Mary Ann McGivern

NCR Today: I jumped in with both feet, offering to edit articles as they came in. The only wrinkle: the topic had already been selected, authors invited, and I knew nothing about being transgender.

NCR Today: I wrote last week about prisoners’ three-week strike for just treatment. So did Clare Coffey. The strike officially ended Sept. 9, but punishment of the strikers continues.

NCR Today: Prisoners across the U.S. are striking in an ongoing, national call for reform of the conditions that they endure during incarceration.

NCR Today: The recent New York Times Magazine article on "Losing Earth" to climate change is a gripping, discouraging account of our human failure.

NCR Today: A request from the African Activist Archive Project brought me back to days of anti-apartheid actions with the Sisters of Loretto in St. Louis.

The term “white fragility” was coined by Robin DiAngelo, who has just published a book by the same name. It accurately catches my own dismay that I am not immediately recognized as a good white person. 

NCR Today: In May, the Navajo Nation made an offer to purchase Remington Arms for between $475 and $525 million. Remington rejected the offer. The company did not offer a reason.

Tired of calling your members of Congress every day? Tired of saying the same old thing? Maybe these suggested messages will help. I’m using one a day and then starting over.

My brother Dave, a Vietnam vet, just got good news. His lymphoma caused by Agent Orange is in remission. I've been considering all of the ripple effects of war since he became been so ill. 

NCR Today: We Catholics, white Catholics specifically, need the will to open our eyes and examine our own racist behavior. Safe spaces in parishes could help in admitting bias.

NCR Today: Former intelligence contractor Reality Winner and others who are telling us what is happening in government are taking huge risks in an effort to safeguard democracy.

NCR Today: We have been trying to rid our house of plastic. Pie, nuts, batteries, mayonnaise, bourbon — all delivered in plastic.

NCR Today: Published by Sojourners and signed by 23 religious leaders, "Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis" rejects racism and welcomes the refugee.

NCR Today - An editorial, newly updated after the mass shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, haunts me as I imagine the survivors of violence that mostly did not have to happen.

When you meet a candidate, Republican or Democrat or Green or Socialist, ask him or her some pointed questions about public policy on housing, hunger and, yes, pain.

NCR Today: A few years back I gave myself permission to get angry at other drivers. Later, I shocked myself at how mad I was at some unknown person. I resolved to withdraw that permission to myself to rage.

Forty-seven percent of the the federal budget's discretionary spending goes towards the costs of war. It's a lot of money to fund a lot of suffering.

NCR Today: The Palestinians who live in Gaza have embarked on a campaign of nonviolent direct action.

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it's important to remember how much time he spent in jail, and how he fought against being released. 

NCR Today: I heard from a man in a maximum security prison in Missouri who is trying to help his cellmate's case for clemency.