Brad Rourke’s Blog
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The Morality-Free Zone: Wall Street and the New American Dilemma
Guest article by my friend Allison Addicott: In The Beginning Remember films such as Robin Hood or others that depict tax collectors for the landed gentry repeatedly riding into small villages demanding more money? In such films, often the final manifestation of unabashed moral corruption on the part of the landed oligarchy was the torching…
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Moving Beyond Margaret Mead
My friend Peter Levine starts a recent article with the famous Margaret Mead quotation that graces the walls and annual reports of a significant fraction of nonprofits: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead He goes on to…
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Whelan Apologizes For Publicizing Anonymous Blogger's Identity
I don’t ordinarily run “updates” to earlier stories, but this news shifted on of the the points made in Monday’s posting about the controversy between Ed Whelan and a pseudonymous blogger named “publius.” Whelan had discovered publius’ identity and revealed it. I used the occasion to make a broader point about being anonymous (which I…
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Our Civic Wedding
Having recently been to a wedding, I am thinking about my own wedding, back in 1992. We chose a decidedly nontraditional approach to our ceremony. It is a choice that has endured and I continue to be glad of it. My wife, Andrea Jarrell, and I met doing civic activities. These things were the center…
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Why I Am Not Anonymous
There’s a controversy right now over an exchange between two notable bloggers, each from opposite sides of the liberal/conservative divide. An author at the “moderate” liberal Obsidian Wings blog who writes under the pseudonym “publius” has long criticized conservative Ed Whelan, who writes at the National Review’s Bench Memos and is the president of the…
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Mayor's Sustainability Summit A Great Example Of "Governing Different"
Kai Degner is mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Before becoming mayor, he was also active (and still is, as you will see) in the civic participation community. He was elected about a month ago on what he refers to as a “process-based platform,” which means his basic promise is to change how…
Brad Rourke 