The ABA Journal reported that US District Judge Dan Polster is considering certifying a class action in the massive opioid case specifically for negotiation. The class would consist of 33,000 cities, towns, and counties. The proposal could help protect against an unfair settlement that is reached by lawyers before approval by the class, proponents say. … Continue reading Possible Federal Class Negotiation in Opioid Case
Heidi and Guy Burgess have done phenomenal work for a long time to develop resources about dealing with destructive intractable conflicts. They have expanded their project, which is called the Constructive Conflict Initiative. They just posted an update, which describes an impressive range of activities including public education, the Beyond Intractability materials, networking, publicity, and … Continue reading Update on Constructive Conflict Initiative
TFOI Jacqueline Font-Guzmán wrote this op-ed column on democracy and self-government in Puerto Rico. She noted the publication of chat messages involving Governor Ricardo Rosselló which led to his resignation. The messages “contained expletive attacks on the LGBTQ community, women, obese individuals, the 4,645 people who died as a result of Hurricane María, political opponents, … Continue reading Jackie Font-Guzmán Op-Ed on Democracy and Self-Government in Puerto Rico
I was going to post the piece below riffing on Arthur C. Brooks’s column about de-polarizing political biases. And then came the Democratic presidential debates this week, which provided a glaring example of how political biases often are generated and spread. This post uses these debates as an illustration of the process and then discusses … Continue reading Political De-Biasing
Have you seen the classic movie, Gaslight? It’s the story of a husband who slowly manipulates his wife into believing that she is insane because she imagines things, which are real, such as a gaslight flickering. This is the film noir version of the Marx Brothers quip, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying … Continue reading Un-Gaslighting
Many Democratic candidates for president have addressed questions about whether the US should make “reparations” for slavery (and other social injustices). Unfortunately, that term is confusing and scary for some people (including some of the candidates) who conceive of it simply as making cash payments to certain individuals. In fact, the proponents are suggesting something … Continue reading Benefits of Reframing “Reparations”
Several new articles reflect what I think are good and bad approaches to dealing with historic injustices that I described in a recent post. For some reason, a 1971 Playboy interview of John Wayne just went viral. In it, he said, “I believe in white supremacy,” and justified “our so-called stealing of our country” from … Continue reading More about Our Need for Truth and Reconciliation
Donald Trump. Anthony Weiner. Ralph Northam. Kevin McCarthy. Justin Fairfax. Steve King. Antonin Scalia. Brett Kavanaugh. Roy Moore. Al Franken. James Watt. Bill Clinton. Ronald Reagan. Richard Nixon. George H.W. Bush. Bernie Sanders. Spiro Agnew. Eric Schneiderman. Ilhan Omar. Eliot Spitzer. Harry Reid. Mike Huckabee. Joe Biden. George Allen. Ben Carson. Paul Ryan. Jesse Jackson. … Continue reading Our Need for Truth, Reconciliation, and Justice
As noted in this post about our need for truth, reconciliation, and justice about past injustices, Washington Post journalist James Hohmann compiled the following list of readings for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to learn about our racial history based on suggestions of preeminent historians. This is a good reading list for all of us to … Continue reading Reading List About Our Racial History
A companion post discusses a great need for truth, reconciliation, and justice about past injustices in our society. This post identifies some organizations in our field that work to promote these goals and uses language from their websites to describe their activities. If you know of any resources that should be added to this list, … Continue reading Resources for Truth and Reconciliation
