Media Matters: SF Giants Are Champions Beyond The Field

Oct. 30, 2014 Update The Giants have won the World Series THREE out of the last FIVE years, and though I've seen a few "NoH8" tweets along with celebratory congratulations, it seems that today's essay by Apple CEO Tim Cook has once again given me a shoulder shake as to why his declaration is important for civil rights and human rights activists everywhere. Living in the Bay … [Read more...]

Meaningful Manga: Graphic Novels and Growth

Update: May 21, 2014 Our friends at Reach and Teach have added another clever manga style illustrated book called "A is for Action" which merits an update! I love the seeding of social change in a fun fresh manner. The A is for Action book and HelpTakeAction.com website are a result of a teacher-initiated action research project published in the IB Journal of Teaching Practice: … [Read more...]

Final 48 Hours! Vote Girl Child Network’s Betty Makoni CNN Hero ’09!

Nov. 17, 2009 Last week, when the Guardian reported, “Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in Zimbabwe in a growing epidemic that has shocked human rights activists,” I blinked back my tears of outrage, knowing full well that this is the battle Betty Makoni has been fighting for an entire DECADE with The Girl Child Network. Betty is a Top Ten CNN Hero of … [Read more...]

The Laramie Project: Using Media to Teach Tolerance 10 Years Later

Nov. 13, 2009 It’s fitting that The Laramie Project premiers locally tonight in San Mateo on Friday the 13th, as the theater production resurrects a haunting melancholy on the ‘unlucky’ and fateful day young Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die suffering for six days tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. Reason for the hate crime? He … [Read more...]

United Nations Association Film Fest: Not Your Ordinary Kids Flicks!

Is it me, or is the 11th United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) a screamin’ deal and a fabulous find? (tix here) Yah, yah, I know…documentary schmockumentary, too heavy when finances are in the commode, spirits are tankin’, kids are feelin’ the second-hand stress, and we want to lob humor and fun into the mix…(Well, we DO have … [Read more...]