Halloween is a time for "gallows humor," but macabre displays of fake bodies swaying from trees are not a laughing matter for those who understand the legacy of lynching in America. From Crystal Lake, Florida, to Stratford, Connecticut, hanging dummies... Read more →

by Aviva Chomsky As I’ve been doing interviews and talks over the past several months about my book, "They Take Our Jobs!" And 20 Other Myths About Immigration, I've become more and more convinced that a key, central issue that's... Read more →

A few weeks back, the New York Times had a great piece on "the greying of the Web." Older people are giving the lie to the grey-haired Luddite stereotype and taking the 'Net with blogs and their own social networking... Read more →

by Fred Pearce Nobel prizewinner Al Gore and I go back a long way. True, I've only met him once. I shook the hand of the man who used to be the next President of the United States, the latest... Read more →

by Philip C. Winslow Driving north out of Jerusalem after twelve months away was like settling back to watch a favorite film. The olive trees and stony hills baked under the late summer sun and the eroded limestone cliffs at... Read more →

Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was described by the New York Times as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.” Her poetry collections include Swan; Blue Iris; Why I Wake Early; Thirst; New and Selected Poems,... Read more →

Beacon's own beloved Mary Oliver has a poem in the Boston Globe about baseball, more specifically about our own, beloved Red Sox. It seemed appropriate to send you all to read it today, as the office buzzes with anticipation/dread (in... Read more →

This week, we've been thinking about families, and in particular relationships between generations. Today, Clare Dunsford talks about the specific challenges and rewards of raising a child with special needs and his own special way of looking at the world.... Read more →

Jonathan Silin wrote My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents to chronicle his experiences learning to care for his elderly parents when their independence began to slip away. Although his years of intimate daily... Read more →

Eboo Patel, a Beacon author who blogs at the Washington Post/Newsweek website, has a a fiery post about the controversial author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose criticism of Islam and embrace of Western values are, in Patel's view, based on misconceptions... Read more →

by Laila Halaby Small or large. Here or there. That is ‘Eid. When ‘Eid (either of them—‘Eid al Fitr follows Ramadan and ‘Eid al Adha will be in December) is there, it is a celebration that involves visiting and eating... Read more →

by Kai Wright The gay community has always been trapped by a damnable catch-22: our best weapons in the fight for sexual freedom are our individual choices to proudly declare ourselves queer; yet our greatest challenge is still the insidious... Read more →

by Marcus Eriksen Two young soldiers, along with five fellow service members, penned a letter from Baghdad to the New York Times in which they vented their frustration and opposition to a war they knew intimately. A few weeks later,... Read more →

by Annelise Orleck On Wednesday October 3, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that allocated $35 billion over the next five years to expand the number of children eligible for the successful and popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program... Read more →

Today's post is from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, an historian, university professor, co-founder of Indigenous World Association, which lobbies the United Nations on behalf of indigenous peoples’ rights, and author of a number of books and articles on indigenous peoples of the... Read more →

Religious leaders of all faiths are joining together this coming Monday, October 8th, for an Interfaith Fast to End the War in Iraq. Rabbi Arthur Waskow, co-author of The Tent of Abraham, forwarded this call to participate, which you can... Read more →

Editor's Note: Today, thousands of bloggers around the world are taking part in an International Bloggers Day for Burma. Instead of the usual blogging, they've put up just one post with a image (like the one here) showing their support... Read more →

In a comment on yesterday's post about International Non-Violence Day, one reader prodded us to address the alarming situation in Burma/Myanmar. Many of us are probably wondering what we can do to educate ourselves about the country and to help... Read more →

October 2 is Gandhi's birthday and also the first International Non-Violence Day. Does this mean that the headlines tomorrow will be devoid of murder, war, and oppression? Unlikely, but it does give us a chance to reflect of the teachings... Read more →

by Rick Ayers An essay on censorship and “book challenging” in schools for Beacon’s new blog would seem a pretty simple piece to write, considering the audience of book lovers and progressives. Narrow-minded right-wingers ban books; thoughtful, well-read people, people... Read more →