Posts Tagged ‘politics’

Marianne Williamson to visit Fairfield, Iowa and speak on Consciousness, Democracy and Politics

October 22, 2015

Fairfield, Iowa: Internationally-acclaimed author and lecturer Marianne Williamson will visit Fairfield, Iowa to speak on Consciousness, Democracy and Politics (In Support of Bernie Sanders), Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Sondheim Center. Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy will introduce Ms. Williamson.

Landman for WebMarianne Williamson has spoken for years on the significance of spirituality as a moving force in personal and social change. She has been a popular guest on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America and Charlie Rose. Six of her eleven published books have been New York Times Best Sellers, four of them reaching #1.

Marianne’s first book, A Return To Love, is considered a must-read of modern spirituality. A paragraph from that book beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem by a contemporary generation of seekers.

Williamson put her high-frequency talk about the field of consciousness on the front line last year when she ran for the U.S House of Representatives, California District 33. She said of her campaign, “It was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done, but also the most brutal. I have great compassion for people who run for office, and I feel more strongly than ever how important it is to support the candidates we believe in, in every way that we can.”

This year, she dove further into the political field in support of US Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Ms. Williamson has a long history of translating her ideals into action. In 1989, Williamson founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves home-bound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. Today, the program serves over 1,000 people daily. She also co-founded the Peace Alliance, a nonprofit that works on domestic and international peace building. And she serves on the Board of Directors of the RESULTS organization, working to end the worst ravages of hunger and poverty throughout the world.

Her upcoming talk in Fairfield was forged from 30 years of experience and all the knowledge contained in her bestselling books, translated into front-line, on-the-ground action in the field. For anyone who believes that consciousness can keep good company with politics, no matter who is running or who is elected, Marianne Williamson carries illuminating perspectives into the conversation.

Marianne Williamson said she was “delighted to be traveling to Fairfield, where so many people are aware of the deeper evolution of consciousness and what it can mean for politics and society.”

When asked what trends she has witnessed over the many years working tirelessly to raise consciousness in the political arena, she said: “What used to be considered a fringe movement is now a mainstream impulse in our society. Now you’re considered fringe if you don’t know what we’re talking about!”

A strong believers in miracles, Ms. Williamson was asked what miracle she would most like to see happen. She replied, “A fundamental change of heart. A turning away from economics as the organizing principle for our civilization, and an embrace of humanitarian issues as our organizing principle instead.”

Ms. Williamson will take questions from the audience after her presentation at the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts.

Read the Fairfield Weekly Reader’s Q&A with Marianne Williamson.

Check out the interview Dennis Raimondi and Philip Goldberg did with Marianne Williamson on their new online program, Spirit Matters: Conversations on Contemperary Spirituality. Listen to this Spirit Matters Talk, and others, at  www.spiritmatterstalk.com.

Read and listen to Matt Kelley’s interview with Marianne Williamson on Radio Iowa or click on Self help author visits Iowa to talk about politics.

Read Bob Saar’s interview with Marianne Williamson in The Hawk Eye.

Event organizer Michael Sternfeld wrote a followup piece for the November 12, 2015 issue of the Fairfield Weekly Reader: Marianne Williamson—Force of Nature: A Personal Review, parts one + two.

Sunday, November 20, 2015, 3 p.m., there will be a replay of Marianne Williamson’s talk at the Fairfield Public Library.

Still missed the talk? You can watch it now on YouTube. Marianne also posted it on her Facebook page.

Editor’s note: Some of my readers may find this post offensive, depending on their political allegiances, and because they usually expect articles related primarily to Transcendental Meditation. I myself am not a political person, nor do I wish to promote any candidates, especially since I am a Canadian living in the USA. I just volunteered to contact the press to help publicize this event, and since there was no where to link to the press release at the time, I posted it on my blog. I was told Marianne Williamson practices TM and is looking forward to coming to Fairfield where so many meditators are dedicated to uplifting consciousness for themselves and the nation. I am curious to see what she has to say about the topic—how consciousness, democracy and politics may be interrelated.

Jan 6, 2020: Politico sent Adam Wren from Indianapolis to Fairfield before the Iowa caucuses. I hosted him part of the time. I also later hosted Des Moines photographer KC McGinnis. She included a photo of me. Here is their report in this Letter from Iowa: The Iowa Town Where Marianne Williamson Is Already President.

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Iowa Senator Tom Harkin inspires M.U.M.’s Class of 2013 with his Top Ten Rules to Live By

June 2, 2013

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin Inspired M.U.M.’s Class of 2013 with his Top Ten Rules To Live By at the University’s largest graduating class.

In true David Letterman-style, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin presented the M.U.M. Class of 2013 with his top-10 list—Harkin’s Top Ten Rules To Live By. Senator Harkin gave the Commencement Address after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University and inspired everyone with his humorous wit and down-to-earth wisdom.

Senator Tom Harkin receives an honorary doctoral degree from M.U.M. President Dr. Bevan Morris.

Senator Tom Harkin receives an honorary doctoral degree from M.U.M. President Dr. Bevan Morris. / Ken West Photography

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin received an honorary Ph.D. from Maharishi University of Management before delivering the Commencement Address at the start of M.U.M.’s Graduation exercises, which took place last Saturday, May 25, 2013, in the Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge.

The University’s 38th Commencement graduated its largest class ever of 334 students from 54 countries, out of the 88 represented on campus. The Class of 2013 included 251 graduates and 83 undergraduates. Check this link to see a menu of videos from M.U.M.’s Commencement 2013 http://www.mum.edu/commencement-2013. See the full PRWeb press release here bit.ly/17bxT6k for more details.

Senator Harkin was awarded a Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa degree for his extraordinary lifelong service and compassionate and progressive leadership for the state of Iowa and the United States of America. He has served in the Senate since 1985 and also served in the House of Representatives from 1975–1985. He is chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and is the seventh most senior Senator overall.

In his introduction, M.U.M. president Dr. Bevan Morris said, “We honor you for a lifetime of service to the State of Iowa and the United States of America, and your compassionate and progressive leadership. You have recognized that the quality of American life is shaped by the quality of American education.”

He said that Senator Harkin has been a very good friend of the University and greatly enjoyed all his visits here. “He has given us advice and encouragement for all the University’s programs—for natural methods of prevention of disease, organic agriculture, sustainable living, our Sustainable Living Center, as well as to our town, which is rising to being one of the greenest in the nation, under the leadership of Mayor Ed Malloy.”

Senator Harkin began his commencement address on a humorous note. He thanked the University for this distinguished award and said, “I come before you with a measure of humility. I realize I was probably selected to be your speaker today because Oprah wasn’t available.” This elicited a lot of laughter as he was referring to Oprah’s visit to Fairfield last year, which she aired, including a profile of the Maharishi School on the M.U.M. campus.

He then went on to say, “But I do want you to know of my highest respect and admiration that I have for this university, for what you have done, what you have become here, in Iowa, the nation, and the world, and especially for what I consider to be the best holistic approach to education and wellness in life at any university anywhere on the globe.”

He was referring to Maharishi University’s unique system of Consciousness-Based education and leadership role in wellness research and sustainability. M.U.M. was designated as a Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention and has received over $25 million from the NCCAM and NHLBI over the past 20 years to conduct collaborative medical research on the use of Transcendental Meditation as a complementary alternative approach to treat hypertension and cardiovascular disease in underserved minority populations, the results of which have been published in top peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The most recent study was published and publicized by the American Heart Association. Last year the AHA Journal Circulation published a long-term study showing a 48% lower risk of heart attack, stroke and death in a group already afflicted by heart disease that learned the practice of Transcendental Meditation. And this year the AHA published a paper recommending Transcendental Meditation as the only meditation practice that has been shown to lower blood pressure.

“Graduation,” Harkin said, “is one of the five great milestones in life; the others being birth, marriage, death, and the day you finally pay off your student loans.”

“I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’re wondering, ‘How long is that guy gonna talk?’ The answer is not long.”

To answer he quoted advice from Father John Ryan, the Irish priest in his hometown when he was first asked to give a commencement address. The role of a commencement speaker is like the body at an old-fashioned Irish wake: “They need you in order to have the party but they don’t expect you to say very much.”

Senator Harkin said he chose a method for the day’s occasion that has imparted wisdom to millions of people throughout the years—“I speak of course, not of the Ten Commandments, but of David Letterman’s top ten list.” But his were more like suggestions for students to choose, depending on which ones they liked.

Harkin’s Top Ten Rules To Live By

10. Don’t panic. You will find a job. Don’t worry. “My confidence is based on one thing — because you came to the right school. I have nothing, as I said, but admiration for what this university has accomplished in such a short period of time. In a unique way you have put the ‘higher’ in higher education.”

“You folks would agree with William Butler Yeats who said that education is not about filling up a bucket but lighting a fire. And you carry that one step further. At this university education is also about training, focusing, freeing the mind. It’s about raising consciousness. Here you have been beautifully prepared intellectually and spiritually for all the challenges you will face in the world out there, so you should go forth with confidence.” He encouraged students to move to smaller Iowa towns to make a contribution.

(more…)

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Op-Ed peace piece spreading around the world: Reducing Tension in the Middle East

November 29, 2012

In a response to the current volatile situation in the Middle East co-authors David Orme-Johnson and David Leffler ask if we want to continue repeating history, killing and destroying to solve political problems, or transform ourselves with a more enlightened alternative approach that’s been scientifically proven to create peace.

Modern unified field theory supports the perennial philosophy of all major cultural traditions that there exists a transcendental field at the most fundamental level of natural law, which can be directly accessed as the silent transcendental level of the human mind. Hundreds of studies have shown that experience of transcendental consciousness breaks the chain of conditioned reflexes coming on from past behavior, as seen in reduced addictive behaviors of all kinds, decreased prison recidivism, and reduced behavioral problems in inner-city children.

Are we as nations to go on like rats trapped in a conditioning cage, reacting the same way decade after decade? Or shall we step out of the cage into the transcendental level of our own consciousness and grow up into enlightened human beings, rather than continuing to resort to destroying and killing? This is the choice we have right now.

Read this paradigm-shifting Op-Ed piece on how we can put an end to war and create permanent peace: Reducing Tension in the Middle East. It’s being posted on news websites and online journals around the world. The AsiaN published it as Transcendental meditation proved helpful in solving enmity among nations. The Israel Herald published it under: Lasting peace in Middle East may need warring parties to meditate, and the Palestinian News: Meditation cited as possible remedy to reduce tensions in Mideast conflict.

Here is a list of publications under dates in the countries where the article was published, over 50 times so far: Israel, Afghanistan, Romania, UK, Nepal, USA, Pakistan, Greece, Cyprus, Ghana, Liberia, Balkans, India, Ivory Coast, Africa, Australia/Tonga, Canada, Jordan, Balkans, Palestine, South Korea, Kashmir, Ireland, China, South Africa, Egypt, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Thailand. Check them all posted here: Op-Ed Piece “Reducing Tension in the Middle East” by Drs. Orme-Johnson and Leffler is Available Worldwide in over 50 Locations.

For more information on this powerful benign approach, see: The Power of The Collective, by John Hagelin and John Hagelin — “Only Higher Consciousness Can Transform Our World” — Beyond Awakening Blog. Here are reports: Group Meditations Reduce Crime, As Predicted and Explanation to Steady Decline in Major Crime in the US.

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Prevention’s Mandy Oaklander Asks Presidential Debate Moderator Candy Crowley 10 Questions

October 21, 2012

Here are some TM-related highlights from this excellent interview in Prevention. Click on the title to go to the complete article where you will see answers to other questions, like what Candy was anticipating from Romney and Obama, what her tactic would be to get them to give her answers, how her moderating style was going to be different from Jim Lehrer’s, what it means to her being the first female moderator of a presidential debate, and how she has the confidence to not be intimidated by men.

10 Questions for Candy Crowley, Presidential Debate Moderator

How Transcendental Meditation, a vegetarian diet, and a serious ability to kick ass keeps Candy Crowley sane

By Mandy Oaklander

It was a 1 a.m. dinner of pretzels and Twizzlers in a 7-Eleven parking lot that made Candy Crowley realize it was time for a change. That’s when Crowley, CNN’s chief political correspondent, decided she needed to ask herself some serious questions: about her diet and her stress levels, about how well she was managing both. Within the year, she’d gone vegetarian, her exercise regime, and most importantly, her ability to manage stress. Thank God, because she’s about to take on the night of her life.

At 63, Crowley is best known for her political reporting on CNN and as host of that network’s show State of the Union. But one of her greatest honors comes tomorrow, when she’ll become the first woman in 20 years to moderate a presidential debate. How does she plan to stay zen? Crowley’s secret weapon is Transcendental Meditation (TM). “It’s the only thing I won’t go a day without doing,” she says. Make that half a day; Crowley practices every morning and night. Prevention caught up with the meditating vegetarian days before the debate to talk TM, politics, and the Year of Candy.

PVN: How did you get into Transcendental Meditation?

CC: My TM [Transcendental Meditation] experience started right after the last election. Campaigns are just so hard on everything. You’re on the bus, you’re off the bus, you’re on the plane, you’re in a hotel. And that’s really your life: You think you’re not going to eat and then you eat too much, or you think you are going to eat and you don’t eat enough. You’re just so stressed out and tired.

When the 2008 campaign was over, I said, “How about if I promise myself that I will spend a year concentrating on getting healthy and doing the right things? If I hate it and it’s horrible, at the end of the year I’ll just go back and eat crazy.” My friends called it The Year of Candy. I had a friend who said, “You oughta try Transcendental Meditation.”

PVN: What’s your TM routine?

CC: It’s a relaxation technique.  A TM teacher once said to me, “You know when you have a really wavy day on a boat, and you’re getting tossed around and there’s white caps everywhere? That’s kind of where we spend most of our time: on top of the waves.” But if you jump into the water and can get down to the bottom, it’s so still and quiet. That’s where TM is. I just sit in a chair in my room. I meditate in the airport. I meditate in my office in the afternoon. It doesn’t require a special place or even a lack of people.

PVN: How do you feel now, compared to your life before the Year of Candy?

CC: I feel better. Sustaining a Year of Candy can be difficult in election years, I’ve found. It’s still too easy for me to go, “If I could just have that extra hour of sleep, I’d be really happy.” I’m not good at coming home at 8 o’clock at night and running on the treadmill. I say this all the time to a guy that I work out with: “I want to love this, but I just can’t.  I just don’t!” And he says to me all the time, “Just love how it makes you feel afterward. Just keep your mind on that.” That’s the only thing that’s ever going to get you out of bed.

PVN: Do you think that meditation has made you a better journalist?

CC: I think that it has made my thought process more ordered. When your stress level is lower, you make better decisions and you have a better thought process.

Do I still get angry? I do. Do I still get frustrated? I do. Do I still have stress? Yes. I don’t think that’s the point; the point is for you to be able to handle the stress. The point is that I don’t hang onto my anger nearly as long as I used to.  It just takes the harsh edges of life and softens them up in a way that you can cope with them.

PVN: It’s the night before the debate. What’s tonight going to look like for you?

CC: Knowing me, I think I’ll be sitting in my hotel room with a stack of papers, making sure I’m up to date on what the last thing everyone has said about things. I’ll meditate, and then I’ll read some more papers, and then I’ll go to bed.

I’m hoping that it will be really mellow. By the way, all my kids are going to be in town, so it’s going to be a huge lesson in restraint for me not to want to go out and party with them.

PVN: Do you have a moderating mantra?

CC: Five minutes before I get on a show, I take deep breaths and settle in. I just say, “Listen,” because that’s the most important part that most people forget. You’ve got to listen to the answers. Otherwise, you’re not having a conversation. And that’s about the last thing I tell myself before I go on air.

Related stories: Daily Mail: Debate moderator Candy Crowley’s secret of success? Transcendental Meditation | Politico: Candy Crowley on Transcendental Meditation | HuffPost Healthy Living: Transcendental Meditation: Candy Crowley And Other Celebrity Followers | New York Times: Candy Crowley’s Debate Prep| Glamour: 6 Things to Know About Candy Crowley, Including Why She’s Causing So Much Controversy Before Tonight’s Presidential Debate| Access Hollywood: Healthy Hollywood: Wellness Wednesday – Candy Crowley’s Calming Secret!

Other related news: CNN anchor Candy Crowley gives Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management | Candy Crowley visits KRUU-FM before delivering Commencement Address at Maharishi University | CNN’s Candy Crowley to give Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management | Fairfield Ledger: Crowley speaks to M.U.M. grads | Los Angeles Times: CNN’s Candy Crowley has taken up Transcendental Meditation

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Candy Crowley visits KRUU-FM before delivering Commencement Address at Maharishi University

May 28, 2012

Dennis Raimondi, Burt Chojnowski, and KRUU-FM station manager James Moore enjoy a short visit with CNN’s Candy Crowley. She was in Fairfield, Iowa to deliver the Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management, May 26, 2012. (Photo taken by Ken Chawkin)

During her recent visit to Fairfield, Iowa to deliver the Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management, CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley visited the local community-supported solar-powered radio station, KRUU-LP 100.1 FM, to tape an interview on Speaking Freely with Dennis Raimondi. The show aired Saturday, May 26, 2012 and Monday, May 28 at 1:00 and 6:30 pm. The complete interview is archived at: http://kruufm.com/node/13289. Station manager James Moore also posted a photo and quote from Candy on her love of radio.

Dennis mentions that Candy was one of the first to make it possible for other women to become broadcast journalists. She thanks him for that observation, if it is true, but did not set out to purposefully make that happen. With television being a visual medium, she says, “I’m clearly not the 20-something blonds that are currently on TV. But you can do it your way, you can be who you are, and do what you want. You might have to work a little harder, you might have to be that much better. … You have to be so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you.”

Burt Chojnowski of Fairfield First! Buzz also produced a film of Dennis’s interview in the KRUU-FM studio: Candy Crowley on Speaking Freely with Dennis Raimondi. This Candy Crowley on Speaking Freely – Unplugged version includes the pre-interview banter starting off with her reciting the Gettysburg Address! Burt also enjoyed asking and posting 3 Questions with Candy Crowley.mov about her impressions of Fairfield, writing, and leadership, also recorded on May 26, 2012.

Candy told Burt she had lived in Iowa before, in Des Moines, for 5 years, and could probably see herself living here in Fairfield. She said, stepping off the plane, you can really feel yourself breathing deeply, for the first time. Burt asked Candy what she would say to women in third-world countries to inspire them to become leaders. She said the best leaders, not the ones that got the most votes, but the ones who did something, are the best listeners. “A leader has to be able to take the hopes and desires of the people looking to him or her and make it into reality. Well, what’s the first step of that—what are those hopes and desires? The leaders listen first, and if you skip that step, you’re never gonna be a leader.” Speaking of leaders, a big thank you to Bob Roth for listening and bringing Candy Crowley into the studio despite her tight schedule!

CNN anchor Candy Crowley gives Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management is now available on the YouTube channel.

See Fairfield Ledger: Crowley speaks to M.U.M. grads and CNN’s Candy Crowley to give Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management.


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Ari Berman: On Becoming a Political Writer

October 11, 2010

Ari Berman: On Becoming a Political Writer

Going Off the Beaten Path for “Herding Donkeys”

by Cheryl Fusco Johnson

Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute.

Ari Berman, born in New York City, raised in Fairfield, Iowa, and a former high school journalism student of mine, recently penned Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).  Released last month, his book has already garnered a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and laudatory comments from political writers Jonathan Alter, John Heilemann, Joe Conason, and Michael Tomasky. While visiting Fairfield recently to attend his ten-year high school reunion, Ari sat down with me for a chat.

When you attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, did you plan to become a political reporter?

When I went to journalism school, I was interested in politics but didn’t necessarily know that I wanted to do that. In my junior year, I studied International Affairs abroad in Geneva at the United Nations. This was the time the debate over the war in Iraq was going on in America. I was following it from afar and getting the European perspective on it. I was absolutely furious. I thought the case for war in Iraq was completely fabricated by the Bush administration. That seemed so obvious in Europe. When I was in Geneva, I realized the entire world’s agenda was dictated by what went on in Washington. You had to follow Washington if you cared about the rest of the world.

How did your career as a book author begin?

At The Nation, I wrote this blog called The Daily Outrage, and Nick Ellison, this pretty big agent from New York, liked those columns. He wanted me to compile all the Daily Outrages into a book and expand on them.

Why didn’t you?

I felt they weren’t good enough to be a book. After I started working at The Nation, people started telling me, “You should write a book.” And I said, “I’m not writing a book until I can write a good book.” Nick and I bandied about ideas. He wanted me to do a book about the culture of Washington; that was a great idea. For two years, I was in D.C. at The Nation’s Washington Bureau. I covered Capitol Hill. I was really familiar with domestic policy. My office was across the street from the Senate.  I was in D.C. the day of Hurricane Katrina, and I left in September 2007 as the presidential campaign was heating up. But I didn’t want to immerse myself in Washington.

How did the idea for Herding Donkeys arise?

The Nation has a book imprint, and I’m friends with one of the editors. After the election, he said, “You should do a book about Howard Dean and the 50-state strategy. That was Obama’s strategy. Write a biography of the strategy.”

It was funny because literally at that moment I was doing an article saying that Obama’s strategy was Dean’s strategy. I had never really thought it could be a book, but why couldn’t it be? I felt passionate about it: it would be impactful. It wouldn’t be something people picked up one day and discarded the next. I wanted to write something durable. People can look at this in ten years and see what happened in this era.

I saw what Obama was doing as a natural outgrowth of what Dean was trying to do, which was change the [Democratic] party, get people involved, build a 50-state campaign. Get as many people involved in as many different ways in as many different places as possible.

I wanted to tell the evolution of that grassroots movement from Dean to Obama as a history. I knew it was relevant for today. I also knew this doesn’t end when Obama becomes president. I also wanted to look at what happens now. What happens next? That grassroots movement has been largely neglected by the Obama White House. The Republicans used Obama’s playbook better than he did.

TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE CLICK ON THIS URL: http://www.iowasource.com/books/2010_10_ari_berman.html

On Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010, at 7 p.m., Ari will read from Herding Donkeys at Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in Iowa City.

For more information about the book and website, visit http://herdingdonkeys.com/.

Addendum: On Oct 7, 2010, Ari Berman was interviewed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe about his book, Herding Donkeys, Howard Dean and the Democratic Party. Ari was also a KRUU host on Politickin’ with Ari for a year and a half and as of this posting will be the featured guest on Speaking Freely with Dennis on Thursday, October 12th at 1 pm, rebroadcast  Thursday, October 14th at 8am. www.kruufm.com.

Ari also appeared on Dylan Ratigan’s MSNBC show for the first time this week to talk about Herding Donkeys on the topic of “Has Obama forgotten his campaign slogan?” It was a very interesting discussion and the producers nicely fit him in between the rescue of miners 22 and 23. Here’s the clip: http://herdingdonkeys.com/2010/10/14/dylan-ratigan/

You can buy Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics on Amazon and simultaneously benefit the Maharishi School, Ari’s alma mater, by ordering it from this website: http://maharishischooliowa.org/alumni/alumni-news/ari-berman.

UPDATE: August 2015

• Close to five years later Ari Berman published his second book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, which came out on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Publishers Weekly called it one of the most anticipated books of the fall, proclaiming: “Berman does a superb job of making the history of the right to vote in America not only easily understandable, but riveting.”

• On August 5 the New York Times featured an Op-Ed piece by Ari Berman: Why the Voting Rights Act Is Once Again Under Threat.

• On August 5 Democracy Now interviewed Ari Berman about voting rights: Give Us the Ballot: The Struggle Continues 50 Years After Signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. And Part Two: Ari Berman: Virtually Every GOP Candidate Has Been on Wrong Side of Voting Rights Issues.

• On August 6 Ari Berman was invited to Washington, DC to participate on a distinguished panel commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The presentations took place under the auspices of the White House in the presence of President Barack Obama. See photos below.

• On August 10th Ari Berman was interviewed on NPR with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross: Block The Vote: A Journalist Discusses Voting Rights And Restrictions.

• On August 12 The Fairfield Ledger ran a cover story: Fairfield native on White House panel. At the end of the article Ari says some nice things about the supportive community of Fairfield. “Even if you leave, you’re always connected to it,” Berman said. “A lot of my friends who were at the book launch were from Fairfield — Fairfield goes everywhere.”

• On August 13 The Fairfield Weekly Reader published an article: Give Us The Ballot: New book by Fairfield native Ari Berman receives early praise.

• On August 24 Sarah Begley mentioned Ari Berman’s book in her Time Magazine column, The Nutshell: Give Us the Ballot.

If you would like to keep abreast of Ari’s activities, there is an events calendar on his website, in addition to videos of his recent interviews and other updates. http://ari-berman.com/

White House PanelReblogged with this link: http://wp.me/pD0BA-9KC

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