At Starbucks’ annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, Wash. last Wednesday, CEO Howard Schultz told off an investor who tried to argue that the company’s support for same-gender marriage is bad for business. The shareholder Tom Strobhar, founder of an anti-gay marriage group, claimed that as a result of the National Organization for Marriage’s boycott of […]
Conviction
Peter’s Perspective: Letter to Mrs. Obama on the President’s Decision Not to Protect LGBT Federal Contractors
Dear Mrs. Obama, Please have a stern talk with your husband about the importance of living by one’s values. He seems to be losing sight. Two days ago, he signaled that he will not issue an Executive Order that would protect men and women who work for Federal contractors from either being discriminated against in […]
In An Act of Citizen Leadership…
…Zach Whals, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student, addressed the Iowa Legislature about the strength of his family headed by his two moms. Mr. Whals spoke with conviction before the House of Representatives in an effort to dissuade and even admonish its members intent on amending that state’s constitutional and repealing the existing right of Iowa same-sex […]
Citizen Leadership = Courage to Act on Convictions
My heart goes out to the Citizen Leaders on the University of California Davis campus who demonstrated, by their peaceful sit-in, the courage of their convictions, only to be assaulted by the campus police. These sons and daughters, these American citizens, part of the Occupy Wall Street movement on the campus, became the latest victims of […]
Chapter 2: Conviction
It is a fundamental tenet of The Citizen Leader that citizenship challenges us to contribute to the world around us — that we act as citizens when we participate in efforts to better our community and improve life for everyone in it. Let me propose that the caliber of our actions, or indeed even our […]