Living According to Our Values Means Questioning Our Choices

Posted on December 15, 2011 by zoeweil

On the way to the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador, I met an observant Jewish man who looked out of place with his yarmulke and long coat in this Latin American, equatorial country. I asked why he had come to Guayaquil and he told me that he is hired to certify kosher food in countries around [...]

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Filling the Bathtub One Drop at a Time: Small Choices Matter

Posted on August 1, 2011 by zoeweil

I came upon this quote by Gil Fronsdal some time ago and tucked it away in a list of quotes I keep: “Just as drops of water will eventually fill a bathtub, so the accumulation of small choices shapes who we are.” It’s easy to dismiss the power of small choices. In the scheme of [...]

Filed under: changemakers, citizen activism, integrity, mindfulness, MOGO (Most Good), positive choices, systemic change, values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Doing the Most Good and the Least Harm

Posted on June 3, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for One Green Planet, a blog dedicated to ethical choices. Here’s an excerpt: One hundred years ago, where I live in rural Maine, it was fairly obvious how to make MOGO choices. Everyone knew where their food, clothing, energy, shelter and transportation came [...]

Filed under: animal protection, citizen activism, critical thinking, Environmental Preservation, human rights, humane education, mindfulness, MOGO (Most Good), values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Instead of Rejoicing at Osama bin Laden’s Death, Let’s Vanquish the Real Enemy

Posted on May 6, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent blog post I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt: Vanquishing the enemy means looking below the surface evil to the ways in which rage, hatred, sociopathy and brainwashing occur, and attempting to find root causes [...]

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Including Animals in Our Circle of Concern

Posted on May 2, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing an essay I wrote that was published on Common Dreams.org, a progressive news site. Here’s an excerpt: There is no benefit to neglecting the suffering and exploitation of animals in our efforts to end the suffering and exploitation of humans. The systems that perpetuate oppression are the same [...]

Filed under: animal protection, compassion, humane education, MOGO (Most Good), oppression, values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Mark Bittman: “Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others”

Posted on March 21, 2011 by zoeweil

I so appreciated Mark Bittman’s March 15 opinion piece in the New York Times, “Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.” Our hypocrisy surrounding the treatment of animals is stunning, and Bittman’s essay makes the point powerfully as he recounts the ASPCA’s arrest of a teenage girl for killing her sister’s hamster (a felony) while [...]

Filed under: humane education, critical thinking, education, values, animal protection, speciesism, compassion, Cultural Issues, third side thinking, creativity, heroes | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Challenging Times Call for Kindness, Not Vitriol

Posted on February 28, 2011 by zoeweil

I recently blogged about hateful commentary because, having been subjected to it, I felt compelled to write about it. But I’m revisiting the subject again as an important public issue, one which Maureen Dowd recently wrote about in her New York Times editorial “Stars and Sewers.” Here is an excerpt: When CBS’s Lara Logan was [...]

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An Open Letter to Natalie Munroe From Chris Lehmann

Posted on February 23, 2011 by zoeweil

Chris Lehmann, the principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia (who gave a fabulous TEDx talk, “Education is Broken“), has written an open letter to Natalie Munroe, the Pennsylvania high school English teacher whose blog, replete with invective, insult, and profanity directed toward her students, was found by one of those very students, shared [...]

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When Compromise Means Defending the Indefensible, It’s Time to Embrace Our Idealism

Posted on February 7, 2011 by zoeweil

My friend and colleague, Mary Pat Champeau, brought over a Netflix video for a few of us to watch at the Institute for Humane Education. It was called The Girl in the Café, and I figured she’d just landed upon a really entertaining film and wanted to share it. “Just send it back when you’re [...]

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The Scourge of Hateful Commentary – The Call to Be Kind

Posted on January 26, 2011 by zoeweil

Yesterday, Yahoo! News placed an excerpt from my book, Most Good, Least Harm, (that had been posted awhile earlier by Simon & Schuster under the title “10 Easy Ways to Become a Better Person”) on their front page. I found this out when my and the Institute for Humane Education’s websites got a surprisingly large [...]

Filed under: accurate information, compassion, compassionate communication, integrity, MOGO (Most Good), perspective, values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

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