Category Archives: YMCA

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, […]

Follow the (student) Leaders for (fun) Democracy

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Democracy, We The People, YMCA. No comments.

  Also published at DemocracyU What can students do about democracy? While debate echoes in Congress and conference rooms about democracy, kids are achieving it via basketball in cul-de-sacs and YMCAs. Lest I’m thumped over the head by sophisticated thinkers for over-simplifying, I’ll add:  Coordinating […]

Suburbanites Led by Muslim Woman

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Burnsville, Community, Human Rights, Immigration, Media & Culture, Social Organizations, YMCA. 4 Comments.

Portions of this essay were published in The New York Times. In response to Nick Kristof’s column Heroic, Female and Muslim http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/opinion/16kristof.html profiling Dr. Hawa Abdi, a woman taking a stand for and with other women and girls against Islamic extremists. I’ve seen her model of hero in middle-class America, too. Perhaps, you’ll recognize the type, too —

Immigrants = Economic Assets

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Burnsville, Community, Culture & Children, Economy & Business, Ethnicity, Immigration, Leadership, Social Innovation, YMCA. 1 Comment.

Also published in TC Daily Planet. I missed my bicultural neighbors when I moved from Eagan, Minnesota. Among them were Ukranian and Ghanaian immigrants, both two-parent families led by business owners. They didn’t speak perfect English, but were great neighbors. They brought my family home-cooked […]