Huffington Post 01/09/2012 By Michael Shank If my Amish-Mennonite forefathers could see me now, I wonder what they would say. If I sat down with America’s first Amish bishop (my 6th great-grandfather) or the first Mennonite bishop in Virginia (my 5th great-grandfather), how would they feel about my working in […]
Huffington Post 12/21/2011 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Michael Honda (D-CA) In light of Congress’s failure to wrestle up short-term cost-cutting measures for our country, we must not lose sight of longer-term concerns about the sustainability of our deficits, debts and, ultimately, our budgets. While we tempt deadlines now, […]
Huffington Post 12/05/2011 By Michael Shank, Joaquin Phoenix and Dot Maver Look at 2011’s most significant events, those that will have an indelible impact on our future. We saw new wars, revolutions, record-breaking global population growth, climate-related disasters and poverty and income inequality statistics. We also witnessed innovative efforts to […]
Huffington Post 12/01/2011 By Michael Shank and J.J. Messner With the excitement about Moammar Qaddafi’s downfall beginning to fade, Libya’s new management has begun governing and reconstructing the war-torn nation. Plenty of attention is being paid to the governance angle: Is the National Transitional Council a legitimate, representative body? When […]
Huffington Post 11/16/2011 By Michael Shank The fact that America’s biggest companies paid no federal taxes may come as no surprise to Washington. The report released earlier this month by nonprofit groups Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that 30 of the top […]
Huffington Post 11/14/2011 By Michael Shank Things are changing quickly in Cuba. Last week, on November 10, the Cuban government, under President Raul Castro’s leadership, launched its most progressive economic reform initiative yet by legalizing the sale and purchase of private property. For Cuba watchers and Castro critics, this was […]
Huffington Post 11/11/2011 By Michael Shank Rick Perry’s inability to recall three US government agencies is indicative of this country’s equivocal commitment to “high levels of education”, one of eight factors essential to a stable and peaceful society, as reported recently by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Without […]
Huffington Post 10/05/2011 By Michael Shank As US Congress continues to quack its way through the Super Committee quagmire, a seemingly non-germane offshore issue has surfaced vis-a-vis Iraq. The connection between the two is anything but inconsequential, despite receiving scant review in Washington. If one wonders how US debts and […]
Huffington Post 09/28/2011 By Michael Shank This October 7, 2011, marks the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. After expending $4 trillion and thousands of lives, the US needs an exit from the depressing impasse of its militarized foreign policy. With the Pentagon and the CIA countenancing a […]
Huffington Post 09/26/2011 By Michael Shank This September, I was interviewed by a communications firm on the topic of Islamophobia. The firm is planning a campaign to counteract Islamophobia in America and was conducting interviews with Washington policymakers who have addressed this topic. The interview came on the heels of […]