Tag: Urban Engagement Book Club

These Times Call For “Big Citizenship” – (Insight from the Book by Alan Khazei, Founder of City Year)

As I have written frequently, I live in (more than) a couple of different worlds.  I read, and present synopses of business books.  But I also speak monthly at the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare.  I present synopses of books dealing with social justice, racism, poverty – issues of human need. Sometimes, I feel… Read More These Times Call For “Big Citizenship” – (Insight from the Book by Alan Khazei, Founder of City Year)

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Putting Our Minds to Finding Work Solutions for The Under-Skilled May Be the Most Patriotic Thing We Can Do

For practically every family, the ingredients of poverty are part financial and part psychological, part personal and part societal, part past and part present.  Every problem magnifies the impact of the others, and all are so tightly interlocked that one reversal can produce a chain reaction with results far distant from the original cause. If… Read More Putting Our Minds to Finding Work Solutions for The Under-Skilled May Be the Most Patriotic Thing We Can Do

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Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Marable Manning (Thinking about Race after the Death of Trayvon Martin)

I don’t think a white man can ever fully understand the backstory of something like the sad and tragic killing of Trayvon Martin. This week, as news and conversations surrounding Martin’s death brings so much pain and horror, I am also reading the acclaimed biography Malcolm X:  A Life of Reinvention by Marable Manning. About… Read More Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Marable Manning (Thinking about Race after the Death of Trayvon Martin)

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Maybe We’re Too Enamored with the New – What Can We Learn from the Old, the Enduring?

This is the text I wrote for an announcement e-mail for the next Urban Engagement Book Club, which meets on December 1, here in Dallas (at the Highland Park Methodist Church, next door to SMU).  I decided to share it here. —————- We are enamored with the new.  We want the new, new thing.  We… Read More Maybe We’re Too Enamored with the New – What Can We Learn from the Old, the Enduring?

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Books on my Reading List – Tomatoland & Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock

I wish I had more hours to read. I am behind on my fiction reading (50 years behind); my business book reading; my general nonfiction reading.  I’m just behind! But here are two books on my reading list.  I just bought Tomatoland:  How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Eastabrook for my… Read More Books on my Reading List – Tomatoland & Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock

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People Are Just Too Big In This Country – We’ve Got To Shrink A Little, Now, Fast (We’re living in “Generation Extra Large”)

Ok – let’s state the obvious.  We’re too big. Really – we’re too big.  Way too big.  For example, the average person riding mass transit now weighs 200 pounds – up from 164 pounds just a couple of decades ago.  We’re too big! Or, to put it another way:  When Dandy Don Meredith was the… Read More People Are Just Too Big In This Country – We’ve Got To Shrink A Little, Now, Fast (We’re living in “Generation Extra Large”)

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Children and Poverty – Here’s a Problem Worthy of our Most Focused Attention (Eric Jensen, Teaching With Poverty in Mind)

There are people with plenty.  There are others with far from plenty.  The poor are always at the top of mind at the Urban Engagement Book Club (sponsored by CitySquare).  Today, I am presenting my synopsis of Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About… Read More Children and Poverty – Here’s a Problem Worthy of our Most Focused Attention (Eric Jensen, Teaching With Poverty in Mind)

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Interested in Race and Politics? – Here’s a Book Worth Reading

Today, I am presenting a synopsis of the book Running on Race:  Racial Politics in Presidential Elections, 1960-2000 (New York:  Random House – 2002) by Jeremy D. Mayer.  This is this month’s selection for the Urban Engagement Book Club, an event sponsored by CitySquare (formerly Central Dallas Ministries). The book selections (made by a group… Read More Interested in Race and Politics? – Here’s a Book Worth Reading

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Thoughts About Change From A Book About Racial, Ethnic, And Class Tensions

For the Urban Engagement Book Club for Central Dallas Ministries tomorrow, I am presenting my synopsis of There Goes the Neighborhood:  Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America by William Julius Wilson and Richard P. Taub.  At this book club, we focus on books related to social justice… Read More Thoughts About Change From A Book About Racial, Ethnic, And Class Tensions

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Saul Alinsky + The Starfish and The Spider – Wisdom for a New Generation, on both sides of the Aisle

The basics transcend all differences. I generally shy away from anything political on this blog.  But this morning, there is an article on Politico that is worth a little attention on a blog focused on business books.  The article is entitled The new tea party bible, and it describes how the Tea Party Movement has… Read More Saul Alinsky + The Starfish and The Spider – Wisdom for a New Generation, on both sides of the Aisle

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