Human Trustees

I began this short series on immigration by quoting from Amy Pope’s 2025 article, “Migration Can Work for All: A Plan for Replacing a Broken Global System.” She can write with authority on this topic, since she is the Director General of the UN’s International Organization for Migration. Recall that she argued that illegal migration is on the rise; that…

The Trump administration announced its goal of arresting 2,000 immigrants daily, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS, which is in charge of ICE) has never been able to reach that number. But its agents have been using new tactics recently, “from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest,” in order to boost their…

In my writing in the last few years, I’ve been preoccupied with the idea of global governance—that is, wondering how effective the mammoth institution of the United Nations is at promoting peace, reducing worldwide poverty, providing better healthcare and corralling nations to tamp down climate change. But it is far from working alone on these challenges. The so-called “plurilateral summit…

In my writing in the last few years, I’ve been preoccupied with the idea of global governance—that is, wondering how effective the mammoth institution of the United Nations is at promoting peace, reducing worldwide poverty, providing better healthcare and corralling nations to tamp down climate change. But it is far from working alone on these challenges. The so-called “plurilateral summit…

Besides numerous children’s books, over a dozen biographies have been penned about Harriet Tubman, the intrepid slave fugitive who went back numerous times to Maryland’s eastern shore to free at least 70 fellow slaves. She is the American hero who will grace our US $20 bill with her image in 2030. My interest here is to probe Tubman’s spiritual life…

I would not have written this post had I not been part of a foursome virtual book club. One of these friends from my 1970s seminary days in the Boston area had been reading a book by award-winning author specialized in early American history (four awards, including being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize): Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Eye of…