TheSocialEdge.com

by Gerry McCarthy

Richard Layard is a leading economist who believes that the happiness of society does not necessarily equate to its income. He is founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at The London School of Economics. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Huston Smith is recognized internationally as a leading public scholar of world religions. He has taught at Washington University, MIT, Syracuse University, and was recently visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Smith is the author of two best-selling books entitled The Religions of Man (re-published as The World’s Religions in 1991) and Why Religion Matters (2001). His forthcoming book The Soul of Christianity: Retrieving The Great Tradition will be published this summer by HarperSanFrancisco. I reached Dr. Smith in California.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Maura Conlon-McIvor graduated from the University of Iowa and has worked as a journalist, editor, and producer. She holds a doctorate in depth psychology and lives with her husband in Portland, Oregon....

by Gerry McCarthy

Michael Baxter is a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He has been an assistant professor of theology at Notre Dame
University since 1996. He has done research and writing focusing on the interrelationship of theology, history, and ethics, with particular attention paid to the morality of war and Christian peacemaking.
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by Nicole Sault

Fr. Roy Bourgeois at Ft. Benning

Fr. Roy Bourgeois is a Maryknoll missionary who became an activist for peace after witnessing the violence committed in Latin America by graduates trained in torture and repression at the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia. In response he founded SOA Watch to document the atrocities, educate the public, and organize a non-violent grass roots movement to end government funding and shut down the School of the Americas.

     Fr. Roy travels internationally giving talks for schools, churches, and peace groups, and his life’s work is described in the biography: Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas by James Hodge and Linda Cooper.

Nicole Sault: Some people would be surprised to know that before becoming a priest and an activist you were a high school football star, and then a Naval officer who was awarded a purple heart in Vietnam. In what ways do you draw on these earlier experiences in your current work?

Fr. Roy Bourgeois: They are very integral to my ministry now, to my activism. We are a product so often of our past experiences. I grew up in a very conservative area of the country, Louisiana, in a small town of some 3,000. We did not critique our country’s foreign policy. I grew up as basically a Sunday Catholic. We would never really read and reflect on the Scriptures. It was mostly about just the basic going to church on a Sunday, not really struggling with social justice issues, foreign policy issues, or the war in Vietnam, or the sin of racism that was so alive and active in our community. Yes, I went to a public school there where sports were important, and then off to college where I got a degree in geology, hoping to get rich in the oil fields of Venezuela.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Ed Willes has been a sports columnist at The Province (Vancouver) since 1998. He started his journalism career in 1982 at the Medicine Hat News. He’s also worked at the Regina Leader-Post and the Winnipeg Sun (where he was the hockey writer for 8 years)....

by Gerry McCarthy

Christine Gervais is a mother, spouse, professor, human rights activist and humanitarian. In 2002, she completed a doctorate in Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa. Since 1995 she has worked as an Assistant Professor of Criminology at Ottawa University and a Lecturer in Sociology at Carleton University.

Gervais has been involved in research and teaching in numerous areas, including: human rights violations, development and justice, gender and racial inequalities, crime prevention, and reconciliation.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Dr. Robert Franklin is the Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at Emory University. He is one of the leading voices in theological education.

     An ordained clergyman, Dr. Franklin has served at Harvard Divinity School, The University of Chicago, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. His previous books include Liberating Visions, and Another’s Day Journey. His new book Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities was just published by Augsburg Fortress Press.

I reached Dr. Franklin in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Gerry McCarthy: Early in Crisis in The Village you write that: "The world needs strong moral leadership, but our national leaders continue to miss opportunities to provide it." Are you hopeful this can change?

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by Gerry McCarthy

George McGovern is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and the 1972 Democratic Presidential Candidate. In 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food And Agriculture. In 2001 he was appointed United Nations Global Ambassador on World Hunger. He’s also a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom....

Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.

We continued our monthly conversation when we met in Toronto recently.

Gerry McCarthy: One movie you’ve screened before is Goodbye Columbus with Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw. It was made in 1969, but it still holds up. Is it a film you like?

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by Gerry McCarthy

William Romanowski is a professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College. He’s a widely respected speaker on subjects dealing with American culture and the entertainment industry.

     Romanowski is the author of Pop Culture Wars and co-author of Risky Business: Rock in Film. His book Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture was first published in 2001. It received the ECPA Gold Medallion Award in 2002. A revised and expanded edition of the book was recently published by Brazos Press. I reached him in Grand Rapids, Michigan to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Eyes Wide Open you quote British film and TV producer Norman Stone who pointed out that movies "can move people into thought, into facing things, into challenging themselves in a different way from a textbook or novel or sermon." You add that: "Whether as producers or patrons, people have a responsibility to understand this vital means of cultural communication." Can you talk to me a bit more about this? How do movies challenge us in different ways than a novel or sermon?

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Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.
     Last month we spoke about the Oscars and revisiting old movies. The conversation was so informative, we decided to make it a regular feature in our Arts & Culture section. Here is our latest chat.

Gerry McCarthy: The film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder died recently. I consider him one of the great film directors

RS: I agree

GM: Can you select two of his films that you liked personally?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Avner Offer is Chichele professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy.

     Prior to his academic career, Offer spent 8 years working as a soldier, farmer, and conservation worker in Israel, where he was born and raised. He has been a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, Cambridge, Clare Hall, the University of Southampton, Rutgers University, the Australian National University, and New York University.

     Offer is the author of numerous books, including In Pursuit of the Quality of Life (1996). The subject he’s currently working on is "From Social Democracy to Market Liberalism." His most recent book The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950 was published recently by Oxford University Press. I reached him in Oxford, England to speak about the book.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Jennifer Harbury’s investigation into torture began when her husband disappeared in Guatemala in 1992. She told the story of his torture and murder in her book Searching for Everardo.

     Harbury received her law degree from Harvard. She has lived and worked with human rights activists, peasants, and Mayan villagers in Guatemala. Harbury has also worked with members of the U.S. Congress and the Organization of the American States to locate her husband and 35 other members of the Guatemalan resistance believed to be held by the military. She currently directs the STOP (Stop Torture Permanently) Campaign at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

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by Jeni Armstrong

Leonard Shaw is a psychotherapist, consultant and teacher and the author of Love and Forgiveness: A Workbook for Self-Healing and Healing Relationships. ...

by Gerry McCarthy

Robert Ellsberg is editor-in-chief of Orbis Books. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time.

     Two years ago, Ellsberg spoke to The Social Edge about his book The Saints Guide to Happiness. His new book Blessed Among All Women: Women Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time was just published by the Crossroad Publishing Company. I reached him in New York to speak about the book.

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