On the same day last week that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced it was dropping its attempt to go for-profit, state regulators released a report showing a for-profit Blue could result in a significant rise in insurance premiums and the number of uninsured North Carolinians over the next five years. The […]
Barbara Solow
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Sad legacy
It ranks up there as one of the crimes of the century–the failure of the U.S. government to support African-American farmers and stem the tide of loss that threatens to carry them to a vanishing point. The wrongdoing goes back to the institution of slavery in the United States and continues through failed Reconstruction-era policies […]
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Taking the helm at Common Sense
When David Mills got word that he’d been chosen as the next executive director of the Raleigh-based Common Sense Foundation, he was right outside the “board room.” “I was in the board meeting actually and they sent me out for a little bit to discuss my candidacy,” says the 34-year-old Durham resident. “Then, they called […]
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Shaman Alexie
The temperature downstairs at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop last Tuesday was steamy enough to wilt the pages of even the toughest hardbacks on the shelves. Not surprising, given that every available square inch of space was packed with eager listeners. We were there to hear author Sherman Alexie read from his new short story collection Ten […]
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People’s history
When she thinks about patriotism, Daniella Cook thinks first of the summer school students she’s now teaching in Chapel Hill. For Cook, a former history teacher and fair testing organizer for the Raleigh-based Common Sense Foundation, teaching U.S. history to local high school students has been a lesson in limitation. “What made our country great […]
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Medicine or ministry?
Twice a week, Georgina Fierro Keene pulls on a white lab coat and heads to the clinic she manages at Pregnancy Support Services in Durham. The organization is not a medical outfit and Fierro Keene is not a doctor, though she does have medical training. Pregnancy Support Services is a Christian ministry that runs local […]
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A middle way to Mideast peace
Lois Ballen was looking to “make something happen” in her Durham community. A longtime subscriber to the progressive Jewish magazine, Tikkun, she’d been following the publication’s search for a new approach to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and its critical stance on aspects of the U.S. war on terrorism. Recently, when the magazine’s founders launched an interfaith, […]
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Playing War
Feb. 15, 2003: Driving home from the big anti-war march in Raleigh, I’m feeling pumped up. I’ve spent the last several hours roaming the crowd of thousands, reading clever protest signs and soaking up the hopeful energy that’s radiating out from Fayetteville Street mall like it’s a giant space heater. At this moment at the […]
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Religion
Ask Jeanette Stokes to describe how religion has changed over the last 20 years and she immediately starts drawing on the paper tablecloth at the restaurant where we’re having lunch. Her pen scratches out grids, squares, interlocking circles and one delicately spiraling labyrinth. The labyrinth is an especially potent symbol for Stokes, a Presbyterian minister […]
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License to Heal
A few years ago, when she was running a Raleigh advocacy organization for low-income citizens, Barbara Zelter came down with a case of bronchitis that lasted for months. She went to several doctors, tried antibiotics and other medications, but instead of getting better, she just got worse. Finally, after more than a year of persistent […]
