Drick Boyd's Blog
The Power Elite (Books That Have Shaped Me #2)
Live for a while in the books you love. Learn from them what is worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be returned to you a thousand times.Whatever your life may become, these books -- of this I am certain --- will weave through the web of your...
Expanding Our Vision of Incarnation: An Advent Meditation
What Thomas Berry Saw Thirty Years Ago Fr. Thomas Berry, was a priest in the Passionate Order and for twenty years the director of Riverdale Center of Religious Research along the Hudson River. In 1988 he wrote the first of five books on the role of faith in caring...
Books That Shaped My Life: Tough Love
I am a lover of books. Books are not just a means to end, they are part of my story. So beginning with this entry, I will begin a series called The Books That Shaped My Life. The early 20th century poet Rainer Rilke wrote: Live for a while in the books you love. Learn...
Why I Vote
DESCRIPTION: While there are many reasons to be discouraged about this fall's elections and to not bother to vote, I offer three reasons I choose to vote: I am an internationalist; government's job is to defend the poor, and out of necessity I live and act in hope....
Of Caravans and Walls
Description: While President Trump is using his Border Wall and the Caravan of Migrants coming through Mexico as political talking points, the Caravan and the Wall represent a reality of poverty and suffering we can not and dare not ignore. President Trump has sought...
Reflections on Freire50
This past week (October 18-19) I had the privilege of attending the Freire50 conference at the University of South Carolina commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paulo Freire’s groundbreaking book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. There were...
Is Our Democracy in Trouble?
On September 14 I attended a symposium at the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Democracy in Trouble?” featuring renowned political scientists from across the United States and Europe. Throughout the day they spoke about various challenges facing democratic...
What Brett Kavanaugh Reminded Me Of
I am writing this on the Wednesday that the FBI is supposedly going to supply the US Senate with the results of its investigation on the charges of sexual abuse made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. So, I write this without knowledge of the...
Community Development as Human Development
Recently, I attended the 10th Annual meeting of the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) that was being held in Philadelphia. The meeting gathered together several hundred people from across the country involved in various...
The Church Lost in Exile: A Lament
Too often in secular culture the word “Christian” is synonymous with rigidity, judgmentalism, and hard-heartedness toward the “other.” We unfortunately have lived down to that depiction, and can only change perceptions as we change our interactions with each other and those who are “other” around us.
The Slough of Despond
Recent events in the Special Counsel investigation, reactions coming out of the White House and continual denials of any wrong doing have brought to mind something 17th century British clergyman John Bunyan called “the Slough of Despond.” In 1678 John Bunyan...
The Unfinished Life
This past summer I celebrated my 65th birthday. When it comes to age there are certain numbers in our culture that carry extra significance;18,21, 40 and 65 are such numbers. On that particular day, I was in Oark, Arkansas where my wife and I had rented an AirBnB...
America: A Lie or a Vision?
The cumulative effect of these experiences caused me to wonder if the myth of America as the land committed to freedom, equality, and justice was in fact true. At best it seemed America is a dream yet to be realized. At worst could America be a boldfaced lie?
The Problem is Not Trump, Its Us
Could WE be the Problem? The recent series of gaffes, insults and “mis-statements” by President Trump have brought another round of calls for action by Democrats, and muted criticisms coupled with deliberate inaction by embarrassed Republicans. Talk shows from Fox...
The Preacher and the Pedagogue: Two Men Whose Lives Continue to Impact Me
During this year (2018) many have noted two events that occurred 50 years ago (in 1968) that continue to have an impact on the lives of people around the world; I am one of those so-impacted. Even though I was alive at the time, it was not until many years later that...