An interview with Arnie Alpert, co-director, AFSC New Hampshire program

Arnie Alpert has coordinated AFSC’s work in New Hampshire for over 30 years. In that time, he helped lead a decade-long campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a state holiday. We asked Arnie for his thoughts on how King’s words and actions resonate in struggles for justice today.

Q: King is considered the most important leader in the Civil Rights Movement, but you’ve written about the limits of this characterization.

This week, confirmation hearings began for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. The hearings were met with protests both on and off the Senate floor. Here's what we're reading to learn more.

The Donald Trump cabinet tracker by Russell Berman via The Atlantic

This is the third post in a three-part series from my conversation with Quaker author, activist, and educator George Lakey. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.

This is the second post in a three-part series from my conversation with Quaker activist, author, and educator George Lakey.

This is the first in a three-part series from my conversation with Quaker activist, author, and educator George Lakey. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Click here for part 2, and here for part 3.

On Jan 10, Gen. John Kelly faced the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to answer questions related to his nomination for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Kelly is one of at least six confirmation hearings this week for cabinet posts, and Sen. Chuck Schumer has claimed that “Senate Republicans are trying to ram [nominees] through as quickly as possible.” The frenzied schedule virtually guarantees that concerns about individual nominees won’t get the attention that such important decisions deserve. 

From sanctuary to sit-ins, resisting registries to archiving data, people across the country are mobilizing against racist and anti-human policy proposals. Here's what we're reading to learn more:

The return of civil disobedience, by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker

An end to violence in Syria is possible, but will take international community commitment.

An Arabic proverb has been on my mind in recent days. Roughly translated, it goes, “They killed him then walked in his funeral mourning his death.” That, to me, is Syria.

Dr. Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah is the Quaker International Affairs Representative, Middle East, for AFSC. She is a conflict prevention and mitigation specialist and is the founder, president, and managing director of Kommon Denominator, Inc., an organization that is committed to leveraging social science research in support of the peaceful resolution of conflict.