Category Archives: Citizens

The Distress, the Kingdom, the Endurance: Encountering Racial Realities

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Civil Rights, Community, Ethnicity, Faith and religion, Race. Tagged , , . No comments.

By Father Dale Korogi                                                                                   […]

Cross-Partisans Against Co-Dependence

Written by . Filed under Barack Obama, Citizens, Civil Discourse, Congress, Cross-partisanship, Democracy, War and Peace, We The People. Tagged , , , , . No comments.

Yes, Syria is complicated. All the more reason we should not further complicate it with petty partisanship. A bittersweet byproduct of the Syrian complications is that they are producing bipartisan balance. Debates are getting closer to truly democratic, rather than just politically strategic. For this […]

Dr. King Dreamed That All Would Lead

Written by . Filed under Citizen Movement, Citizens, Civil Discourse, Civil Rights, I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King. Tagged . No comments.

By Andrea Morisette Grazzini Copyright, August 28, 2013 It wasn’t his charisma Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wanted us to remember. It wasn’t his courage. It wasn’t even his character. These were not the messages Dr. King wanted the Civil Rights movement to leave with our […]

Passion Play: Will ‘We the People’ be Ashamed or be Saviors?

Written by . Filed under Barack Obama, Citizens, Faith and religion. Tagged , . 4 Comments.

By Andrea Morisette Grazzini The symbolism of anguished mothers standing with President Barack Obama the day before Good Friday should resonate with all good people of faith. Obama’s call for American citizens to protect children, issued on a video featuring the President surrounded by women […]

Rethinking ‘Yes, We Can!’

Written by . Filed under Barack Obama, Citizens, Constructivism, Democracy, Politics & Elections, Populism. Tagged . No comments.

Also at OpEdNewsOnline @2012 Andrea Morisette Grazzini This quote by President Barack Obama captures a hidden, but essentially American, reality: “The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states … But I’ve got news for them, too: We worship an awesome […]

Make Like a Tree, Everyone: Constructivist Success

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Civic Science, Community, Constructivism, Democracy, Environment, Social Innovation, Social Organizations. 2 Comments.

Related article at Forbes. ©2012  Andrea Morisette Grazzini As it turns out, thriving social systems act a lot like healthy trees. Both “ends” of a tree—like human social systems—serve complementary roles as both “vessels” that contain growth producing materials, and “venues” or places where more […]

Coaches: Time to Train Citizen Fathers

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Citizens, Community, Constructivism, Fathers, Media & Culture, YMCA. Tagged . No comments.

©Andrea Morisette Grazzini, Father’s Day 2012 Brad Fiedler and Bill Doherty are outwardly different, and yet, in many ways similar in their self-appointed and community-critical roles as citizen fathers. Bill is a global leader in the work of healthy relationships and communities, a committed husband, […]

The Radical Humanity of Citizen Professionalism

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Citizens, Community, Constructivism, Healthcare, Professional, Social Innovation. 11 Comments.

  Also published in AOL’s The Patch. By Andrea Morisette Grazzini Betty GreenCrow has a presence so striking it’s hard to miss.  Balanced measures of wisdom and curiosity, connection and boundary seem to emanate from people like her.  Emerging unbidden from somewhere integral—their soul, perhaps. Whatever […]

Thanksgiving Debate: First Nation Immigration Policy

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Civil Discourse, Thanksgiving, Trump. Tagged , , , . 1 Comment.

Updated November 23, 2016 This being the United States details are always debatable depending on where one comes from. If ever were there a year that reminded us of that fact, no doubt 2016 has been it. Perhaps if for nothing else, we should be […]

Bill Moyers — We The People are our Civilization

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Economy & Business, Politics & Elections, Populism, Ranked Choice Voting, US Constitution, We The People. Tagged , , , , , , . 4 Comments.

Also published in The Patch. Andrea Morisette Grazzini, August 2011 Earlier this summer Bill Moyers illuminated for me a critical relationship between civic leaders and citizens. He was speaking at the home of Minneapolis attorney Clayton D. Halunen at a discussion on Ranked Choice Voting. Amid divergent interpretations […]

Gov’t Shutdown? How about Common Citizen Sense.

Written by . Filed under Burnsville, Citizens, Nonpartisan Productive Dialogue, Politics & Elections, Twin Cities. Tagged , , , , , , . 1 Comment.

Billionaire business man Warren Buffet echoed the themes in this essay with his August 14, 2011 commentary Stop Coddling the Super-Rich. The essay below  also published in The Patch. Andrea Morisette Grazzini July, 2011 Like most middle class people, I live in a bipartisan neighborhood.   My Burnsville Minnesota […]

Civilized Compassion: Not Detached, Engaged.

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Citizens, Dalai Lama, Education Policy, Faith and religion, Politics & Elections, Social Innovation. 2 Comments.

Also published in Twin Cities Daily Planet. Andrea Morisette Grazzini June 15, 2011. Spiritual leaders are rarely invited to do stadium-sized talks at public universities.  Mostly because they don’t deliver butts-in-seats sales like, say, basketball. Plus there are risks of violating boundaries separating government-funded academics […]