Since 1980 Richard Steier has had a unique vantage point to observe the gains, losses, and struggles of municipal labor unions in New York City. He has covered those unions and city government as a reporter and labor columnist for the New York Post and, since 1998, as editor and featured columnist of the Chief-Leader, a century-old independent newspaper that covers city and state government in greater detail than today's mainstream news organizations. Drawing from his column with the Chief-Leader, "Razzle Dazzle," Enough Blame to Go Around describes in vivid terms how the changed economy has drastically altered the city's labor landscape, and why it has been difficult for municipal unions to adapt. There can be no doubt, he writes, that public employee unions have contributed to the problems that confront them today, including corruption and failed leadership. But at the same time and for all their flaws, he believes unions represent the best chance for ordinary people to receive fair economic treatment.

"If it's not facing 297 years in prison, it's not a problem." --Richardson family motto The twenty-one years that kept Rob separated from his wife, Fox, and their six sons was long enough. As Rob survived two decades at America's bloodiest penitentiary and Fox raised their sons solo, they never stopped fighting for Rob's freedom and for their futures against the statistical odds. All the while, it was love that carried them through. The Academy Award-nominated documentary Time introduced audiences to Fox and Rob, who riveted audiences with their relentless fight for each other and justice, despite America's broken prison system. This book tells the rest of their story. In alternating voices and intimate detail, Fox and Rob reveal what the film does not--how a person can cultivate the radical love needed to see them through any hardship and how miracles can happen on the way. As they peel back the layers of their unforgettable love story, you'll discover the secrets of perseverance and the power of a resilience that is founded on faith in a God who never gives up on us.

American society is often described as one that celebrates self-reliance and personal responsibility. However, abolitionists, progressive reformers, civil rights activists, and numerous others often held their fellow citizens responsible for shared problems such as economic exploitation and white supremacy. Moreover, they viewed recognizing and responding to shared problems as essential to achieving democratic ideals. In Democratic Responsibility, Nora Hanagan examines American thinkers and activists who offered an alternative to individualistic conceptions of responsibility and puts them in dialogue with contemporary philosophers who write about shared responsibility. Drawing on the political theory and practice of Henry David Thoreau, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King Jr., and Audre Lorde, Hanagan develops a distinctly democratic approach to shared responsibility. Cooperative democracy is especially relevant in an age of globalization and hyperconnectivity, where societies are continually threatened with harms—such as climate change, global sweatshop labor, and structural racism—that result from the combined interactions of multiple individuals and institutions, and which therefore cannot be resolved without collective action. Democratic Responsibility offers insight into how political actors might confront seemingly intractable problems, and challenges conventional understandings of what commitment to democratic ideals entails. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, especially those who look to the history of political thought for resources that might promote social justice in the present.

Volume 4 of the journal Glossator: Practice and Theory of the Commentary. Occitan Poetry. Edited by Anna Klosowska and Valerie Wilhite. CONTENTS Valerie M. Wilhite A/ESPIRAR: THE LOST SIGH OF THE TROUBADOUR TRADITION Anna Klosowska INTRODUCTION Cary Howie INEXTRICABLE Bill Burgwinkle RHETORIC AND ETHICS IN SORDELLO'S "ENSENHAMEN D'ONOR" Isabel de Riquier & Andreu Comas FAMILY MATTERS Miriam Cabré WHO ARE CERVERÍ'S WORST ENEMIES? Simone Marchesi DANTE ALIGHIERI, PURGATORIO XXVI.139-148 Huw Grange A MUSICO-LITERARY COMMENTARY ON BERNART DE VENTADORN'S "QUAN VEI LA LAUDETA MOVER" Marion Coderch "LO ROSSINHOLS S'ESBAUDEYA" (70, 29): BERNART DE VENTADORN, COURTLY ETHICS, AND THE CATALAN TRADITION Luke Sunderland MARCABRU IN MOTION: "DIRE VOS VUOILL SES DUPTANSSA" IN CHANSONNIERS A AND C, AND IN MATFRE ERMENGAUD'S BREVIARI D'AMOR Wendy Pfeffer THE PASSION OF OCCITAN Virginie Greene SUITE PROVENÇALE FOR OCARINA, TRIANGLE, AND POWERPOINT Glossator publishes original commentaries, editions and translations of commentaries, and essays and articles relating to the theory and history of commentary, glossing, and marginalia. The journal aims to encourage the practice of commentary as a creative form of intellectual work and to provide a forum for dialogue and reflection on the past, present, and future of this ancient genre of writing. By aligning itself, not with any particular discipline, but with a particular mode of production, Glossator gives expression to the fact that praxis founds theory. GLOSSATOR.ORG

Many organizations still operate with an all-too-familiar polarization between managers and employees. The work of employees is checked, measured, audited, and rechecked. Incentive programs, quotas, and evaluations are doggedly adhered to. And often, as a result, resources are wasted, morale plummets, and defects actually increase. Why exactly does this system continue to run amok? What is an effective alternative? By installing an effective assessment process that successfully measures employee performance without impeding production, the organization can become more efficient and employee satisfaction increases. Measurement Matters builds on the principles of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, as well as the life experiences of both authors, to create a unique, proven approach to effecting positive change in organizations and individuals. This book is full of entertaining, eye-opening examples we can all relate to that combine human psychology with hard data to prove there is a better way. By implementing positive change, and properly measuring and assessing the progress, an organization and its employees can grow and prosper. PRAISE FOR Measurement Matters "Measurement Matters by Carder and Ragan is a book that should be read by practitioners interested in understanding and improving the underlying factors that affect the safety, health and environmental performance of firms." Isadore (Irv) Rosenthal, Senior Fellow Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center Nominated by President Clinton, and confirmed by the Senate, to a five-year position as a member of the National Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigation Board in 1998.

This book explores cultural conceptions of the child and the cinematic absence of black children from contemporary Hollywood film. Debbie Olson argues that within the discourse of children’s studies and film scholarship in relation to the conception of “the child,” there is often little to no distinction among children by race—the “child” is most often discussed as a universal entity, as the embodiment of all things not adult, not (sexually) corrupt. Discussions about children of color among scholars often take place within contexts such as crime, drugs, urbanization, poverty, or lack of education that tend to reinforce historically stereotypical beliefs about African Americans. Olson looks at historical conceptions of childhood within scholarly discourse, the child character in popular film and what space the black child (both African and African American) occupies within that ideal.

Some Grandfatherly Advice: 1. Americans need to accept responsibility for the current situation of the country. Stop blaming everybody else, 2. The Government does not work well. Fix it. 3. Elect people who can “work together”. 4. Recognize that every time the debt ticker goes up it hurts our children. 5. Demand a long term plan that focuses on job creation. 6. Be grateful for being born in America DEMAND A PLAN