"After viewing a city full of funerals, we return to our homes only to find them empty of our loved ones.” That’s what Petrarch wrote about the Black Death (bubonic plague), which in 1348 devastated Western Europe, killing an estimated two-thirds or more of the population. Europe re
The Islamic Society of North America, the Managing the Atom Project of the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy convened a group of 24 religious leaders and scholars, with equal representation
In 1970, almost 200 countries signed a document urging nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. It was designed to help nations develop peaceful nuclear energy programs, if they would foreswear nuclear weapons. The five countries possessing such weapons—the United States, Britain, Russia, China an
The world is busy debating the reform of the United Nations. In mid-September a rendezvous with history is anticipated in New York City: a summit of heads of states and governments to decide up-to-date structures for the governance of the planet. In 1945, in the aftermath of a bloody and destructive
I could barely wait to tear into the fat envelope. As I pulled out the letter, my eyes spotted the photos of two grinning girls with dark eyes. Come and see our children! I called out to my husband. To be precise, they are not really ours. They are two little girls in Ethiopia whom I am sponsoring t
Mary Budd Rowe was a model scientist, ever inquisitive, asking questions no one had asked before. She was a psychologist who specialized in science education. When I first met her in the late 1970’s, she had done pioneering work on “wait time,” the time teachers allow students to p
Potential Abuse
Your bias is showing again in your editorial The Patriot Act and Civil Liberties (8/1). The various points you raise allow for easy correcting responses. I’ll use one as an example, namely, the potential abuse you apparently see of the right/prohibition against