Paige ChargoisThere is a cry against the predilection of poisonous political rhetoric that only seeks to divide a people committed to being the United States of America.

Obama’s epic presidential campaign climaxed with a rally of 85,000 in Virginia. It was remarkable and fitting that his journey to the White House concluded in the state which led the way in institutionalizing slavery, fought a civil war to preserve it, and promoted Massive Resistance to school integration after one hundred years of Jim Crow segregation.

Rob Corcoran

It feels like we are on an emotional roller coaster these days. Wild swings of the market and a tense political campaign can easily allow us to be controlled by fear, blame and anger or swayed by false hopes and promises that appeal to our self-interest.

Clementine Lue Clark

I was born to Jamaican parents, a Chinese father and Black mother. I grew up in Jamaica being called “de chinney gal” or “Miss Chin.” Then I moved to the United Kingdom and was treated very much like a West Indian immigrant with all of the stereotypes that entails. Now I’m living in the United States happily married to a White American, learning each day about what it is like to be in an interracial marriage. (I’m learning it’s like any other marriage.) In Boston, where I live surrounded mostly by educated people, being in an interracial marriage is quite normal. I have the privilege of rarely thinking about it.

It is long overdue, but it is our choice to deal with attitudes and discrimination that stem from that unhealed past, and move to acknowledgement, change, reconciliation and justice.

Trust depends on the authenticity of our lives, our openness, and our willingness to start with change in ourselves.

As we enter this New Year, I would like to share exciting news. Don Cowles and I have been appointed to serve as joint leaders of Initiatives of Change USA, the parent body of Hope in the Cities.

France, like the USA, is a nation characterized by lofty ideals. “All men are created equal” was the bold claim of America’s founding fathers. France’s revolutionary vision of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” has inspired millions around the world.

It will take more than steel and concrete to repair the festering wounds revealed by Katrina’s onslaught on New Orleans. The ferocious power of wind and water combined to expose the reality of a community deeply divided by class and race.

Tshwane (formerly Pretoria), South Africa, like Richmond, Virginia, in the USA is a city of monuments and powerful memories. In historic Church Square stands the statue of Oom Paul, the “father of Afrikanerdom.” On Richmond’s Monument Avenue, General Robert E. Lee, hero of the Southern Confederacy during America’s Civil War sit astride his horse.