Duane Shank was Associate Editor for Sojourners magazine and was on the staff from 1995 to 2014.
Duane has been active as an organizer and administrator in the peace and justice movement for 35 years, beginning as a draft resistance and antiwar organizer during the Vietnam war. He has worked as a community organizer in the rural south, in interfaith coalitions, and in the nuclear weapons freeze and Central America solidarity movements of the 1980s. His positions have included Associate for the National Inter-religious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors; National Coordinator for the Committee Against Registration and the Draft; Deputy Director and Acting Executive Director for SANE/Freeze; and Research Fellow for the Institute for Policy Studies.
Duane attended Eastern Mennonite University. He is a Anabaptist/Mennonite, and currently an active member and serves on the worship leadership team of the Community of Christ ecumenical congregation in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His views on faith and politics have been shaped by (among others), John Howard Yoder, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Oscar Romero.
Duane is married to Ellen Kennel. They have a daughter, Celeste, a graduate of Goshen College, IN, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago Divinity School.
In addition to family, church, and work; his passions are baseball (Washington Nationals), blues (Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan) and bluegrass music (Ralph Stanley), and barbecue.
Posts By This Author
The latest news on Health Care, Health Care & Abortion, Food Safety, Stimulus & Jobs, Foreclosures, Anglican Church, Toronto Strike, Burma, Iran, Iran & Nuclear Facilities, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Honduras, and Select Op-eds.
Health care & abortion. “With House leaders struggling to reach agreement on healthcare legislation, aiming toward a possible vote this week, a new hurdle has emerged: abortion.”
Burma. “Judges in Myanmar have said they will deliver their verdict on Friday in the trial of the country's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.”
India. “The card's introduction, one of the largest IT projects in the world, will eliminate a patchwork of local IDs and is meant to improve the delivery of social services to the poor.”
Quote of the day. "There's a compassion boom going on. Instead of people worrying about their own problems, they're thinking of others." Robert Grimm of the Corporation for National & Community Service, on a report showing more Americans volunteered in their communities in 2008 than in 2007. (USA Today)
The latest news on Health Care, Immigration, Neighborhoods Matter, Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, Honduras, and Select Op-eds.
Iraq. “The entrenched leadership of the Kurdistan region of Iraq was shaken Sunday by what appeared to be a stronger than expected showing in regional elections by a new opposition coalition.”
Neighborhoods matter. “Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults.”
Editorial - Mexico. “If this country is ever going to get a handle on its illegal immigration problem, more than a secure border and a workable guest-worker program is needed. Mexico's economy also needs to prosper.” (Denver Post)
Quote of the day. “I was frustrated with all the turnover among staff, with the lack of teacher input, with working longer and harder than teachers at other schools and earning less.” Jennifer Gilley, a social studies teacher at the Ralph Ellison Campus of the Chicago International Charter School, where three campuses recently voted to unionize. (New York Times)
The latest news on Health Care, Abortion, Unemployment & Recession, Prof. Gates' Arrest, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mideast, Honduras, South Africa & Nuclear Power, and Select Op-eds.
Health care. “A day after President Obama made an aggressive public appeal for swift healthcare reform, the Senate officially gave up on the notion that it can pass a comprehensive package before its scheduled recess early next month.”
Prof. Gates' arrest. “What began as a prominent African American professor's dispute with a white police sergeant grew more complex Thursday as the officer spoke publicly for the first time and a fuller portrait of his life emerged.”
Afghanistan. “U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have halted the practice of releasing the number of militants killed in fighting with American-led forces as part of an overall strategy shift that emphasizes concern for the local civilian population's well-being rather than hunting insurgent groups.”
Quote of the day. “You name the country, I’ve gotten prayers from them. I hope in some way that by tweeting their prayers, these people are helping themselves somehow. Once you figure out what you want, in 140 characters or less, you can start to take action.” Alon Nil, founder of a Twitter address where prayers can be tweeted, then printed and placed in a crack in the ancient stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (AP, Boston Globe)
The latest news on Health Care, Massachusetts Health Care, Abortion, Economic Recovery and Unemployment, Life in Prison, Concealed Weapons, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Colombia, Honduras, and Select Op-eds.
Abortion. “President Obama, who has vowed to find common ground on culture-war issues, finds himself in the middle of a classic Washington dispute over abortion that is further undermining support among conservative Democrats for his ambitious health-care reform efforts.”
Life in prison. “More prisoners today are serving life terms than ever before — 140,610 out of 2.3 million inmates being held in jails and prisons across the country — under tough mandatory minimum-sentencing laws and the declining use of parole for eligible convicts.”
Sudan. “In a ruling many hope will bolster Sudan's fragile north-south peace agreement, an international arbitration panel Wednesday awarded the northern-led government control of several key disputed oil fields while giving large swaths of contested grazing lands to the south.”
Quote of the day. "Everyone is getting paid except people in front of the camera in college basketball. If we weren't putting on a great show, there wouldn't be great highlights that they now sell." Ed O’Bannion, former UCLA basketball star, explaining a lawsuit by former college athletes seeking compensation from the NCAA for the sale of content that includes their images. (USA Today)
The latest news on Health Care, F-22 Stopped, Student Loans, Prof. Henry Gates' Arrest, California Budget, Global Poverty, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Honduras, Iran, and Select Op-eds.
Global poverty. “The United Nations says it needs $5bn to help the world's poor this year, warning that the need for aid has never been greater.”
Pakistan. “Two major military offensives in recent years failed to rub them out. And now, as Pakistani generals brace again for war in South Waziristan, the Taliban militants there are tougher and greater in number than their brethren on the run from the military in the country's volatile Swat Valley.”
F-22 stopped. “The Senate voted Tuesday to kill the nation's premier fighter-jet program, embracing by a 58 to 40 margin the argument of President Obama and his top military advisers that more F-22s are not needed for the nation's defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon's budget in an era of small wars.”
Quote of the day. "There are one million black men in jail in this country, and last Thursday I was one of them. This is outrageous. … This is how poor black men across the country are treated every day in the criminal justice system. It's one thing to write about it, but altogether another to experience it." Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates on his arrest by Cambridge, MA, police. (USA Today, from Washington Post)
The latest news on Health Care, Immigration, Racial Profiling, Dying in America, Army Increase, Detention Policy Delayed, Afghanistan, Iran, Honduras, Israel-West Bank, Mumbai Trial, HIV Therapy, and Select Op-eds.
Army increase. “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday announced a temporary increase in the size of the Army of up to 22,000 troops to meet what he called the 'persistent pace' of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Israel-West Bank. "Israeli settlers on horseback set fire to fields of olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars in the West Bank yesterday, apparently in response to the Israeli army’s removal of an illegal outpost in the area.”
HIV therapy. “Hundreds of thousands more Africans with HIV could be treated without extra spending if blood tests for monitoring side effects are abandoned, the biggest trial of HIV therapy in the continent has found.”
Quote of the day. “We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up.” Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety, on a decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration not to release extensive research on the dangers of drivers using cell phones. (New York Times)
The latest news on Health Care, Health Care & Abortion, Children's Health Insurance, Hispanic Worker Deaths, U.S. War Deaths, Food Stamps & Farmers Markets, Minimum Wage, Climate Bill, Interfaith Dialogue, Mandela Day, Afghanistan, North Korea, Honduras,
North Korea. “Images and accounts of the North Korean gulag become sharper, more harrowing and more accessible with each passing year. A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps.”
Hispanic worker deaths. “The number of Hispanic workers who die on the job has risen, even as the overall number of workplace deaths has declined, according to federal statistics.”
U.S. war deaths. “U.S. troops have now departed almost completely from the streets of Iraq's cities, and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki plans to visit the graves of American soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery during a trip to Washington this week and to offer a personal 'thank you' to the men and women who gave their lives for the sake of a new Iraq.”
Quote of the day. "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Astronaut Neil Armstrong, as he took his first step onto the surface of the moon, 40 years ago today. (Today’s news on the commemoration, Washington Post)
The latest news on Health Care, Sotomayor Hearing, Employee Free Choice Act, Food Safety, Canada & Facebook, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Sudan, Non-Aligned Movement, Honduras, Pakistan, North Korea, and Select Op-eds.
Food safety. “Farming and ranching representatives appeared before a congressional panel Thursday to express concern that a major bill pending in the House could unnecessarily complicate the marketplace without improving food safety.”
Iraq. “As Iran simmers over its disputed presidential election, Shiite clerics in Iraq are looking across the border with a sense of satisfaction that they have figured out a more durable answer to a question that has beset Shiite Islam for centuries: What role should religion play in politics.”
North Korea. “The U.N. Security Council on Thursday banned travel and froze assets of 10 North Korean individuals and businesses linked to the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, marking the first time the United Nations has directly penalized members of the nation's military and business elite.”
Quote of the day. "You're going to need a strong back and a strong bladder to get through Virginia now." John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic, on Virginia’s plans to close 19 of its 42 highway rest stops as a budget-cutting measure. (USA Today)
The latest news on the Sotomayor Hearing, Health Care, Unemployment, Recession, Immigration, Keith Ellison, CIA Assassins, China, Afghanistan, Iran, India-Pakistan, Colombia, South Africa, and Select Op-eds.
Immigration. “The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States.”
CIA assassins. “CIA officials were proposing to activate a plan to train anti-terrorist assassination teams overseas when agency managers brought the secret program to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta last month.”
Colombia. “The United States and Colombia are poised to sign an agreement to transfer anti-drug flight operations from Ecuador to at least three Colombian air bases, a move that has drawn criticism here that it will leave the country even more dependent on Washington.”
Quote of the day. "You needed people in office who really did vibrate sympathetically with what the people needed. Paul Wellstone helped me see somebody in action trying to make the world better for working people, people of color, everybody who's in the so-called out crowd." Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), explaining his transition from community activist to elected official. (Washington Post)
The latest news on the Sotomayor Hearing, Health Care, Community Colleges, Race & Education Testing, Unemployment, Climate Change, Iran, Israel-Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras, and Select Op-eds.
Israel-Gaza. “Israeli combat soldiers have acknowledged that they forced Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields, needlessly killed unarmed Gazans and improperly used white phosphorus shells to burn down buildings as part of Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter.”
Honduras. “The two diametrically opposed views underscore the deep divisions and simmering anger evident in Honduras, where those who support Zelaya are generally poor and those who oppose him tend to come from the middle and upper classes.”
Sotomayor hearing. “Republican senators sparred with Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday over racial bias, judicial activism and temperament as she presented herself as a reliable follower of precedent rather than a jurist shaped by gender and ethnicity, as some of her past speeches suggested.”
Quote of the day. “This is the higher education equivalent of the moon shot. The president is putting a bet on one sector to get a lot more graduates. They want to have a measurable impact on work force development.” Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation, which supports community college initiatives, on President Obama’s plan to increase funding for community colleges. (New York Times)
The latest news on the Sotomayor Hearing, Health Care, Surgeon General Nominated, CIA Paramilitary Teams, Episcopal Church, Economy, Guantanamo, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Select Op-eds.
CIA paramilitary teams. “The CIA ran a secret program for nearly eight years that aspired to kill top al-Qaeda leaders with specially trained assassins, but the agency declined to tell Congress because the initiative never came close to bringing Osama bin Laden and his deputies into U.S. cross hairs.”
Iraq. “They've only got a five year-old softball bat, a threadbare cap, three scuffed balls and nine second-hand gloves from a flea market. They train on a college soccer field. And there's not a uniform among them. However, they love America's pastime as much as Crash Davis of 'Bull Durham' ever did. Meet Iraq's national baseball team.”
Episcopal Church. “The bishops of the Episcopal Church voted at the church’s convention on Monday to open 'any ordained ministry' to gay men and lesbians, a move that could effectively undermine a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops that the church passed at its last convention three years ago.”
Quote of the day. "Small-scale farming is management-intensive. It's an incredibly intellectual exercise, but you're also getting your hands in the dirt — that's why it's so attractive. There's a hunger for that." Tom Philpott, food editor at Grist.org, which covers food and agriculture, on a new generation of young organic farmers. (USA Today)
The latest news on the Sotomayor Hearing, Health Care, Anti-Terror Policies, Race & Poverty, Immigration, Child Poverty, Alternatives to Prison, Soldier Suicides, Obama in Africa, Iraq, Sri Lanka, U.K.-Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, and Select Op-eds.
Anti-terror policies. “President Obama is facing new pressure to reverse himself and to ramp up investigations into the Bush-era security programs, despite the political risks.”
Sri Lanka. “Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off limits to journalists, human rights investigators and political leaders. The Sri Lankan government says that the people in the camps are a security risk because Tamil Tiger fighters are hiding among them.”
Soldier suicides. “Army commanders are failing at the day-to-day task of monitoring troubled young soldiers in their barracks back home, which is helping push suicides to record numbers, the head of the Army's suicide task force says.”
Quote of the day. “These neighborhoods with gang problems don’t have a lot of assets. But there is a school, a park and a rec center. Those are public assets. Let’s use those to create social connections that replace gangs.” Jeff Carr, Director of Gang Reduction and Youth Development in Los Angeles, on a program to combat gang violence by keeping lights on until midnight in some of the city’s roughest park. (New York Times)
The latest news on Health Care, Stimulus, Recession, Immigration, Obama & Pope, Nuclear Weapons, G8, Mexico Recession, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Al Qaeda, and Select Op-eds.
Recession. “While the numbers of individual homeless people remained relatively flat, the number of people in families that were homeless rose by 9 percent from Oct. 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008, the report found.”
Obama & Pope. “Both the pope and the president recognize that despite their differences, they have an opportunity to join forces on international issues that are mutual priorities: Israel and the Palestinians, climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, increased aid to poor nations and immigration reform.”
Iraq. “With little notice and almost no public debate, Iraq’s Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semiautonomous region, a step that has alarmed Iraqi and American officials who fear that the move poses a new threat to the country’s unity.”
Quote of the Day. "We're going to see pretty significant increases. We are even hearing from many people that, a year or two ago, used to be financial donors to the pantry." DeWayne Wells, president of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan, the largest food bank in the state, on the growing number of middle class families seeking food assistance. (Wall St. Journal)
The latest news on Health Care, "Plan B," Immigration, Homelessness, Economic Stimulus, Dying Well, G8 and Climate Change, G8 and Development Aid, Mexico, Pakistan, Iran, and Select Op-eds.
Iran. “Clashes between hundreds of determined young men and women chanting 'Death to the dictator' and 'God is great' and security forces wielding truncheons erupted in downtown Tehran today.”
Mexico. “The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors.”
G8 and development aid. “If the assistance is delivered and is in fact mostly new money, it will constitute the largest international effort in decades to combat hunger by investing in the fundamentals of an agricultural economy, including seed, fertilizer, grain storage and research into new plant varieties."
Quote of the day. “There is a time to die and a way to do that with reverence. Hospitals should not be meccas for dying. Dying belongs at home, in the community. We built this place with that in mind.” Sister Mary Lou of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a congregation in Rochester, NY, on the convent’s ministry to dying sisters, which provides a social network and continued engagement in life and spiritual beliefs, along with palliative health care. (New York Times)
The latest news on the Economic Stimulus, Health Care, Papal Encyclical, G8, U.S.-Russia, Honduras, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, China, Iran, and Michael Jackson.
Economic stimulus. “While other stimulus money has been slow to circulate, the food-stamp boost is almost immediate, with 80% of the benefits being redeemed within two weeks of receipt and 97% within a month, the USDA says.”
Health care. “African Americans are less likely than whites to survive breast, prostate and ovarian cancer even when they receive equal treatment, according to a large study that offers provocative evidence that biological factors play a role in at least some racial disparities."
Sudan. “Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have appealed against a decision by the body's tribunal not to charge Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, with conducting genocide.”
Quote of the day. "While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human." Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas Veritate, his new encyclical on the world economic system. (Guardian)
The latest news on Stem Cells, Climate Change Legislation, Health Care, Homeless Families, Minority Savings, Catholics & Jews, Pope on Financial Crisis, U.S.-Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, Hondruas, China, and Select Op-eds.
U.S. – Russia. "President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached a preliminary agreement Monday to cut the American and Russian nuclear arsenals by as much as a third while exploring options for cooperation on missile defense."
Pope on financial crisis. "The pope today called for a 'profoundly new way' of organizing global finance and business, calling for a new social and ethical dimension to capitalism and arguing the case for a new world political authority to help champion 'the common good.'"
China. "Rival protesters took to the streets again on Tuesday, defying Chinese government efforts to lock down this regional capital of 2.3 million people and other places across its western desert region after bloody clashes between Muslim Uighurs and security forces that were mostly Han Chinese."
Quote of the day. “When school’s open, families tend to stay where they are. And when school’s out, they’re told it’s time to go.” Deronda Metz, the director of social services for the Salvation Army in Charlotte, NC, explaining a surge in homeless families in the summer. (New York Times)
The latest news on Nuclear Weapons, Fraying Safety Net, Homeless Female Veterans, Health Care, Climate Bill, Labor Secretary, Honduras, Gaza Activists, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma, Sudan, Passing, and Select Op-eds.
Burma. “Rather than tying negotiations, not to mention sanctions, to the treatment of just one figure, say policy analysts, humanitarian workers and exiles, the world should engage the junta on a broad range of economic, humanitarian and ethnic issues that will return electoral politics to its rightful place as one concern among many.”
Gaza activists. “Israel says it will expel eight pro-Palestinian activists detained at sea last week as they tried to ferry aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade.”
Passing. “Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington.”
Quote of the day. “I’ve always been about seeking social justice and combating discrimination and racism. I always wanted to stand up and fight for the underdog.” Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor. (New York Times)
The latest news on Afghanistan, U.N. Atomic Watchdog, Pakistan, Air France, U.S.-Russia, DR Congo, North Korea, Hong Kong, Saddam Hussein Interview Tapes, Iran, and Syria.
Hong Kong. "Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Hong Kong on Wednesday to push for democratic rights, amid a slumping economy."
DR Congo. "U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply distressed' by the rape and assault of some 20 female inmates during a breakout."
Syria. “Syria's president scraps a law limiting sentences for men who kill their female relatives in the name of family honor.”
The latest news on State Budgets, Business Bankruptcies, Senator Franken, Health Insurance, Climate Bill, Supreme Court, Iraq, Honduras, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Honduras. “The Organization of American States (OAS) has given the current leaders of Honduras three days to restore exiled President Manuel Zelaya to power.”
Iraq. “Up to 40 people have been killed in a bomb blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, just hours after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq's towns and cities.”
Climate bill. “As the most ambitious energy and climate-change legislation ever introduced in Congress made its way to a floor vote last Friday, it grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts intended to win the votes of wavering lawmakers and the support of powerful industries.”
Quote of the day. "It was a real David and Goliath fight. This news is extremely gratifying to all the people and organizations who have worked so hard on this issue for the past eight years. We're thrilled to death." California State Senator Fran Pavley, author of a state law setting carbon dioxide limits on new vehicles that was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. (San Francisco Chronicle)
The latest news on Al Franken, Civil Rights Ruling, Health Care Reform, State Budgets, Economy and Amish, Drug War-Canada, Honduras, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Zimbabwe, and Select Op-eds.
Breaking news. “The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate election and said he was entitled to an election certificate that would lead to him being seated in the Senate.”
Drug war-Canada. “Mexico's crackdown puts the squeeze on cocaine dealers in British Columbia. Up here, as the violence grows, bodies pile up.”
Iraq. “Iraqis danced in the streets and set off fireworks Monday in impromptu celebrations of a pivotal moment in their nation's troubled history: As of Tuesday, this is no longer America's war.”
Quote of the day. “I think it helps to level the playing field because, in many cases, workers have been disadvantaged. They've been intimidated, they've been harassed, and we have case after case after case that we can look at.” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on the Employee Free Choice Act. (Washington Post)