Author: Michael Shank

An Olympic Track for Cultural Hurdlers

New York Times 09/09/2004 By Randy Kennedy sk anyone at City Hall: bringing the Olympics to New York City is not an easy job. A group of ambitious businessmen and social activists have discovered that the same thing applies not only to the kind of Olympics that feature pole vaulting […]

Socially Irresponsible Investing

THE MENNONITE Vol. 7, No 11, June 04 By Michael Shank When a financial services firm such as Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA), a company committed to socially responsible investing, makes investment decisions, they rely on a philosophy of stewardship for guidance. The firm’s philosophy is guided by a set of […]

EMU Prez: It’s About Behavior

Daily News-Record 04/14/2004 By Jeff Mellot Michael Shank, a graduate student at Eastern Mennonite University, felt encouraged, even heartened, after a 90-minute meeting Tuesday at the campus. EMU President Loren Swartzendruber called the forum to take questions and hear comments about the campus’ church-based, community lifestyle commitment agreement that critics […]

EMU Chief Defends Policy on Gay Sex

Richmond Times-Dispatch 04/14/2004 By Calvin R. Trice The Mennonite Church has the right to discriminate against homosexual conduct based on its beliefs, says the president of a church college here. Eastern Mennonite University President Loren E. Swartzendruber emphasized, however, that bigotry, name-calling and vilification are unacceptable at the school. Swartzendruber […]

Giving Iraqis A ‘Voice’

Daily News-Record 01/24/2004 By Melvin Mason City Protest Calls For Free Elections In Occupied Nation Friday’s cold temperatures could not deter a group of protesters asking for elections in the newly liberated Iraq. Members of JustVoices, a group of local college students and residents, protested on Court Square at noon. […]

Prophets in Pakistan

PEACE NEWS No. 2450, March-May 03 By Michael Shank “So how was Pakistan?” Friends eager to know more about my recent work in the Islamic Republic have had to wait patiently as I search my vocabulary for the appropriate words. My silence surprises me as well. Usually words do not […]

Becoming a Prophet

PEACE NEWS No. 2450, March-May 03 By Michael Shank “You can take as much time as you’d like, Michael. We’ve got the place reserved until 6pm,” whispered one of the organisers of Focus on South Asia, the peace conference recently held in Lahore, Pakistan for delegates from India, Pakistan, Sri […]

Talking at the Border

HIMAL MAGAZINE 02/03 By Michael Shank Michael Shank is a theatre artist who served as a conference facilitator at Focus on South Asia, a ‘youth peace conference’ organised by the Youth Initiative for Peace in Lahore in mid-December 2002. The conference was attended by 35 girls and boys from all […]

BPA’s Power-Line Plan Raises Controversy

Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/26/2002 THE ISSUE The Bonneville Power Administration is proposing to build a nine-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line across the Cedar River watershed, which provides pure drinking water to 1.3 million people in King and Snohomish counties. The federal agency wants to install 40 new towers to run adjacent to […]

Troubled Waters

Seattle Weekly 03/20/2002 By Kevin Fullerton SLEET SIZZLED on the high-voltage power lines overhead as a contingent of Seattle city officials and environmentalists stood on a bluff overlooking the Cedar River—whose mountain rapids supply most of Seattle’s drinking water—and sized up their hosts from the Bonneville Power Administration. City officials, […]