Blog Archive » Social Issues

$124. That's the price of a barrel of oil today.

In 2004 we gasped when the price of oil hit $50 a barrel, then considered to be a great psychological barrier. In summer 2007 we coped with $3-a-gallon gasoline as Full Article

What can cause several thousand Washington area residents to spend the better part of a sunny Saturday afternoon indoors for an event that often brings them to their feet cheering and stomping and having a rip-roaring good time? No, it doesn't involve the Redskins, the Terps, the Hoyas or anything remotely related to NASCAR.

Answer: Girl Scout Step Show! At the Trinity Center! Full Article

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Washington appears to be going very well; he enjoyed the warm greetings at the White House and enthusiastic adulations of thousands of Washingtonians and people from all over.

At the White House, Pope Benedict called on Americans to use their privileges to create a more just and humane world.

President Bush replied, according to the Washington Post, that "in a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred and that each of us is willed, each of us is loved."

Today as well, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that death by lethal injection is a Constitutionally acceptable form of capital punishment. Chief Justice John Roberts, a Catholic appointed by President Bush, wrote the majority opinion, and he was joined by six other justices including the other four Catholics on the Court. Full Article

Imagine for a minute that the Trinity community could have a kaffeklatsch with Pope Benedict when he's in town this week. (That strange looking word means "coffee and donuts and a discussion"…)

What would we want to discuss with the Pope?

Here are a few topics I'd like to discuss with him — and let me know yours!

1. How can the Catholic Church stop being co-opted by American political opportunists? Full Article

Last Friday, I had the privilege of sitting in on a focus group conducted by students in Dr. Shelley Tomkin's seminar on public opinion polling. What a great affirmation of Trinity's mission in women's leadership development! The students organized a highly disciplined and effective session in which other students, faculty and staff answered a series of questions about current politics. I will not go into the details here since the actual report will come from the class and I don't want to pre-empt their fine work. But I do want to share a few observations. Full Article