Tom Adams
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The battle between hope and despair seems fiercer than ever this year. A few promising signs of hope have appeared and still, there are many that can make me feel hopeless. How do we renew our aspirations for good and resilience?
This week we are continuing to explore the many ways to advance racial equity and justice. I have invited a colleague and friend, Bob Francis, to share the kind of discussions and actions he is taking and seeing others take to advance deeper and lasting change in America. Bob is the retired executive of a regional youth-serving organization in Connecticut. He began this work as a civil rights activist in the 60’s and is a life-long advocate for change.
Where we live determines nearly every aspect of, and access to, opportunities, jobs, education and our vital social networks. With our dysfunctional community design based on zoning laws of today, we get dysfunctional traffic jams, long commutes, poor educational opportunities, segregation, distrust, sprawl and gates.
I have been in hundreds of conversations about how to increase racial diversity in organizations and companies. Most of them are either idealistic pipe dreams or efforts to find the “magic right answer” and avoid the hard, uncomfortable work of change. Black History...
Our family has begun having intergenerational zoom discussions about justice and equity. We cross-pollinate with in-laws and cousins from our partners’ families which makes the conversations particularly rich. My wife’s niece talked about the struggles a mid-west art...
“Democracy prevailed.” – These words spoken on Inauguration Day by our new president, Joe Biden, offered us hope. Indeed, January 20th was a great day for those of us who are hoping for change. President Biden, Vice President Harris and three former presidents filled...
What the hell is going on? How did it happen? What needs to be done? What’s mine to do? “I don’t know” is the most honest answer. America is facing critical questions that deserve more than superficial, simple theories and quick fixes to return to the appearance of...
The 2020 Presidential Election is in its home stretch. If Joe Biden wins, January will bring fresh hope for many of us along with a long period of individual and collective discomfort and chaos as we explore this new beginning together with those who voted for the...
The Scripture passage “Love your neighbor as yourself” has been haunting me lately. You may be more familiar with its cousin: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How are love of others and self-love connected and possible in such divisive times? This...
Today is my birthday and it seemed like a great time to share about the blessings of new birth and grandchildren (see Love, Shalem Friday Blog). That plan got upended when a friend sent me a clip a week ago about the murder of Jonathan Price by a police officer in...
Tom Adams writes and speaks on topics vital to the intersection of our personal lives with our community and global lives. He has for decades been engaged in and written about nonprofit leadership and transitions, spirituality and spiritual growth, how we each contribute to a more just and equitable world and recovery from addictions and the Twelve Step recovery movement.