadily loved them and cared for them. “One of the things the study has really shown is that childhood matters a lot,” Dr. Waldinger said. “People who have warm childhoods can grow up quite poor and disadvantaged, but have a very solid foundation of well-being from warm, consistent relationships. You can be the most privileged person in the world and be quite starved for warmth and solid relationships.”

Without those stable, warm relationships in childhood, an adult from any socio-economic background will have difficulty making stable connections, he added. Indeed, one of the most poignant examples is “Sterling Ainsley,” a Harvard graduate who served in the Navy, married, and had three children he claimed to love. After achieving success in metals manufacturing out in Montana, he retired to live alone in a small trailer on a barren lot near Butte. He was separated from his wife and rarely spoke to or visited his children. A torturous childhood that had included his mother’s commitment to a mental asylum and separation from a beloved older sister left Sterling unable to form the bonds so essential to well-being, the authors concluded.

Investing in causes beyond the self, in pursuits that attempt to make the world or even a small community better also contribute to a good life, according to Dr. Waldinger. “They make people feel like their lives are more meaningful than the people who are just buying their third vacation home and their latest sports car and all that.” For one of the Harvard subjects “Leo DeMarco,” that sense of meaning came from his job in Vermont as a high school English teacher who mentored young people. Others from both the Grant and the Glueck studies found purpose and joy in passing on wisdom and skills to their grandchildren.

Every two years the participants completed the questionnaires that asked them about key aspects of their lives such as mental health, physical health, their friendships and their intimate relationships. They were queried on their work satisfaction, on their promotions and their salaries. A number of items on the forms required them to assess their level of happiness. These inquiries would intensify every ten years when the Adult Study sent interviewers to visit the men and their families in their homes. At a time when an unexamined life was the norm for American men, these participants found themselves regularly reflecting on their relationships and their happiness. While some grumbled, others thanked the researchers verbally and in letters for providing them with a way to keep returning to their lives.

“Some people said ‘Your questions are just a nuisance,’ but many people said ‘This was one of the most important things I’ve done in my life because it got me to reflect regularly on my life, on where I’m going, on what’s important to me,’” said Dr. Waldinger. “Just by asking the questions and asking them to write down responses, we’re sure we affected the people we were studying.”

That attention and willingness to change attitudes and actions is key to finding and building relationships, Dr. Waldinger said. He and Schulz have taken the broader findings from the Adult Study and distilled them into practical advice about improving specific relationships with partners, family members, work colleagues and friends. One exercise they recommend is the W.I.S.E.R. model for reacting to emotionally challenging situations and events in relationships. Readers are advised not to act impulsively, but instead to Watch, Interpret, Select, Engage, and Reflect, a process that can end up bolstering valuable ties.

The benefit of bringing renewed attention to complex relationships may not only be the kindness we show toward someone we care about, but may also be our own enhanced happiness. “Friendships are constantly changing, so the relationship needs to change,” Dr. Waldinger explained. “The importance of friendship is in how much benefit it conveys for our emotional and physical well-being.”

The years Dr. Waldinger has spent directing the Adult Study have inspired him to scrutinize his own relationships to determine how to strengthen them. After his two sons grew up and left the home he shares with his wife, Jennifer, in Newton, Massachusetts, he found himself working “all the time” on tasks like editing academic papers. “What I realized was that I really needed to pay more attention to my relationships, to my friendships,” he said. He developed new habits like making time for walks with friends during the pandemic or texting them to say, “I miss you. Can we get together?” These conscious efforts fortify what he and Schulz call “social fitness.”

Paying attention to relationships by prioritizing them and devoting time to them is a key component of that social fitness, the authors stress. Integral to that focus is the concept of “mindfulness,” which calls for us to be present in the moment and abstain from judgment, a concept defined by Buddhist teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, whom the authors quote. Kabat-Zinn’s words have particular resonance for Dr. Waldinger, who is a Zen teacher and ordained Soto Zen priest at the Henry David Thoreau Sangha in Newton, Ma. While Zen’s texts and rituals such as lighting incense may date back to feudal Japan, they still provide a way to “pay attention to the present moment,” according to Dr. Waldinger. “My experience of Zen is that warmth is just part of the human condition when we’re lucky enough to have it and that we can spread it and pass it on or not.”

Dr. Waldinger remembers his own parents as “very warm people who came from immigrant families that were pretty poor.” His father had a gift for taking an interest in the lives of others, a quality that helps in connecting to friends and strangers alike. His mother regularly took the time to sit down in the kitchen of their Des Moines home to talk with her young son while scooping ice cream for him. “I had a pretty consistent and, as my kids would say, a pretty boring childhood,” Dr. Waldinger laughed.

For an Iowa freshman who arrived in Harvard Yard in 1969, the Zen meditation practices and rigorous psychoanalytic training that would define his later life were still unknown. What marked that first year for him, as well as for many other freshmen, were feelings of aloneness and doubts about whether he belonged at Harvard. “I just felt really lonely, and actually I almost didn’t go back after my freshman year,” he said.

By the end of his sophomore year Dr. Waldinger had found good friends in Adams House as well as a passion for acting in theatrical productions, which was stoked by Professor William Alfred’s Humanities 7 course on the American Theater. The plays of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neil enthralled him with their ability to capture family dynamics. “It’s no accident that I became a shrink,” he laughed.

Concentrating in History and Science, Dr. Waldinger focused on “why people did things that look crazy. How do we understand what I think of as aberrant behavior?” He examined the fatal pull of witchcraft beliefs in Salem and wrote his senior thesis on medicine in Weimar Germany. That chance to think deeply as well as the growth of friendships that still endure today made that time one of purpose and joy. “I just felt more connected,” he said. “The last three years were three of the happiest years I can remember.”

At Harvard Medical School Dr. Waldinger discovered that “listening to people talk about their delusional beliefs” interested him more than studying subjects like thyroid tumors. He went on to a psychiatric residency at Harvard’s McLean Hospital. Later at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute his training focused on psychological development from infancy to adulthood, including how children connect to a caregiver. Dr. Waldinger brought questions about what creates secure attachments in later life to his research with the Adult Development Study.

After more than two decades as director of that program, Dr. Waldinger hopes to emphasize that it is never too late to change a life by forming new attachments and strengthening old ones. The Good Life contains stories of people like Sterling Ainsley–who never overcame the emotional deprivation of their childhood–in order to portray the tragedy of stunted or withered relationships. But there are also narratives of those who, after a life of isolation, went on to discover the joys of friendship in old age. One subject, “Andrew Dearing,” a desperately lonely clock repairman in Boston, in his seventh decade helped create a close circle of friends among the people he met at his local gym.

A 2015 TED talk that Dr. Waldinger gave at a Brookline, Ma. elementary school inspired him to include stories like Andrew’s in The Good Life. The message that building relationships is key to achieving a life of well-being went viral as his lecture became the ninth most watched TED Talk of all time. Shortly afterward Dr. Waldinger began receiving comments and e-mails from people, some in their twenties, saying “It’s too late for me. I don’t do relationships well. It’s never been good for me.”

At any point we can reinvigorate our lives with friendship and meaningful encounters, Dr. Waldinger counters. One step toward that goal might involve becoming more “intentional” about our use of the screens that now shape our lives. “Do we have the kind of agency to make sure that we don’t get pulled into patterns of living that essentially isolate us more and more?” he asks. After spending too much time scrolling through other people’s social media feeds, we begin to think everyone is happier and leading a more exciting life than we are. We too often forget that social media allows us to “curate” our lives to reveal only the positive aspects and not the difficulties that everyone faces, he cautions.

For those Class of 1973 graduates poised to return to Cambridge for their Fiftieth Reunion, Dr. Waldinger also suggests examining existing attachments and the content of one’s social life: “See where you could strengthen the relationships you already have, and also put yourself in situations where you are likely to make new relationships.” Find something you care about that puts you alongside people who share that interest or concern, he advises. Activities as varied as a bowling league or an environmental group focused on climate change can yield valuable friendships or connections that are simply fun.

Finally, Dr. Waldinger suggests regularly taking a moment to remember a person who still matters but whom you have not contacted for a long time. Reach out to that person, call them, send them a text or email, and say “I miss you.” The response often astonishes the person who initiates the contact, he said. “You’d be surprised how often something positive comes back, how often people are thrilled to hear from us.”

For those classmates who reflect on the relationships they have spun over fifty years and then act to fortify them in their remaining years, the rewards can be rich, Dr. Waldinger believes. The final page of his book reminds us that “by developing your curiosity and reaching out to others – family, loved ones, coworkers, friends, acquaintances, even strangers – with one thoughtful question at a time, one moment of devoted, authentic attention at a time, you strengthen the foundation of a good life.”

Yeou-Cheng Ma and the Children’s Orchestra Society

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:45:19 GMT

Yeou-Cheng Ma and the Children’s Orchestra Society

By Jacki Swearingen '73

This past summer the Children’s Orchestra Society, a ClassACT HR73 Bridge, invited children who were victims of domestic abuse to a week-long summer camp. By the end the children, who had never received music lessons before, put on a small performance in which they sang a song and played on some percussion and string instruments. Six of the 18 students accepted the teacher Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma’s offer to receive some additional lessons at the camp’s conclusion. One seven-year-old responded to Dr. Ma’s question about what she wanted to do when she grew up by stating “I want to be a violinist.”

“I looked at the child and said ‘Well, how did that come about?’” The child replied “’Before the camp I didn’t know anything about music and now I love it.’”

In the nearly forty years that Dr. Ma and her husband Michael Dadap, an acclaimed classical guitarist, have headed the Children’s Orchestra Society based in Syosset, Long Island, they have nurtured a cultural treasure that has allowed thousands of children to experience the transcendent joy of music. More than the concerts at Carnegie Hall, the international tours and the alumni who have become professional musicians, Dr. Ma takes pride in the fact that the COS is the only orchestra with a comprehensive musical program centered on the child. Among the thousands of children who have auditioned over the decades, she and her husband have only had to turn away one child who was unable to function in a group. “Basically we will find a place for almost everyone,” she said.

Dr. Ma credits her work as a developmental pediatrician for her insights into the learning styles and temperaments of children. That experience has helped her find ways to instruct students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), like one boy who struggled with distractions. Dr. Ma hit on guidelines that helped him focus and feel such a part of the orchestra that he came to rehearsals even when he broke his arm. Eventually he became one of the orchestra’s soloists.

Another young girl hoped to play the viola well enough to join the orchestra when Dr. Ma’s brother, the legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, came to perform as a guest soloist. With far less experience on the viola than the other students, the child faced a seemingly insurmountable hurdle. Dr. Ma compared acquiring the necessary skills to a fifth grader trying to learn eleventh grade math in a week. Asked if she still wanted to try, the girl replied yes and proceeded to wake at 5:30 every morning to practice. “After a week she actually made it,” Dr. Ma recalled. “I was the one who cried because I honestly didn’t think it was possible for her to make it, but I was going to help her as her teacher.”

As one of the instructors for violin and viola as well as for chamber music, Dr. Ma knows that learning music can enrich a child’s life. “We try to let the kids use music as an outlet for their feelings,” she explained. This emotional release matters especially to Asian-American children who make up a significant portion of the COS’s students. “Asian kids are not particularly encouraged to express their emotions. I think traditional Asian families still would prefer children to be seen and not to be heard, which is not a very American thing.” Advising them to pour their frustrations into a piece like Chopin’s Octave Etude can help children vent while pleasing parents with an intense practice session, she explains.

Intellectually, music trains the brain in ways that differ from traditional academic subjects. It strengthens the ability to remember and to recognize patterns, skills essential for learning reading and math. “Like any language, it teaches you a different way of thinking,” Dr. Ma said. “It expands your vocabulary, your ability to absorb new material.”

Born in Paris and raised by parents who had emigrated from war-torn China to study there, Dr. Ma describes her early childhood years as “trilingual” because she grew up able to communicate in Chinese, French and music. When her family moved to New York when she was eleven, she learned English. At Harvard she studied German, and at Harvard Medical School she mastered Spanish because she planned to work in New York’s city hospitals where that language was vital to communicating with patients and their families.

Dr. Ma’s father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, who received his doctorate in music from the Sorbonne and studied at the Paris Conservatory of Music, launched the Children’s Orchestra Society in 1962 with the idea that placing budding musicians in an orchestra would encourage them to practice more. “Nobody likes to practice by themselves,” Dr. Ma said. “But if they feel that they are playing together in the group, they get a little more motivated and encouraged.”

The elder Dr. Ma, a conductor and musicologist, ran the orchestra until 1977 when he retired with the hope that one of his children would take his place. However, his son already had a packed touring schedule and his daughter was about to begin her residency in pediatrics. The Children’s Orchestra Society lapsed for seven years until Yeou-Cheng Ma and her husband, Michael Dadap, decided to resurrect it after he confided that his life-long dream was to run a music school. In the nearly forty years since, the couple have relied on their creative partnership to grow the orchestra’s size and acclaim. “He’s a vision guy, and I’m the one with the purse strings,” Dr. Ma said.

At present about 100 children come each week to the COS’s new home at the Community Church of Syosset to play in the orchestra’s four divisions that are ranked by age and ability. Down from a peak of 235 in the years before the pandemic, the COS hopes to enroll about 120 young musicians later this season. They are taught by a faculty made up largely of COS alums, whom Dr. Ma describes as “part of the family” and “a testament to how much they value that experience.”

Children can start as young as three in the Pre-Kinder program in which they are introduced to notes and ensemble playing. “When they can tell different colors, they are developmentally able to distinguish different notes and call them different things,” Dr. Ma explained. She herself began to learn violin from her father at 2 ½ years old. By the age of five she was traveling every six months with him on the train between Paris and Belgium to study with the renowned violinist Arthur Grumiaux.

Students progress through three levels until they are eligible to compete for one of the more than 80 spots in the Young Symphonic Ensemble, the full orchestra that performs in places such as Alice Tully Hall and goes on tour to Scotland and the Philippines. In addition, the COS offers the chance to play in smaller groups such as the Elite String Ensemble and the Percussion Ensemble.

“We have a theory class and various other things, just like a music school. Except we are not a music school. We’re just an orchestra with benefits.” Dr. Ma said. “The idea is just to get them to play together, to enjoy each other’s company.”

The Children’s Orchestra Society has thrived during the years when people from all over the world arrived in New York City to start new lives for themselves and their families. Many members have been immigrant children who find a home in the orchestra with its mixture of inclusion and great expectations. The orchestra has served as the bridge that allows children to move toward the futures they envision for themselves.

Dr. Ma recalls one young Hispanic boy, “a loner,” who was brought to the Children’s Orchestra Society by his godmother. Despite his musical inexperience and his reluctance to talk to the other students, he sat each time in the first violin section. When he was told he needed to take lessons, he responded that he didn’t have the time or money for that instruction. “I said ‘We can teach you lessons for free, but you would have to help us put away the chairs after rehearsal and set up before rehearsal.’” In the process of working for free lessons, he made friends with others who were also arranging chairs and music stands.

During the COS’s summer vacation, the boy wrote to Dr. Ma and her husband to say he felt isolated and depressed in his difficult home situation. The couple were then offering instruction at the New York Big Apple Music Festival, a program for talented young musicians. To help him weather this trying time, they allowed him to join their one-week program even though his musical skills did not begin to match those of the other participants. At the conclusion, he received a certificate.

“The next day I got a three-page letter from this kid telling me how important that camp was, how proud his mother was that he was the only Hispanic kid in the group, and how he ended up having a two-hour conversation with his father who was incarcerated…Apparently it had a huge impact, way beyond what we expected.” By the end of high school, the youth won a full four-year scholarship to study at Emory University in Atlanta.

Along with teaching children to master the works of Mozart and Beethoven, Dr. Ma and her faculty help children like that young man imagine their future and how to get there. “My brother calls it finding his or her own voice,” she explained. “It’s a tall order to find your dream, but at least get them to think about what it is they want to do.” Then the task is to teach them how to set both short-term and long-term goals, she added. “It’s always about preparing them for life.”

Steeped in the beauty and techniques necessary for music-making as well as in self-discipline and a spirit of cooperation, the young people who leave the COS often go on to rewarding professions. One hundred percent matriculate to college, and one quarter of that group attend Ivy League schools, including 24 who entered Harvard between 1984 and 2016.

A small number become professional musicians, like the alums who have joined COS’s faculty or like Dr. Ma’s brother who played in the orchestra when his father led it. Aspiring musicians prepare for the intense auditions that conservatories or college music programs require by competing to be a COS soloist, particularly for the annual Discovery Recital. This June the winners of the past three years performed at Alice Tully Hall with Distinguished Guest Artist Adele Anthony, the violinist. Famous artists who have played with the COS in the past include the violinist Jaime Laredo, the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and the flutist Eugenia Zukerman. Yo-Yo Ma has also returned to perform with the children his sister teaches.

“I know when Emanuel Ax came to rehearse with us, the kids were more interested in the pizza than Emanuel Ax,” Dr. Ma recalled. “But that’s kids. Someday they’re going to say ‘Wow! You know I had a chance.’”

Before the pandemic’s lockdown, the Children’s Orchestra Society embarked on several tours to cities in the United States, Europe and Asia. For Dr. Ma the most moving encounter was when the young musicians in 2017 performed in three Chinese cities, including her father’s hometown of Ningbo across the Hangzhou Bay from Shanghai. In Ningbo she found herself surrounded by Chinese paparazzi whose audience was enthralled by the arrival of the daughter of this famous musical family. “If we went by truck or van, I would hide among the instruments so they wouldn’t come to me and ask to interview me,” she said. “But, you know, it was very touching to be there.”

Dr. Ma’s parents had fallen in love when both were students in Paris, where they stayed through the years the Imperial Japanese Army ravaged their country and then after Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army established a Communist state in 1949. Her parents nearly returned to China when Dr. Ma was two-and-one-half years old but ended up staying in France because they needed a third ticket for their toddler daughter. Nearly two years later her brother Yo-Yo arrived to become the fourth member of a close-knit family whose life in their small Parisian apartment revolved around music.

“For both my brother and I, our oldest memory is the smell of a French bakery,” said Dr. Ma. “Even though I am Chinese, I consider France my native country because that’s where I grew up and that’s where my grandmother is buried.”

Dr. Ma remembers a “very, very quiet” childhood in which she and her brother played in the Jardin du Luxembourg after being schooled at home by their parents. At first their father taught them music, and then they shared a piano teacher. Soon each child embraced a stringed instrument and began lessons, Yo-Yo with his first cello teacher and Yeou-Cheng with a violin teacher in his eighties. When that teacher passed away, her father wrote to Grumiaux, who listened to the five-year-old play and agreed to instruct her even though he had never taken a student younger than ten.

“Part of my life is just music,” Dr. Ma said. “I said to somebody at one point that if somebody were to extract music from my life, they would have to reprogram my DNA because it’s so much a part of me.”

When the family visited friends and relatives in the United States in 1962, the two children participated in the first telecast. During that televised fundraiser for what would become the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an eleven-year-old Yeou-Cheng and her seven-year-old brother Yo-Yo played the first movement of Jean-Baptiste Breval’s Concertino No. 3 in A Major in a piano-cello duet. Leonard Bernstein introduced the young musicians as presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy looked on.

Despite their talents both Dr. Ma and her brother Yo-Yo gave few concerts during their early years. “My father was often asked ‘Dr. Ma, are your children prodigies?’ But he goes, ‘Prodigies are children with bad parents. I’m not a bad parent. So my children are not prodigies.’ He was very protective of us.”

By then Dr. Ma had begun a nine-year tenure as her brother’s rehearsal pianist, accompanying him to cello lessons with Janos Schultz and Leonard Rose. Her violin lessons had ended at that point, a cessation that she has spoken about with pain in other interviews. But in describing the impact the Children’s Orchestra Society has had over the decades, the partnership she and her husband forged to revive the orchestra, and the knowledge she has gained as a developmental pediatrician, Dr. Ma now seems at peace with the richness of her life.

Home-schooled until she entered a sixth grade classroom in her new country, Dr. Ma mastered English and other subjects rapidly and entered Harvard in 1969. She lived in North House and concentrated in chemistry while working during the summer in research labs at Rockefeller University. Once a week she gathered members of the small community of Chinese graduate students and aspiring students of Mandarin for Chinese Table at Comstock Hall.

Dr. Ma’s childhood had been spent in relative isolation from other children besides her brother, a state she described as “kind of floating, kind of ghosts, we really didn’t have anything to ground us except our lessons.” But at Harvard she found herself in “an eclectic place” full of people interested in “the most obscure things” like the price of bread in Russia of the 1920s. Senior year she decided to become a physician and entered Harvard Medical School in 1973.

A half-century ago when women were a minority in medical school classes, they had to confront challenges ranging from male professors disdainful of their abilities to prospective partners who couldn’t understand the life or death demands of medicine. Dr. Ma was guided during those groundbreaking years by some exceptional female mentors and by her growing love for the specialty of pediatrics. “I really like kids,” she said. After graduation she completed a residency at New York University-Bellevue and spent nearly four decades as a developmental pediatrician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She retired in 2018.

After marriage to Michael Dadap in 1982, the two settled in Queens where they raised a son and a daughter while reviving her father’s orchestra. The years when her children were young, when she worked full-time caring for patients with disabilities and when her father returned from Taiwan after suffering a stroke, were difficult ones. “I had my medical job, I had my dad, I had two small children. That’s way too much. I really, really, really can’t do all this,” she recalled. “I guess the only thing that could go is the orchestra. If it comes to that, then it comes to that.” Nonetheless, Dr. Ma and her husband managed to keep the orchestra afloat, passing their profound love of music on to generations of students.

In recent years the pandemic and the ravages of climate change have burdened the Children’s Orchestra Society. New York City’s Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020 forced the administrators to come up with new ways to continue musical instruction and permit students to practice and to perform together. Dr. Ma and her husband vowed to hold on to the faculty they regarded as “family,” who would be impossible to replace when Covid retreated. Soon these teachers were all assigned to groups of six or seven children who then spent nearly two years connecting with each other and their teachers on Zoom. By May of 2020 everyone had rehearsed enough online to put together an extraordinary digital performance of the 3rd movement from Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, which took the place of their annual gala. Only this past spring was the orchestra able again to perform together before a live concert audience.

When Hurricane Ida struck New York City in September 2021, the storm flooded the basement of Dr. Ma’s house in Queens, causing an estimated half million dollars in damage. The waters destroyed two grand pianos, many instruments and nearly all of the sheet music library that Dr. Ma and her father had collected over decades. For two weeks they hauled the wreckage out to their front lawn until they had filled three dumpsters and 150 contractor bags. “It was the most horrifying year,” she said.

The new home for the COS at the Community Church of Syosset has allowed Dr. Ma to begin to exhale. The non-profit’s five-year lease means that long-term improvements like a new heating and air-conditioning system could be installed without fears of being asked abruptly to leave, a threat their previous landlord made constantly. Now Dr. Ma and her cohorts have worked hard to spruce up their new classrooms and welcome back students who come from across New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

These students audition for the Children’s Society Orchestra not only because of its superb instruction but also for the culture of kindness it fosters. When one child vying for a prized solo spot in the Discovery Competition forgot her music, other contestants raced to the fax machine to bring sheets back to the young musician. “Kids will be competitive, and that’s just the way it is,” Dr Ma observed. “But we still need to not encourage people to just think of that as the only thing. Our kids really touch us in how they learn to be compassionate for each other.”

These unique qualities of cooperation and child-centeredness make it hard to find someone to take over the directorship of the orchestra as Dr. Ma and her husband move closer to retirement. Challenges like raising money for scholarships and new instruments persist, but the greatest test Dr. Ma believes the orchestra faces is “succession planning.” She hopes that members of ClassACT HR73 might help in eventually finding a new executive director who could perpetuate the orchestra’s special ethos, build on its tradition of excellence, and help with the fund-raising role that Dr. Ma has performed so well. Other “infrastructure” tasks like designing the website and writing copy could benefit from the skills of ClassACT volunteers. Classmates can also donate to the orchestra here.

With the start of a new season, auditions are already underway for the 29th COS Discovery Competition. Dr. Ma is once again focused on teaching young performers how to coax music of piercing beauty out of their violins and violas while ensuring they participate in a community that embodies the service and generosity that has characterized her own life. “I need to communicate the music to the kids, and to carry it forward because obviously we are not here forever. We need someone to carry the music forward.”

KidsCareEverywhere Bridge and Dr. Ronald Dieckmann

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 19:34:12 GMT

KidsCareEverywhere Bridge and Dr. Ronald Dieckmann

Two decades ago most pediatricians in the developing nations relied on dog-eared textbooks and outdated medical journals to arrive at treatment plans and diagnoses for their young patients. Faced with a child feverish with pneumonia or sickened by contaminated water or insecticides, these doctors often did not have access to medical breakthroughs that could dramatically improve their patients’ prognoses. The gap between care for children in wealthy nations and those in impoverished lands seemed destined to widen further.

In recent years, however, thousands of doctors in countries like Vietnam, Ghana and India have been able to call up the most recent medical findings while standing beside a patient’s bed by simply tapping an app on their cell phones, thanks to KidsCareEverywhere, a non-profit founded and led by Dr. Ron Dieckmann, a ClassAct HR73 Board Member. Dr. Dieckmann and his team have traveled the globe since 2006 to train doctors on four continents to use software that not only helps them treat patients in their struggling hospitals but also allows them to continue to grow as physicians and scientists through self-education. Offering a compendium of all the world’s most current medicine and scientific recommendations up to four weeks prior, the software also gives its users the level of validity for its recommendations about diagnosis and treatment.

“Within seconds, they can use the search window in their own language to search for a topic, and then they will have a summary of all the current scientific information in the world,” said Dr. Dieckmann of DynaMed, the software KidsCareEverywhere now distributes for free. “It’s exactly the same software as what we use at the leading hospitals in the United States”.

Interviewed in late August as he and his team prepared to travel to Cajamarca in northern Peru, Dr. Dieckmann said they expected to be met by a crush of doctors and other health care providers eager to learn how to use the software in a region burdened with poverty and isolation. “When people find out that we are at the hospital and we are giving away this software, we cannot keep people out of the room,” he said. “It’s amazing, we can’t shut the door because they keep opening and coming in. We have to station people at the door begging them to come to our next session.”

Though pre-session estimates are 50 people, the crowds at these training programs quickly expand to 300. “They treat us like rock stars, and we’re training away and giving away when we are there,” says Dr. Dieckmann. “We want to give away as much software as we possibly can.” KidsCareEverywhere also hands out free tablets at these sessions to encourage doctors to make use of the app during rounds at their patients’ bedside.

Dr. Dieckmann likes to ask his listeners to give him the most difficult case they have faced that week. “I will plug it into the software, and I will show them how to answer the important clinical questions,” he says. To provide an interactive experience as opposed to a lecture, the KidsCareEverywhere team prefers to keep the size of a training cohort small in order to do hands-on training, ideally at the bedside of a patient. When doctors see the recommendations for that particular pediatric case appear instantly, they become “believers,” Dr. Dieckmann said.

“They leave the session and go out and tell all their friends ‘You can’t believe what they’re giving us for free in the auditorium down the hall. Sometimes they shut the hospital in order for everybody to be sure they got the software.”

Dr. Sofía Huamani of Lima, Peru wrote on the KidsCareEverywhere website: “Thank you for this grand gesture towards the health personnel of 2 de Mayo Hospital, and particularly the residents. Having another year's subscription of DynaMed greatly helps us.”

For the introduction of the software to succeed and for its use to be sustained, medical school deans and hospital administrators have to embrace this tool as well. The team’s on-site training sessions make acceptance on all levels much more likely, according to Dr. Dieckmann.

Along with experiencing the joy of elevating the standard of care in these developing countries, Dr. Dieckmann and his team often confront risks such as disease and political instability. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo the civil war that ended the lives of millions took on personal meaning for the members of KidsCareEverywhere. The team had gone to a hospital in the southeast corner of the central African nation to train doctors in a hospital that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had visited the year before when U.S. officials were trying to provide economic assistance. “We trained every doctor in the hospital, and the following year a rebel group came by and killed many of the doctors and actually destroyed much of the hospital,” Dr. Dieckmann recalled.

India, with its three billion people, its extremes of wealth and education, and regions that are almost like separate countries, poses a different set of problems for the teams distributing the software to doctors working in some of the poorest public hospitals. Of those crumbling institutions on which so many Indians depend, Dr. Dieckmann said “They’re falling down. There are piles of rubble on the floor and animals grazing in the hallways. There are electrical wires hanging down in the hallways. The electricity often doesn’t work…It’s every imaginable obstacle that you can conjure up that presents itself to us.”

Despite the failing infrastructure and the travelers’ illnesses that always seemed to plague the KidsCareEverywhere team there, India continues to compel Dr. Dieckmann to return. He is quick to praise its magnanimous and tech-oriented doctors, its rich culture and delicious food. He mourns the training projects there that were abruptly halted when the country suffered one of the world’s worst phases of the Covid pandemic. “India got hit really hard, and many of the people we were working with died,” Dr. Dieckmann said.

Natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods add to the difficulties the KidsCareEverywhere team faces during many missions. Human obstacles come in the form of corruption or the sudden exit of an NGO or corporation from a fruitful partnership. In Dar es Salaam, the team successfully conducted training at the massive Muhimbili National Hospital until the hospital’s funding from Johnson & Johnson dried up. “Then they pulled the plug, and everything collapsed,” Dr. Dieckmann said.

“It’s so disheartening that all of these essential programs and hospitals and services for people are hanging on by a thread and the least perturbation in the system, whether it’s from natural elements or from global instability or corruption, just completely destroys all the work that we do,” he added.

Innate optimism and a talent for improvising that MacGyver would envy keep Ron Dieckmann from succumbing to despair. “We wonder what the next thing is going to be to come up against us, but that’s part of the challenge,” he said. “It’s part of the gratification of it.” He and his team have learned to bring battery-powered projectors, hotspots for web access, and other essentials in order to carry out training no matter what. “We are hellbent on making it happen.”

When Covid hit in early 2020, KidsCareEverywhere, like non-profits around the world, had to scramble to find ways of sustaining its work during the isolation of the pandemic’s first years. In Ghana, their team of ten raced to complete software training as people started dying around them in a region with few medical facilities. A short time later KCE had to turn to a virtual mode of instruction that paled in comparison to the hands-on training mode their teams had previously employed. The number of doctors and nurses who received the pediatric software declined.

Now Dr. Dieckmann and his crew are back on the road, scheduled to travel to Bhutan, Nepal and Cambodia after the training programs in Peru are finished. They hope to reach out to health- care providers beyond physicians such as hospital pharmacists, who often lack the sophisticated databases upon which their counterparts in the United States rely. By downloading and searching the app’s pharmacology database with its 2500 different drugs, these pharmacists can instantaneously determine side effects, complications, and incompatibilities with other drugs, Dr. Dieckmann explained.

The roots of KidsCareEverywhere lie in Ron Dieckmann’s previous travels with his wife and three daughters to developing countries as well as in his own efforts to write and compile textbooks in pediatric emergency medicine. By the beginning of this century, he realized, “The textbook is dead. There is no future for the textbook in American medicine or medicine anywhere in the world…I thought I had to do something quite different.”

With an Australian partner who had developed information services for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, Dr. Dieckmann in 2003 founded the software company PEMSoft, which issued a decision-support product solely for pediatric emergency medicine. From its beginning he gave away free copies of its software to colleagues in developing countries, starting with Vietnam. When EBSCO Publishing in Ipswich, Ma. acquired the company in 2013, its president, Tim Collins, supported the work of KidsCareEverywhere by agreeing to continue their donations of medical software in low-income nations. Nearly a decade later Ron Dieckmann and his colleagues have given away the EBSCO product DynaMed, a clinical reference tool that encompasses about 15 languages, to their counterparts in 26 countries. Approximately 22,000 people used the software in July of this year alone.

Harder to quantify are the multiplier effects that the software can have once a doctor or pharmacist repeatedly uses it to care for patients and to deepen his or her own education. KidsCare Everywhere has trained more than 10,000 doctors to rely on a free app that would cost them $399 a year if they were practicing in Boston or Tokyo. “If each doctor has used it to some extent and extended the benefits of this software to all his or her patients…and the doctor is seeing up to 10,000 to 20,000 kids a year, we’ve affected the health-care experience of many, many millions of children,” Dr. Dieckmann said.

With the constant feedback KidsCareEverywhere receives from tracking app usage as well as reading reports from health care leaders in hospitals they have visited, the volunteers have come to realize the value of the software for raising the level of medical education. Like doctors everywhere who come away with questions after they treat their patients, practitioners can now return to their homes or offices to call up answers based on the most comprehensive and up-to-date research. For aspiring physicians, KidsCareEverywhere’s software can easily take the place of the weighty textbooks that medical students of Dr. Dieckmann’s generation studied.

“They’re putting up a brand-new hospital in Hanoi, and we were doing some training there, and the doctor who was head of pediatrics said ‘Ron, we are using this program as our entire curriculum for training doctors in our new hospital,’” Dr. Dieckmann said. “By saving the life of a one-year-old through providing more current access to scientific information to the doctor, we are producing an asset to that society that is vastly greater than what we would be doing by working at the other end.” Dr Dieckmann said.

The advances in pediatric care and medical education fostered by KidsCareEverywhere come at a time of dramatic improvements in the mortality rates and overall health of children in developing countries. Dr. Dieckmann attributes those gains to public health reforms like water purification and better sanitation systems. He credits Bill Gates for “really innovative projects” such as widespread mosquito netting distribution, which have decreased infant mortality especially in Africa.

Ron Dieckmann’s own journey to teach pediatricians in some of the world’s poorest countries began in his hometown of Cincinnati, where he recalls having “a great childhood of my own.” Growing up in a working-class family, he said, “I didn’t even know anybody who went to college. I never knew a doctor.” At Harvard where he concentrated in History and Science and lived in Winthrop House, he realized how many things were possible.

At Stanford University’s medical school Dr. Dieckmann said he became fascinated with pediatrics, a career path strongly encouraged by his parents “who really, really loved the idea that I would be taking care of children.” Dr. Dieckmann saw that same generosity of spirit in the “humanity of pediatrics, the kindness of pediatrics.” He went on to complete a residency in that specialty at the University of California, San Francisco.

“When I finished my residency, I realized that what I really loved was emergency medicine and critical care and trauma care because it’s in my personality. I’ve always liked just being in the front lines in this type of situation,” Dr. Dieckmann said. He went on to become a professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco and to serve as the Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital for 25 years. He also received a masters from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Dieckmann’s education at Stanford and his proximity to Silicon Valley during the years when tech giants like Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin were imagining new worlds helped him envision digital possibilities in medical education. “I became very disenchanted with the written word and knew there had to be a better way of doing things through the virtual world,” he said. “And that was absolutely born of much exposure to technology.”

His dissatisfaction with hard-cover textbooks “that got old and dusty” led him to tap the knowledge of friends and colleagues who were immersed in the software culture taking root in northern California. “I think I had the great fortune of being in the right place at the right time,” Dr. Dieckmann said.

Having recently joined the Board of ClassACT HR73, Dr. Dieckmann hopes that his new role will help him expand the mission and scope of KidsCareEverywhere. One path for growth could involve connecting with Class of 1973 members, as well as other alumni, who can provide contacts with leaders in low-income countries. “There are lots of poor countries out there, there are lots of people at Harvard who know people who are running the governments there or the health systems or hospitals… who are really good, strong people that we can work with collegially and in training.”

Dr. Dieckmann also sees KidsCareEverywhere as a model for providing clinical-decision software in other specialties to physicians in low-income countries. “There’s every reason in the world that any specialty could adopt all of our structures and methodologies,” he said. “I certainly would gladly share any of it, and all of it with anyone who is so inclined.”

Classmates who would like to donate to KidsCareEverywhere to help Dr. Dieckmann and his team of volunteers widen the circle of health-care providers who have benefitted from receiving the free pediatric software and training can donate here!

Radcliffe Freshman Register

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 15:40:51 GMT

ClassACT associate Bob Livingston has created a digital version of the Radcliffe Freshman Register from 1973! In anticipation of our 50th reunion this spring, scroll through to look at pictures, ads, and memories.

CLICK HERE!

ClassACTForum Voter Suppression: A Cancer in Our Body Politic

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 20:12:44 GMT

The elimination of many polling places. The cancellation of early voting. The intimidation at the polls of voters and election workers. These are just a few of the signs of voter suppression that have sprouted in recent years as some members of the electorate attempt to attain or to hold on to power by preventing those they regard as potential opponents from voting.

As the nation gears up for the 2022 midterm elections in November, ClassACT HR73 is hosting the forum “Voter Suppression: A Cancer in Our Body Politic” on September 12th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm EDT. The forum will bring together journalists, activists and experts concerned with election integrity to discuss how repressing voting threatens our democracy. Class of 1973’s own E.J. Dionne, the renowned Washington Post columnist, will moderate a panel that includes Congressman Joaquin Castro '2000, the Congressman for the 20th District of Texas, Cecile Scoon ’81, President of the FLA League of Women Voters, and Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center.

ClassACT HR73 invites everyone to register above for this crucial forum. We also urge all of you to become involved in efforts to register new voters, to inspire those registered for all parties to cast their ballots, and to help safeguard the right of everyone to free and fair elections.

The Cole Resource Center: Spotlight on New ClassACT Bridge

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 14:06:14 GMT

Confronting a mental health crisis, whether suffered personally or by a loved one, is not only painful but lonely as well. Those who endure depression, anxiety or other conditions, as well as their family members often do not know where to find support from others who have experienced similar anguish. That loneliness can make the crisis seem more acute and can diminish faith in recovery.

“People generally don’t learn how to deal with mental health situations. We don’t get trained in it. We find ourselves usually in a situation where somebody has had a problem, a crisis, even hospitalization. We’re unprepared, and it can be very isolating,” says Ellen Faran ‘73, the president and CFO of the Cole Resource Center, a non-profit in Belmont, Massachusetts, and ClassACT HR73’s newest Bridge Partner. At the CRC Ellen and other volunteers endeavor “to help those who are facing mental health challenges, both individuals in recovery and family members, live healthy and productive lives.”

These volunteers are all “lay people” who have experienced mental health challenges themselves or have had a family member who has faced them, Ellen said, adding that she became involved in support work after an intense decade of caring for a family member in crisis. She describes Cole volunteers as people who know firsthand that “recovery is achievable and that open conversation and mutual support are invaluable in moving forward.”

As part of a three-person leadership team, Ellen helps not only to manage the administrative tasks of the resource center but also to guide the seven or eight other volunteers who contribute to its activities. This small team helps an estimated 500 people a year through the Center’s resource referral services and its support groups and Workforce program.

To patients and families, the chance to be heard and advised by people who have lived through similar experiences helps to banish the stigma too frequently attached to mental health crises. Peer support is particularly valuable immediately after a crisis, Ellen observed. “What we find is that the voice of lived experience is a very important and effective voice for people dealing with this.”

Other fraught transitions such as discharge from a hospital, a return to college, or a move into independent housing can also be eased with involvement in a peer support group, Ellen explained. The empathy and practical advice that strengthens a person in transition comes from people who themselves have felt the fear and aloneness of embarking on the next phase of a recovery or watching a loved one take that step. What results from this circle of receiving help and then feeling knowledgeable and strong enough to pass it on is the spirit of community on which Cole Resource volunteers pride themselves.

“We try to talk about ourselves as the community where you might enter the community in some state of crisis, but you end up staying and sharing with others and helping others, and that’s part of your journey toward recovery,” she explained.

For family members of a person with a mental health crisis, this caring community often is a godsend. Many of them, Ellen said, have no background in mental health and are unfamiliar with the meaning of their child’s or their spouse’s diagnosis. “The symptoms are very overlapping,” she added. “It can take a very long time to get an accurate diagnosis, sometimes years.” Family members often are struggling to make sense of this medical information while caring for a beloved person who has just left the hospital or has had to interrupt a year of college because of a psychotic break, she added.

Grief for the way one was before the onset of a mental health crisis or grief for lost dreams cherished for a child often befall someone who seeks out the Cole Resource Center. “You may have thought you were raising a professional lawyer, doctor, engineer, whatever, and it turns out they have a health condition that makes that overly stressful for them and they need to seek another path. You, the family member, have to let go of whatever expectation that was.” The task then is to embrace a new vision of what will be a healthy and productive life for your child, she added.

On the Cole Resource Center website, one mother recalled the distress of those first days and months as well as the haven that the Cole Resource Center became. “The warm welcome and caring at the Cole Center has already had a profound impact on my life. As the mother of a child recently diagnosed, I have felt so alone, terrified, and confused...The time, attention, endless resources and guidance so freely offered by the volunteer staff have been of such value to me.” During such a crisis the Cole volunteers can provide referrals to outpatient treatment programs, housing options, and educational programs.

“A number of women who have been part of our family support group have told us that they have moved on from just feeling helpless and hopeless to understanding how they can go forward,” Ellen said.

Fewer men come to the Cole Resource Center seeking help than women, a trend frequently observed by mental health practitioners. Yet those who have joined the men’s peer support group, men in their 40s and 50s who have been dealing with mental health conditions for years, have found encouragement sharing hopes and fears with others who have experienced similar emotions. “They find that talking with other men is much more comfortable for them than joining a mixed support group,” Ellen said.

An unexpected health crisis can cause a person to lose sight of who they are, of the vocation or skill that once shaped their identity. The Cole Resource Center’s Workforce Development Program helps to remind clients that they are more than a patient or a caregiver and supports them in finding a meaningful purpose in the workplace or elsewhere. When clients are ready to begin a job search, they often must contend with previously unforeseen challenges like the lingering effects of their illness, their loss of self-esteem or the unjust stigma of a mental health condition.

“They face a particular challenge -- if you think about how difficult job hunting is for anybody, having to present yourself and sell yourself to people and then add the layer of a recent health crisis that has likely interrupted your career path,” Ellen said.

Along with helping clients with job hunting skills like networking, resume writing, and interviewing, the Workforce program’s online Job Club includes discussions of disability rights, employee rights and whether it’s advisable at certain times or with certain employers to disclose a mental health condition. This counseling allows participants to regain a sense of purpose and confidence and to identify the right next step for them. “It’s a program for people in recovery who are ready and able to work,” Ellen said.

Since its start more than 25 years ago, the Cole Resource Center has had an informal association with McLean Hospital, the renowned psychiatric institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School. McLean has provided the center with office space and remains one of its clinical partners. That partnership has helped Ellen and the other volunteer leaders refine their programs, build their model, and learn what is effective in helping patients and family on the path to recovery.

As a non-profit offering customized, individual referrals for treatment programs, Cole volunteers have witnessed firsthand the critical shortage of clinical practitioners and other services like outpatient clinics and housing programs. During the pandemic, as depression and anxiety swelled throughout the general population, the situation worsened.

But encouraging trends suggest to Ellen that the stigma of a mental health illness is fading as more and more people come to see it as a condition that needs to be managed like any other chronic health problem. “I have a lot of faith in young people who are talking more naturally about their own situations,” she said. Ellen is also heartened by progress in the ways that individuals and families are now included in treatment planning, and by the police departments that now provide training in behavioral health response to their members.

In keeping with their determination to deliver peer support despite setbacks, the Cole Resource Center volunteers quickly adapted to the pandemic in 2020 by switching to virtual delivery of services by Zoom or phone. They discovered that many clients found online meetings easier in terms of time constraints or lengthy commutes. “Actually, we’re not making any immediate plans to return in person, and there’s no particular pressure to do that,” Ellen said.

Nonetheless, the Cole Resource Center leaders continue to grow their community gradually, often by word of mouth. With their core knowledge of resources centered in Massachusetts and New England, they have no immediate plans to expand beyond that area. At the same time these professional volunteers have worked hard in the last year on administrative tasks like improving their database and honing their communications, including adopting a new logo designed by a client with graphic expertise. They have written a procedures manual and developed new training programs for the leaders who identify resources and point clients toward them. All of these efforts enhance the value of the Cole Resource Center as a model for other communities.

As president Ellen draws on what she learned as a Winthrop House English concentrator and at Harvard Business School to guide the non-profit through a time of transformation. “Writing helps me think. I clarify my thoughts as I’m writing something,” she said. The Harvard MBA that helped her eventually become head of MIT Press before retiring also provided the accounting and management skills she uses now to buttress the Cole Resource Center.

In summing up the impact of her Harvard education on her role at CRC, Ellen said “The main thing my Harvard education left me with is this enthusiasm for learning.” That zest, she said, has helped her figure out things like how to send bulk email through the database system and how to put an image on the website. “I’m 71 years old and I’m learning new little tricks all the time. It’s really fun.”

As the Cole Resource Center stands poised for purposeful growth, the members of ClassACT HR73 can play a role by offering advice on legal, human resources and other structural issues faced by nonprofits. Working virtually, ClassACT volunteers can join as researchers who locate mental health resources or help with outreach efforts that expand the Center’s network of health care providers and other non-profits.

Finally, by donating to the Cole Resource Center, ClassACT members can ensure that the extraordinary work done by Ellen and her fellow volunteers can continue to support patients and their families at times of great need.

The value of that work is evident in the words that one member of the Cole Resources community included on their website:

“Yesterday I was living in the shadow of my illness in isolation, loneliness, and despair. Today within the safe, supportive, and compassionate harbor of the Cole Center, I am actively living my recovery. The Cole Center has been a powerful catalyst for a dramatic renewal of my confidence and self-worth.”

White Pony Express: ClassACT Bridge Update

Wed, 11 May 2022 21:57:13 GMT

*Click here to watch the video profile on White Pony Express created by our own Rick Brotman '73!*

As Americans watched in horror last March while Russian missiles slammed into Kievand other Ukrainian cities, the members of White Pony Express noticed that a neighbor had begun to collect supplies in his garage for the refugees who were now streaming into Poland. Volunteers and staff at the Pleasant Hill, Ca. non-profit, which delivers food, clothing and other essentials throughout Contra Costa County, began bringing canned food and diapers to the neighbor to add to a hastily assembled supply line that managed to get necessities to Ukrainian troops and desperate civilians. Within a few weeks, WPE had grown its own network to deliver pallets of medical supplies, hygiene kits and clothing to Ukrainians on both sides of their country’s borders.

“Our circle is large, the need was so dire,” said Eve Birge, executive director of WPE, which has become a model for repurposing food, reducing greenhouse gasses, and creating a “circle of giving” that honors those who receive as well as those who volunteer and donate.

“We would never give out food or clothing that was not the best quality,” said Emily Karakashian ‘73, who connected the non-profit with ClassACT’s Bridge Program. “It is a sense of unity. We are one family.”

Located in an area that embraces both affluent San Francisco bedroom communities and “food deserts” like Richmond, this Bridge Project began in 2013. Its founder, Dr Carol Weyland Connor, was searching for a way to offer to the homeless people she got to know on her daily walks the produce and baked goods she saw grocery stores dumping. The volunteers she helped organize soon began going from store to store seeking donations they could then deliver to a growing number of partner non-profits who would provide the food to those in need.

Borrowing each other’s minivans and lugging ice chests, Karakashian and her fellow volunteers went from department to department in grocery stores seeking donations. Other service organizations helped them raise funds for refrigerated trucks, and a faith-based non-profit provided them with storage space and utilities. “We were all in,” Karakashian said. “We were so happy to do it. The need was so great.” She recalls calling on one butcher who catered to affluent customers. He told her, “I know what you are doing. My father is head of the Salvation Army in Mexico.” He then pulled out his best cuts of meat and put them in her basket.

White Pony Express has delivered more than 18 million tons of fresh food to approximately 120,000 people who grapple with financial hardship compounded by the pandemic. The non-profit has created more than 15 million meals for Contra Costa residents. In a fleet of refrigerated vehicles, its 17 teams of about 400 volunteers speed to stores and restaurants and bring the surplus food back to the warehouse to be sorted and organized. Finally, they deliver the food to partner organizations like food banks and schools where it can be distributed.

By rescuing fresh produce and other food stuffs that otherwise ends up in a landfill, WPE estimates it has prevented approximately 17,000 tons of greenhouse emissions. It has served as a model in a state that recently enacted a mandate that food- service businesses must donate surpluses to food-recovery organizations to combat both hunger and climate change. California has set the goal by 2025 of rescuing 20 percent of all edible food currently being discarded in order to help one in four Californians who don’t have enough to eat.

In recent years WPE has expanded its recovery efforts to include the returned clothing and dead stock that stores discard or sell for a pittance. These items, as well as donated household goods and toys, make up the inventory of the WPE General Store where clients can choose what they want. Donors are told to ask themselves this question: “Would you give it to a loved one?” Karakashian explained. “It has to be that good.”

With its ability to connect abundance to need, White Pony Express was able to step in when the Camp Fire ravaged parts of northern California in 2018. In the weeks and months after California’s worst wildfire in a century, WPE volunteers made two to three trips per week in vans packed with food. At Easter that year, volunteers prepared a brunch for the survivors, some of whom counted family members among the 85 souls who perished in that fire. “The intent was to make it a special day,” Karakashian said. “We prepared boxed meals, special treats, music. It was an uplifting day for everyone.”

That ability to bring its forces to bear rapidly on a disaster allowed WPE to expand its efforts for Ukrainians as the crisis worsened. The non-profit began to “grow its own network,” Birge said. “We started delivering pallets of medical supplies, hygiene kits, warm clothing.” In addition to a page on their website for monetary donations, WPE set up a link that directs donors to an Amazon page where they can purchase desperately needed supplies like tourniquets and baby formula. WPE then bundles these necessities into pallets they are now sending at a steady pace.

“The community has leaned in,” said Birge. “People are feeling that you don’t want to just sit and watch TV. You want to be part of something that helps the situation.” Of the supplies headed for the war zone, she said “We are making sure the way they are packaged and labeled will honor the people in Ukraine, and they will feel the love and respect we have for them.”

From Contra Costa the pallets make their way to several destinations in Ukraine and its neighbors. In April, 500 medical kits went to medical training centers along the border with Poland where Ukrainians came to learn healing techniques and to pick up supplies for their besieged country. Relief workers in Poland loaded other pallets of food onto trucks that drove directly into Ukraine. Partnering with organizations like the Ukraine Freedom Fund, WPE tailors its work to meet priorities and needs that change with each new attack from the Russian army. “We are moving very quickly and learning as we go,” said Birge.

Cash donations earmarked for WPE’s Ukrainian relief efforts can be made at https://www.whiteponyexpress.org/supportukraine. For those who want to purchase priority items on Amazon to be sent to WPE, the list is available at:

https://smile.amazon.com/hz/charitylist/onboarding?orig=%2Fhz%2Fcharitylist%2Fls%2FWRMH3NK7I885%3FtriggerElementID%3DeditItemSettings_ASIN%253AB008QL0BJ0%257CATVPDKIKX0DER%26&ref_=smi_se_cl_rd_ge

White Pony Express is still dealing with a pandemic that has left an increasing number of families with food insecurity due to job loss and rising inflation. In the early months of the pandemic the non-profit scrambled to rescue 25,000 tons of food per day and then deliver it to a growing number of recipients, including 15 new partners. The demand “spiked and it has not gone back down,” said Birge. Now, however, with supply-chain problems, the amount of rescued food has dropped to 10,000 lbs. per day from 15,000 lbs.

Covid protocols have necessitated coming up with new methods of distribution to reduce the risk of infection. Like many food banks across the nation, WPE organized a “touchless” drive-through operation to share the food and clothing people urgently needed. WPE partners who had designed pantries to enable people to select items now have had to box up everything.

To cope with swelling demand, the staff came up with a “White Pony Express App” that allows volunteers to pick up and deliver small amounts of food in addition to the large quantities the organization continues to repurpose. When the non-profit workers receive word of available food, they immediately link that collection with a distribution partner and then send out a notification to all volunteers. Using the new app, a volunteer can claim the run, get the map on his or her phone, and pick up and deliver the food. “It’s so easy,” Emily said. “When I am free, I can say ‘Let me know.’”

With a storehouse of experience and constant innovations, the folks at WPE are eager to share their model. Last year the United Nations Food Rescue Initiative selected the Contra Costa non-profit as one of the solutions for expanding food supplies and reducing greenhouse gasses. The climate action staff of California Governor Gavin Newsom have also applauded WPEs initiatives as they grapple with the state’s rising number of homeless citizens and the effects of a warming planet.

The successes of WPE can serve as a guide for ClassACT HR73 members beyond northern California who are looking for new ways to distribute fresh fruits and vegetables rather than watching produce be dumped into a landfill. “Back in the beginning when we became a bridge project, we hoped that classmates in other areas could take our model and reproduce it,” said Emily. With more and more Harvard College classes forming their own ClassACT groups, she is again optimistic that variations of WPE will soon be found in other locales.

For those ClassACT members who live in the Bay Area, White Pony Express continues to welcome their volunteer efforts for food redistribution and for Ukraine relief. Cash donations can be made at: https://www.whiteponyexpress.org/donate-funds.

ClassACT HR73 Bridge Responds to Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 15:41:28 GMT

A ClassACT Bridge founded in 2013, the White Pony Express networks with businesses and organizations in Contra Costa County, California to collect excess foods and goods and then distribute the items to neighbors in need. Utilizing these established connections, the community has responded with an outpouring of support for Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Ukraine. Classmate Emily Karakashian reports that the White Pony Express delivered several pallets of diapers, medical and hygiene kits, blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothing to a trusted partner organization that will ship the goods overseas. This is only the beginning as the effort to help during this crisis is ongoing. Click this link to donate.

To learn more about the war in Ukraine click on this link to view ClassACT HR73’s recent zoom: A Conversation on Russia’s War on Ukraine.

LGBTQ Youth Rights: Protecting the Queer Frontier

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 23:13:12 GMT

For young people who identify as LGBTQ, these are perilous times. Adolescence and young adulthood for them often mean conflicts with family, classmates, and community members who cannot accept who they are. The results of this intolerance can be depression and anxiety, homelessness, and even suicide. Now, along with these stresses, young trans and queer people are confronting a global pandemic and renewed assaults on their rights in states like Texas,Florida and Ohio.

In our upcoming #ClassACTForum, we examine the challenges LGBTQ youth face and the ways that advocates, friends and families can offer support. Join us on Thursday, April 7 for LGBTQ Youth Rights: Protecting the Queer Frontier. Our co-sponsor for this ClassACT HR73 forum is JusticeAid, a non-profit founded by HR73 classmate Steve Milliken that raises money through music concerts to aid organizations working for justice and equality. This spring JusticeAid is focusing on SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocate Leaders), a Washington D.C. organization that mentors LGBTQ youth and provides housing and mental health services as well.

Our moderator will be Tazewell Jones, a JusticeAid board member and an attorney who has fought against injustice since law school when he volunteered for Lambda Legal Alliance and the Innocence Project. Our panel will include Li Nowlin-Sohl, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ Rights team which works to ensure transparency, accountability and adequate mental health treatment in jails and prisons. Li will be joined by Jorge Membreño, a social worker who has helped to provide clinical services and housing for youth and families in Brookline and Washington, and who now serves as deputy executive director of SMYAL. Our final panelist is Alana Jochum, the executive director of Equality Ohio and a co-chair of Equality Federation’s Board of Directors, which advocates in State Houses across the country to safeguard LGBTQ rights.

ClassACT Presents: A Conversation on Russia's War on Ukraine

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 23:11:52 GMT

ClassACT HR73 invites you to an in depth conversation about the Russian war against Ukraine on Wednesday, March 16 from 7:30 to 8:45 PM ET. Noted historian and former Washington Bureau Chief for Newsweek Evan Thomas '73 will lead a discussion with Nobel Prize winning economist Roger Myerson '73 and international security expert and retired Marine Colonel Mark Cancian '73.

Drawing on their knowledge of Ukraine’s past tragedies and its immediate crisis, these panelists will analyze the current state of the war from military, political and economic perspectives. Questions they are likely to consider include: what were Vladimir Putin and his Russian Army’s objectives when they invaded this sovereign democratic nation? Why has the Russian Army performed so badly in the early stages of this war? Will Ukraine’s army and its citizens continue to resist despite the gap in air power and other resources? What are the prospects for peace and the dangers of a protracted war? What will the economic consequences of this war and unprecedented Western sanctions be for Russia, Europe, the United States and the rest of the world? The plight of the millions of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the bombing of their homes, schools and hospitals lies at the heart of concerns about the war’s impact, a humanitarian crisis the panelist are certain to address.

After a 40 minute conversation these experts will open the floor to questions from the audience.

This Zoom conversation is open to everyone. Please share this invitation with anyone you know who is deeply concerned about the fate of the Ukrainian people and global stability.

Some Good News on Gerrymandering

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 22:45:32 GMT

We provided an extensive update on Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression in the February ClassACT Newsletter through a video interview conducted by Rick Brotman '73 and Jacki Swearingen '73. Here are recent developments.

As of the last week in February, 42 states had adopted their districting plans for the 2022 House race, although more than a dozen plans are facing challenges in court. With the 2022 state primaries close at hand, politicians have been scurrying to redraw voting districts to take into account the 2020 census numbers. They are focusing on the creation of new districts in areas with a growing population and the elimination of districts in areas where the number of voters has been shrinking. This has led to much creative use of the new tools that enable precise gerrymandering, down to the precinct level.

Not surprisingly, the overall trend has been that in states where the legislature carries out the redistricting (the case in most states), the gerrymandering has benefited the dominant political party. Since Republicans control more legislatures, you would expect that the net gains overall to be greater for the G.O.P. than for Democrats. But in fact, the Democrats have been able to tilt things their way very effectively in the states where they call the shots, such as Illinois and New York. For their part, Republicans have used their redistricting power mostly to make existing Republican-controlled districts even more one-sided, to protect incumbents and keep those districts Republican-controlled well into the future, rather than trying to flip as many districts as possible in their favor right now.

In New York, an advisory commission whose members were split 50/50 between the two parties deadlocked and failed to propose a unified redistricting plan. Instead, each side presented its own plan, one drawn to the Democrats’ advantage and the other to the Republicans’. The legislature, which is Democratic-controlled, ignored the two plans and drew up its own, which shifted three seats toward Democrats. Furthermore, the legislature did this in a rush, refusing to hold any public hearings to get input on the proposed maps.

Pennsylvania is a 50-50 battleground state that, because of effective Republican gerrymandering after the 2010 census, has a decidedly Republican-leaning legislature. The legislature created a redistricting plan very favorable to Republicans and sent it to the governor for approval. When the governor, a Democrat, refused to approve the plan, the dispute went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The court delegated the redistricting task to an independent expert from Stanford University. The expert created a much more equitable plan, which the state will use in the 2022 elections.

We anticipated in our ClassACT HR73 Gerrymandering Primer that a lot of gerrymandering would take place in 2022 because of faster, cheaper tools available and less time for scrutiny, given COVID-related delays in releasing the 2020 census data. What is remarkable, however, is that now so much gerrymandering takes place in the open, blatantly. In the past politicians tried to keep the proceedings hidden from public scrutiny, behind closed doors.

Each party seems proud of its prowess in gerrymandering and all but flaunts partisan map-drawing as a valuable tool for advancing its interests. Here is what is equally surprising: how much traction the analytics for detecting gerrymandering have been gaining. The Stanford expert who redrew the Pennsylvania voting districts proved to the court, based on his quantitative techniques and analysis of voter data, that his redistricting plan was fair and balanced.

Furthermore, the State Supreme Court of Ohio has used such analytics to throw out the extremely gerrymandered plans created by the Republican-dominated legislature. North Carolina’s Supreme Court also rejected a voting map because of racial bias, basing its ruling on the results of analytical techniques similar to those we discussed in the Primer.

There is another encouraging trend, despite the overall trend toward more abuse of gerrymandering tactics. The independent-commission model seems to be gaining some momentum. The model has produced fair maps in California since 2011. Colorado and Michigan implemented independent commissions last year, and they appear to be working well. Under this approach, which we favor, politicians do not appoint the members; the commissioners are balanced among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; and the commission, not the legislature, has the power to draw up the voting maps.

As we enter the primaries, and then the general elections, we will see what kind of effect these changes, both negative and positive, will have on voting results. Stay tuned.

-Jim Harbison & Ryan O'Connell

Update on Gerrymandering from Ryan O'Connell and Jim Harbison

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 19:22:05 GMT

UPDATE ON GERRYMANDERING

Video by Rick Brotman '73

Last June, ClassACT HR73 presented an eye-opening forum on gerrymandering featuring our classmates Ryan O’Connell and Jim Harbison. Here is an 18-minute video update, shot by Rick Brotman ‘73, in which, interviewed by Jacki Swearingen ‘73, Jim and Ryan provide timely analysis on the current state of gerrymandering in the nation. Click the image of the video and you can watch it on our youtube page!

If you missed the original forum, click on this link to view it.

Also, here is the link to the Primer on Gerrymandering.

LGBTQ Civil Rights: ClassACT and JusticeAid

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 19:19:00 GMT

CLASSACT FORUMS RETURN AGAIN THIS SPRING!

ClassACT Forums have been on a winter break, but we are gearing up to return this spring with a forum on LGBTQ youth: the many challenges they face, the policies that affect their lives, and the impact on their mental health, development and well-being. This forum is presented in conjunction with ClassACT partner JusticeAid. This year JusticeAid has chosen SMYAL as their beneficiary, and we are pleased to announce that an activist from SMYAL will be a member of our panel. Dr. Harold Cottman ‘73, a psychiatrist who has served members of the LGBTQ community and others who have been marginalized, will also be on the panel. The date, our moderator and other panelists are still in development. Later in the year we plan to present forums on health, voting rights and our changing climate.

Graphic by Pamela Garlick

Classmates engaged in planning the first forum are: Steve Milliken, Founder of JusticeAid, Therese Steiner, ClassACT HR73 and JusticeAid board member, Donna Brorby, Rick Brotman, Harold Cottman, Marion Dry, Sara Greenberg, Andrea Kirsh, Nancy Saarman, Lindsey Straus, Jacki Swearingen, and Sarah Ulerick.

We hope you will join us for all of our 2022 forums. Stay tuned!

JUSTICEAID FOCUSES ON LGBTQ CIVIL RIGHTS

For 2022, JusticeAid will focus on LGBTQ civil rights, specifically the challenges faced by queer and trans youth who are often marginalized, criminalized, and dehumanized. JusticeAid’s 2022 grantee-partner, Washington, D.C.-based SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders), creates opportunities for LGBTQ youth to build self-confidence, develop critical life skills, and engage their peers and community through service and advocacy. SMYAL’s work includes mental-health counseling; after-school programming; teaching leadership, advocacy, and training skills; and providing housing for homeless youth (40% of homeless youth across the nation self-identify as queer.) Click here to learn more.

Photo from smyal.org

SAVE THE DATES: MAY 15TH & 16TH IN NYC

MAY 15TH: JUSTICEAID/ RIVERSIDE CHURCH PUBLIC FORUM

For the fourth year in a row, JusticeAid is partnering with The Riverside Church in New York City to host a free program that spotlights JusticeAid’s annual issue. This year’s in-person Forum will center on the societal and legal challenges faced by LGBTQ youth, with music and other arts elements.

MAY 16TH: JUSTICEAID CONCERT AT CITY WINERY CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BESSIE SMITH

Not to be missed! Join classmates Steve Milliken, JusticeAid Co-Founder & CEO, and Therese Steiner, ClassACT HR73 and JusticeAid Board member, and lovers of justice, jazz and the blues, for an incredible night of music honoring “the Empress of the Blues,” Bessie Smith. The concert at the new home of City Winery in New York City will raise vital funds to support the work of SMYAL.

FEATURING LGBTQ ART & ARTISTS

Each month, JusticeAid is featuring films, artists and musicians that illuminate the LGBTQ experience, in the hopes that these works will spark conversation between friends, colleagues and family members, and deepen our understanding of queerness. Check it out!

Osiligi Hope Foundation and Salih Self Development Center Updates

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 22:30:04 GMT

Since we last heard from him in August, David Weeks ‘73 reports that progress has been made on his projects with the Maasai community in the district of Narok, about a three-hour drive southwest of Nairobi, Kenya. He and his partner and former student, Kikanae Punyua, have constructed a medical dispensary, the Osiligi (Hope) Medical Dispensary, for emergency care and to support the childbirth needs of women. In addition, they have almost completed the construction of a facility that will house a pharmacy, dentist’s office, vision center and lab for the making of traditional Maasai medicine to complement western medicine. They have received a $5,000 grant from the Fund for the Future of Our Children Foundation in Washington, D.C., but still need an additional $20,000 to complete construction. Following the construction, a wish list of equipment needs will be developed.

As part of his overall vision for the community, David is now in the process of working with an architect on a design for a small hospital ward to provide a residential facility for staff and patients. He has already established a MOU with the Narok Health Department which has staffed and made the Osiligi (Hope) Medical Dispensary operational. The Narok Health Department is expected to also support the pharmacy/dental/vision center and the hospital ward, once completed.

When the three medical facilities are complete, David hopes to see a community center constructed to support traditional Maasai song and dance school competitions and presentations to tourists, to house artifacts from their proud past and to provide a display and marketing room for the beaded handicrafts of the women. He is involved with the Fair Trade Movement and has been supporting the Osiligi Women’s Craft Cooperative and selling their beaded jewelry in Maryland.

Please see David’s GoFundMe site for further information about projects and the history of his association with this Maasai community in Kenya.

In addition to his work in Kenya, David is involved with the establishment of the Salih Self Development Center in Ghana. Along with another former student, Ibrahim (Anyars) Salih, David has developed a 501(c)3 to help support the Center to address the needs of the community in Kumasi. A sewing vocational training program and a computer design program have been developed to provide valuable skills to the youth in the Aboabo township. Ibrahim has also been consulting with Kumasi government officials who have wanted to provide more vocational training in the industrial arts: plumbing, electrical, carpentry, automotive and computer. Since the programs take place on rented property, David and his team have wanted to establish a centralized Salih Self Development Center. Land has been purchased on the outskirts of Kumasi, a well has been dug and plans have been drawn for the construction of the center. The design for the facility will be large enough to provide the support being sought by the Kumasi government. David also hopes to establish a MOU with the Kumasi government to assist in staffing this facility upon completion. It is estimated to cost $500,000.

Essential to the work of David’s projects in Kenya and Ghana are his former students. In Kenya, former student Kikanae Punyua graduated from the University of Maryland with an economics degree and is presently studying for his MBA at a university in Nairobi while working at a hotel in Narok. He lives in Narok with his wife and two daughters. In Ghana, Ibrahim (Anyars) Salih graduated from Hood College with a business degree and is presently working with a company in San Diego and living there with his wife and daughter.

Please check out both websites to gain a better appreciation of what David and his former students have been doing:

Osiligi Hope Foundation

Salih Center for Self Development

ClassACT HR73 Welcomes 3 New Board Members

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 22:27:50 GMT

It is with great joy that ClassACT HR73 welcomes Ron Dieckmann, Dan Hoffheimer, and Henrietta Wigglesworth Lodge to the board. Each of them brings with them great skills, wonderful vision, and inspiring enthusiasm. As ClassACT has grown, so has our need for strong leadership and innovation. We look forward to discovering the contributions that each of these wonderful classmates will make to our work. Please join us in a toast to Henrietta, Dan and Ron, and take a look at their bios on our leadership page!

Nepal Spine Foundation: A Classmate's Life-Changing Efforts

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 22:26:16 GMT

*click the image below to view the video on our youtube page

Video by Rick Brotman '73, featuring Dr. Richard Wohns '73 and Jacki Swearingen '73

A climbing expedition to Mt. Everest and treks through Nepal in the 1970s and 1980s led Dr. Richard Wohns ’73 to found the Nepal Spine Foundation in 2013 as a way to give back to the people there and to bring cutting edge neurosurgical techniques to a country often lacking in the latest medical resources. Today Dr. Wohns, a Seattle resident, and a team of fellow surgeons and nurses travel annually to Kathmandu to help perform spine surgery on patients at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) who suffer from debilitating and excruciating injuries and diseases including tuberculosis. In the months between those visits, Dr. Wohns and the foundation’s neurosurgeons meet monthly via Zoom with the faculty members and residents of TUTH to discuss surgical cases.

“I love the country, and I love the people,” said Dr. Wohns, who began trekking through the majestic Kathmandu Valley and climbing peaks such as K2 back when only a small number of climbers ventured up the world’s tallest mountains. Yet the splendor of the Himalayas has not blinded him to the country’s health-care crisis, especially in rural villages. With its population of 30 million, Nepal has only 100 neurosurgeons. “The implication is that people are waiting for care or never getting it,” Dr. Wohns added.

Arriving each year with donated spinal instruments, equipment and implants, Dr. Wohns and his team offer Nepalis who otherwise could not afford the devices and surgery a chance at a new life. Among the Foundation’s success stories is that of one young man, a laborer, who fell from a tree and broke his neck. Despite the collar prescribed by the local doctor, his pain worsened and some extremities grew numb. The young man walked nine days to the teaching hospital in Kathmandu where Dr. Wohns’ team was working. The donated screws, plates and expertise the team brought allowed the young man to receive the care he could otherwise not afford. “He did fine. He went back to the village and he could do work,” Dr. Wohns recalled.

Dr. Wohns estimates that Nepal needs at least 200 more neurosurgeons to provide the level of care that its population requires. Consequently, another key mission of the Nepal Spine Foundation is training faculty and residents in the latest techniques they normally would have difficulty learning without traveling outside Nepal. When the pandemic hit, Dr. Wohns and his team started monthly online meetings in which they lecture, help to read MRI’s and guide residents learning to present complicated cases.

“It’s always fun. It’s always interesting. It’s always educational,” said Dr. Wohns of collaborating virtually with his Nepali colleagues, including Dr. Sushil Shilpakar and Dr. Mohan Sharma, the first neurosurgeons trained at TUTH in the 1990s. Both physicians are now members of the Nepal Spine Institute’s Board of Directors. “We’ve got a growing audience with more people coming in from the Kathmandu community of neurosurgeons, not just those at TUTH.”

In November Dr. Wohns and the foundation team plan to return to Kathmandu for Spine Week, during which they hope to deliver 20 lectures and perform“a significant number of new spinal procedures,” he said. “I would love to have some of my 1973 classmates who are neurosurgeons join me,” he added, extending the invitations to others who are neurologists, physicians assistants, operating nurses, and pain specialists as well those skilled in online medical education. “People who have come with me have gotten the bug and have gotten to make really good friends there.”

Classmates and others who are not in health care can lend their support by donating to the Nepal Spine Foundation or joining in fundraising events such as the 2022 Trek to Everest Base Camp. Scheduled for November 11 to December 1 (with the option of helicoptering out of base camp earlier), the trek includes a significant donation to Tribhuvan hospital to promote neurosurgery as well as a final day spent observing the remarkable work of the hospital’s staff.

“The neurosurgeons at TUTH are tremendously skilled. We want to help them obtain all the tools needed to provide state-of-the-art care,” Dr. Wohns said.

Examining U.S. History Through Art

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:05:50 GMT

Back in January, ClassACT produced the Zoom Forum, “When the Stage Goes Dark: Performing Arts in Covid Time.” The arts not only give us joy, but also help us understand the world we live in. The work explored here is by Linda Bond, an artist whose work explores some of the hard stuff in American history. Linda is married to our classmate Rick Brotman, an artist and a central member of the ClassACT team, and, as you will see, Rick collaborated with Linda on some of this work. Our classmate Andrea Kirsh, art critic and historian, explores Linda’s work in the commentary below and in her review of Linda's current exhibition at Drexel University. Rick has created a beautiful accompanying video of that exhibition - please take a look below.

Andrea Kirsh writes:

I knew Rick Brotman from our mutual work for ClassACT HR73, but we only met at the 2019 symposium at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs that ClassACT HR73 organized in connection with its Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program. Rick, a professional videographer, was covering the event. There I also met Rick’s wife, Linda Bond, and discovered she was an artist whose work addressed U.S. activities and policies in the Middle East and a variety of social justice themes. She has worked on several projects involving video and the web in collaboration with Rick, one with women in Afghanistan.

My own interests in art are broad, but I have a strong interest in artists who address current social and political topics with work that is largely outside of the art market. Such work is rarely covered by commercial art publications which depend on advertising, so to show and circulate their work artists must find small, not-for profit and artist-run spaces, public libraries with exhibition programs, sympathetic community organizations, university galleries and museums which are not beholden to board members, and non-profit publications .

Since 2006 I’ve been writing criticism for Artblog, a Philadelphia-based web publication committed to covering the breadth of art produced in Philadelphia and elsewhere, with no consideration for its marketability. It covers work exhibited in coffee shops, in artists’ homes which function as occasional galleries, in artist-run spaces, in public or commercial spaces lent to artists for special projects and in the various circumstances which enterprising artists find to exhibit their work to the public, as well as the more conventional galleries, art centers and museums. There is a lot of art being produced that deserves attention. I consider it my service to the field to broaden the range of artwork that receives critical attention as well as to bring some art historical perspective to work being shown, since few art writers have studied art history nor have most artists, even those who teach.

I was excited to learn that Linda had two upcoming projects in Philadelphia: a large survey of twenty years of her work at the gallery at Drexel University, a showing which I reviewed for Artblog, and an installation at Eastern State Penitentiary, a historic site that addresses the history of criminal justice reform and current questions of equity in the criminal justice system.

Eastern State has commissioned artists to produce work for its grounds since 1995, selecting those whose proposals address the organization’s themes. Linda sited her piece, Deadly Weapons, in one of the small penitentiary cells whose walls had remnants of peeling plaster and paint. At first glance the cell had been brightened with reflective silver flooring and both the spare cot in its center and the wall behind were covered with textiles in the bright colors of Mexican festival decorations. Bond used beauty as a seduction to tell viewers the story of immigrants from South and Central America detained at the U.S. Southern border who are taken into custody and have their shoelaces removed so they cannot run away and the laces can’t be used as “deadly weapons.” Placed in detention with only Mylar blankets for warmth, they are released into Mexico to await hearings and their shoelaces are not returned. As a result, they sometimes make new shoelaces out of strips of the Mylar which Bond had woven with shoelaces to make her cover for the cot. She had used more shoelaces as a makeshift curtain at the back wall. That wrenching twist, when the seduction of her materials and technique is confronted with the grimness of her subject, is characteristic of Bond’s method. Like all the best art of a political nature, hers raises questions but doesn’t provide answers. And like the best political artworks, her questions are impossible to ignore.

Linda’s work at Drexel will be showing through February 20th, 2022, and her installation at Eastern State Penitentiary will be open through the spring.

Rick has also produced the following video about the 20- year retrospective at Drexel.

Link to video: Errors and Omissions - Linda Bond

ClassACT HR73 Responds to Afghan Refugees

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:03:58 GMT

ClassACT is dedicated to “achieving change together.” While our efforts often focus on national and global changes, the connections made through ClassACT create ripple effects that result in positive change for individual lives. We are delighted to share another such example. Our classmate Jeremy Bluhm lives in Sydney, Australia and has attended some of ClassACT HR73’s virtual events. When the tailor on Jeremy’s street, Reza Nikan, asked for help, Jeremy thought of ClassACT. Reza, who is “a wonderful Hazara man who has lived in Australia for about 15 years,” asked for help for his aunt, Hanifa (52), and cousin, Sabera (24). In October, Hanifa and Sabera were able to escape from Afghanistan to Islamabad, Pakistan, with a goal of resettlement in the US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. Reza reported that they landed in a foreign country as unaccompanied women and felt very vulnerable and afraid.

Upon Jeremy’s request for assistance, we reached out to two of our former Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program fellows, Natasha Jehangir Khan and Nadia Rehman, and one BBLP Associate (and Natasha’s husband), Muhammad Ali, who all live in Islamabad. The three immediately responded and have begun connecting with the women. Natasha and Ali are contacting the Afghan Representative in Islamabad to find out how the women can be helped. In addition, Natasha is helping Sabera, a fledgling dressmaker, connect with vocational training to improve her skills. Nadia is in the process of reaching out to Hanifa and Sabera to offer her assistance as well. Jeremy has been told to reassure Reza that they are living in a “fairly safe” neighborhood and that there are other Afghans living in the area. We are following these ongoing efforts and will provide updates in future communications.

The News on Gerrymandering is Grim - Ryan O'Connell and Jim Harbison

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 23:14:50 GMT

The News on Gerrymandering is Grim

The redistricting process is in full swing, and unfortunately, some politicians in both major parties are grossly abusing their power to redraw election district maps. As we highlighted in our primer on gerrymandering, Gerrymandering: Our Democracy At Risk, these trends are growing more extreme. That is partly because the United States Supreme Court has either eliminated or gravely weakened provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that previously helped to prevent egregiously gerrymandered maps in many states.

Now, more than ever, it is critical that the Senate pass The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. These measures would provide Federal standards to protect key voting rights, in Congressional races, from attacks by state officials and lawmakers. We urge you to contact your Senators and ask them to support these two crucial proposals.

Independent Commissions Work…

Certain politicians from both major parties are trying to stack the deck in their favor in several states where their party dominates the legislature. In some instances, they are ignoring, or undermining, advisory commissions that were recently created in efforts to reform the map-drawing process. These developments have reinforced our view that independent commissions are the best way to ensure that maps are drawn fairly.

Truly independent commissions can succeed because, unlike advisory commissions, they have the power to draw and implement electoral maps—not just recommend them. Even in the best models, such as California’s, politicians don’t appoint the commissioners, who are subject to strong conflict-of-interest rules. Furthermore, the commissioners are evenly divided among Republicans, Democrats and independents. This structure forces Democrats and Republicans to compromise on the maps, so they can get the independent commissioners to approve them.

With such safeguards in place, no single party can dictate the maps. Still, we should monitor independent commissions’ deliberations to make sure they produce non-partisan outcomes.

But Advisory Commissions Hit Roadblocks in New York

The problems with two recent reform efforts demonstrate the flaws of advisory commissions and the advantages of independent commissions.

In New York, Democrats hold super-majorities in both the state assembly and the state senate. Voters approved the creation of an advisory commission to draw up maps in this redistricting cycle. However, the commission can only make recommendations, and the legislature retains the ultimate power on redistricting decisions. Democrats have essentially ignored the maps proposed by the commission.

There were two other major flaws in the structure:

· politicians chose the commissioners

· the commissioners were evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans

Predictably, the commission deadlocked, so its members issued two sets of maps: one drawn by Republican appointees and another drawn by Democratic members. Both were dead on arrival.

And Deadlocked in Virginia

We had been more optimistic about the possible outcome for Virginia’s new advisory commission, but that reform effort has also run into trouble. As in New York’s structure, politicians appoint the commissioners, who are split 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats. They were supposed to deliver maps to the state legislature, which can accept or reject them. But the commissioners could not agree on the maps.

However, Virginia has a fallback provision that may lead to a less partisan result than New York’s. Since the commissioners did not issue maps (and the legislature did not accept any), the Virginia State Supreme Court is now empowered to redraw the electoral districts. Judges on that court are not elected, and the Court has a history of acting impartially. The court will hire a special master, a non-partisan professional, to create the maps.

By contrast, the newly-established independent commissions in Colorado and Michigan seem to be off to a good start. Arizona also has a fairly independent commission, although its safeguards are not as robust as California’s.

Both Sides are Gaming the Rules but…

Democratic lawmakers in Maryland and Illinois, as well as those in New York, are engaged in gerrymandering in this cycle. However, most extreme gerrymandering attempts are being carried out in states dominated by Republican legislatures. That is because Republicans control more state houses than Democrats do and because they are trying to preserve their electoral advantage in battleground states where they are facing adverse demographic shifts.

As Nick Corosaniti of the New York Times has observed (GOP Cements Hold On Legislatures in Battleground States),

“In Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia, Republican state lawmakers have either created supermajorities capable of overturning a governor’s veto or whittled down competitive districts so significantly that Republicans’ advantage is virtually impenetrable—leaving voters in narrowly divided states powerless to change the leadership of their legislatures.” (Nov. 25, 2021).

These are all key battleground states. North Carolina and Georgia voters are fairly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, and Texas is getting close, but extreme gerrymanders have enabled Republicans to dominate those legislatures. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin and Michigan, two other hotly contested jurisdictions, have also gerrymandered districts heavily, although the new independent commission in Michigan offers hope for a fairer outcome in this cycle.

The Senate Must Pass Voting Rights Acts NOW

After the Democrats failed last summer to pass the sweeping For the People Act, they introduced a scaled-down bill, the Freedom to Vote Act. This bill contained many of the FTPA’s key measures, but it dropped the requirement for states to establish independent commissions to conduct Federal (not state) elections, and it included other concessions.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is also before the Senate.

This bill would:

· restore federal oversight of states practices to ensure that states do not pass laws that discriminate against voters based on race or political background

· require greater transparency in changes to voting laws and practices

· restore voters’ ability to challenge discriminatory voting practices in court

These two pieces of legislation present the best way to protect voting rights from abuse by state officials and lawmakers. If enacted, these proposals would make it easier to sue jurisdictions for extreme gerrymandering and help to prevent racial gerrymandering and purging voters from rolls.

Time to Create an Exception to the Filibuster

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has promised to bring the bills for a vote in the Senate before year-end, and we hope he means it, because time is running short. The 2022 election cycle will soon begin in earnest.

At this point, it is clear that no Republican Senator will support either of these measures. Instead, Republicans will filibuster the two bills, arguing that they infringe upon “states’ rights” …while ignoring the abuses the two proposals would stop.

We urge you to contact your senators and let them know how important passage of these two bills is for ensuring that our elections remain fair. And if they are Democrats, ask them to carve out an exemption to the filibuster for proposals, like these two measures, that would protect fundamental rights such as voting.

Ryan O’Connell ‘73

Jim Harbison ‘73

Understanding Our Differences: Bridge Program Update

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:42:12 GMT

Understanding Our Differences, an award winning, nationally recognized program that helps students not only increase their knowledge and understanding of differences among people, but also provides practical skills, is one of ClassACTs Bridge Programs. Please click on the image above to view Rick Brotman '73’s short video that explains in detail about the program and how ClassACT helped it move forward in its growth.

Click here to watch!

Meet our new Benazir Bhutto Leadership Fellow!

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:42:04 GMT

After a pause due to the pandemic, ClassACT’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program fellowship is back! Our 2021/2022 BBLP fellow Zeina Majdalani hails from Lebanon. She is a civil engineer and has spent 10 years working for the Lebanese government in the water and energy sectors. In addition, in 2017 she founded an organization for women engineers and architects. Interested in sustainable practices and policy, she is taking five courses at HKS and MIT. Zeina is grateful for the fellowship and says her goal is to promote “positive change in Lebanon.” Click below to view Rick Brotman '73's four minute video to learn more about Zeina.

Learn more here!

JusticeAid Fall Concert + Author Talk

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 18:15:27 GMT

JUSTICEAID CONCERT WITH MAVIS STAPLES & AUTHOR TALK

JusticeAid’s mission is simple: Do good through music and the arts

Rock with Civil Rights and Social Justice Music Icon Mavis Staples

Oct. 19 @7:20pm ET, Lincoln Theatre, Washington, D.C.

Photo from justiceaid.org

Click here to purchase tickets

Join JusticeAid live in concert with Mavis Staples and Amy Helm at the historic Lincoln Theatre on U street on Tuesday evening, October 19th at 7:20pm ET. All proceeds from the show will benefit Neighborhood Defender Service in support of JusticeAid’s 2021 issue: police accountability and community empowerment. It will be a fun evening supporting a pressing social justice cause---a great event to share with family, friends, colleagues or clients. Great seats available at an array of price points.

*Proof of vaccination, and masking will be required consistent with DC policy.

Author Talk: Kristin Henning, The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth

A JusticeAid Facebook Live event Oct. 19 @5:00pm ET

Photo from justiceaid.org

Tune in at 5:00pm ET on JusticeAid’s Facebook Live page for an important conversation on the intersection of race, adolescence and policing with Kris Henning, author of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. Professor Henning serves as the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, and was previously the Lead Attorney of the Juvenile Unit at the D.C. Public Defender Service. For additional information, go to JusticeAid’s Facebook page.

Professor Henning will be in conversation with Angela J. Davis, Distinguished Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. Professor Davis is an expert in criminal law and procedure, with a specific focus on prosecutorial power and racism in the criminal justice system. Professor Davis previously served as director of the D.C. Public Defender Service, where she began as a staff attorney representing indigent juveniles and adults.

#ClassACTForum: Climate Change and Water Crises

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 18:41:50 GMT

CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER CRISES: DROUGHT, FLOOD, CONTAMINATION … AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

Monday, October 25th, 7:00 - 8:30 PM EDT

Human impact on the planet is being compared to the meteor that struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs – we have truly entered the Anthropocene. A changing climate acts first and foremost through the water cycle, which together with human demands are putting unprecedented stress on the reliable availability of water. Its amounts, timing, and quality for humans, other species, and ecosystems have been severely disrupted. Extreme weather events in the summer of 2021 alone run the gamut from wildfires in Siberia and the American West, to unprecedented rainfall events and floods in Germany, China, and the U.S. Gulf Coast, to sea snot (marine mucilage) in the Sea of Marmara off the coast of Turkey. These and other events impact water availability, quality, quantity, and timeliness around the world.

We bring together a panel of experts, moderated by Erum Sattar, Program Lead of the Sustainable Water Management Program (SWM) at Tufts University, and including Andy Sawyer ’73, Assistant Chief Counsel of the California State Water Resources Control Board, Jeff Hébert, President of HR&A, Kelsey Leonard, water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation, and William Moomaw, Emeritus Professor of international environmental policy at Tufts University, to discuss these disparate and interrelated problems. Together, we aim to attain greater understanding of the immense challenges to global and local water security and to begin to chart future actions.

ClassACT Links Two '73 Grads for a Joint Healthcare Project in Haiti

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:00:36 GMT

CLASSACT LINKS TWO '73 HARVARD GRADS FOR A JOINT

HEALTH-CARE PROJECT IN HAITI

By Ron Dieckmann

Ron Dieckmann '73 in Peru

Two ’73 Harvard doctors are bringing their nonprofit healthcare groups together for a physician training and software giveaway this summer in the country of Haiti. Dr. Ron Dieckmann and his California-based KidsCareEverywhere organization has joined forces through ClassACT with Dr. Dan Scoppetta and Grand Anse Surgery Project for the first-time exercise in the city of Jeremie, where the project is based. The project will be completely virtual and conducted with Zoom technology.

Ron and Dan met through the ClassACT healthcare group and have been planning the joint project since January 2021. “Ron and his team have been extraordinary,” says Dan. “In Haiti close to 100 individuals were identified as participants in a project that would provide an educational tool of great utility. To me it is having a ‘library on your cellphone’ providing accurate, thorough, practical information about medical management.”

KidsCareEverywhere, a public charity founded by Ron in 2006, has provided free medical software and software training to physicians in 23 countries on three continents: Africa, Asia and South America. KidsCareEverywhere’s mission is generously supported by EBSCO Health (Ipswich, MA), which donates powerful, up-to-date medical software called DynaMed for distribution in under-resourced countries. The software is primarily used as a mobile app on smart phones and has been extensively used by physicians worldwide for patient-care decision-making, education and teaching.

Dan Scoppetta '73 in Haiti with a fellow doctor

Dan’s nonprofit group, Grand Anse Surgery, began in 2016 at the invitation of the Grand Anse Women’s Health Program. The Grand Anse Surgery Project (GASP) then started periodic visits to Haiti to provide breast surgery and to help build an in-country surgical program in Jeremie. The surgical mission quickly expanded to include thyroid surgery and hernia surgery. A third nonprofit group that works with Dan in Jeremie, the Grand Anse Health Development Association, is also an active partner in the summer training exercise.

The Haiti program will be the first completely virtual training for KidsCareEverywhere. “This virtual model is what we will be primarily using going forward,” Ron envisioned. “With so many barriers facing us now for on-the-ground conventional training, I am extremely pleased to have the chance to collaborate with Dan in Haiti and develop this new, inexpensive approach to our worldwide mission.”

The Team Behind Those Fabulous Forums

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 18:04:16 GMT

Terrible as the pandemic has been, it also has allowed us to discover Zoom. And like a rose poking out from a slag heap, ClassACT’s Zoom Forums have emerged, with their timely, entertaining and substantive discussions on topics such as health, politics, social justice, the arts and sports. The technology has allowed the Forums to cast a far-flung net, not only in terms of moderators and panelists but also in attracting audiences composed of classmates and interested outside parties.

ClassACT’s first Zoom Forum featured Jono Quick ’73, on March 23, 2020, and discussed COVID-19 just as it was beginning its rampage through the nation. The most recent, June 10’s presentation, Gerrymandering: Our Democracy at Risk, was the 13th in the series. (It is available for viewing at the webpage provided soon.) That’s a dozen plus one in less than 15 months. For a complete list, take a look at our website here. That would be a dizzying pace for anyone, but it’s especially so for the tiny, all-volunteer, behind-the-scenes band producing them. So, we’d like them to come out from behind the Zoom curtains. Ladies and gentlemen...introducing:

Executive Producer: Marion Dry '73. The Zoom Forums were the brainchild of Marion, ClassACT Board Co-Chair. She has been the sustaining force through the challenging transformation and rapid expansion of ClassACT’s outreach and educational efforts. Marion’s leadership and her investment of considerable time was critical to building the Forum Team and teamwork was essential to the ability to produce such an extensive Forum series.

"ClassACT had planned several regional events for summer and fall 2020,” she says. “We wanted to continue to build community, and with the success of the first Forum it seemed a no-brainer to keep at it."

“What I didn't expect was how meaningful the Forums would become to our audience and to our mission or how much they would expand and diversify our community. The core group working on them reached out to classmates far and wide, many of whom had had little connection to ClassACT beforehand, to help us with program development and to recruit panelists. Now many of those folks are core contributors to our work. All of us who have worked together on these forums have found a new sense of community and endeavor. It really has been thrilling. I have met and worked with classmates whose names I had never heard before. They are extraordinary people and I am grateful that I can count some of them now as my dear friends. This is the magic of ClassACT as witnessed in the development and production of these Forums.”

Casting Directors: Donna Brown Guillaume ’73 and Therese Steiner ’73. Led by Marion and working with others such as Steve Milliken ’73 (who corralled the panelists for this past March’s Forum on Racism and the Criminal System) and Becky Miller Sykes ’73 (who invited the panelists for the Education forum in November), Donna and Therese—both veteran TV producers—brainstorm topics and then with the help of the ClassACT board and others seek expert moderators and panelists from among classmates and outside experts. Basically, it’s Networking 101. “How do we cast them? It’s largely who you know,” says Donna. “We’ll just start throwing names out there while we are ruminating about the subject matter. People just pitch in if they know someone and that’s their field of expertise.”

Steve, a former judge in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and founder of JusticeAid, notes how much care goes into panel-building. For the grouping on Racism and the Criminal System, he recounts, “We needed a D.A.’s voice but we wanted to get a progressive voice [New Orleans’s Jason Williams]. We needed a defender’s voice but I needed it to be somebody who has really pioneered holistic defense as Neighborhood Defenders Service and Rick Jones have done. We needed to have a community organizer’s voice, and that was Gina Clayton- Johnson from Essie Justice Group. And we also wanted to have a police voice…I wanted it to be [Georgetown Law’s] Christy Lopez who has been working with police forces around the country on bystander intervention and other reforms. We took four progressive voices who represent the pillars that constitute the criminal system….So that’s how we approached the composition of that panel and then I went and reached out to people I have known in each of those walks of life.”

“We have made it a mission to have a woman and a person of color on each panel,” says Therese. “After the first three panels, we really started broadening the scope. We expanded to the Zoom Webinar format, so we can get more people involved. Now the Forums have become something that a lot of people outside of ClassACT and even outside of Harvard have been interested in.”

“You want expertise, you want representation, you want participation, and you want a broad audience to be listening,” says Donna. “I think that as Ivy Leaguers we sometimes fall into the pattern of just talking to ourselves and each other. That can be very stimulating but I don’t think that necessarily advances the goals of ClassACT. If we’re really trying to achieve change together we really have to talk to people outside the Harvard/Radcliffe Class of ’73.”

Producers: Sarah Ulerick ’73 and Sara Greenberg ’73, Andrea Kirsh ’73, Jacki Swearingen ’73 and Marion Dry ’73 (Executive Producer). Without these five, the Forums would not have happened. When the pandemic hit, Marion reached out to what was then the ClassACT Event Group and asked them to pivot from producing in-person regional events to producing Zoom Forums. They jumped in with both feet and we should now really call them, along with videographer and designer Rick Brotman ’73, and production crew members Diana Lobontiu and Katie Marinello, the ClassACT HR73 Forum Production Company! They have demanded excellence of themselves and their product and the Forums keep getting better and better.

Staff Production Crew: Diana Lobontiu and Katie Marinello. Diana, ClassACT’s dauntless executive assistant, sweats the details. She’s the person who, with the assistance of Sarah, Sara, Andrea, Jacki, and Marion, is in charge of making sure the show sticks to the script and follows the minute-by-minute schedules known as “run of show” that are a godsend to the moderator. (As a former moderator, believe me, I know.) She also guarantees that everyone has the information he or she needs. That includes posting panelists’ bios and relevant links in the Chat area.

Diana shows up in so many places, including moderating each Forum’s Chat discussion, that at first I thought there must be two of her. And then I found out that in a way, there are! She has a twin sister, Ioana, whom she has involved in the process. “We did the first few [Forums] without a checklist,” says Diana. “Then last summer we all got together and made a checklist. We have an elaborate system. My twin sister emails us with reminders twice each week.”

(Says Donna Brown Guillaume: “The fact it plays as well as it does—all praises to Diana.”)

As time went on, a process emerged. “We figured out that we had to standardize things,” says Katie, who is the maestro of ClassACT’s social media initiatives and live-tweets each Forum. “We should be playing from the same playbook. What information are we gathering from the panelists? Let’s put that in one document. What do our runs-of-show look like? Do the panelists need to see the runs-of-show? And the other thing is that the checklist is only as good as the people who use it.”

With so many safeguards, what could go wrong? “Several things have already happened,” says Diana. “I lost control of the host command and couldn’t turn a panelist’s video on so he just didn’t go on. I recorded a whole panel but my computer shut down so we lost the whole thing.”

Videographer and Designer: Rick Brotman ’73. In addition to overseeing the Forums’ visual presentation, veteran video guru Rick creates a pre-show “teaser” designed to bring folks into the tent, then edits the show afterward for later viewing.

Says Therese, “Rick has helped professionalize our look and have an afterlife for people’s comments on the website.”

“This feels like the same thing I’ve always done,” Rick says of the Forums. “It’s just that everyone’s dialing in rather than walking into a ballroom.” He sees his job as an exercise in brand-building, “to give people a sense of what this thing is about. What’s the emotional tug of this? What’s the thing that makes us us?

“I always felt that what I was doing in editing was leaving the breadcrumbs. The video is much clearer, much cleaner than the actual event. We’ve got damned good people doing damned good content….When I go back in and realize the nuances of what people are doing, it’s really good content and helps me think about the issue in a much better way.”

Rick lauds the choice of Forum subjects. “The fact that this has all been topical, present and immediate has just been really important,” he says. “What’s really been lovely about ClassACT is that we put into practice the thing we have learned, which is, how are you connected to people and how are you connecting, and what kind of conversation can come from that. The fact that [the Forums] have resonated with people has just been really rewarding.”

Rewarding it has been, and it’s getting more so all the time. So take a bow, folks.

Interview on Gerrymandering with Ryan O'Connell, Jim Harbison, and Sallie Gouverneur

Tue, 11 May 2021 19:59:26 GMT

Gerrymandering

By Jacki Swearingen '73

In this year of insurrection, gerrymandering threatens to weaken democracy even further by the voter inequity and polarization it spawns. Gerrymandering buttresses a congressional system in which getting anything done is next to impossible. In state legislatures gerrymandering bolsters primaries where lawmakers flaunt dangerous conspiracy theories. As for individual citizens, a growing number feel their votes count for nothing.

“We think the problem is worse than we expected,” said Ryan O’Connell ’73, one of three Class ACT members who have just produced Gerrymandering: Our Democracy at Risk, a primer on redistricting reform. “It is a real threat to democracy. People’s votes don’t get equal weight.”

Gerrymandering too often remains hidden in back rooms where political operatives find ways to enhance their party’s political clout at the expense of voters. “Gerrymandering occurs when the state legislature draws voting districts in a distorted manner,” O’Connell, Jim Harbison ’73, and editor Sallie Gouverneur ’73, explain in their primer. Finding ways to give their parties as many victories as possible, these architects of gerrymandering have come up with ingenious methods to cram as many opposing voters into as few districts as possible while distributing their own voters in ways that allow them to capture slim majorities in as many districts as possible.

Legislators who draw those maps have the most to gain from configuring the contorted districts. “The fox is guarding the chicken coop,” said O’Connell, who concludes that such a system shreds accountability. Those lawmakers then focus solely on the voters likely to reelect them while ignoring the rest and rendering their votes worthless. “It distorts the political process,” O’Connell said. “The forces of darkness are very strong.”

For the ClassACT team that created the primer, it is past time to break that web of secrecy and silence. Their five months of work has resulted in an incisive and detailed analysis of gerrymandering that inspires hope for change. Along with historical context that stretches back to 1788, they introduce readers to the latest mathematical tools used both to construct gerrymandered districts and to expose them. Most importantly, they provide pragmatic routes to reform already underway.

With the release last month of new census numbers, the ClassACT authors’ mission is more urgent than ever. This year states begin redrawing congressional and state legislative districts according to how their population has shifted. With demographic movements from northern industrial states like New York and Michigan to southern and western states like Texas and Florida, the borders of many electoral districts are likely to shift dramatically.

In too many cases, the authors say, state legislators see redistricting as a means of holding onto and extending their own power. In recent decades the party in power in the legislature gerrymanders to gain a disproportionate number of seats and to send a disproportionate number of their party members to Congress. Gerrymandering gives incumbents a convenient way to design the maps of their own districts so that they can easily hold on to “safe seats.” Harbison noted “We are the only democracy where legislators pick who votes for them.”

The end result is a political system where countless voters in state and federal elections find their votes are essentially worthless. Gerrymandering proponents deliberately rely on such methods as “packing” and “cracking” to place voters into the districts they construct. With “packing,” Harbison explains “You want to pack the opposing party into as few districts as possible.” There those disenfranchised voters are likely to choose a candidate of their own party by an overwhelming majority. But that cramming means there are fewer voters from their party to place in other districts where they might have a shot at winning an election.

Conversely, “cracking,” Harbison says, allows these same architects to scatter the voters being disenfranchised into as many districts as possible. It then becomes nearly impossible for their party to approach the 51 percent necessary to win an election in these districts. One telltale sign of such practices are the contorted shapes of districts on gerrymandered maps whose creators have linked narrow strands of counties to get the voting pools they desired.

When did the excesses of gerrymandering reach the point where it became the threat to democracy that it is today? Harbison and O’Connell trace the trend back to the 2008 election when Republicans failed to secure the White House or Congress. Savvy political operatives figured out the key to winning back seats in Congress was first to establish control of the state legislatures that would do the redistricting after the 2010 Census. “If you look at history,” Harbison said, “the Republicans recovered by winning back all the legislatures. They did very well.” The eventual rewards were redistricted maps that ensured a majority of Congressional and legislature seats that would allow them to perpetuate control for years to come.

The legacy of that power grab means even though polls indicate the majority of voters care about issues such as climate change and gun control, incumbents can dismiss those concerns. “Popular opinion is in one place, and politicians are in another,” Gouverneur said. Lawmakers do not have to respond to changes in voters’ attitudes because the current system works to keep them in power, Harbison added.

Moreover, elections in districts where one party’s victory is essentially guaranteed tend to result in intraparty contests that give rise to extremist candidates. “When you give lawmakers safe seats, they can ignore the people in the middle,” O’Connell cautions, observing that elections become less competitive. The result is an electorate that is more polarized than at any time since the Civil War. Reforming gerrymandering can remedy this trend by reducing the wings of both parties and appealing more to the center, he adds. “More moderate politicians come from areas where elections are contested.”

The tech and software advances that have emerged since 2010 have heightened the excesses of gerrymandering because they make it easier and cheaper to draw up redistricting maps, Harbison said. Gerrymandering specialists can now look at new sources of “big data” to determine how a block of voters will behave by using indicators like their shopping habits on Amazon.com. “There is an incredible amount of sophistication,” he added.

With state legislature control cemented in 2010 and high-powered digital tools, gerrymandering practitioners appear poised to thwart the demographic changes sweeping the country. Democrats once thought they would prevail as their core constituencies assumed larger shares of voting blocks and moved into states that were previously Republican strongholds, but they have found that the tools that entrenched legislatures weld make it tough to overcome disproportionate representation, explained O’Connell. Current efforts by state legislatures in Texas and Georgia reveal how eager those lawmakers are to reduce the power of voters in cities like Austin and Atlanta. Redistricting is one more means they are likely to use to secure their seats this year. “We can’t assume that demographic change will do it,” O’Connell concluded.

Those who use gerrymandering to solidify minority control have increasingly set their sights on the judicial as well as legislative bodies. Thirty-eight states elect Supreme Court judges rather than appoint them. In almost all of them, judicial candidates must run a statewide campaign. But in states like Pennsylvania and Texas, legislatures have worked to have Supreme Court judges elected by specific districts, like lawmakers, to tilt the bench toward the party who orchestrated the gerrymandered maps, O’Connell explained.

It is no wonder, argue the authors, that the majority of citizens polled say that they do not like gerrymandering. “Whether Democrat or Republican, 60 percent of voters are opposed to this method of redistricting,” O’Connell said. Yet the movement to uproot gerrymandering has taken off in only a handful of states. Reporters and pundits as well often echo the fatalistic view that reforming gerrymandering is a quixotic struggle.

That redistricting looms right after the release of the 2020 census data underscores the urgent need for just apportionment. That imperative is strongest for states that stand to gain or lose Congressional seats in 2022, O’Connell said. On the critical list are Pennsylvania and Michigan, which will lose representatives, as well as Florida, North Carolina and Texas, all slated to add seats.

Nonetheless, other states on the list have already put in place reforms likely to ensure a more accurate redrawing of maps than in cycles past. California, which will lose a congressional seat for the first time, became the “gold standard” in 2011 when the state under then Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger created a commission designed to check partisanship. Citizens apply to a selection committee independent of the governor or legislature to become one of fourteen commissioners – five Democrats, five Republicans, and four independents – who will draw the new maps in a transparent fashion. Members cannot have held or run for state or federal office prior to their selection. Nor can they act as a political candidate or appointee for ten years after their tenure is completed.

Pennsylvania has moved toward fairer redistricting in a more contentious fashion. When Republicans who control the legislature proposed heavily gerrymandered maps, citizen groups sued in state court. Not only did Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court examine the contorted shapes of many districts, but the judges also used the latest mathematical tools to measure whether voters were divided fairly among the proposed districts. “In Pennsylvania part of the court’s reasoning was that the maps made no sense,” O’Connell added.

Virginia, a state emerging as “purple,” has a hybrid commission that could serve as a model for battleground states undergoing similar political transformation, the primer suggests. After nearly a decade of citizen activism, Virginia came up with the a bi-partisan commission of legislators and citizens who draw up the maps and then submit them to the legislature for approval. If a mandated threshold fails to approve the maps, the state Supreme Court then appoints a “special master” to draw revised maps. Those agents when appointed in other states have “taken an impartial approach,” the primer concludes.

While some state courts like Pennsylvania’s have pushed for fairer redistricting, the federal judicial system has been reluctant to weigh in on reforming a gerrymandered system, O’Connell said. “One of the hallmarks of this Supreme Court is its antipathy to protecting voter rights,” he added, pointing to the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that opened the way for unchecked gerrymandering in states like Texas and Georgia. That decision stripped the 1965 Voting Rights Act of any federal oversight of practices that restrict voting access in states where obstacles for Black Voters have historically existed. On occasion, the authors note, the Supreme Court has upheld lower court decisions, like the one in Cooper v. Harris in 2017 that invalidated North Carolina maps “on the grounds that they had been unconstitutionally drawn predominantly on the basis of race.” But when cases are brought that challenge partisan gerrymandering, the Supreme Court has declined to rule. “The Court essentially said in recent decisions ‘We are not mathematicians…We punt,” O’Connell said.

On a federal level the passage of the “For the People Act of 2021,” which aims to preserve voting rights and fair elections would be an invaluable reform, the authors concur. The proposed legislation would require that all states adopt the California model of an independent commission for remapping Congressional districts. “On the Congressional level, it is a massive reform,” O’Connell observed.

Even if the legislation becomes law this year as its Democratic sponsors hope, it would not directly affect how state districts are mapped. But the act might inspire people to seek change on the state level after witnessing the improvements on the federal, O’Connell said. Its passage might succeed in raising the awareness of voters that gerrymandering, while not as obvious as sharply reducing mail-in voting and poll stations, can still render their vote worthless.

Another cause for optimism is the ability of mathematics to make the process more transparent, maintains Harbison. Mathematics not only enhances our ability to evaluate the fairness of voting maps, but it also allows us to construct maps that try to reflect the actual strength and distribution of each party’s voters. Now when the shape of a district or the gap between the number of one party’s voters and the number of seats held in a state congressional delegation seem disproportionate, when it “smells funny,” as Harbison puts it, mathematical analysis can determine if partisan gerrymandering has gotten out of hand. “In bringing the process out into the light, math comes to the rescue,” Harbison adds.

In other ways Harbison and O’Connell see encouraging signs that gerrymandering can ultimately be turned around in the years to come. O’Connell praises voting rights activists like Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, for her “nuts and bolts’ work to safeguard fair elections. Brian Cannon, the Director of Campaigns for the Institute for Political Innovation, wins his respect for patiently working for nearly a decade to make Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission a reality. Likewise, he lauds analysts like Michael Li at the Brennan Center for Justice for elucidation of how gerrymandering took hold and how insidious it is for democracy.

Optimism also springs from states that have adopted reforms that make it likely they will emerge from the 2020 cycle with fairer voting maps. New York, a state where gerrymandering prevailed, is set to rely on an advisory commission chosen largely by both Democratic and Republican legislators to recommend its new maps. That redistricting plan, which will allow for the loss of one Congressional seat, must then be approved by a super majority of the Assembly and Senate. “I am hopeful that New York will get some good maps,” said O’Connell.

Colorado, set to gain one Congressional seat, and Michigan, which will lose one seat, have given the task of redistricting to independent commissions like California’s. Ohio, which will also lose one seat, and Utah have also put reforms in place.

Obstacles to reform in the other battle ground states remain because they do not allow the ballot initiatives that birthed fairer procedures in places like California. Half the states still do not permit voters to decide at the polls if they want a reformed procedure. As a result, O’Connell said, “You have to convince their state legislatures to give up the power they now hold to draw maps that may ensure their incumbency.”

For these seemingly intractable states, civic activism matters enormously, O’Connell and Harbison say. At the primer’s end they lay out recommendations they believe will erode gerrymandering’s hold. They advise readers to push senators and representatives to support the “For the People Act” with its promise of ending gerrymandering on a federal level. Write and call their offices, they urge, attend upcoming town halls when they resume, make representatives aware you want legislation to safeguard voting rights and end partisan gerrymandering.

Secondly, they counsel, don’t lose sight of state elections. Press state lawmakers to establish an independent commission to oversee how maps for state elections are drawn. Most states, even those with processes that foster gerrymandering, require public meetings when they come up with new maps. “As a rule, no one shows up at those meetings,” Harbison mused. This time around find a way to discover the plans that are being concocted and make your voice heard if you don’t approve. If your state intends to establish a bipartisan commission, apply to serve on it, he adds.

One of the best ways to get involved with reforms is to join one of the state chapters of organizations like The League of Women Voters (https://www.lwv.org) or Common Cause (https://www.commoncause.org) that are already seeking to improve redistricting practices. FairMaps groups across the nation concentrate on organizing grassroots activists who lobby their state lawmakers for specific reforms, as OneVirginia2021 did. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, in most cases; you can simply volunteer for one of these organizations,” the authors write.

This task of reforming redistricting becomes more critical as states prepare to receive by September 30 detailed Census information about voters. “Now is the time to get cracking,” says O’Connell, who warns that inattention means the chance for fair redistricting could be lost for another decade. Harbison takes a more sanguine view that setbacks during this cycle do not mean that all is lost until after 2030. Citizens who begin trying to establish more bipartisan modes of redistricting may see gains in the years leading up to the next apportionment. And both he and O’Connell maintain that Democrats will not overlook the process at the state level as they did in 2010. “The Democrats are far, far behind in terms of history and experience,” Harbison said, but “there won’t be a roll over like 2010. They have their swords out.”

Activists across the political spectrum who oppose gerrymandering need to develop patience and a willingness to be informed and involved in state and local elections. “Gerrymandering is not a sexy topic,” O’Connell cautions. “It’s about long-term change. Lots of patience is needed.” He reminds those eager for quick fixes that it took a decade for Virginia to create its bipartisan commission. “No matter your political stance,” Gouverneur said, “You can make politicians have this as a topic of conversation.” Developing habits of thinking about state wide issues also bode well for citizen involvement when the redistricting phase has ended.

Reforming gerrymandering is at the heart of the current struggle to preserve democracy, Gouverneur and her fellow authors conclude. Unless we embrace the effort to change the current imbalanced and partisan system, many of us will continue to cast wasted votes. The time for giving into “doom and gloom” has passed, said O’Connell, who hopes that the primer will inspire his Harvard classmates and fellow citizens to take on the challenge of ending gerrymandering. “If people get involved, we should have a good shot at turning things around and having a functioning democracy.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE GERRYMANDERING PRIMER

Gerrymandering: Our Democracy at Risk

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 23:48:44 GMT

When politicians draw voting maps to favor their party’s candidates over their opponents, that undermines the power of elections in our system of government…and citizens’ faith in our republic. “Gerrymandering: Our Democracy at Risk,” created by J. Ryan O'Connell and James P. Harbison and edited by Sallie Gouverneur, will show you how to stop lawmakers from gaming the map-drawing process. We urge you to share this primer with your friends, communities and educational institutions.

CHECK OUT THE PRIMER HERE

Interview with Rick Jones, Executive Director of the National Defenders' Service PACE Program

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 18:20:23 GMT

ClassACT, as part of its Justice & Civic Engagement Initiative, hosts this examination of one of the hot-button issues of our time: understanding racism in the criminal system and ending mass incarceration and police abuse of BIPOC communities. The panel has voices deeply familiar with community activism, prosecution, policing and public defense. Panelists include Rick Jones, Executive Director of JusticeAid’s 2021 grantee partner, NDS PACE; Gina Clayton-Johnson, Executive Director & Founder, Essie Justice Group (JusticeAid grantee partner in 2018); Christy E. Lopez, Law Professor, co-leader of the Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law; and Jason Williams, newly elected Orleans Parish District Attorney and former City Council President, New Orleans, La. Classmate Sylvester Monroe, former Washington Post journalist and author, will serve as the moderator.

Each year, JusticeAid, a ClassACT multi-year sustained collaborative partner, shines a spotlight on timely issues related to civil and human rights. “Following the events of 2020, police accountability and community empowerment demand a national conversation," explains JusticeAid co-Founder & CEO, our classmate, Steve Milliken. "This year we are raising money to support the expansion of NDS PACE, which is working on the front lines to address these issues."

To prepare our audience for this important conversation, we reached out to Steve, who connected us to Rick Jones, who heads the NDS PACE program (Police Accountability/Community Empowerment). Classmate Dick Friedman interviewed him for this article.

Rick Jones

Rick promises that attendees will get a thorough look at the state of justice—and injustice. “This is an opportunity for folks to hear from a good mix of people all along the spectrum of the criminal legal system,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to do a deep dive on the state of policing in America, and also a way to understand how communities can take a more proactive role and be empowered in terms of self-determination and figuring out how they want to have public safety operate in their communities, all of which are the hallmarks of the NDS PACE program.”

Jones sees JusticeAid’s support of NDS PACE as a worthy follow-up to JusticeAid's focus on voter suppression in 2020. “JusticeAid was right on the money last year to be supporting election protection,” he says. "To see how dramatically important that protection was, particularly in a place like Georgia—we’re already seeing the manifestations of this.” He also points to how 2020 “really changed the landscape in lots of different ways. It really underscored the inequities, the disparities, the injustices. If you look at the communities that were the most heavily impacted by COVID, they were primarily communities of color and communities that were poor. The year 2020 and the pandemic really put a spotlight on the injustices of our society and of the legal system.”

In fact, there was a synergistic effect—a deadly one. Says Jones: “If you’re arrested and you’re poor and you’re black, the likelihood is that you’re going to have bail set on you and the likelihood is that you’re going to be unable to make that bail. Because of the situations in jail and your inability to protect yourself from that virus, it might very well be a death sentence. So we really began thinking about the business of compassionate release, how to safely take people out of the prisons and prevent prisons from being super spreader sites.”

With this year’s initiative, JusticeAid is returning to its roots in public defense. “NDS has always been about realizing and maximizing the underutilized and undervalued power of public defenders,” says Jones. “I think we have a different landscape now. You wouldn’t have the problems we have now if you had a strong and robust public defense program from the beginning. Prosecutors and police have been able to roam unfiltered and unfettered. Now with the NDS PACE program, we can try dismantling those systems in our society that perpetuate these inequalities.”

What does Jones seek from ClassACT? “Time and treasure!” He responds.

“For us to be successful, we need to have the resources. This is a 10-year, $10 million enterprise. Plus, we need people who have particular connections and specific talents—[especially] those who can help us strategize and plan.”

A Conversation with Ray McGuire, Candidate for Mayor of New York City

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 19:23:44 GMT

Tuesday, February 23, 6:00 - 7:15 pm EST

Please join the HR class of 1979 for a conversation with HR79 classmate Ray McGuire (and HBS/HLS 84), moderated by NPR’s Michel Martin, HR80, and learn about Ray’s life so far and why he’s running for “the second toughest job in America.”

The conversation will focus on Ray’s journey through Harvard and its impact on his career. Along with looking back at his career highlights, they will explore the personal reflections that led him to decide to enter public service and run for mayor. Award-winning journalist and weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered Michel Martin will guide us through this discussion, which will include a Q&A with attendees.

Click here for more information: https://www.classacthr79.org/McGuire_and_Martin

First: Sandra Day O'Connor

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 17:56:51 GMT

Spend an evening with bestselling authors Evan Thomas '73 and Oscie Thomas.

Their talk will be followed by personal reflections from two of Justice O'Connor's former judicial clerks: Ivan K. Fong, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary 3M; and Lisa Kern Griffin, Candace M. Carroll and Leonard B. Simon Professor of Law, Duke University.

Evan Thomas is one of the most respected historians and journalists writing today. He is the bestselling author of ten works of nonfiction including the New York Times bestsellers John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, and Being Nixon. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for 33 years at Time and Newsweek. Thomas will be in conversation with his wife, Oscie Thomas, a legal professional and a frequent collaborator with her husband on his books over the years.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1298340887198817

Remembering Benazir Bhutto: Lessons in Resilience, Democracy, and Leadership

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 18:20:41 GMT

Did you miss the symposium on Benazir Bhutto in December? Click below for highlights from the interactive session organized by the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women (ANHW) Pakistan in partnership with #CourtingTheLaw. The session features reflections from speakers who have either personally known Benazir Bhutto or studied and written about her life’s work.

Click here

2 Special Events in December

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 19:10:48 GMT

ClassACT HR73 is pleased to announce two great events taking place in December.

1. Remembering Benazir Bhutto: Lessons in Resilience, Democracy, and Leadership

The first, on Saturday, December 12 at 9am EST, features former Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow, Natasha Jehangir Khan, as co-moderator, and HR73 classmate Peter Galbraith, as a member of the panel.

To join, please register at anhwlahoresecretary@gmail.com

Co-sponsors: Harvard Law School Women’s Law Association, ClassACT HR’73

Media Partners: Courting the Law

Optional Resource Materials:

● Benazir Bhutto’s biography and interview by the Academy of Achievement

● Benazir Bhutto: Paying the Ultimate Price (Podcast)

● Benazir Bhutto’s interview on “Rendevouz with Simi Grewal”

● Obituary by the NY Times

2. ClassACT HR85 Presents:

Healing American Democracy: A Conversation with Michael Abramowitz, ’85, president of Freedom House

Tuesday, December 15, 8pm EST

For the second, the ClassACT HR73 Justice and Civic Engagement Initiative is proud to promote this forum presented by ClassACT HR85.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to mark the triumph of democracy. Yet, three decades later, democratic governance is declining around the globe. Shockingly to many, recent events have called into question the security and vibrancy of American democracy as well.

ClassACT HR85 welcomes fellow alumni to join us in exploring the issue of democracy protection. To launch our initiative into this vital and timely issue, we are excited to announce an upcoming online event: “Healing American Democracy: A Conversation with Michael Abramowitz, ’85, president of Freedom House.” The event will take place on Tuesday, December 15 @8:00 PM EST.

Freedom House was founded in 1941 to advocate for American participation in World War II and the fight against fascism. Since 1973, Freedom House has been assessing levels of democracy in every country around the globe in its annual report Freedom in the World. Michael Abramowitz has been the president of Freedom House since 2017.

This online event will consist of a moderated conversation between Michael and David Schanzer, ’85, followed by an open discussion on democracy protection and ways private citizens can work towards securing American democracy.

Preregistration for the event is required. Please join us here.

ClassACT HR85 uses the communications platform – Shindig. Anyone that would appreciate some assistance navigating the Shindig platform is encouraged to log on at 7:45pm.

Coat Drive for the Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Organization

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 18:49:09 GMT

We are partnering again this year with Sue Press in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans in her annual winter coat giveaway to neighborhood children.

We made a wish list on Amazon for Sue here.

You can order coats from the list until December 14th. Please make sure to specify Sue's address for delivery. It is included in the wish list, and just in case, it is:

Sue L. Press

The Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Organization

1830 Dumaine Street

New Orleans, LA 70116

(504-905-9086); e-mail ttmillerj77@gmail.com

THE OLE & NU STYLE FELLAS SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE ORGANIZATION

The Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Organization was established in 1997 to contribute to the community culture known as “Second Line.” “Second Liners” are best described as an organized group which follows brass bands onto the streets of our wonderful city of New Orleans.

Children hold our future in their hands, so we must prepare them for every aspect of becoming responsible adults.We believe that education is the key to freedom and progress; without it, our future is lost.

Watch classmate Robert Bowie's new play!

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 19:05:52 GMT

THE GRACE OF GOD & THE MAN MACHINE A BLACK LIVES MATTERS PLAY JOCUNDA FESTIVAL

Jocunda Festival presents the award-winning playwright (and HR'73 classmate!) Robert Bowie Jr.’s Black Lives Matter play, THE GRACE OF GOD & THE MAN MACHINE, formally known as “ONAJE”, will appear on Sunday, October 25th at 8:00 p.m. EST on Zoom. Donations are $15.00. A Q&A with the playwright, director, actors and audience will follow led by Van Dirk Fisher, the director and founder of the Riant Theatre.

For tickets register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nS9PhZTyTMimDacMyxCCeA

JusticeAid Fall 2020 Concert

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 23:02:16 GMT

Join JusticeAid and music artists Rosanne Cash, Tom Morello, Regina Carter, Lila Downs, and Ivan Neville to rock for justice and voting rights in JusticeAid’s fall concert VOICES TO PROTECT THE VOTE. 100% of any money raised during the concert will go to support JusticeAid’s 2020 grantee-partner Election Protection, and their work fighting voter suppression and guaranteeing every American of voting age has access to the polls on November 3rd.

The concert will be live streamed on JusticeAid’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Tune in. Have fun. Make a difference.

Fascism: Are We There Yet?

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 22:45:49 GMT

Hitler. Mussolini. Hirohito. Totalitarian dictators whose names and ideologies are trapped in the pages of 20^th century history lessons – or are they? Is it possible their ideas and policies are taking root in America right now, at a frighteningly rapid pace?

Authoritarianism, illiberalism, nationalism, fascism: these words appear with alarming frequency in editorials, analyses, and popular articles in 2020. What are the shades of meaning among them? How do they play out in the politics of our time? What can we learn from recent history to help us understand and combat a darker future than many would wish to see?

Moderator A'Lelia Bundles ’74, award-winning journalist, writer and historian, will lead our outstanding panelists William Kristol ’73, political analyst; Nadine Strossen ’72, J.D. ’75, the first female President of the ACLU; and Dr. Chad Williams, RI ’17, Chair of African and African American Studies, Brandeis University, in a wide-ranging and provocative conversation.

Join us October 20 for this eye-opening discussion of fascism and its very real presence in our country’s past, present, and possibly its future.

To sign up, click here.

JusticeAid/Election Protection Volunteer Opportunities

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:48:59 GMT

Given the challenges with Covid-19 and all the misinformation about voting in the upcoming election, everyone we talk with wants to do something other than sit around and complain. Well, here’s your chance!

ClassACT HR73 and JusticeAid have teamed up to provide you with opportunities to make a difference.

1. JusticeAid Film Forum, September 17^th, 7pm

https://justiceaid.org/film-forum/
Cross platform live stream, screening JusticeAid Prize winners in documentary & social media, meet youth film makers. Special appearances: Jason Hehir/ Director The Last Dance; Kimberley Martin reporter ESPN. Live link to share to come. (links to 2 finalists below.)

Democracy Must Be Learned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6VoCzt9GNQ
You Need to Vote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yNRP1CPqD0&feature=emb_title

2. JusticeAid Concert benefitting 2020 beneficiary Election Protection, October 17, 7pm

A rockin’ for Justice virtual concert featuring Grammy award winner Rosanne Cash; multi-instrumentalist Ivan Neville; musician, songwriter activist Tom Morello; and others.

3. Volunteer opportunities Election Protection

Hot line for lawyers, 866- OUR-VOTE UPDATE - if you have legal experience, contact Ryan O’Connell
Link to volunteer as poll monitor https://protectthevote.net/

Call to ClassACTion: Turn out the Vote

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:45:51 GMT

Join us for a different kind of ClassACT Forum. Many of us are struggling to figure out what we as individuals can do to promote a fair and safe election process. We have enlisted a team from the 501(c)(3) Open Progress/Vote.org initiative to train us, as the "ClassACT Text Troop," to mobilize Vote by Mail! and potential voter registration efforts. Those who have done the training and who are already using this platform say it is effective and fun—and easy! If you know how to text, you can do it. We will start off with a short screening of a few JusticeAid Prize award winning entries of the Democracy 2020 Youth Film Festival, and a call to action from youth 15-25 to vote.

Understanding our Differences, ClassACT's Newest Bridge Project

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 03:01:01 GMT

Learn more about ClassACT's newest bridge project!

Understanding Our Differences’ mission is to educate communities to value and respect people of all abilities, through school-based interactive disability-awareness programs. The goal is to foster a society that includes people with disabilities – who, at 20 percent of the US population, make up the largest minority group in the country – in truly authentic ways that benefit individuals, schools, workplaces and communities. Since 1978, Understanding our Differences volunteers have regularly been presenting its programs to students in grades 3-5 in our home district of Newton, MA, and in other Eastern Massachusetts cities and towns. The lessons increase students’ understanding of a range of disabilities and chronic disease conditions, with visual presentations, hands-on activities, and speakers with disabilities discussing their experiences and answering questions. The approach has demonstrated repeatedly that accurate information about disabilities makes the difference between discrimination and acceptance. Understanding Our Differences teaches children – at a young age when they are open and receptive to these lifelong lessons – to see the whole person and understand how specific disabilities don’t prevent active participation in the community.

Jeff and Marcia Herrmann (‘73/’74) have been passionate volunteers and supporters of UOD and its mission for decades. Marcia is a Past President of the Board of Directors and continues to serve on the Board.

Note: Multiple UOD Board and Advisory Board members have ties to Harvard University, including Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, the School of Education, the Kennedy School, the Divinity School, the Medical School, and the School of Public Health.

Learn more here: https://www.classacthr73.org/sys/website/system-pages/?pageId=18002

Volunteer opportunities with Election Protection: Making a Difference

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 20:13:49 GMT

ClassACT for Election Protection

Class Act has found an important and convenient opportunity for lawyers to volunteer and help voters during this election season.

Election Protection (EP), a non-partisan organization that advises voters on their rights, is looking for lawyers to staff its hotlines on a remote basis. You can take voters' calls at home to assist them with problems they encounter registering or trying to vote.

EP needs volunteers now, as several states are conducting primaries. Your service for EP will count for pro bono credit. EP will assign you a particular state, which may not be your home state. EP will provide you with three hours of training online, in two separate sessions, which you can watch at any time.

Please see EP's message below, which includes the link for signing up and more details. You can also contact Ryan O'Connell of Class Act (ryanoconnell2@gmail.com) if you have questions; please copy him if you sign up.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law seeks the pro bono assistance of volunteers with staffing remotely the Election Protection English language national voter hotline. Please see below for additional information.

Election Protection – Staffing National Voter Hotline Remotely (Remote) - Record Call Volume

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and its coalition partners seek legal volunteers to remotely staff Election Protection’s English language national voter hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE)). The hotline is answered by remote volunteers seven days a week from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Eastern, with additional shifts on Election Day. The hotline provides assistance to voters with problems and guides them throughout the voting process. Volunteers must complete two 1.5 hour trainings, including one on accessing the technology remotely. Support is provided to the volunteers via a captain during their shift and “user guides” and substantive information on voting. The Lawyers’ Committee is the client. Volunteers sign up directly using the link provided below.

The national, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition works year-round to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count. Made up of more than 100 local, state and national partners, Election Protection provides Americans from coast to coast with comprehensive information and assistance at all stages of voting – from registration, to absentee and early voting, to casting a vote at the polls, to overcoming obstacles to their participation. Election Protection helps voters make sure their vote is counted through a number of resources, including a suite of voter hotlines (866-OUR-VOTE, 888-VE-Y-VOTA, 888-API-VOTE and 844-Yalla-US), field programs and digital outreach tools. Election Protection is not affiliated in any way with any candidate or political party and is available to all Americans. For more information about Election Protection, please visit www.866OurVote.org.

What:	Staff Election Protection Hotline remotely from home
Who:	Lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants and law students
When:	Ongoing
How:	Online platform; computer with internet plus headphones needed
Training:	The training consists of two parts. YOU MUST DO BOTH OF THESE. o Part 1 – 1.5 hour on-demand (i.e. watch at any time) substantive training Available at “2020 National Call Center Volunteer Training”:https://electionprotection.northpass.com/c/e02342166dc6187b66e92005ce98d8963f56a786 o Part 2 – 1.5 hour on-demand training on how to use the technology. You will receive this link via We the Action.
Other Support:	Captains will be available during a volunteer’s shift. Extensive helpful documents available online.
Volunteer Code of Conduct:	Volunteers must “virtually agree” to Code of Conduct. https://forms.gle/EAq8AsM39DA5MeeY9
How to Volunteer:	Sign up directly using the link: https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/A9XBmdJfCi4x NOTE: If you have a We the Action volunteer account, you must login before signing up for a shift. NOTE: All shifts and trainings posted are Eastern Standard Time.

Share the pdf version of our volunteer opportunities here!

We're all in this together: ClassACT stands with Black Lives Matter

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 20:15:21 GMT

Per our mission to address vital issues on a local, national, and international level, ClassACT stands with Black Lives Matter. Click below for our statement in support, join us in our current work fighting voter suppression, and take a look at future initiatives we are taking towards strengthening civil and human rights.

Click here for our full letter to the community.

Jono Quick Appointed Managing Director of Pandemic Response Team at Rockefeller Foundation

Wed, 13 May 2020 18:52:03 GMT

Our classmate Jono Quick has newly been appointed the Managing Director of the Pandemic Response Preparedness, and Prevention Team at the Rockefeller Foundation. Congratulations, Jonathan!

Click here for more information.

JusticeAid's Voices to Protect the Vote Concert

Wed, 13 May 2020 18:24:03 GMT

ClassACT is thrilled that our sustained collaborator JusticeAid is hosting their Benefit Concert on May 18th!

JusticeAid invites you to Voices to Protect the Vote, an at-home concert with an amazing line-up of talent in support of JusticeAid’s beneficiary, Election Protection 888-OUR-VOTE. If you are not on the JusticeAid list, please sign-up for JusticeAid’s news, so you’ll receive a reminder on the day of the concert.

Join us on May 18th at 7:00 pm on JusticeAid’s YouTube Channel.

Featuring musical artists Paula Cole, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Leyla McCalla, Kandace Springs, David Shaw and Zack Feinberg of The Revivalists, and Paine the Poet. Hosted by Rita Houston, NYC’s WFUV (90.7) Program Director, with a special video presentation by our Emmy Award-winning team.

Why am I so cranky, sad, and worried? Mental Health in the Age of COVID-19

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 20:52:48 GMT

This is a question a lot of us are asking ourselves these days! The COVID-19 pandemic is creating personal and emotional challenges for all of us.

For its third ClassACT ZOOM Forum on Thursday, May 7 at 7pm EDT, ClassACT HR73 has assembled a remarkable group of HR73 mental health professionals to share their insights about the effects of the pandemic on our mental health and to provide suggestions for effective coping strategies. They will examine the range of reactions to the unprecedented challenges of the illness itself, and its personal and societal consequences for adults and children alike: physical distancing and isolation, financial insecurities, and conflicting medical and political information. We invite you to listen, learn and ask questions.

Register here

We will get back to you with a Zoom link on the day of the panel.

OUR PANELISTS

DR. PATRICIA POTTER

@Psych_BPSI @MIP_Boston @harvardmed

Dr. Patricia Potter is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, and an adult psychoanalyst. She is on the faculty of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. She has also been an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

DR. ROBERT WALDINGER

@robertwaldinger

Dr. Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Zen priest. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life ever done. The Study tracked the lives of two groups of men for over 75 years, and it now follows their Baby Boomer children to understand how childhood experience reaches across decades to affect health and wellbeing in middle age. He writes about what science and Zen can teach us about healthy human development.

Dr. Waldinger is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as two books. He teaches medical students and psychiatry residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and he is a Senior Dharma Teacher in Boundless Way Zen. robertwaldinger.com.

HENRIETTA W. LODGE, LCSWR

@pnwboces

Henrietta W. Lodge, LCSWR, is a recently retired school social worker with 40 years’ experience working with both middle and high school students, their families and school staff in public and private schools. She serves on the Putnam/Northern Westchester (NY) Regional Crisis Team and the Putnam County (NY) Suicide Task Force. She is also a member of ClassACT’s Communication Committee.

Zoom Forum: Voter Suppression and the Impact of COVID-19 on Voting Rights

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 21:31:37 GMT

The right to vote is a fundamental Constitutional right and a guiding principle of American democracy. Yet this right is increasingly being put to the test this election year, challenged by voter suppression, uncertain access to the polls, accessibility of ballots, vote by mail restrictions, COVID-19 and other issues.

For its second ClassACT ZOOM Forum on April 23^rd at 7pm EDT, ClassACT HR73 and its Voter & Civic Engagement initiative has assembled a terrific line up of guests to discuss these challenges. Join us for:

Voter Suppression and the Impact of COVID-19 on Voting Rights

Email us here to register for the forum!

Learn more about the forum here!

Featured panelists include classmate Steve Milliken, CEO and Founder of JusticeAid, a ClassACT Sustained Collaboration since 2014 whose 2020 theme is Voter Suppression; Julie M. Houk, Managing Counsel for the Election Protection Voting Rights Project, which is JusticeAid’s 2020 beneficiary; classmate Helen Hershkoff, Professor of Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties at NYU Law School and Co-Director of the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program; Myrna Perez, Director of Voting Rights & Elections Democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice; and Kevin D. Benish, Associate Professor of Law at NYU, who has been directly involved on issues relating to safeguarding the right to vote and access to the polls in Wisconsin. Therese Steiner, Co-Chair of ClassACT’s Voter & Civic Engagement Initiative and JusticeAid Board member, will moderate the panel.

The forum will end with a ClassACT CALL TO ACTION: How you can help fight voter suppression and get involved in protecting our constitutional right to vote.

Classmate Jonathan Quick on the COVID-19 Crisis

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 02:30:27 GMT

Classmate, physician, health management expert, and author of The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It Jonathan Quick spoke on several platforms recently on the COVID-19 virus that is sweeping the world.

Listen to his interview on NPR's Life on Earth here.

Read his article in The Guardian here.

And for those of you with a subscription, read his article in the Wall Street Journal here.

Attend UNAGB's Climate Action & Green New Deal Program, join their Charter Circle of Donors!

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 20:19:28 GMT

UNAGB's *new* UN Perspective Series is off to a strong start! These free programs run every other month and feature global and local speakers on one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as updates and opportunities for local action and advocacy. So far in 2020, we've focused on SDG 15: Life on Land and SDG: 5: Gender Equality. Our next program will take place May 4th and focus on SDG 13: Climate Action and the Green New Deal.

Register here! All are invited and are encouraged to register as soon as possible as these events have been reaching capacity quite quickly.

Additionally, members of ClassACT HR73 are invited to deepen their connection with the United Nations’ Association of Greater Boston by joining UNABG's Charter Circle. Charter Circle Members our an inner circle of donors who share a vision for a better world. Learn more about the Charter Circle here!

Please email executive director Caitlin Moore if you'd be interested in attending our May gathering at the British Consul General's residence to learn more about the Charter Circle. The exact date will be announced soon, and no financial commitment is required for first event. This is an excellent way to stay informed and involved with UNAGB's programs!

Stop the Presses: Tom Cooper Shores Up Media Ethics

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 22:10:40 GMT

By Dick Friedman

Fake News may have met its match in Tom Cooper. Since 1983 Cooper has been a professor in the Visual and Media Arts department at Emerson College. The author or co-author of seven books, Cooper is an expert on media ethics. In 2017, he was approached by the United Nations to be among an international panel devising educational programs on this topic and others. The result is Education for Justice (E4J), which now presents online “modules” for use in classrooms worldwide.

“The United Nations is seeking to find more people who can share their talents and, in this case, their ethical training with people around the world who often don’t have the resources or maybe the political ability or the awareness that ethics instruction even exists,” says Cooper. “The U.N. is reaching out not only at the university level but—and this is very heartening to me—at the high school and even at the elementary level as well. So as with ClassACT, there’s some outreach, some new ground and some support for people of integrity, wherever they are.”

Cooper explains that the courses have two audiences. “One is teachers themselves,” he says. “Now there is online a universal curriculum that can be customized. The second is, all those young people who have some kind of longing for a better world but don’t know how to go about achieving it. They can learn a plan of moral reasoning.”

The E4J courses deal with many aspects of the craft of journalism, among them accuracy, objectivity and transparency. In an era when media are in flux and under attack, ethics are often the first casualty, for many reasons. “One is speedup,” says Cooper, noting the way newsroom staffs have thinned even while reporters and editors are now responsible not only for the print stories but also for fast-breaking online items. “And one of the victims of speedup is ethical decision-making, People don’t take the time to verify sources and think things through.”

What are the program’s main precepts? “You have to open both your mind and your heart in ethical decision-making,” says Cooper. “A closed mind is usually prejudging. A closed heart may not be able to empathize with all of the innocent people in a situation. You have to be able to put yourself in the shoes of all parties. Don’t go in with an assumed verdict.”

In all his ethics instruction, Cooper looks for what he refers to as “green-light ethics.” These can be embodied in “moral exemplars…Mandela or Gandhi or Mother Theresa, from whom you can learn a positive approach to ethics. So by virtue of that, the book that I have coming out next is called Doing the Right Thing. It goes back in history to find 12 moral exemplars who had very difficult ethical decisions to make who nevertheless rose to the occasion and managed to make a decision that changed the world. And the most recent of those is Malala. She’s the final chapter and one of the green-light models I hold up to my students, because she’s the same age as they are. Our own attention in ClassACT to Malala comes for different reasons by virtue of Pinkie Bhutto, whom I barely knew but greatly respected. And here we are, finding her to be important to our work.”

Reception for new BBLP Fellow Nadia Rehman

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 14:25:32 GMT

Come celebrate the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program's newest fellow, Nadia Rehman! There will be cocktails, hors d'oevres, and plenty of conversation to get to know Nadia better. Click here to register for the event!

The United Nations Association of Greater Boston: ClassACT's newest Bridge

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:14:43 GMT

The United Nations Association of Greater Boston is ClassACT's newest Bridge. Sponsored by classmate Rich Golob, who most recently served as the chair of the UNAGB board of directors, the organization promotes global awareness in the Greater Boston area. Rich and their Executive Director, Caitlin Moore, have asked ClassACT to help them find topical experts to serve as speakers for their adult and student programs. We have already provided a connection to Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Associate and international water expert, Erum Sattar.

UNAGB is developing a water curriculum so they are delighted that Erum has agreed to be the keynote speaker at their annual meeting. Classmates interested in UNAGB should reach out to Rich Golob or Caitlin Moore.In addition to finding experts for their program they are interested more generally in volunteers supporters.

If you're interested in their work, check them out at https://unagb.org/!

Kids Care Everywhere Autumn Soiree

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 04:29:13 GMT

Are you a classmate in living in the Berkeley area? Are you looking to support an awesome organization and ClassACT Bridge Project that uses medical software to transform pediatric care in under-recoursed communities? Click here to donate or attend the Kids Care Everywhere's Autumn Soiree on September 28th!

SACP Event: The Whitehouse Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 02:29:07 GMT

SACP Founder Robert Clayton and SACP National Program Manager Christien Oliver have been selected to moderate two data science panels during the 2019 HBCU Week Conference, sponsored by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Participants will explore how HBCUs can position themselves as global leaders in efforts to improve society through teaching and research based on the powerful, emerging field of data science. The amount of available data in the world is more than doubling every two years and there is a shortage of qualified data scientists to analyze and interpret the data and to help make data-informed decisions for the betterment of society. Schools of Data Science, which may offer both graduate and undergraduate degrees and certificates, help to meet soaring demand for qualified data science professionals in a field that plays a key role in the global information-based economy.

Learn more about SACP's work in their most recent newsletter: here

Classmate Amy Totenberg: Georgia Must Scrap Old Voting Machines After 2019

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 01:55:45 GMT

Classmate and Federal Judge Amy Totenberg is working to ensure that the election process is just. Click here to read the Washington Post article about her!

Report on the BBLP and WCFIA Weatherhead Assembly

Fri, 31 May 2019 16:10:37 GMT

What's wrong with democracy? Classmate and journalist Dick Friedman has an answer in his writeup on the discussions about democracy that took place that took place during our April 12th Weatherhead Assembly. Check it out here!

Newsflash: Program for April 12th BBLP Weatherhead Assembly

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:45:05 GMT

Interested in the panels, speakers, and events happening this Friday? Click here to find and share the program for the 2019 Weatherhead Assembly!

South Asia Symposium – Challenges Facing the Leaders of Tomorrow

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 01:02:41 GMT

On Saturday, April 13th, the South Asia engagement group of HKS will hold the South Asia Symposium - Challenges Facing the Leaders of Tomorrow. Come to discuss common problems being faced by the region such as insufficient energy, lack of youth participation in politics, corruption in governance, the implications of regional peace and human rights in business.

Special Notice: April 12 Assembly in Cambridge

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:11:34 GMT

On April 12, 2019, the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program will host a symposium, co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, to consider democratic institutions in the Middle East and South Asia against the backdrop of assessments of democracy in America.

In the course of the day, BBLP will convene experts on democratic institutions in the U.S. and abroad and bring them together with ClassACT HR73 affiliates, BBLP’s inaugural Fellows at HKS, BBLP Associates from the broader Harvard community, and the general public. Together and in panels and working groups, we will explore the motives and means to deliver on the ideals that drove Benazir Bhutto’s career and generate next steps for the BBLP community.

Erum Khalid Sattar on Overcoming Pakistan's Water Challenges

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 16:35:50 GMT

Classmate Erum Khalid Sattar writes in Newsweek about managing Pakistan's water resources. Read her article here!

Article by BBLP Fellow Natasha Jehangir Khan!

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:47:42 GMT

BBLP Fellows are on to great things! Read up on Natasha Jehangir Khan's Tribune article on tolerance, diversity, and inclusion in Pakistan.

Thank you to the 2018 ClassACT Donors!

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 20:44:26 GMT

We want to extend a big thank you to the many classmates who donated in 2018! We couldn't have done it without you! See donor list below.

John Adams

Earl Bennett

Joe Bertagna

Gary Bond

Marion Dry

James Engell

Mark Ferguson

Julia Frank

Peter Galbraith

Sallie Gouverneur

Sara Greenberg

David Griffin

Leigh Hafrey

Sharman Haley

Jerome Harris

Debi Hendler

Thomas Howell

Terry Hunt

Andrea Kirsch

Alice Kleeman

Fritz Klein

Rob Lawrence

Anne MacKinnon

Peter Mazareas

Tom McNamara

Steve Milliken

Roger Myerson

Debi Neipris Hendler

George Putnam

Tina Rathborne

Patricia Rosbrow

Nick Sakellariadis

Joshua Schwartz

Charles Sink

Jonathan Sprague

Therese Steiner

Phil Straus

Leslie Tolbert

Seth Waxman

Helen Weeks

Juliet Wheeler

Henrietta Wigglesworth Lodge

Alfred Williams

ESPN2 Airs "Defy the Odds", chronicling a ClassACT Initiative

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 17:47:01 GMT

ESPN2's Defy the Odds tells the story of the Sports Analytics Club formed by inner city youth at Edmondson-Westside High School in Baltimore and their data analytics research project to get alum Marvin Webster, "The Eraser," elected into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Click here to watch the video and read this article from The Undefeated!

The Sports Analytics Club Program concept, the brainchild of HR73 classmate Bobby Clayton, is designed to address the underrepresentation of African American and Latinx young men and women in STEM advanced studies and STEM relevant careers. Bobby has enlisted Professor Ben Shields of MIT Sloan School, Faculty Advisor to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, as his lead partner. While underrepresented students remain a priority, the initial concept has been broadened to embrace youth, regardless of ethnic, racial, or socioeconomic status. In the 2018-19 academic year, the Program has established Sports Analytics Clubs at 14 high schools across the nation, partnering with 18 major universities. A University Advisor is selected for each Club to collaborate with the STEM Teacher Advisor, Professor Shields and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) from the professional sports teams to design the actionable sports analytics research projects to be completed by the Club members.

The University Advisor partnerships include such major universities as American, Howard, Tufts, Morgan State, George Washington, Tulane, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Akron, University of New Orleans, Xavier University of Louisiana, Southern and Tuskegee.

ClassACT has gone to bat for this one. Over two dozen HR73 classmates across the country have been helping out with planning, networking, and business development.

If you are interested in helping out with this ClassACT initiative and would like to learn more, send us a note.

Read Marvin Webster’s bio and check out The Baltimore Sun’s story.

First Building in the Osiligi Medical Complex development for the Maasai opens, thanks in part to David Weeks

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 23:48:40 GMT

In August 2018 after five years in development the Osiligi Medical Dispensary officially opened, the first major step in a larger plan to bring medical care to over 200,000 members of the Maasai community in the Narok District of Kenya.

On the Dispensary’s opening day, fifty-six patients were evaluated for their glucose level and hypertension, and eye glasses were distributed to those in need. David Weeks, Global Education Director from the Glenelg Country School and his former student, Kikanae Punyua of the local Maasai community, were joined by Dr. Tayo Awotunde, a pharmacist from Greenbelt, Maryland, who supplied medication and assisted in patient evaluations. Martin Punyua, a local Maasai medical student, supported the glucose and blood pressure evaluations. An additional pharmacist, a nurse, a lab technician, an HIV/AIDS counselor, and a nutritionist counselor, all funded by the local Narok Health Department, were also able to attend the opening. The local doctor for the Osiligi Medical Dispensary arrived the following day to meet with Weeks, Kikanae Punyua and the Dispensary governing committee of local Maasai elders.

The Osiligi Medical Dispensary consists of two rooms for labor/delivery and recovery and two rooms for emergency care and consultation, along with a small pharmacy, medical lab, waiting room and washrooms. By the beginning of October the facility will be open full time.

David Weeks, Kikanae Punyua and the Maasai elders of the Dispensary governing committee met with a local contractor to discuss the plans for the construction of a new medical facility, to be separate from the Dispensary—with an outdoor covered seating area to accommodate waiting patients and their families—and contain a pharmacy with storeroom, a medical lab for preparing traditional Maasai medical remedies, a dentist’s office, a vision center and an indoor waiting room. Having viewed the floor plan and determined the location for the center, the contractor and his crew began to break ground for the facility’s foundation. Approximately $35,000 US has already been raised for construction of this new facility, expected to cost $60,000. With the development of this new Maasai Medical Center the Narok Health Department will be able to provide more comprehensive medical support to the local community.

Plans have already been made for constructing the Osiligi Hospital Ward to be located across from the Osiligi Medical Dispensary. This facility will provide overnight accommodations for patients and their families as well as medical personnel. This new medical complex that will not only serve the approximately 600 students in the neighboring Ole Punyua Primary School but also the 200,000 members of the Maasai community in the Narok District of Kenya.

For more information contact David Weeks by email at weeks@glenelg.org or by cell at 443-794-4302.

We’re Still Trying to Change the World - A “blatantly ambitious and improbably idealistic” effort

Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:49:38 GMT

A Tale in 2 Voices

ClassACT reunites colleagues and friends after 41 years

ClassACT is proud of our efforts to not only change the world, but reconnect classmates through this good work. We are excited to have reconnected colleagues and friends Charles Bush and Steve Milliken after 41 years. In this article, they reminisce on their work together as students with Phillips Brooks House, and discuss their continued efforts to make the world a better place with ClassACT.

Steve Milliken and Charles Bush reuniting at a ClassACT event in New Orleans. Image Credit: Rick Weil

Charles Bush begins the tale: It was the summer of ’71, a time of an emerging sense of social responsibility for me and many of my colleagues on the Harvard campus. At Harvard, social responsibility was signified by Phillips Brooks House (PBH); where student activism and social needs were melded in the form of outreach programs. When the State of Massachusetts announced that it was considering creative alternatives to juvenile detention facilities, PBH responded with a novel proposal: PBH to sponsor and host a pilot program in which incarcerated, juvenile offenders would be released to the custody and daily responsibility of Harvard students. Guided by the need for a summer job no less than a desire to continue my involvement with PBH outreach, I leapt at the opportunity and was selected as a Counselor along with three of my colleagues, including one Steve Milliken.

Novel and ambitious, even by PBH standards, the program proved to be bred of unseasoned idealism and prematurely born (in other words, we were in way over our heads). We quickly discovered that classroom etiquette was a poor prescription for our young assignees’ street smarts and institutionally-honed survival skills.

Steve Milliken chimes in: Schooled to believe remedial education was one key to these teens’ successful reentry, I remember engaging a windowless Harvard classroom one morning to teach math. The minute I turned to the blackboard, the boy nearest the door flipped off the lights, and by the time I had fumbled my way over to the switch, the whole class was scattered. We spent the rest of the day and night searching for our charges all over Harvard Square and beyond.

CB: With all their ivy ambiance, the Harvard Yard and the hallowed halls of PBH were no panacea. Likewise, our daily tutoring, counseling, mentoring, and guidance failed to effect the wholesale, miraculous transformation that I, for one, had so naively assumed. Still, we hung on and hung in, trying, testing, and stretching ourselves to new limits and learning to satisfy ourselves with a small breakthrough here or there. With the program’s phase out at the end of the summer, rather than swear off the concept, Steve and I huddled up and drafted a proposal to improve and extend it the following summer.

SM: One positive aspect of the program was our commitment to engage these young people in their homes and communities. While our ‘formal’ program at PBH only lasted the Summer, I stayed with several of the boys in the coming years. One young man, Tommy from Jamaica Plain, was the son of an alcoholic, who beat him regularly and severely as he drank more and more quarts of Pabst Blue Ribbon. At Christmas, Tommy asked if I’d come over to help him pick out a present for his father. When he took me into a bar, I asked whether getting his father alcohol made any sense. Tommy said nothing and just took me to the backroom fence, where the burgled inventory rivaled any retailer’s. The last police officer to arrest Tommy was also there doing his Christmas shopping.

My time with Phillips Brooks House, and with Charles, as well as with classmate Donna Brown (and another counselor I’ve entirely lost track of), taught me more to prepare me for a life in the trial courts and as a judge than any course or other experience at Harvard. I recall advocating for one of these children at the Roslindale Detention Center to keep him home, when so many had no one in their corner.

The greatest learning for me, sadly, was the depth of northern racism. I had been raised naively to believe that racism was a ‘Southern Problem.’ I had equally naively assumed the youth with whom we worked would join together, but fights between Black and White children were so spontaneously explosive that we ended up separating the groups for different program elements. I shouldn’t have been surprised, especially given what we continue to learn of this pernicious nationwide heritage.

CB: Somehow that effort faded in the haze of academic demands and eventual graduation, and along with it, any contact between Steve and me over the next forty-one years.

Then, in the spring of 2014, an inspired message cropped up in my email from ClassACT ’73, bearing the heading: “It's not too late to change the world.” So blatantly ambitious and improbably idealistic, the concept invited comparison to the PBH experience I shared with Steve forty-one years earlier. I recall initially thinking, this too is probably bred by unseasoned idealism. Then came the mention that one of ClassACT’s selected Bridge programs was a non-profit foundation called JusticeAid - improbably founded by one Steve Milliken. After confirming through ClassACT that this was in fact my former PBH program colleague, I signed on with the ClassACT entourage attending JusticeAid’s 2015 concert at the New Orleans House of Blues. Over the course of the weekend events, I reunited and reminisced with Steve; all of which flowed naturally into a renewed friendship and just as naturally to involvement with JusticeAid. Over the past four years, that involvement has expanded from attending JusticeAid’s benefit concerts to serving on its Host Committees. Discovering this gratifying work and rediscovering a lost friend after so many years, have been an inspiring reprisal of purpose for me. Thanks ClassACT ’73.

Charles Bush living it up with ClassACT in NOLA!

SM: This to echo the great joy I took in reuniting with Charles Bush in New Orleans, 41 years after what he so aptly describes as our “novel and ambitious” efforts at Phillips Brooks House to change the lives of teenage boys released from Massachusetts ‘reform’ schools. We know what road good intentions pave, but I hasten to add that we vastly reduced the recidivism rates for these young folks who, at the time, faced well over a 90% chance of returning to detention.

I could not have been more delighted to meet up with Charles in New Orleans, and I am profoundly grateful to ClassACT for reuniting us, and for bringing many classmates to JusticeAid for events in DC and in NYC as well.

- Charles Bush and Steve Milliken, Class of ‘73

Edited by Sallie Gouverneur, pictured left with Steve Milliken in NOLA. Image credit: Rick Weil

Thanks to classmates Bob Bowie and Peter Mazareas, many underprivileged kids are going to college

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 16:16:28 GMT

by Sallie Gouverneur

About 7 years ago, during an HAA breakout session about alumni engagement, Bob Bowie mentioned Early College Awareness, and Peter Mazareas asked, “What’s that?” In Bob’s words, here’s how ECA happened: “Over thirty years ago Bob Clagett of the admissions office and I became obsessed with the middle-school kids from less advantaged backgrounds and their barriers to college. We put together a program in Baltimore and filmed it. The HAA let us put it on and the HAA adopted it.”

According to Peter, at the time he asked about it, there were 8 programs that Bob had set up and structured. Now there are over 36 across the country and internationally, from Greater Boston to Seattle as well as Central and South Florida to Phoenix and beyond, thanks to Peter and Larry Kahn ’83, Co-chairs of ECA

So here’s some useful background data: the ratio of students to guidance counselors in high schools in America is 478/1. The average time a guidance counselor spends with a high school student? 22 minutes. AND according to the US Department of Education, as of 2016, 1 in 5 high schools have no guidance counselor at all. Low-income and first-generation students clearly need help!

Peter says it’s really gratifying to see the growth in the program, but added that perhaps his most personally gratifying experience was the first high school presentation he ever made, at his own urban Massachusetts high school. To speak to 475 freshmen, he put together a panel of 5 young, diverse first-generation speakers (including a football player who Peter had interviewed for Harvard, who had been living in his car in high school and too embarrassed to tell anyone. 4 years later he was unanimously elected on the first ballot to be Captain of the Harvard Football Team) to talk about the benefits of assuming you can go to college and planning for it. The students “were so focused they didn’t even look at their phones!”

This is NOT about getting kids to go to Harvard, and it’s not even principally about getting families to plan for paying for it (even though he co-authored the book Plan and Finance Your Family’s College Dreams, and helped write and pass the legislation for 529 programs across the country). In fact this story is not about Peter Mazareas, except to celebrate the sensation he had at that first presentation of knowing he made a difference. Getting kids’ attention by talking about the cost of not going to college, about relative income gaps and unemployment rates over a lifetime and that College is possible for them, he said, was “most rewarding, most gratifying—I know I touched lives.”

ECA events can help any kids where there’s no guidance at school or home, hence they are particularly important for reaching immigrants and students in underserved communities, out with the College is Possible message. Since financing is independent of the planning, paying may be less of an issue for low-income kids who should be eligible for scholarship funds; it’s more imperative to emphasize the planning process: that they can go to college if they set their sights on the goal.

The ECA program is a model of flexibility—the effort can be undertaken by individual classmates, entire classes, local Harvard clubs and SIGs in no fewer than 4 different forms. Bob Bowie and Peter hope HR73 classmates will be interested in participating with ECA. So Peter is eager to emphasize that the program can make it convenient for classmates to adopt: there are all sorts of resources available, including Power Points and an ECA Tool kit, and the different ECA models range from developing a classroom speakers program, to assemblies, to half-day community programs. Whatever the approach, Peter’s philosophy is 1 student at a time. And “NOT a Harvard outreach,” he said. “I don’t even mention Harvard except for acknowledging the Harvard-connected sponsorship of the event.”

Click here for lots of useful information about ECA.

Bob Bowie gets the next-to-last word: “Peter has been the great leader of ECA. He is the best spokesperson for us and it now. Peter has made it his project, focused it, shaped it and has made it relevant and international. He deserves all the credit for what it has become.”

And in an After-you, Alphonse sort of dance, Peter claims that he and Larry Kahn “just executed Bob’s vision.”

Two ClassACT health care charities join forces in Costa Rica

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 19:33:33 GMT

“The KidsCareEverywhere software will absolutely help us. It will be a huge benefit. You saw the enthusiasm of our doctors here. They were in love with it,” observed Dr. George Whitelaw, president of Childrens Well Being Foundation (CWBF) in Costa Rica, where KidsCareEverywhere (KCE), a San Francisco charity founded by Dr. Ron Dieckmann, ‘73 had just completed a physician software donation and training. The two global health groups had been linked through Jonathan Sprague of ClassACT earlier this spring, as part of a collaborative attempt to bring together Harvard-affiliated nonprofit organizations working in health care.

Dr. George Whitelaw, president of CWBF; Jean Carlo Brenese, CEO of Children’s Well-Being Foundation, Costa Rica; and Dr. Ron Dieckmann, Executive Director of KidsCareEverywhere in San Jose, Costa Rica. Ron donated a tablet PC to help improve clinic access to the medical software he gifted to CWBF on his July, 2018 visit to Costa Rica.

George, an orthopedic surgeon and husband of Dr. Phyllis Carr, ’73 began CWBF over ten years ago. The organization is based in San Jose, Costa Rica and serves poor children—mainly Nicaraguan immigrants. They offer free medical, psychological, eye exams, and dental care to children and adolescents from communities with limited access to health services. CWBF is currently under enormous strain from a flotilla of refugees from their northern neighbor Nicaragua, who are fleeing from violence in their own country and entering Costa Rica, whose lean health care system is already unable to care for their own Costa Rican children.

Ron, A pediatric emergency physician, professor emeritus at UCSF and medical software developer, founded KCE in 2006. The organization donates state-of-art medical software to doctors working in low-income countries and serving impoverished children. KCE has sites in 25 different countries on three continents—Asia, Africa, and South America. The software is gifted to KCE by EBSCO Health Care in Ipswich, and Ron has been intensely involved with development of the pediatric components. Ron says the software is a transformational experience for the doctors and changes practice almost instantly by providing an encyclopedia of current, evidence-based medical knowledge though a mobile app. The app does not require web access and is available at the bedside—so it works very well for doctors in the low-income world.

“We really enjoyed working with George and his group at CWBF”, commented Ron. “His organization is doing totally fantastic work. We want to support his doctors who are dedicated but overwhelmed with patients and have almost no resources or information sources”. The software will allow doctors to access medical information in seconds, and will help identify sick kids that need life-saving drugs or referral into the public Costa Rican system.

The two groups want to continue working together. Ron and George will be looking for each other at the 45^th reunion this fall to plan their next collaboration!

Once Shy Pediatrician Loses Her Inhibitions for the Sake of Infusing Kids with Music

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 20:38:04 GMT

Thanks to Yeou-Cheng Ma, The Children’s Orchestra Society is Almost 50 Years Old

By Andrea Kirsh, HR'73

When Yeou-Cheng Ma turned to ClassACT to solicit help for the Manhasset-based Children's Orchestra Society (COS) I was delighted to offer planning assistance; I knew how demanding small arts organizations are, and how much of her life Yeou-Cheng had given to the organization. Her father founded the Orchestra as a way for his music students to play in ensembles, but for seven years following his retirement it lay dormant. When Yeou-Cheng and her husband, Michael Dadap took over in 1983, they expanded the ambitions of COS with a mission: to cultivate and nurture children and teach them teamwork and life skills through music-learning and performing in orchestral and chamber music settings. What had been an 18-member group has grown to more than 200 students from across the New York City area participating in four orchestras, chamber groups, chorus, and individual instruction in all the orchestral instruments and musicianship. Professional musicians take on students, regardless of their ability to pay and the organization has raised funds to subsidize students' participation in tours across the U.S., Canada, Europe and most recently, to China.

Yeou-Cheng was a serious violinist when her family moved from Paris to New York in 1963, a very shy student suddenly forced to function in a new language. When she entered Radcliffe she was still a reserved musician, taking pre-med courses; she became a pediatrician specializing in children with developmental disabilities, a career which has supported her ongoing musical activities.

The responsibilities of running COS have forced the shy musician to become skillful at administration, public relations and fundraising. Yeou-Cheng told me she's gotten used to asking strangers for money, and when they can't contribute she says, "That's all right; COS need lots of other things: volunteers, marketing help, board members and an audience at recitals." She will do whatever it takes to keep the organization going--during one financially stressful period she and Michael raised money by mortgaging their house.

COS is committed to a child-centered program where children are encouraged to strive for their personal best, rather than competing with peers. Students are placed in ensembles according to their abilities rather than their age or grade level. Since arts education has been eliminated in so many public schools, the orchestra may be their only chance to study music. It has also served as a voice for children with academic and social problems, and all participants have gained experience in cooperation and team spirit.

Ten years ago I attended a COS concert at Carnegie Hall which was reviewed by the New York Times the following day. I was astonished. The accolade is obviously a reflection of COS's musical stature, but most of its graduates are not headed for professional careers as musicians. Many will continue to play for pleasure and all of them will be enthusiastic audience members for classical music. In approaching its 50th year, the challenge for COS is ensuring the viability of what has become much broader than a family project.

NPR Africa Reporter as 2018 Rama Mehta Lecturer

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 19:18:11 GMT

This year’s lecture, on Thursday, October 11^th, at the very beginning of Class of 1973's Reunion, will be delivered by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, National Public Radio’s distinguished journalist reporting on Africa.

Quist-Arcton obtained a BA with honors from the London School of Economics and then completed a yearlong course in radio which included two internships at the BBC. She then joined the BBC in 1985. Pictured right: Ofeibea Quist-Acton

Quist-Arcton was appointed the BBC West Africa correspondent in 1990, heading the regional bureau and covering 24 countries. In 1994 she returned to the BBC in London, where she served as a host and senior producer on the BBC World Service flagship programs, Newshour and Newsday, as well as a contributing Africa specialist for other BBC programming. Beginning in 1995 Quist-Arcton began work in the United States of America for the joint BBC-PRI production, The World.

Quist-Arcton joined National Public Radio in 2004 at the newly created post of West Africa Correspondent in Dakar, Senegal. She reports on all aspects of life and developments on the African continent. Quist-Arcton was awarded the 2015 Edward R. Murrow prize for her reporting on the 2014 Ebola epidemic and Boko Haram, which she shared with photojournalist David Gilkey.

HR73 supports the Rama Mehta Lecture at Radcliffe

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 19:15:54 GMT

ClassACT is proud to support the Rama Mehta Lecture at the Radcliffe Institute. From Mark Graney of the Radcliffe Institute we received the following nice news: "On behalf of all of us at the Radcliffe Institute, thank you for rallying support for the Mehta lecture during your reunion year. These funds will help to prolong the lecture series, thereby broadening public understanding of the challenges facing women in developing countries.”

The Mehta Lecture was established by John and Kitty Galbraith in honor of their friend, an influential Indian woman scholar, and the lecture was delivered shortly after its founding by Benazir Bhutto. Donations to the Radcliffe Institute in support of the Lecture qualified as gifts to the University in our 45th Reunion year and demonstrate a commitment to the BBLP through ClassACT.

ClassACT proudly announces the first two Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellows, Roohi Abdullah and Natasha Jehangir Khan

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 21:30:19 GMT

Natasha Jehangir Khan and Roohi Abdullah have just matriculated at the Kennedy School’s Mason Program, under the auspices of BBLP. We are delighted with the outcome of our efforts: both are Pakistani women with substantive experience. After years of policy making, for Natasha in Pakistani government and for Roohi, in many countries for the World Bank, they can use the year in Cambridge at the Mason Program to prepare for return to Pakistan to transition into formal roles of authority.

Holly Weeks, Roohi Abdullah, Natasha Jehangir Khan, and Marion Dry.

Natasha Jehangir Khan has 15 years of experience in constitutional, administrative and regulatory work. Having received an LLM at University College London in 2001, she began her career in the office of the Attorney General of Pakistan, and later went on to join the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator of the corporate and financial sector of the country except banking, where she eventually served as the Head of Legislation and General Counsel Department. A licensed Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan, she has worked creating performance manuals, structures and systems to contribute strength to the institutions employing her, a necessity in a developing country where power so often resides in individuals instead of institutions. Natasha has worked as a consultant with several Asian-based development organizations advising the Government of Pakistan on regulatory reforms and enhancement of the investment climate in the country, and was instrumental in developing legislation for transitioning Pakistan’s electricity sector from a single buyer to a competitive market structure.

Natasha plans to use the year at the Mason Program to acquire the connections and skills to facilitate her transition to a role of authority.

Roohi Abdullah graduated from MIT In 1999, where she learned how “the creativity of an architect and the social thinking of a planner” can converge. With over 15 years of experience in international development within the larger scope of infrastructure—ranging from finance, poverty, institutional reforms, water utility management, housing, environment, and carbon finance—she has worked in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Albania, Romania, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Nigeria, among other countries. “Today I am a long way from Karachi but working in a sector that is largely male dominated, I am reminded that geography aside, women are constantly struggling to attain some level of legitimacy. I am proud to say, that currently I am working with a team developing water investment lending projects in Pakistan. Life has finally come full circle—my thesis work at MIT was on the water sector in Karachi.”

Both Fellows wrote to say that receiving a fellowship with Benazir Bhutto's name on it inspires them to the core. Roohi wrote in her essay, “As the first female prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto remains enshrined in our collective global consciousness as someone who forged a new trail for the daughters of Pakistan.”

Chicago ClassACT Weekend

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:30:00 GMT

Co-Chairs Jonathan Sprague and Marion Dry traveled to Chicago for the first ever ClassACT Midwest regional weekend, April 21-22. The weekend's work agenda was to introduce ClassACT and the ways classmates and their spouses/partners can engage for work and fun. The weekend was the brainchild of Chicagoans, Gina and Roger Myerson, who have been keen advocates for ClassACT.

Left: ClassACT Co-Chairs Marion Dry and Jonathan Sprague. Right: Chicagoan hosts Roger and Gina Myerson. Image Credits: Rick Weil

With invitations going out to classmates from four states, we wanted to make sure that we had a weekend of fun, so Andrea Kirsh, Craig Coit, Gina Myerson, Rick Weil and Marion Dry all worked to put it together. Though this was a Midwest event, when all was said and done, we had attendees from 7 states: Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. There were numerous classmates from the greater Chicago area who could not attend due to previous commitments.

Karen Peterson, Arunus Paliulis, Patty Potter, Roger Myerson, Andrea Kirsh, Diane Lauderdale. Image Credits: Rick Weil

The group met Saturday afternoon at the Bridgehouse Museum operated by the Friends of the Chicago River. Craig Coit, the former chair of their board, arranged to have the museum opened especially for us (it is seasonal) and for Director Josh Coles to lead us on a private tour. Both Josh and Craig told us about how effective the work of the Friends has been cleaning up and beautifying the river. Craig then guided us down the river via water taxi, telling us, in docent fashion, about the river and the architecture surrounding it as we went. Pictured Right: Craig Coit. Image Credit: Rick Weil.

We all gathered at the beautiful party room of the Myersons’ building for cocktails and a presentation about ClassACT by Marion and Jonathan. The Myersons were the ultimate gracious hosts, in a setting that gave us views looking north to the Loop and to the east, of Lake Michigan.

Left: Deborah Davidson and Ken Bolyard. Right: Karen Peterson, Arunus Paliulis, Andrea Kirsh, and Sandy Weissent. Image Credits: Rick Weil

From there, the late “night crowd” headed to Buddy Guy’s for some blues.

Sunday morning, we met up near the University of Chicago for brunch at The Promontory and then headed to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, where Andrea Kirsh gave us insights into the extraordinary collection of ancient artifacts and art from the Middle East.

We had a weekend of community and fun. We shared our time, broke bread and advanced the work of ClassACT. The wonders of Chicago—its recovering river, its artistic resources, and its musical backbone—enriched our time together.

Arunus Paliulis, Jonathan Sprague, Bill Komaiko, Patty Potter, Roger Myerson, Craig Coit, Sandy Weissent, Marion Dry, Rick Weil, Karen Peterson, Andrea Kirsh, Diane Lauderdale, Vance Lauderdale, Mel Furman, Boris Furman. Image Credit: Rick Weil

Attendees: Ken Bolyard and Deborah Davidson, Craig Coit, Marion Dry, Ellen Fireman and Michael Weissman, Boris and Mel Furman, Andrea Kirsh, Bill Komaiko, Vance and Diane Lauderdale, Thomas Mustoe and Katie Stallcup, Roger and Gina Myerson, Arunas Paliulis, Karen Peterson, Patty Potter, Jonathan Sprague, Rick Weil, Sandy Weissent

JusticeAid Spring 2018 Concert and Panel

Mon, 21 May 2018 22:34:57 GMT

JusticeAid’s double feature in Washington, D.C. around the 2018 theme The Criminalization of Poverty: 21st Century Debtors Prison was the best yet. On April 17 classmate Seth Waxman hosted a discussion at WilmerHale, featuring the Executive Directors/ Founders of the two beneficiaries: Alec Karakatsanis of the Civil Rights Corp and Gina Clayton of the Essie Justice Group. The panel highlighted the human and civil rights issues around “human caging” and the 70% of prisoners who are in jail because they don’t have the resources to afford bail; and then the incredible toll on those left behind—primarily women, who have to pick up the pieces to support their families emotionally and financially. The panel was live streamed over Facebook.

The April 24 sold-out concert at The Hamilton in Washington, D.C. featuring Cécile McLorin Salvant, Paula Cole, Dom Flemons, Marshall Crenshaw and Kandace Springs raised over $120,000 for the two beneficiaries. Charles Bush and Jim Rowe served on the Host Committee for the concert. Jim Rowe underwrote a ClassACT table, hosting Seth Waxman and his wife Debra Goldberg, George Haywood, Holly Weeks and JusticeAid (and ClassACT) Board member Therese Steiner; and Charles Bush brought his daughter. Left Image Credit: Therese Steiner

Left: Jim Rowe, George Haywood, Debra Goldberg. Right: Holly Weeks, Seth Waxman, Therese Steiner, Charles Bush. Image Credits: Katie Sundstrom

ClassACT's own assistant Katie Sundstrom was working double time, helping JusticeAid with its social media posts and platforms, as well as overseeing the Facebook Live post of the panel. She’s been nothing short of amazing. Katie also shot more #WhatJusticeMeansToMe videos with all the artists—in the bathroom off the Green Room, our makeshift recording studio. Thank you Katie!

Jim Rowe, Therese Steiner, George Haywood. Image Credit: Katie Sundstrom

The panel and the concert included short films on JusticeAid's mission and purpose, Civil Rights Corps, and Essie Justice Group. These set the stage for both events, and were great for positioning all initiatives.

Gina Clayton (Founder/Executive Director, Essie Justice Group), Alec Karakatsanis (Founder/Executive Director, Civil Rights Corps), Therese Steiner (Board Member, ClassACT and JusticeAid), Steve Milliken (Founder/Executive Director, JusticeAid). Image Credit: Katie Sundstrom

Update on Ole & Nu Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Club

Mon, 21 May 2018 21:43:09 GMT

Update from classmate sponsor Rick Weil: "I went to Sue Press’s annual Nu and Old Fellas Social Club ball a few weeks ago.” Sue’s social club embodies a form of social work that Rick calls “retail mentoring,” hands-on work with children in the Treme neighborhood which ClassACT has supported previously. “At a panel on tikun olam, the Jewish concept of service, at seminars on Jewish learning, two presenters who run the service program at Tulane were interested in the idea of helping coordinate the neighborhood mentor network I’ve been talking with Sue about developing.”

Rick also called our attention to a lead story in the New York Times in March 2018 about a new study about race and inequality out of Stanford & Harvard by Raj Chetty. “It was one of the best-done studies yet, and they concluded that mentoring might be one of the only things that works. Pretty cool from my perspective.”

Don't forget: Reunion Red Book Deadline April 27!

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 22:51:03 GMT

Don't forget to send in your Class Report submission for Reunion Red Book. You should have received an email and snail mail about this recently. Although the deadline of April 27 may be a bit soft, timely submission will be important if you do not want to be left out! Also be sure to mark your calendars for Reunion October 11-14, 2018.

BBLP Associate Authors Book Review

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 15:48:54 GMT

Erum Sattar, BBLP Associate, authored a book review of Indus Waters Treaty: Political and Legal Dimensions by Ijaz Hussain, Oxford University Press. The review was published on Dawn.com; don't miss it!

"All those who desire a more peaceful and prosperous future for the region must undertake some clear-headed study of the long history of water-sharing and development in the Indus basin. To that end, this book is a critical contribution." - Erum Sattar

JusticeAid Concert: Songs for Lady Day

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:32:00 GMT

ClassACT Bridge Project JusticeAid Presents:
Songs for Lady Day, The Music of Billie Holiday

Songs for Lady Day: The Music of Billie Holiday celebrates jazz and blues legend Billie Holiday during her birthday month of April with performances by Grammy Award-winning artists Cecile McLorin Salvant, Paula Cole, and Dom Flemons, along with legendary singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw and contemporary star and repeat JusticeAid performer Kandace Springs.

100% of ticket sales will benefit JusticeAid’s 2018 beneficiaries, the Civil Rights Corps and Essie Justice Group. Both of these organizations are fighting inequality in our legal system.

Suzan E. Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, will be the emcee for the evening. Susan Shaffer and the Honorable Truman A. Morrison III will be recognized for their heroic efforts to end financial barriers to justice.

Check out JusticeAid's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for clips, photos and updates on the concert!

JusticeAid Panel: The Criminalization of Poverty

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 01:00:00 GMT

The Criminalization of Poverty: 21st Century Debtors' Prison

ClassACT bridge project JusticeAid, with Seth Waxman and WilmerHale, hosted a panel discussion on the criminalization of poverty. The panel was moderated by Vanita Gupta, President and CEO on the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Ms. Gupta was joined by panelists Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps and Gina Clayton of Essie Justice Group.

Missed the panel? You can watch the entire thing on ClassACT's Facebook page!

ClassACT Chicago Weekend, April 21-22: Save the Date!

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:49:21 GMT

"I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America." - Sara Bernhardt

ClassACT agrees! We are coming to Chicago April 21 and 22, and we want to get together with YOU!

Get ready for a weekend of learning and fun.

What's up?

The Main Event:
Roger and Gina Myerson will host us on Saturday, April 21 from 6-8, at their home with a gorgeous view of Lake Michigan. Come and bring your spouse/partner/family member for an evening of fun and a chance to learn about ClassACT.

What Else?

FUN exploring together with a bit of learning thrown in.

We are working on organizing the rest of the weekend and would love your input.

Our ideas so far:

An exhibition tour at the Art Institute with classmate Andrea Kirsh as our guide
Grooving to the blues at Buddy Guy's Legends (a quick walk from the Myersons')
Sunday brunch at the Currency Exchange Café of the Rebuild Foundation
A tour and taproom visit at Metropolitan Brewing (housed in the tannery formerly owned by classmate Rick Weil's family)
A visit to the Field Museum to look at their anthropological collections, which offer a chance to see changing museum practice over the past century
Taking the Chicago River architectural tour

Have preferences and/or an idea you want to add to the mix? Send it asap, as we are going to try to nail this down soon.

Want to attend? Email us at classacthr73@gmail.com.

We have held regional events in DC, NYC, NOLA, Bay Area, and Boston and we are excited to add the Midwest to the list. Know someone you think might like to attend? Share this message and let us know so we can put them on the mailing list.

Questions?

Save the date and join us for the fun.

Tickets now on sale for JusticeAid's 2018 concert!

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 22:38:28 GMT

Tickets are now on sale for JusticeAid's April 24 concert, Songs for Lady Day. The concert will celebrate jazz and blues legend Billie Holiday, while honoring and supporting the work of its beneficiaries, Civil Rights Corps and Essie Justice Group. You don't want to miss this! Click here to learn more about the event and to purchase tickets.

ClassACT co-sponsors celebration of the life of Asma Jahangir, human rights champion

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 15:31:48 GMT

Friends and admirers gathered at the Harvard Kennedy School on Saturday to celebrate the life and legacy of Asma Jahangir, human rights champion. Rick Brotman '73 filmed the speakers; click on their names below to watch their tributes.

Beena Sarwar	Yasser Kureshi
Mahmud Jafari	Shahla Haeri
Yasser Latif Hamdani	Marty Chen
Raza Rumi	Homi Bhabha
Sugata Bose	Chanta Bhan
Kashif Chaudhry	Tom Simons
Sara Sulehri	Ayesha Jalal
Amartya Sen	Sughra Raza

Justice Aid announces 2018 beneficiaries

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 20:49:06 GMT

The 2 programs to benefit from the next Justice Aid concert proceeds (April 24 in Washington, DC) are:

Civil Rights Corps, which brings cutting-edge class-action litigation all over the country to challenge corruption in our legal system, and they’re making a major impact. Civil Rights Corps has already has won victories over unconstitutional bail systems in jurisdictions in Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and more, as well as challenging debtors' prisons all over the South. Civil Rights Corps succeeds because of their commitment to partnering with community-based organizations in each of the localities where they take action, ensuring that local solutions take shape based on local input.

and

Essie Justice Group is an Oakland, California-based organization that mobilizes women with incarcerated loved ones to take on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration, and they are helping lead the campaign for bail reform in California. Essie's award-winning Healing to Advocacy Model brings women together to heal, build collective power, and drive social change. Essie is building a membership of fierce advocates for race and gender justice—including Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transwomen, and gender non-conforming people.

Remembering Asma Jahangir

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 21:52:18 GMT

We are gathering to celebrate and remember our dear friend and comrade, our hero Asma Jahangir:

Saturday Feb 17, 2018, 4-6 pm
Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School.
Address: 79 JFK St., Cambridge, 02138 (Directions at: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/more/about-us/maps-directions)

Fierce upholder of the democratic political process and rule of law, Asma Jahangir defended the rights of women, children and religious and ethnic minorities, workers, peasants and journalists, not just as a lawyer in Pakistan but in her capacity as a UN Special Rapporteur, most recently on Iran. She co-founded the Women's Action Forum, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, and South Asians for Human Rights. She spoke out against the narrow nationalism that pits South Asian countries against each other, for the rights of minorities in India, human rights in Kashmir and Baluchistan and elsewhere in the region. She passed away in Lahore on February 11, 2018, her funeral attended by thousands, including women who broke tradition by going to the graveyard and saying funeral prayers alongside men. Her life will continue to inspire and give meaning to our own always.

Asma Jahangir's last public event was a lecture that she gave at Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford on February 5. The lecture was entitled "Remembering Benazir Bhutto" and the audience included her sister Sanam (Harvard '78), her close Oxford friend Victoria Schofield and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

Confirmed speakers include Amartya Sen, Ayesha Jalal, Martha Chen, Sugata Bose, Homi Bhabha, Raza Rumi, and Sugata Bose among others.

Organised by Asma's friends, activists and admirers.

Co-sponsors: The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University; HKS South Asia Engagement Forum; Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia; South Asia Center Boston; Harvard Pakistan Students Group; HKS Pakistan Caucus; Coalition for a Democratic India; The Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program of ClassACT HR73; Harvard University Asia Center

Knife Skills Documentary

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:17:04 GMT

As ClassACT gears up for JusticeAid's April panel and concert, we are finding Thomas Lennon's Oscar-nominated documentary Knife Skills particularly well timed. Any film that describes itself as being about "the healing power of good food" sounds appealing; but this film is about so much more than a Cleveland restaurant bringing world-class French food to its community. This film brings to its audiences inspiring stories of human resiliency in the face of the American justice system, as it follows the restaurant's staff through their journey of reentry into society after being released from prison.

Check out Knife Skills on its website, facebook, and twitter. View the film on Itunes.

Visionary Women, by Andrea Barnet

Sat, 03 Feb 2018 17:20:40 GMT

Andrea Barnet's forthcoming book was highlighted in Entertainment Weekly on a short list of Books to Read for the Anniversary of the Women's March. Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World explores how these four women made the modern progressive movement possible. Andy is married to our classmate Kit White.

The End of Epidemics, by Jonathan Quick '73

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 16:30:00 GMT

Classmate Jonathan Quick's new book The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It is now available. "There seems little doubt that humanity is heading into a century of epidemics and pandemics," he writes. "We're moving too slowly with too few resources to have a flicker of hope to out run the 'big one,' nor to adequately protect against regional and migrating Ebola, Zika, yellow fever and other epidemic threats. Scientists and public health professionals know what's needed. But they need our help to build a movement that can achieve large-scale, widespread, lasting progress toward ending devastating epidemics and pandemics. As a family physician who's seen the agony of avoidable death in faces of those left behind, and as a father of three grown daughters, I would like nothing better than for us to bring this movement to life!"

Two pieces related to the book were published last week: Wall Street Journal, An Action Plan for Averting the Next Flu Pandemic, and TIME Magazine: Our Complacency About the Flu is Killing Us. An updated version of the TIME piece appeared in yesterday's print version.

Check out Dr. Quick's website to see his speaking schedule and to learn more about his book. Visit the Take Action page to learn how to make epidemic awareness a priority in your home, workplace and community.

Bhutto Fellowship Announced

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 00:33:21 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Classacthr73@gmail.com

NEW BHUTTO FELLOWSHIP AT HARVARD ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

A new fellowship at Harvard University to honor the late Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto, member of the Harvard College class of 1973, is now accepting applications.

The fellowship, established by ClassACT (Class Achieving Change Together, www.classacthr73.org), an organization created by members of the Harvard-Radcliffe (HR) Class of 1973 who were classmates of the late twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is housed at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). It aims to educate and support mid-career leaders particularly from the Middle East and South Asia.

Titled the HKS ClassACT HR 1973 Graduate Leadership Program Fellowship in Honor of Benazir Bhutto, the fellowship will support those accepted into the Edward S. Mason Program at HKS

The HKS is now accepting applications to the Mason Program for the first year of the fellowship.

Eligible candidates for the Benazir Bhutto Fellowship at HKS will have an interest and commitment to creating positive change through the advancement of the principles Benazir Bhutto championed -- democracy, equality for women, reconciliation of cultural and religious differences, and education without gender or religious bias.

“In college, we were privileged to have Benazir Bhutto, who was to become the first woman to lead a predominantly Muslim country, as a classmate,” said Marion Dry, Co-Chair of ClassACT and Director of the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program. “The world needs, more than ever, the kind of leadership that Benazir’s principles inspire.”

Classmate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of the state of Maryland commented: “Benazir arrived at Harvard as a 16 year old with verve, energy, curiosity and enormous determination. She inspired us with her courage in the face of tragedy, integrity where corruption was rampant, and focus when so many forces could lead to dissipation. We are eager to carry her spirit in our hearts and her legacy at our alma mater”.

“Benazir Bhutto has been an iconic and inspirational figure for many women -- as well as plenty of men like myself”, said Jamshed Kazi, Country Representative of UN Women Pakistan and a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. “Bhutto worked against considerable odds to promote democratic principles and boost gender equality initiatives in a patriarchal setting”.

“The launch of the Benazir Bhutto Fellowship is a fitting tribute to her legacy”, he added. “It will provide training for a new generation of leaders in public service from Pakistan and countries across the Middle East and South Asia.”

ClassACT (Class Achieving Change Together) (www.classacthr73.org) is an initiative of members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1973. It is founded on the premise that “it is not too late for us to change the world”. The organization’s primary purpose is to bring together HR73 classmates to address important local, national, and international problems by creating and supporting positive change.

Download PDF

Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellowship Announcement

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 17:36:30 GMT

ClassACT is excited to announce The HKS ClassACT HR1973 Graduate Leadership Program Fellowship in Honor of Benazir Bhutto

A fellowship at the Kennedy School, through the prestigious Mason Fellows program, it is designed to support mid-career leaders from predominantly Muslim countries, particularly women, who promote democracy, equal rights for women, education for all, and religious reconciliation—all values Benazir held dear. Take a look at the details on the HKS financial aid site and search Bhutto for the description.

Reports from Haiti post-hurricane and El Rincon post-earthquake:

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 13:30:00 GMT

David Weeks reports, "fortunately the Haitian village of Camp Coq where I have conducted my Global Leadership Program of the Build Haiti Foundation managed not to be damaged that much from the recent Hurricane Irma." He is currently fundraising to muster 72 children who could not afford the cost of a year's education--contact him at weeks@glenelg.org if you would like more information.

Ellen Calmus reported that power and communications were restored in Malinalco though some cell networks did not yet seem to be working. Their area suffered damage to houses, happily most fairly minor--"sadly, it seems there was damage to a number of Malinalco's treasured historic churches, some going back to the 16th century." Ellen herself was across the mountains attending a funeral, and there was damage there as well, "people in shock, yet everybody helping everybody else. Store owners invited me behind their counters to step over broken bottles and debris to use their land lines, a young man helped clear my car of rubble from a collapsed wall, a policeman stopped traffic so I could get out...Isn't it striking how emergencies can bring out the best in people?"

This theme was also emphasized by our classmate Amy Totenberg's daughter Emily Green, reporting from the Mexico City area on NPR that she survived the quake and was able to file her story through the collected, extraordinary kindnesses of many people in the city.

JusticeAID Concert

Tue, 30 May 2017 04:38:34 GMT

Classmates Ham Fish, Jerome Harris, Rob Segwick, Therese Steiner joined JusticeAid Founder and CEO Steve Milliken and ROCKED OUT at the May 24th concert “Gotta Serve Somebody” benefitting the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center on Bob Dylan’s birthday. Six phenomenal female jazz and blues artists celebrated the music of Bob Dylan, a powerful illustration that art has the power to create positive world change.

View video

The night before, classmate Linda Corman attended a standing room only JusticeAid-hosted panel “Justice, Mental Health and Incarceration" moderated by New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Winerip, and including several people involved in the Close Rikers movement. The panel, focussing on barriers to justice for people with mental illness, was live-streamed on Facebook Live— a ClassACT and JusticeAid first!

Check out: justiceaid.org. and link here for short video on JusticeAid and the work of the Mental Health Project.

JusticeAid host a panel JUSTICE, MENTAL HEALTH & INCARCERATION

Mon, 22 May 2017 06:19:51 GMT

If you're concerned about the justice system and its influence on mental health of the incarcerated, and/or a New Yorker eager to close Rikers' Island, you'll want to know about this: a chance to tap the expertise of an extraordinary group of mental health professionals on the cutting edge of advocacy, programming and assistance for people with mental illness currently in or recently out of the prison/jail systems.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 23rd, at 6:30pm, as part of our community outreach efforts, JusticeAid, A ClassAct HR73 bridge project, will host a panel JUSTICE, MENTAL HEALTH & INCARCERATION, moderated by Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist Michael Winerip.

Join the conversation! and please share with abandon.

Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Assembly

Tue, 06 Dec 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Check out the global coverage of the Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Assembly, which ClassACT held with co-sponsor The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs on December 5.

Daily Pakistan
Dunya News
GEO TV
Kashmir Images
Pakistan Today
Shafaqna
The Express Tribune
The Harvard Gazette
The News International