Westminster Town Hall Forum

Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work in organizing marches for peace in Northern Ireland, bringing together Protestants and Catholics to hear the message that violence cannot bring social justice. With Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, she founded Community of Peace People. In 1981, she moved to the United States and has continued her work for peace. She has been honored with the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award. Her vision to create safe havens for children where they can be fed, sheltered, nurtured, and encouraged to grow to their full potential has become a reality through her nonprofit, World Centers of Compassion for Children.

Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins is committed to the practice of civil discourse as a means to strengthening democracy. She believes that it is important to acknowledge the words, traditions, and stereotypes that exist today in individuals and communities as a first step toward understanding. She is the fifteenth president of the League of Women Voters of the United States and the first African-American to head the organization. She is the author of several works, including The Road to Suffrage and One Man One Vote. She has worked in education for more than twenty years, serving as adjunct professor at Colorado Christian University and as a teacher and principal in the Cleveland school system.

Joseph Stanton, Ralph Nero & Walter Benjamin - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides - 09/21/89 by westminsterforum

E. J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post, specializing in politics and public policy. From 1977 to 1990, he worked for The New York Times, reporting on local, state, and national politics. In 1990, he joined The Post as a national political reporter. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Republic and Commonwealth. His book Why Americans Hate Politics was published in 1991. His latest book is They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he earned a doctorate in sociology.

Harold Hodgkinson is Director of the Center for Demographic Policy and a Fellow of the American Council on Education. Widely known as a lecturer and analyst of demographic and educational issues, he has profiled 28 states and numerous metropolitan areas. His recent studies include All One System: Demographics of Education, Kindergarten Through Graduate School; The Demographics of American Indians: One Percent of the Population, Fifty Percent of the Diversity; Immigration to America: The Asian Experience; and Hispanic Americans: A Look Back, a Look Ahead. He is the author of 12 books, three of which have won national awards, and over 200 articles for which he has been honored by the American Education Press Association.

Gustav Niebuhr is the senior religion writer at The New York Times, reporting on major trends in religion and news-breaking stories throughout the United States. Before joining The New York Times, he wrote for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has covered the mass suicide of members of the Heaven's Gate cult, the growth of mega-churches in American cities, the development of Islam as a major American religious presence, and the rise of religious conservatives as a national political force. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Religion Newswriters Association prize, the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, and the Supple Memorial Award.

Andrei Codrescu is a professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the editor of the literary journal Exquisite Corpse. Born in Sibiu, Romania, he immigrated to the United States in 1966 and became a citizen in 1981. His experience as a foreigner lends his writing its fresh, unorthodox perspective and voice, reflected in such titles as The Dog With the Chip in His Neck and The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans. His many honors include the Peabody Award and the General Electric Foundation Poetry Prize. He appears regularly on a variety of television programs, including Nightline and The David Letterman Show.

Michael Lerner is a political activist, rabbi, and editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine. He is recognized as one of the most influential thinkers shaping the direction of the Clinton presidency. With Cornel West, he co-authored the book Blacks and Jews: A Dialogue Between Cornel West and Michael Lerner in which the two friends grapple with volatile and personal issues in an honest dialogue. In his work as a therapist in the 1970s, he developed the concept of "The Politics of Meaning." He discovered that there was a psychological and ethical crisis among American working people who want to transcend the individualism and selfishness of society and move their lives and their communities toward a higher spiritual and ethical framework.

Jeremy Rifkin has devoted nearly two decades to examining the impact of technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. He has written thirteen books, including his most recent, The End of Work, the result of a three-year study of the changing nature of work in the Information Age. The founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., he has shaped public policy in the United States and around the world and has consistently worked to ensure responsible government policies on environmental and technology issues. His unique perspective and social commentary have made him a frequent guest on a variety of television programs, including Face the Nation, Nightline, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and The Today Show.

Joycelyn Elders became the first African-American and the second woman to hold the post of Surgeon General of the United States. A pediatric endocrinologist, she initiated programs to combat smoking and teen pregnancy and to encourage childhood immunizations. She worked to change America's thinking about health by putting prevention first, and she was committed to being a voice for the poor and the powerless. She believes that violence, sexually-transmitted diseases, poverty, and substance-abuse are major threats to the health and well-being of our children. She continues her career today at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and lobbies for the welfare of children and the powerless.