Flag Day Naturalization Ceremony - Part 2
“The acceptance of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship is a profound moment,” said Colin G. Campbell, president of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation who greeted the citizen candidates and their families. “Colonial Williamsburg’s Education for Citizenship initiative is about taking part in the democratic process to sustain and advance our nation’s foundation. This year on Flag Day, 100 individuals take their first step. Colonial Williamsburg is honored to support them as they begin this journey.”
All For One And One For All
In August 2007, iCitizenForum interviewed Manny Hidalgo, Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation in Washington, D.C. The full interview can be viewed here.
Dialogues in Democracy Blog Launches
The iCitizenForum is the online home of the discussion which began at the Dialogues in Democracy event in Williamsburg, Va.
The Admiral Hopes to Inspire Enlistment
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech at Washington’s Mayflower hotel that people influential in young people’s lives don’t encourage them to join the armed forces. Recruiting is down because of it, he said, and he also faulted the military for not doing a better job of attracting young men and women.
Yahoo Accused of Lying to Congress Over the Arrest of Chinese Journalist
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires…
Representative Tom Lantos accuses Yahoo! of lying to Congress about the Internet giant’s role in the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese journalist Shi Tao.
We spoke with Tala Dowlatshahi, the New York director of Reporters Without Borders about the position of United State’s Internet companies in China. A clip from the interview is posted below.
Federal Shield for Journalists
A United States Senate committee wants to stop the federal government from forcing journalists to reveal confidential sources. It has approved, and sent to the floor for a vote, a national shield law.
The Best Way to Promote Democracy?
The crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar last week has given rise to the idea of sanctioning a regime.
Imposing sanctions on a country will affect its economy, which in turn affects its citizens. Some officials believe that progress toward democracy can actually be reversed by sanctions. Fareed Zakaria, writing in today’s Washington Post, said that one of the lessons that we should have learned from Iraq was that "decades of sanctions destroy civil society and empower the worst elements of the country."
"If you talk to them, you can handle them"
The debate sparked by Columbia University’s announcement of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming campus speaking engagement underlines Pakistani parliament member Tahmina Daultana’s recent comment about terrorists. At the 2007 World Forum on the Future of Democracy, she said "If you kill one, ten more appear; if you talk to them, you can handle them. "
Democracy and Social Equality
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve System, has been touring America promoting his biography. One little publicized argument in his book, found at the end of this blog, is that growing wealth inequality is a threat to democracy. Greenspan argues that the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. could bring civil disorder. His solution is to improve education so that people get higher paying jobs, thus eliminating the need for social welfare programs.
Democracy, no spectator sport
The World Forum on the Future of Democracy in Williamsburg, Va., was a great opportunity to reflect on the nature of democracy and what we have learned in the project so far. If I were to take one message away from the World Forum it would be that democracy is no spectator sport. Through the course of the three-day conference we were reminded that a successful democracy requires the active participation of its citizens. A vital question that we have to grapple with in the 21st century is how to ensure this participation in a world where voting and citizen participation is declining.
