Philosophy of modern liberalism
Modern liberals tend to see themselves in the context of their fellow man and woman and assume their rights and privileges are no greater than anyone else's, regardless of wealth or position. Key liberal values are empathy, compassion, trust, and cooperation. Liberalism is an empirical philosophy that attempts to make changes that will improve life even if those changes run contrary to previously accepted positions. Most tenets are not held with unquestioning conviction.
American liberalism differs from competing political philosophies not only through different values or preferences but through different epistemologies. Liberalism is open to change and receptive to empiricism.[14]
Liberals generally seek a balanced and flexible "mixed economy" occupying that middle ground between capitalism and socialism whose viability is generally denied by both capitalists and socialists.[2] In general liberalism is anti-socialist, when socialism means state ownership of the basic means of production and distribution, because American liberals doubt that bases for political opposition and freedom can survive when all power is vested in the state. Some American liberals also doubt the feasibility of administering a socialist system.
In line with the general pragmatic, empirical basis of liberalism, American liberal philosophy embraces the idea that if substantial abundance and equality of opportunity can be achieved through a system of mixed enterprise, then there is no need for a rigid and oppressive bureaucracy.[2]
Many of these ideas were initially promulgated by liberal thinkers John Dewey, Reinhold Niebuhr, and John Maynard Keynes and form the basis for the American liberal philosophy. The political godfather of American liberalism, Franklin Delano Roosevelt never publicly embraced Keynes's theories but there were many similarities between the works of the two men.[15] The ideas of American liberal philosophers and American liberal politicians, such as Roosevelt, laid the foundation for American liberalism that remains a viable political philosophy embraced by a significant percentage of Americans.
According to George Lakoff, liberal philosophy is based on five basic categories of morality.
The first, the promotion of fairness, is generally described as an emphasis on empathy as a desirable trait. With this social contract based on the Golden Rule comes the rationale for many liberal positions.
The second category is assistance to those who cannot assist themselves. A nurturing spirit is one that is considered good in liberal philosophy.
This leads to the third category, the desire to protect those who cannot defend themselves. This trait is difficult to define, as both conservative and liberal morality consider it a virtue.
The fourth category is the importance of fulfilling one's life; allowing a person to experience all that they can. This goal of ultimate self-development is one that is considered important in liberal philosophy.
The fifth, and final, category is the importance of caring for oneself as to allow one to act on the other categories. This means preventing oneself from "becoming a burden on others", and allowing others to do the same.[16]
Some positions associated with modern liberalism
In the early 21st century, the term "liberalism" in the United States has been applied to a broad spectrum of viewpoints. As the Democratic Party, generally seen as the standard-bearer of liberalism, adopted the more centrist outlook of the DLC, the term "liberal" (applied to the party as a whole) became associated even with more centrist candidates who, for example, may support the death penalty or take pro-business positions. For this reason, and because many on the right have so heavily used "liberal" as a pejorative, some Americans on the left of the political spectrum prefer to call the movement progressivism.
On the other hand, those associated with the DLC have used the term neoliberalism to describe what they regard as a more pragmatic and results-oriented form of American liberalism. This usage creates some confusion, since the same term is used to describe the international revival of classical liberalism and the associated radical free-market policies associated with politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and, in the United States, Ronald Reagan.
The following are some of the views that many contemporary American liberals or progressives support, starting with several points where there would be a strong consensus among American liberals.
- A social "safety net" including support for Medicare, unemployment benefits, health insurance, and preservation of existing Social Security and welfare programs
- Adherence to the principle of separation of church and state
- A reasonable progressive tax system
- Civil rights, including laws against discrimination based on gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability
- Laws intended to protect the environment from pollution and encourage conservation of resources
- Government role in funding or subsidizing public education and public transportation
- Regulation of business practices through OSHA, child labor laws, anti-trust laws, and minimum wage laws.
- Labor unions and labor regulation
- The belief in a woman's right to abortion by Roe v. Wade standards
- Government role in alternative energy development
- Government responsibility to supervise ports and infrastructure in the public interest
- A spirit of international cooperation and strong alliances
- The elimination of the death penalty
- Advocacy of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and support of scientific study
- Affirmative action continuance and transitional multi-lingual educational programs for children whose first language is not English
- Gun control and regulation for safety
- Opposition to censorship of the media
- Marijuana or hemp legalization for medicinal, industrial, or recreational purposes
- The right of the terminally ill to end their life
- Animal welfare
- Support for same sex-marriage
On globalization, American liberals stand largely divided. Liberal members of the intelligentsia and the professional class tend to favor globalization, due to their cosmopolitan ideals. Members of organized labor, on the other hand, tend to be opposed to increased globalization:
jeudi 18 octobre 2007
America's Progressive Community
America's Progressive Community...over 120 groups on the frontlines of changerepresenting tens of millions of progressive-thinking Americans.
20/20 Vision20/20 Vision makes it easy for busy people to act for peace and the environment.
21st Century DemocratsFormerly Democrats 2000, 21st Century Democrats was founded by progressive Democratic officials to give progressive and populist candidates the support they need to win elections.
Abolition 2000You can play a part in ending nuclear testing.
Acterra / Action for a Sustainable EarthActerra was formed in 2000 by the merger of Bay Area Action (BAA) and the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation (PCCF) to protect and restore the Bay Area's local natural environment through stewardship, education, and leadership.
Action Against HungerAction Against Hunger administers emergency relief in emergency situations of war, conflict, and natural disaster, later reinforced by longer term programs that enable children, women, and men to regain their autonomy and the means to live independent of external aid.
AFL-CIOThe AFL-CIO works to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation by organizing workers into unions, building a strong political voice for workers in a changing economy, and encouraging our labor movement to create a strong voice for workers in our communities.
Alliance For DemocracyAFD's mission is to free all people from corporate domination of politics, economics, the environment, culture and information; to establish true democracy; and to create a just society with a sustainable, equitable economy.
American Civil Liberties UnionThe ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT)There's no place like home; and we mean real homes, not nursing homes. We are fighting so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions.
American ForestsNation's oldest nonprofit citizen conservation organization, founded in 1875. AF's vigorous advocacy helped create the conservation movement and the National Park and National Forest systems in the U.S.
American Friends Service CommitteeThe AFSC is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service.
American RiversNorth America's leading national river-conservation organization.
Americans For Democratic ActionADA is the nation's oldest independent liberal political organization, dedicated to individual liberty and building economic and social justice at home and abroad.
Americans United for Separation of Church and StateChurch-state separation stands as one of the foundations of our Nation. Because of it, Americans enjoy unparalleled religious liberty and nurture one of the most vital religious communities in the world.
Amnesty InternationalAI is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards.
Animal Welfare Institute The Animal Welfare Institute has been working for over 40 years to prevent needless suffering of animals.
Association of Community Organizations for Reform NowACORN is striving to organize the poor and powerless into a strong political presence.
Basel Action NetworkBAN works in opposition to toxic trade in toxic wastes, toxic products and toxic technologies, that are exported from rich to poorer countries and to ensure national self-sufficiency in waste management through clean production and toxics use reductions.
Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence / Brady CampaignThe Brady Campaign's national initiatives include prevention programs for parents and youth on the risks associated with guns; legal representation for gun violence victims, and outreach to the entertainment community to encourage the deglamorization of guns in the media.
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Bread for the WorldA Christian movement that seeks justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying decision makers in the United States.
Brennan Center for Justice The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law unites thinkers and advocates in pursuit of a vision of inclusive and effective democracy by way of developing and implementing an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity while safeguarding fundamental freedoms.
Business for Social ResponsibilityBSR is a US-based global resource for companies seeking to sustain their commercial success in ways that demonstrate respect for ethical values, people, communities and the environment.
Campaign for America's FutureChallenging the big money corporate agenda by encouraging Americans to speak up - to discuss and debate a new vision of an economy and a future that works for all of us.
Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) CIVIC seeks to mitigate the impact of war and its aftermath by ensuring that timely and effective assistance is provided to unintended victims of conflict and to see that such assistance be a permanent part of the U.S. and other governments’ approach to armed conflict.
Campaign to Defend the Constitution Defcon is an online grassroots movement combating the growing power of the religious right and opposes efforts to control and distort religion, education, science and culture in ways that ultimately threaten the health and well-being of American society.
Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered FoodThe Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Food is a national grassroots consumer campaign designed to lobby Congress and the President to pass legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United States.
Center for Auto SafetyConsumers Union and Ralph Nader founded the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) in 1970 to provide consumers a voice for auto safety and quality in Washington and to help lemon owners fight back across the country. CAS has a small budget but a big impact on the auto industry.
Center for Community ChangeCCC helps poor people to improve their communities and change policies and institutions that affect their lives by developing their own strong organizations.
Center for Corporate Policy The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable.
Center for Defense InformationFounded in 1972 as an independent monitor of the military, the Center for Defense Information is a private, nongovernmental, research organization that believes strong social, economic, political, and military components and a healthy environment contribute equally to the nation's security. CDI seeks realistic and cost effective military spending without excess expenditures for weapons and policies that increase the danger of war.
Center for Democracy and TechnologyCDT works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age.
Center for Economic and Policy ResearchThe Center for Economic and Policy Research was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives. CEPR works to ensure that the citizenry has the information and analysis that allows it to act effectively in the public interest.
Center for Health, Environment and JusticeCHEJ believes in environmental justice, the principle that people have the right to a clean and healthy environment regardless of their race or economic standing. Our experience has shown that the most effective way to win environmental justice is from the bottom up through community organizing and empowerment.
Center for International PolicyThe Center for International Policy promotes a U.S. foreign policy based on peace, international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for basic human rights.
Center for Justice and Democracy The Center for Justice & Democracy works to educate the public about the importance of the civil justice system and the dangers of so-called "tort reforms" and fights to protect the right to trial by jury and an independent judiciary for all Americans.
Center for Media and DemocracyPublishers of PR Watch, a quarterly investigative journal, the Center for Media and Democracy promotes media that are "of, by and for the people." Other projects include Spin of the Day, offering daily reporting on spin and propaganda in the news; and SourceWatch, a wiki-based investigative journalism resource.
Center for Public IntegrityExposing the powerful economic interests that have captured our Congress and our politics.
Center for Responsive Politics / OpenSecrets.orgTracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. Search their database to see who's paying off who.
Center for Science in the Public InterestCSPI is a nonprofit education and advocacy organization that focuses on improving the safety and nutritional quality of our food supply.
Center for Third World OrganizingBuilding a social justice movement led by people of color.
Center on Budget & Policy PrioritiesCBPP is a nonpartisan research organization and policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of government policies and programs, with an emphasis on those affecting low- and moderate-income people.
The Century FoundationThe Century Foundation is a nonprofit public policy research institution which produces publications and convenes events that (1) explain and analyze public issues in plain language, (2) provide facts and opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of different policy strategies, and (3) develop and call attention to distinctive ideas that can work.
Children's Defense FundAmerica's Strongest Voice for Children.
Citizens Coal CouncilLet's clean up the coalfields! CCC has begun a 5-year effort to improve the economy and quality of life in communities where coal is mined. This campaign for jobs and justice in the coalfields aims to put unemployed people to work cleaning up old, abandoned mines.
Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting (CIPB)Nonprofit education/advocacy group being established to promote a restructuring of U.S. public broadcasting as an independently-funded public trust, free from corporate and political influence. The goal is to revitalize public broadcasting and resist commercialization.
Citizens for Tax JusticeCTJ's mission is to give ordinary people a greater voice in the development of tax laws and stand against the armies of special interest lobbyists for corporations and the wealthy.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)CREW assists Americans in using litigation to expose government officials who betray public trust and sacrifice the common good for special interests.
Clean Water ActionNational citizens' organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work.
Commercial AlertCommercial Alert helps families, parents, schools and communities defend themselves against harmful, immoral or intrusive advertising and marketing, and the excesses of commercialism.
Common CauseRepresenting the unified voice of the people against corruption in government and big money special interests.
Common DreamsNational citizens' organization working to bring together progressive Americans to promote progressive visions for America's future. Publishers of Common Dreams NewsCenter / Newswire.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility CPSR is a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. We work to influence decisions regarding the development and use of computers because those decisions have far-reaching consequences and reflect our basic values and priorities.
Consumer Federation of America The size and diversity of its membership -- more than 260 organizations from throughout the nation with a combined membership exceeding 50 million people -- enables CFA to speak for virtually all consumers.
Consumer Project on Technology The Consumer Project on Technology was started by Ralph Nader in 1995. Currently CPT is focusing on intellectual property rights and health care, electronic commerce and competition policy.
Consumers Union Publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers. A comprehensive source for unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health and nutrition, and other consumer concerns.
Co-op AmericaProviding the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to address today's social and environmental problems.
Corporate Accountability International CAI (formerly INFACT) spearheads campaigns that challenge irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world.
Corporate WatchCommitted to exposing corporate greed by documenting the social, political, economic and environmental impacts of transnational giants.
Council for a Livable WorldFounded by eminent nuclear physicist Leo Szilard, the Council has advocated for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction since 1962. provides senators with technical and scientific information that helps them make intelligent decisions about nuclear arms control, strategic and conventional weapons, the military budget, and United Nations peacekeeping.
Council for Responsible GeneticsThe Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG), founded in 1983, is a national nonprofit organization of scientists, environmentalists, public health advocates, physicians, lawyers and other concerned citizens. CRG encourages informed public debate about the social, ethical, and environmental implications of new genetic technologies, and advocates for socially responsible use of these technologies.
Critical Mass Energy ProjectA project of Public Citizen created by Ralph Nader to promote energy conservation and track government activities related to such issues as nuclear power, radioactive waste, renewable energy and fuel efficiency.
Dads & DaughtersNational, nonprofit membership organization of fathers with daughters. DADs provides tools to strengthen our relationships with our daughters and transform the pervasive messages that value our daughters more for how they look than who they are.
Death Penalty Information CenterServing the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.
Defenders of WildlifeDedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
Demos! Demos is a new non-profit organization focusing on two of the most urgent challenges facing the United States in the 21st century: strengthening our democracy and creating more broadly shared prosperity. Demos conducts original research and builds networks of civic and economic reformers around the United States to help turn ideas into action.
Doctors Without BordersDWB/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) delivers medical relief to populations in danger due to war, civil strife, epidemics or natural disasters.
Drug Policy AllianceThe Lindesmith Center and Drug Policy Foundation merged with the objective of building a national drug policy reform movement, and has changed its name to Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs and promote new drug policies based on common sense, science, public health and human rights.
Earth Charter USAThe Earth Charter USA Campaign is made up of people from all walks of life who embrace the values in the Earth Charter and who seek to make these values a blueprint for a sustainable way of life in this country. These efforts of involved and committed individuals will popularize and build support for the Earth Charter as a guide towards a sustainable future. Ultimately, a 'people's movement' will spring up around the Charter which will provide enough political support for endorsement of the Earth Charter by the United Nations in 2002.
Earth Island InstituteFounded by environmentalist David Brower, EII fosters the efforts of creative individuals by providing organizational support in developing projects for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the global environment.
EarthjusticeEarthjustice Legal Defense Fund, formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, is the non-profit law firm for the environment. For more than a quarter century, the Legal Defense Fund has represented hundreds of environmental clients, large and small, without charge.
Earth Policy InstituteThe purpose of the Earth Policy Institute is to provide a vision of what an environmentally sustainable economy will look like, a roadmap of how to get from here to there, and an ongoing assessment of this effort calling attention to where progress is being made and where it is not.
East Timor Action NetworkETAN/US advocates changing US foreign policy and urges support for self-determination and human rights for East Timor.
Economic Policy InstituteEPI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy.
Educators for Social ResponsibilityHelping young people develop the skills and convictions needed to shape a safe, sustainable, and just world.
Electronic Frontier FoundationWorking to ensure that the principles embodied in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights) are protected as new communications technologies emerge.
Electronic Privacy Information CenterEPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government.
Emily's List'Early Money is Like Yeast' (it makes the dough rise), EMILY's List identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and statewide offices.
Environmental Defense FundWorking to stop environmental pollution by encouraging business, labor, government, and citizen groups to cooperate and identify practical policies to protect the environment.
Environmental Working GroupEWG is a leading content provider for public interest groups and concerned citizens who are campaigning to protect the environment.
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)FAIR is the national media watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship. We seek to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press. We scrutinize media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.
Families USADedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans.
Federation of American ScientistsConducts analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy, including nuclear weapons, arms sales, biological hazards, secrecy, and space policy. Board of Sponsors includes half of America's living Nobel Laureates.
Fellowship of ReconciliationFOR is a national, interfaith organization that seeks to replace violence, war, racism and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace and justice.
Feminist Majority FoundationMission is to create innovative, cutting-edge research, educational programs, and strategies to further women's equality and empowerment, to reduce violence toward women, to increase the health and economic well-being of women, and to eliminate discrimination of all kinds.
Food First!The Institute for Food and Development Policy better known as Food First--is a member-supported, nonprofit 'peoples' think tank and education-for-action center. Our work highlights root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty around the world, with a commitment to establishing food as a fundamental human right.
Foundation For Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)Big Business has an endless amount of money and thousands of lobbyists working everyday to protect and increase their profits - no matter who it hurts. We get in their way and work to protect and improve the lives of American consumers and taxpayers.
Free PressFree Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media and involve the public in media policymaking. Through education, organizing, and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal, affordable access to communications.
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) The Friends Committee on National Legislation is the largest peace lobby in Washington, DC. Founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), FCNL staff and volunteers work with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people to advocate social and economic justice, peace, and good government.
Friends of the EarthAdvocacy organization dedicated to protecting the planet from environmental degradation; preserving biological, cultural, and ethnic diversity; and the empowering of citizens.
Fund for Constitutional GovernmentThe Fund for Constitutional Government is a publicly supported, charitable, nonprofit corporation established in 1974 to expose and correct corruption in the federal government and other major national institutions through research and public education.
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against DefamationGLAAD is a national organization dedicated to promoting fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in the media as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
Global ExchangeGlobal Exchange is a non-profit research, education, and action center dedicated to promoting people-to-people ties around the world. 'Since our founding in 1988, we have been striving to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world.'
Global Green USAGlobal Green USA works in cooperation with individuals, industry, and government to foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future. Acting as a catalyst, facilitator, and mediator, Global Green USA encourages collaborative approaches and crosscutting solutions to environmental challenges.
Government Accountability ProjectBrave whistleblowers are often targeted for harassment, intimidation, demotion, and dismissal. In 1977, the non-profit Government Accountability Project was created to help these employees, who, through their individual acts of conscience, protect each and everyone of us.
GreenpeaceIndependent campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Handgun Control, Inc.A non-profit, non-partisan organization with over 380,000 active members, HCI is dedicated to the passage of sensible gun laws. Recognized as the premier gun violence prevention lobby in the nation.
Human Rights CampaignThe largest national lesbian and gay political organization, envisions an America where lesbian and gay people are ensured of their basic equal rights -- and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Human Rights WatchNew York-based organization that monitors human rights in over seventy countries worldwide. Keep up-to-date with world events and learn about human rights around the globe.
Humane Society of the United StatesThe Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) envisions a world in which people satisfy the physical and emotional needs of domestic animals; protect wild animals and their environments; and change their relationships with other animals, evolving from exploitation and harm to respect and compassion.
Human Rights FirstWorking to protect and promote human rights and hold all governments accountable to the standards affirmed in the Intl Bill of Human Rights. Its programs focus on building the legal institutions and structures that will guarantee human rights in the long term.
Hunger ProjectCommitted to creating a future that rejects the inevitability of hunger and recognizes the limitations of a consumeristic society.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade PolicyThe Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's mission is to create environmentally and economically sustainable rural communities and regions through sound agriculture and trade policy. We assist public interest organizations in coalition building and influencing both domestic and international policymaking through monitoring, analysis and research, education and outreach, and information systems management.
Institute for Local Self-RelianceNonprofit research and educational organization that provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic development strategies.
Institute for Policy StudiesAt a time when other think tanks celebrate the virtues of unrestrained greed, unlimited wealth, and unregulated markets, IPS is striving to create a more responsible society - one built around the values of justice, nonviolence, sustainability, and decency. IPS, as I.F. Stone once said, is an Institute for the rest of us.
Institute for Public AccuracyA nationwide consortium, IPA represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
Interfaith AllianceTIA's members have come together for the purpose of standing up to the Christian Coalition and other radical right wing groups and individuals who wrap themselves in the language and symbolism of religious faith.
International Center for Technology AssessmentThe International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) is a non-profit, bi-partisan organization committed to providing the public with full assessments and analyses of technological impacts on society. CTA is devoted to fully exploring the economic, ethical, social, environmental and political impacts that can result from the applications of technology or technological systems.
International Relations CenterIRC is a policy studies institute in Silver City, New Mexico. Through our three primary programs/projects we promote our mission of " working to make the U.S. a more responsible member of the global community by promoting progressive strategic dialogues that lead to new citizen-based agendas."
Jobs with JusticeA national campaign for workers’ rights. Working through coalitions of labor, community, religious and constituency organizations, Jobs with Justice is fighting for workers’ rights and economic justice.
Jubilee 2000/USABiblical tradition calls for a Jubilee year, when slaves are set free and debts cancelled. Jubilee 2000/USA is part of the worldwide movement to cancel the crushing international debt of impoverished countries.
Justice at Stake Campaign Justice at Stake Campaign partners educate the public and work for reforms to keep politics and special interests out of the courtroom. JAS is currently funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Joyce Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Public Welfare Foundation.
Justice For AllThrough private citizen and corporate membership, Justice For All will peacefully exert the social and legislative influence necessary to effect positive change in the criminal justice system.
Latin America Working GroupLAWG is a coalition of over sixty religious, human rights, policy, grassroots and development organizations. Striving for U.S. policies that promote peace, justice and sustainable development in the region.
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under LawThe Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination and obtain equal opportunity for minorities by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity.
League of Conservation VotersThe political voice for over 9 million members of environmental groups, LCV works full-time to educate citizens about the environmental voting records of Members of Congress.
Libraries for the FutureA national organization dedicated to information equity, literacy and the preservation and renewal of libraries as essential tools for a democratic society.
MADRESince 1983, MADRE has worked in partnership with community-based organizations in conflict areas worldwide to address issues of women's health, economic development, and other human rights. MADRE provides resources and training for its sister organizations and works to empower people in the US to demand changes to unjust policies.
Media AllianceMedia Alliance is a 22-year-old nonprofit training and resource center for media workers, community organizations, and political activists. Their mission is excellence, ethics, diversity, and accountability in all aspects of the media in the interests of peace, justice, and social responsibility.
Media Matters Media Matters for America is a Web-based progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
Military Toxics ProjectThe Military Toxics Project (MTP) is a national non-profit network of neighborhood, veterans', Indigenous, peace, environmental, and other organizations representing people affected by military contamination and pollution. We work with community leaders to help them act and speak for themselves.
MindFreedom InternationalMindFreedom International unites 100 grassroots groups and thousands of members to win campaigns for human rights of people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities.
Mobilization for Global JusticeLeading the charge against the IMF and the World Bank.
MoveOn.orgMoveOn is an online activist network for grassroots involvement helping busy but concerned citizens to find their political voice.
National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)NARAL fights to protect our very basic and necessary right to choose - meaning having access to safe and legal abortion, effective contraceptive options, and quality reproductive health care.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)NAACP is the the oldest, largest and strongest Civil Rights Organization in the US. Works to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States.
National Breast Cancer CoalitionThe National Breast Cancer Coalition is a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer. NBCC was formed in 1991 with one mission: to eradicate breast cancer through action and advocacy.
National Campaign to Restore Civil RightsThis progressive, nonpartisan campaign connects people and groups deeply concerned about the destruction of our nation's civil rights in the federal courts.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty NCADP provides information, advocates for public policy, and mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of capital punishment.
National Committee for an Effective CongressNCEC is a full-service progressive political action committee which supports progressive House and Senate candidates.
National Environmental TrustNET is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the American public on contemporary environmental issues.
National Gay and Lesbian Task ForceNGLTF is the leading progressive civil rights organization that has supported grassroots organizing and advocacy to strengthen the gay and lesbian movement at the state and local level while connecting these activities to a national vision of change.
National Labor CommitteeThe NLC investigates and exposes human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world and pressing for international legal frameworks with effective enforcement mechanisms.
National Lawyers GuildThe National Lawyers Guild is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be more sacred than property interests.
National Organization for Women (NOW)NOW is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
National Parks Conservation AssociationNPCA is a non-profit, private organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System.
National Priorities ProjectThe National Priorities Project (NPP) offers citizen and community groups tools and resources to shape federal budget and policy priorities which promote social and economic justice. Since 1983, the National Priorities Project (NPP) has been the only group in the country that focuses on the impacts of federal tax and spending policies at the community level.
National Security Archive The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. that collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Native Forest CouncilUtilizes ethical, moral, religious, and eco-economic arguments to protect, preserve and recover our nation's national forests and watersheds, and end corporate welfare destructive to the public health and well being.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)NRDC uses law, science, and the support of more than 400,000 members nationwide to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
Nuclear Information and Resource ServiceNIRS is the information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues.
Office of the AmericasThe Office of the Americas is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of justice and peace in the hemisphere through broad-based educational programs.
Organic Consumers AssociationThe OCA is a grassroots non-profit public interest organization which deals with issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, corporate accountability, and environmental sustainability.
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and GaysPFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights.
Peace ActionThrough national and grassroots citizen action Peace Action works to redirect federal spending from military to human needs, abolish nuclear weapons, end the international arms trade and foster the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Peace Brigades PBUS is a regional office of Peace Brigades International, which promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts by accompanying human rights defenders, their organizations, and others threatened by political violence in creating a space for local activists to work for social justice and human rights.
Peaceful TomorrowsPeaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world.
The Policy Action Network / Moving IdeasAn online consortium of progressive research and advocacy organizations, PAN works for a more inclusive and intellible debate about the policy issues that shape our world.
People for the American WayWashington, DC-based legal/lobbying operation which focuses on constitutional issues such as opposing school vouchers & censorship. Maintains library on the activities of the religious right. Closely tied to Clinton administration.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, with more than one million members, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.
Pesticides Action Network North AmericaPANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) has campaigned to replace pesticides with ecologically sound alternatives since 1982
Physicians Committee for Responsible MedicineFounded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization supported by over 5,000 physicians and 100,000 laypeople. PCRM promotes preventive medicine through innovative programs, encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research, and advocates broader access to medical services.
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is the advocacy organization for a single payer national health program in the US. It includes over 10,000 physician-members and has chapters and/or spokespeople in all 50 states. PNHP provides speakers, testimony, research, an activist-alert network, and leadership to catalyze and mobilize the public to demand that health care become a right in the US. The group's web site is www.pnhp.org, and they welcome help in distributing their press releases to the media.
Physicians for Social ResponsibilityWorking to create a world free of nuclear weapons, global environmental pollution, and gun violence. The active conscience of American medicine, PSR uses its members' expertise and professional leadership, influence within the medical community and strong links to policy makers to address this century's greatest threats to human welfare and survival.
Planned ParenthoodPP believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual's income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence.
Political Research Associates / Public EyePolitical Research Associates is an independent, not-for-profit research center which monitors and analyzes those organizations, leaders, ideas, and activities of the US political right that undermine democracy and diversity.
Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD)We are twelve activists who have spent the last several years researching corporate, labor and legal histories, rethinking our past organizing strategies and talking with people about democracy movements. We work in the tradition of people's struggles to replace illegitimate and tyrannical institutions with democratic ones that disperse, rather than concentrate, wealth and power.
Progressive MajorityProgressive Majority has a clear and bold purpose: To elect progressive champions who will help change the direction of this country. We will do this by building a nationwide member network that will provide much-needed early support to progressive candidates — helping them win election and bringing our values back in to the halls of government.
ProgressNow Action The best news coverage, the most clever ads aren’t enough to change public opinion. Change has to be made one person at a time, community by community, all across the state and the country. ProgressNow Action gives you the tools you need make this change happen.
Project on Government Oversight (POGO)The Project On Government Oversight is a non-partisan non-profit government watchdog. Our mission is to investigate, expose, and remedy abuses of power, mismanagement, and government subservience to special interests by the federal government.
Public CampaignPublic Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of special interest money in America's elections and the influence of big contributors in American politics. Public Campaign will lay the foundation for reform by working with various organizations, particularly citizen groups around the country that are fighting for change in their states.
Public CitizenFounded by Ralph Nader, Public Citizen is the consumer's eyes and ears in Washington. With more than 150,000 members, PC fights for safer drugs and medical devices, cleaner and safer energy sources, a cleaner environment, fair trade, and a more open and democratic government.
Public Interest Research GroupsFounded by Ralph Nader, the state PIRGs are leading environmental and consumer watchdog organizations serving to preserve the environment, protect consumers and promote democracy.
Rainforest Action NetworkRAN works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
Redefining Progress Redefining Progress seeks to shift the prevailing definition of progress, from one based exclusively on a growing economy, to one that resonates with people's sense of the quality of their lives.
Rock the VoteRock the Vote is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and to helping young people realize and utilize their power to affect change in the civic and political lives of their communities.
School of the Americas WatchInformation and links regarding the US Army School of the Americas, a facility accused of training Latin American officials guilty of human rights abuses. It is operated by the SOA Watch, a group dedicated to closing the School.
Sierra Club550,000 member-supported public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions: legislative, administrative, legal, and electoral.
Silicon Valley Toxics CampaignSilicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) is a diverse grassroots nonprofit organization consisting of environmental and neighborhood groups, labor unions, public health leaders, people affected by toxic exposure and others.
Southern Poverty Law CenterCombats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Over 400,000 contibuting members.
Stop Global WarmingStopGlobalWarming.org is a response by citizens to address the most urgent issue of our generation, reducing global warming and with it, the protection of our planet and the survival of our species as we know it.
Taxpayers for Common SenseFighting the politicians from both parties who continue to fund pork-barrel projects, hand out unfair subsidies and tax breaks and make back room deals with lobbyists.
Union of Concerned ScientistsUCS is an independent nonprofit alliance of 70,000 committed citizens and leading scientists across the country. UCS augments rigorous scientific research with public education and citizen advocacy to help build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.
United for a Fair EconomyUnited for a Fair Economy puts a spotlight on the dangers of excessive inequality of income and wealth in the United States -- and brings people together to take action to close this economic divide.
United for Peace and JusticeUnited for Peace and Justice is a coalition of more than 1300 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to oppose the US government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.
Veterans for PeaceHaving served his or her nation in the military -- many in times of war and at great sacrifice -- a Veteran for Peace accepts the responsibilities to serve the cause of peace on all levels, from the neighborhood to the world.
Violence Policy CenterVPV works to reduce gun death and injury in America by approaching firearms violence as a public health issue and illustrating the need to hold firearms to the same health and safety standards we hold all other consumer products.
Water AdvocatesWater Advocates is a US-based nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing American support for worldwide access to safe, affordable, and sustainable drinking water and adequate sanitation.
Wellstone Action!Wellstone Action is a non-profit organization dedicated to continuing Paul and Sheila Wellstone's fight for progressive change and economic justice.
Wilderness SocietyNon-profit membership organization devoted to preserving wilderness and wildlife, protecting America's prime forests, parks, rivers, deserts and shorelands, and fostering an American land ethic.
Win Without WarWin Without War is a coalition of national organizations representing broad constituencies that aim to Keep America Safe by advocating that international cooperation and enforceable international law provide the greatest security for the United States and the world.
Women's Action for New DirectionsOur mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce militarism and violence and to redirect excessive military spending to human and environmental needs.
Women's International League for Peace and FreedomWILPF works to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all.
Women Leaders OnlineWomen Leaders Online is building a network of one million women and sympathetic men to empower women in politics, society, the economy, the media, and cyberspace. We publish regular Alerts with actions you can take to make a difference on critical issues affecting women.
Worldwatch InstitutePublic policy research organization dedicated to informing policymakers and the public about emerging global problems and trends and the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems.
World Wildlife FundWWF directs its conservation efforts toward three global goals: protecting endangered spaces, saving endangered species, and addressing global threats. Over 1 million US members.
20/20 Vision20/20 Vision makes it easy for busy people to act for peace and the environment.
21st Century DemocratsFormerly Democrats 2000, 21st Century Democrats was founded by progressive Democratic officials to give progressive and populist candidates the support they need to win elections.
Abolition 2000You can play a part in ending nuclear testing.
Acterra / Action for a Sustainable EarthActerra was formed in 2000 by the merger of Bay Area Action (BAA) and the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation (PCCF) to protect and restore the Bay Area's local natural environment through stewardship, education, and leadership.
Action Against HungerAction Against Hunger administers emergency relief in emergency situations of war, conflict, and natural disaster, later reinforced by longer term programs that enable children, women, and men to regain their autonomy and the means to live independent of external aid.
AFL-CIOThe AFL-CIO works to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation by organizing workers into unions, building a strong political voice for workers in a changing economy, and encouraging our labor movement to create a strong voice for workers in our communities.
Alliance For DemocracyAFD's mission is to free all people from corporate domination of politics, economics, the environment, culture and information; to establish true democracy; and to create a just society with a sustainable, equitable economy.
American Civil Liberties UnionThe ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT)There's no place like home; and we mean real homes, not nursing homes. We are fighting so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions.
American ForestsNation's oldest nonprofit citizen conservation organization, founded in 1875. AF's vigorous advocacy helped create the conservation movement and the National Park and National Forest systems in the U.S.
American Friends Service CommitteeThe AFSC is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service.
American RiversNorth America's leading national river-conservation organization.
Americans For Democratic ActionADA is the nation's oldest independent liberal political organization, dedicated to individual liberty and building economic and social justice at home and abroad.
Americans United for Separation of Church and StateChurch-state separation stands as one of the foundations of our Nation. Because of it, Americans enjoy unparalleled religious liberty and nurture one of the most vital religious communities in the world.
Amnesty InternationalAI is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards.
Animal Welfare Institute The Animal Welfare Institute has been working for over 40 years to prevent needless suffering of animals.
Association of Community Organizations for Reform NowACORN is striving to organize the poor and powerless into a strong political presence.
Basel Action NetworkBAN works in opposition to toxic trade in toxic wastes, toxic products and toxic technologies, that are exported from rich to poorer countries and to ensure national self-sufficiency in waste management through clean production and toxics use reductions.
Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence / Brady CampaignThe Brady Campaign's national initiatives include prevention programs for parents and youth on the risks associated with guns; legal representation for gun violence victims, and outreach to the entertainment community to encourage the deglamorization of guns in the media.
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Bread for the WorldA Christian movement that seeks justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying decision makers in the United States.
Brennan Center for Justice The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law unites thinkers and advocates in pursuit of a vision of inclusive and effective democracy by way of developing and implementing an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity while safeguarding fundamental freedoms.
Business for Social ResponsibilityBSR is a US-based global resource for companies seeking to sustain their commercial success in ways that demonstrate respect for ethical values, people, communities and the environment.
Campaign for America's FutureChallenging the big money corporate agenda by encouraging Americans to speak up - to discuss and debate a new vision of an economy and a future that works for all of us.
Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) CIVIC seeks to mitigate the impact of war and its aftermath by ensuring that timely and effective assistance is provided to unintended victims of conflict and to see that such assistance be a permanent part of the U.S. and other governments’ approach to armed conflict.
Campaign to Defend the Constitution Defcon is an online grassroots movement combating the growing power of the religious right and opposes efforts to control and distort religion, education, science and culture in ways that ultimately threaten the health and well-being of American society.
Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered FoodThe Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Food is a national grassroots consumer campaign designed to lobby Congress and the President to pass legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United States.
Center for Auto SafetyConsumers Union and Ralph Nader founded the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) in 1970 to provide consumers a voice for auto safety and quality in Washington and to help lemon owners fight back across the country. CAS has a small budget but a big impact on the auto industry.
Center for Community ChangeCCC helps poor people to improve their communities and change policies and institutions that affect their lives by developing their own strong organizations.
Center for Corporate Policy The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable.
Center for Defense InformationFounded in 1972 as an independent monitor of the military, the Center for Defense Information is a private, nongovernmental, research organization that believes strong social, economic, political, and military components and a healthy environment contribute equally to the nation's security. CDI seeks realistic and cost effective military spending without excess expenditures for weapons and policies that increase the danger of war.
Center for Democracy and TechnologyCDT works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age.
Center for Economic and Policy ResearchThe Center for Economic and Policy Research was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives. CEPR works to ensure that the citizenry has the information and analysis that allows it to act effectively in the public interest.
Center for Health, Environment and JusticeCHEJ believes in environmental justice, the principle that people have the right to a clean and healthy environment regardless of their race or economic standing. Our experience has shown that the most effective way to win environmental justice is from the bottom up through community organizing and empowerment.
Center for International PolicyThe Center for International Policy promotes a U.S. foreign policy based on peace, international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for basic human rights.
Center for Justice and Democracy The Center for Justice & Democracy works to educate the public about the importance of the civil justice system and the dangers of so-called "tort reforms" and fights to protect the right to trial by jury and an independent judiciary for all Americans.
Center for Media and DemocracyPublishers of PR Watch, a quarterly investigative journal, the Center for Media and Democracy promotes media that are "of, by and for the people." Other projects include Spin of the Day, offering daily reporting on spin and propaganda in the news; and SourceWatch, a wiki-based investigative journalism resource.
Center for Public IntegrityExposing the powerful economic interests that have captured our Congress and our politics.
Center for Responsive Politics / OpenSecrets.orgTracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. Search their database to see who's paying off who.
Center for Science in the Public InterestCSPI is a nonprofit education and advocacy organization that focuses on improving the safety and nutritional quality of our food supply.
Center for Third World OrganizingBuilding a social justice movement led by people of color.
Center on Budget & Policy PrioritiesCBPP is a nonpartisan research organization and policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of government policies and programs, with an emphasis on those affecting low- and moderate-income people.
The Century FoundationThe Century Foundation is a nonprofit public policy research institution which produces publications and convenes events that (1) explain and analyze public issues in plain language, (2) provide facts and opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of different policy strategies, and (3) develop and call attention to distinctive ideas that can work.
Children's Defense FundAmerica's Strongest Voice for Children.
Citizens Coal CouncilLet's clean up the coalfields! CCC has begun a 5-year effort to improve the economy and quality of life in communities where coal is mined. This campaign for jobs and justice in the coalfields aims to put unemployed people to work cleaning up old, abandoned mines.
Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting (CIPB)Nonprofit education/advocacy group being established to promote a restructuring of U.S. public broadcasting as an independently-funded public trust, free from corporate and political influence. The goal is to revitalize public broadcasting and resist commercialization.
Citizens for Tax JusticeCTJ's mission is to give ordinary people a greater voice in the development of tax laws and stand against the armies of special interest lobbyists for corporations and the wealthy.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)CREW assists Americans in using litigation to expose government officials who betray public trust and sacrifice the common good for special interests.
Clean Water ActionNational citizens' organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work.
Commercial AlertCommercial Alert helps families, parents, schools and communities defend themselves against harmful, immoral or intrusive advertising and marketing, and the excesses of commercialism.
Common CauseRepresenting the unified voice of the people against corruption in government and big money special interests.
Common DreamsNational citizens' organization working to bring together progressive Americans to promote progressive visions for America's future. Publishers of Common Dreams NewsCenter / Newswire.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility CPSR is a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. We work to influence decisions regarding the development and use of computers because those decisions have far-reaching consequences and reflect our basic values and priorities.
Consumer Federation of America The size and diversity of its membership -- more than 260 organizations from throughout the nation with a combined membership exceeding 50 million people -- enables CFA to speak for virtually all consumers.
Consumer Project on Technology The Consumer Project on Technology was started by Ralph Nader in 1995. Currently CPT is focusing on intellectual property rights and health care, electronic commerce and competition policy.
Consumers Union Publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers. A comprehensive source for unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health and nutrition, and other consumer concerns.
Co-op AmericaProviding the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to address today's social and environmental problems.
Corporate Accountability International CAI (formerly INFACT) spearheads campaigns that challenge irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world.
Corporate WatchCommitted to exposing corporate greed by documenting the social, political, economic and environmental impacts of transnational giants.
Council for a Livable WorldFounded by eminent nuclear physicist Leo Szilard, the Council has advocated for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction since 1962. provides senators with technical and scientific information that helps them make intelligent decisions about nuclear arms control, strategic and conventional weapons, the military budget, and United Nations peacekeeping.
Council for Responsible GeneticsThe Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG), founded in 1983, is a national nonprofit organization of scientists, environmentalists, public health advocates, physicians, lawyers and other concerned citizens. CRG encourages informed public debate about the social, ethical, and environmental implications of new genetic technologies, and advocates for socially responsible use of these technologies.
Critical Mass Energy ProjectA project of Public Citizen created by Ralph Nader to promote energy conservation and track government activities related to such issues as nuclear power, radioactive waste, renewable energy and fuel efficiency.
Dads & DaughtersNational, nonprofit membership organization of fathers with daughters. DADs provides tools to strengthen our relationships with our daughters and transform the pervasive messages that value our daughters more for how they look than who they are.
Death Penalty Information CenterServing the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.
Defenders of WildlifeDedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
Demos! Demos is a new non-profit organization focusing on two of the most urgent challenges facing the United States in the 21st century: strengthening our democracy and creating more broadly shared prosperity. Demos conducts original research and builds networks of civic and economic reformers around the United States to help turn ideas into action.
Doctors Without BordersDWB/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) delivers medical relief to populations in danger due to war, civil strife, epidemics or natural disasters.
Drug Policy AllianceThe Lindesmith Center and Drug Policy Foundation merged with the objective of building a national drug policy reform movement, and has changed its name to Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs and promote new drug policies based on common sense, science, public health and human rights.
Earth Charter USAThe Earth Charter USA Campaign is made up of people from all walks of life who embrace the values in the Earth Charter and who seek to make these values a blueprint for a sustainable way of life in this country. These efforts of involved and committed individuals will popularize and build support for the Earth Charter as a guide towards a sustainable future. Ultimately, a 'people's movement' will spring up around the Charter which will provide enough political support for endorsement of the Earth Charter by the United Nations in 2002.
Earth Island InstituteFounded by environmentalist David Brower, EII fosters the efforts of creative individuals by providing organizational support in developing projects for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the global environment.
EarthjusticeEarthjustice Legal Defense Fund, formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, is the non-profit law firm for the environment. For more than a quarter century, the Legal Defense Fund has represented hundreds of environmental clients, large and small, without charge.
Earth Policy InstituteThe purpose of the Earth Policy Institute is to provide a vision of what an environmentally sustainable economy will look like, a roadmap of how to get from here to there, and an ongoing assessment of this effort calling attention to where progress is being made and where it is not.
East Timor Action NetworkETAN/US advocates changing US foreign policy and urges support for self-determination and human rights for East Timor.
Economic Policy InstituteEPI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy.
Educators for Social ResponsibilityHelping young people develop the skills and convictions needed to shape a safe, sustainable, and just world.
Electronic Frontier FoundationWorking to ensure that the principles embodied in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights) are protected as new communications technologies emerge.
Electronic Privacy Information CenterEPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government.
Emily's List'Early Money is Like Yeast' (it makes the dough rise), EMILY's List identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and statewide offices.
Environmental Defense FundWorking to stop environmental pollution by encouraging business, labor, government, and citizen groups to cooperate and identify practical policies to protect the environment.
Environmental Working GroupEWG is a leading content provider for public interest groups and concerned citizens who are campaigning to protect the environment.
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)FAIR is the national media watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship. We seek to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press. We scrutinize media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.
Families USADedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans.
Federation of American ScientistsConducts analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy, including nuclear weapons, arms sales, biological hazards, secrecy, and space policy. Board of Sponsors includes half of America's living Nobel Laureates.
Fellowship of ReconciliationFOR is a national, interfaith organization that seeks to replace violence, war, racism and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace and justice.
Feminist Majority FoundationMission is to create innovative, cutting-edge research, educational programs, and strategies to further women's equality and empowerment, to reduce violence toward women, to increase the health and economic well-being of women, and to eliminate discrimination of all kinds.
Food First!The Institute for Food and Development Policy better known as Food First--is a member-supported, nonprofit 'peoples' think tank and education-for-action center. Our work highlights root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty around the world, with a commitment to establishing food as a fundamental human right.
Foundation For Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)Big Business has an endless amount of money and thousands of lobbyists working everyday to protect and increase their profits - no matter who it hurts. We get in their way and work to protect and improve the lives of American consumers and taxpayers.
Free PressFree Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media and involve the public in media policymaking. Through education, organizing, and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal, affordable access to communications.
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) The Friends Committee on National Legislation is the largest peace lobby in Washington, DC. Founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), FCNL staff and volunteers work with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people to advocate social and economic justice, peace, and good government.
Friends of the EarthAdvocacy organization dedicated to protecting the planet from environmental degradation; preserving biological, cultural, and ethnic diversity; and the empowering of citizens.
Fund for Constitutional GovernmentThe Fund for Constitutional Government is a publicly supported, charitable, nonprofit corporation established in 1974 to expose and correct corruption in the federal government and other major national institutions through research and public education.
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against DefamationGLAAD is a national organization dedicated to promoting fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in the media as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
Global ExchangeGlobal Exchange is a non-profit research, education, and action center dedicated to promoting people-to-people ties around the world. 'Since our founding in 1988, we have been striving to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world.'
Global Green USAGlobal Green USA works in cooperation with individuals, industry, and government to foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future. Acting as a catalyst, facilitator, and mediator, Global Green USA encourages collaborative approaches and crosscutting solutions to environmental challenges.
Government Accountability ProjectBrave whistleblowers are often targeted for harassment, intimidation, demotion, and dismissal. In 1977, the non-profit Government Accountability Project was created to help these employees, who, through their individual acts of conscience, protect each and everyone of us.
GreenpeaceIndependent campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Handgun Control, Inc.A non-profit, non-partisan organization with over 380,000 active members, HCI is dedicated to the passage of sensible gun laws. Recognized as the premier gun violence prevention lobby in the nation.
Human Rights CampaignThe largest national lesbian and gay political organization, envisions an America where lesbian and gay people are ensured of their basic equal rights -- and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Human Rights WatchNew York-based organization that monitors human rights in over seventy countries worldwide. Keep up-to-date with world events and learn about human rights around the globe.
Humane Society of the United StatesThe Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) envisions a world in which people satisfy the physical and emotional needs of domestic animals; protect wild animals and their environments; and change their relationships with other animals, evolving from exploitation and harm to respect and compassion.
Human Rights FirstWorking to protect and promote human rights and hold all governments accountable to the standards affirmed in the Intl Bill of Human Rights. Its programs focus on building the legal institutions and structures that will guarantee human rights in the long term.
Hunger ProjectCommitted to creating a future that rejects the inevitability of hunger and recognizes the limitations of a consumeristic society.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade PolicyThe Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's mission is to create environmentally and economically sustainable rural communities and regions through sound agriculture and trade policy. We assist public interest organizations in coalition building and influencing both domestic and international policymaking through monitoring, analysis and research, education and outreach, and information systems management.
Institute for Local Self-RelianceNonprofit research and educational organization that provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic development strategies.
Institute for Policy StudiesAt a time when other think tanks celebrate the virtues of unrestrained greed, unlimited wealth, and unregulated markets, IPS is striving to create a more responsible society - one built around the values of justice, nonviolence, sustainability, and decency. IPS, as I.F. Stone once said, is an Institute for the rest of us.
Institute for Public AccuracyA nationwide consortium, IPA represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
Interfaith AllianceTIA's members have come together for the purpose of standing up to the Christian Coalition and other radical right wing groups and individuals who wrap themselves in the language and symbolism of religious faith.
International Center for Technology AssessmentThe International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) is a non-profit, bi-partisan organization committed to providing the public with full assessments and analyses of technological impacts on society. CTA is devoted to fully exploring the economic, ethical, social, environmental and political impacts that can result from the applications of technology or technological systems.
International Relations CenterIRC is a policy studies institute in Silver City, New Mexico. Through our three primary programs/projects we promote our mission of " working to make the U.S. a more responsible member of the global community by promoting progressive strategic dialogues that lead to new citizen-based agendas."
Jobs with JusticeA national campaign for workers’ rights. Working through coalitions of labor, community, religious and constituency organizations, Jobs with Justice is fighting for workers’ rights and economic justice.
Jubilee 2000/USABiblical tradition calls for a Jubilee year, when slaves are set free and debts cancelled. Jubilee 2000/USA is part of the worldwide movement to cancel the crushing international debt of impoverished countries.
Justice at Stake Campaign Justice at Stake Campaign partners educate the public and work for reforms to keep politics and special interests out of the courtroom. JAS is currently funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Joyce Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Public Welfare Foundation.
Justice For AllThrough private citizen and corporate membership, Justice For All will peacefully exert the social and legislative influence necessary to effect positive change in the criminal justice system.
Latin America Working GroupLAWG is a coalition of over sixty religious, human rights, policy, grassroots and development organizations. Striving for U.S. policies that promote peace, justice and sustainable development in the region.
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under LawThe Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination and obtain equal opportunity for minorities by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity.
League of Conservation VotersThe political voice for over 9 million members of environmental groups, LCV works full-time to educate citizens about the environmental voting records of Members of Congress.
Libraries for the FutureA national organization dedicated to information equity, literacy and the preservation and renewal of libraries as essential tools for a democratic society.
MADRESince 1983, MADRE has worked in partnership with community-based organizations in conflict areas worldwide to address issues of women's health, economic development, and other human rights. MADRE provides resources and training for its sister organizations and works to empower people in the US to demand changes to unjust policies.
Media AllianceMedia Alliance is a 22-year-old nonprofit training and resource center for media workers, community organizations, and political activists. Their mission is excellence, ethics, diversity, and accountability in all aspects of the media in the interests of peace, justice, and social responsibility.
Media Matters Media Matters for America is a Web-based progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
Military Toxics ProjectThe Military Toxics Project (MTP) is a national non-profit network of neighborhood, veterans', Indigenous, peace, environmental, and other organizations representing people affected by military contamination and pollution. We work with community leaders to help them act and speak for themselves.
MindFreedom InternationalMindFreedom International unites 100 grassroots groups and thousands of members to win campaigns for human rights of people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities.
Mobilization for Global JusticeLeading the charge against the IMF and the World Bank.
MoveOn.orgMoveOn is an online activist network for grassroots involvement helping busy but concerned citizens to find their political voice.
National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)NARAL fights to protect our very basic and necessary right to choose - meaning having access to safe and legal abortion, effective contraceptive options, and quality reproductive health care.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)NAACP is the the oldest, largest and strongest Civil Rights Organization in the US. Works to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States.
National Breast Cancer CoalitionThe National Breast Cancer Coalition is a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer. NBCC was formed in 1991 with one mission: to eradicate breast cancer through action and advocacy.
National Campaign to Restore Civil RightsThis progressive, nonpartisan campaign connects people and groups deeply concerned about the destruction of our nation's civil rights in the federal courts.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty NCADP provides information, advocates for public policy, and mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of capital punishment.
National Committee for an Effective CongressNCEC is a full-service progressive political action committee which supports progressive House and Senate candidates.
National Environmental TrustNET is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the American public on contemporary environmental issues.
National Gay and Lesbian Task ForceNGLTF is the leading progressive civil rights organization that has supported grassroots organizing and advocacy to strengthen the gay and lesbian movement at the state and local level while connecting these activities to a national vision of change.
National Labor CommitteeThe NLC investigates and exposes human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world and pressing for international legal frameworks with effective enforcement mechanisms.
National Lawyers GuildThe National Lawyers Guild is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be more sacred than property interests.
National Organization for Women (NOW)NOW is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
National Parks Conservation AssociationNPCA is a non-profit, private organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System.
National Priorities ProjectThe National Priorities Project (NPP) offers citizen and community groups tools and resources to shape federal budget and policy priorities which promote social and economic justice. Since 1983, the National Priorities Project (NPP) has been the only group in the country that focuses on the impacts of federal tax and spending policies at the community level.
National Security Archive The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. that collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Native Forest CouncilUtilizes ethical, moral, religious, and eco-economic arguments to protect, preserve and recover our nation's national forests and watersheds, and end corporate welfare destructive to the public health and well being.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)NRDC uses law, science, and the support of more than 400,000 members nationwide to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
Nuclear Information and Resource ServiceNIRS is the information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues.
Office of the AmericasThe Office of the Americas is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of justice and peace in the hemisphere through broad-based educational programs.
Organic Consumers AssociationThe OCA is a grassroots non-profit public interest organization which deals with issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, corporate accountability, and environmental sustainability.
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and GaysPFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights.
Peace ActionThrough national and grassroots citizen action Peace Action works to redirect federal spending from military to human needs, abolish nuclear weapons, end the international arms trade and foster the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Peace Brigades PBUS is a regional office of Peace Brigades International, which promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts by accompanying human rights defenders, their organizations, and others threatened by political violence in creating a space for local activists to work for social justice and human rights.
Peaceful TomorrowsPeaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world.
The Policy Action Network / Moving IdeasAn online consortium of progressive research and advocacy organizations, PAN works for a more inclusive and intellible debate about the policy issues that shape our world.
People for the American WayWashington, DC-based legal/lobbying operation which focuses on constitutional issues such as opposing school vouchers & censorship. Maintains library on the activities of the religious right. Closely tied to Clinton administration.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, with more than one million members, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.
Pesticides Action Network North AmericaPANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) has campaigned to replace pesticides with ecologically sound alternatives since 1982
Physicians Committee for Responsible MedicineFounded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization supported by over 5,000 physicians and 100,000 laypeople. PCRM promotes preventive medicine through innovative programs, encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research, and advocates broader access to medical services.
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is the advocacy organization for a single payer national health program in the US. It includes over 10,000 physician-members and has chapters and/or spokespeople in all 50 states. PNHP provides speakers, testimony, research, an activist-alert network, and leadership to catalyze and mobilize the public to demand that health care become a right in the US. The group's web site is www.pnhp.org, and they welcome help in distributing their press releases to the media.
Physicians for Social ResponsibilityWorking to create a world free of nuclear weapons, global environmental pollution, and gun violence. The active conscience of American medicine, PSR uses its members' expertise and professional leadership, influence within the medical community and strong links to policy makers to address this century's greatest threats to human welfare and survival.
Planned ParenthoodPP believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual's income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence.
Political Research Associates / Public EyePolitical Research Associates is an independent, not-for-profit research center which monitors and analyzes those organizations, leaders, ideas, and activities of the US political right that undermine democracy and diversity.
Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD)We are twelve activists who have spent the last several years researching corporate, labor and legal histories, rethinking our past organizing strategies and talking with people about democracy movements. We work in the tradition of people's struggles to replace illegitimate and tyrannical institutions with democratic ones that disperse, rather than concentrate, wealth and power.
Progressive MajorityProgressive Majority has a clear and bold purpose: To elect progressive champions who will help change the direction of this country. We will do this by building a nationwide member network that will provide much-needed early support to progressive candidates — helping them win election and bringing our values back in to the halls of government.
ProgressNow Action The best news coverage, the most clever ads aren’t enough to change public opinion. Change has to be made one person at a time, community by community, all across the state and the country. ProgressNow Action gives you the tools you need make this change happen.
Project on Government Oversight (POGO)The Project On Government Oversight is a non-partisan non-profit government watchdog. Our mission is to investigate, expose, and remedy abuses of power, mismanagement, and government subservience to special interests by the federal government.
Public CampaignPublic Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of special interest money in America's elections and the influence of big contributors in American politics. Public Campaign will lay the foundation for reform by working with various organizations, particularly citizen groups around the country that are fighting for change in their states.
Public CitizenFounded by Ralph Nader, Public Citizen is the consumer's eyes and ears in Washington. With more than 150,000 members, PC fights for safer drugs and medical devices, cleaner and safer energy sources, a cleaner environment, fair trade, and a more open and democratic government.
Public Interest Research GroupsFounded by Ralph Nader, the state PIRGs are leading environmental and consumer watchdog organizations serving to preserve the environment, protect consumers and promote democracy.
Rainforest Action NetworkRAN works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
Redefining Progress Redefining Progress seeks to shift the prevailing definition of progress, from one based exclusively on a growing economy, to one that resonates with people's sense of the quality of their lives.
Rock the VoteRock the Vote is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and to helping young people realize and utilize their power to affect change in the civic and political lives of their communities.
School of the Americas WatchInformation and links regarding the US Army School of the Americas, a facility accused of training Latin American officials guilty of human rights abuses. It is operated by the SOA Watch, a group dedicated to closing the School.
Sierra Club550,000 member-supported public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions: legislative, administrative, legal, and electoral.
Silicon Valley Toxics CampaignSilicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) is a diverse grassroots nonprofit organization consisting of environmental and neighborhood groups, labor unions, public health leaders, people affected by toxic exposure and others.
Southern Poverty Law CenterCombats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Over 400,000 contibuting members.
Stop Global WarmingStopGlobalWarming.org is a response by citizens to address the most urgent issue of our generation, reducing global warming and with it, the protection of our planet and the survival of our species as we know it.
Taxpayers for Common SenseFighting the politicians from both parties who continue to fund pork-barrel projects, hand out unfair subsidies and tax breaks and make back room deals with lobbyists.
Union of Concerned ScientistsUCS is an independent nonprofit alliance of 70,000 committed citizens and leading scientists across the country. UCS augments rigorous scientific research with public education and citizen advocacy to help build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.
United for a Fair EconomyUnited for a Fair Economy puts a spotlight on the dangers of excessive inequality of income and wealth in the United States -- and brings people together to take action to close this economic divide.
United for Peace and JusticeUnited for Peace and Justice is a coalition of more than 1300 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to oppose the US government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.
Veterans for PeaceHaving served his or her nation in the military -- many in times of war and at great sacrifice -- a Veteran for Peace accepts the responsibilities to serve the cause of peace on all levels, from the neighborhood to the world.
Violence Policy CenterVPV works to reduce gun death and injury in America by approaching firearms violence as a public health issue and illustrating the need to hold firearms to the same health and safety standards we hold all other consumer products.
Water AdvocatesWater Advocates is a US-based nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing American support for worldwide access to safe, affordable, and sustainable drinking water and adequate sanitation.
Wellstone Action!Wellstone Action is a non-profit organization dedicated to continuing Paul and Sheila Wellstone's fight for progressive change and economic justice.
Wilderness SocietyNon-profit membership organization devoted to preserving wilderness and wildlife, protecting America's prime forests, parks, rivers, deserts and shorelands, and fostering an American land ethic.
Win Without WarWin Without War is a coalition of national organizations representing broad constituencies that aim to Keep America Safe by advocating that international cooperation and enforceable international law provide the greatest security for the United States and the world.
Women's Action for New DirectionsOur mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce militarism and violence and to redirect excessive military spending to human and environmental needs.
Women's International League for Peace and FreedomWILPF works to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all.
Women Leaders OnlineWomen Leaders Online is building a network of one million women and sympathetic men to empower women in politics, society, the economy, the media, and cyberspace. We publish regular Alerts with actions you can take to make a difference on critical issues affecting women.
Worldwatch InstitutePublic policy research organization dedicated to informing policymakers and the public about emerging global problems and trends and the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems.
World Wildlife FundWWF directs its conservation efforts toward three global goals: protecting endangered spaces, saving endangered species, and addressing global threats. Over 1 million US members.
Find the Most Progressive Cities in the US & Canada
AProgressive LivingResource
The purpose of this resource is to help you to find local, geographical community in the most progressive cities in the US and Canada. If you're an American Progressive, then you are a member of a sizable (and growing) minority. (In the 2000 presidential election, about 3 million Americans voted for Ralph Nader. Substantially more might have voted for him had they been more confident he could win.)
Since human relationships are among the most important things in life, and since it greatly increases the quality of life to be able to share one's life with others who share one's values, we suggest that Progressives join communities where they can meet other Progressives. Moreover, there is political strength in numbers: a large number of Progressives in any given community free it up to make enormous strides. Progressive communities make it possible for Progressive politicians to gain experience. And supersuccessful progressive cities like Boulder, Colorado and Burlington, Vermont and Toronto, Canada make the case for Progressivism far more strikingly and conclusively than a thousand political discussions. (So far as we can tell, Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" didn't result in worldly bliss anywhere in Georgia, let alone the rest of the US.)
A while back, UTNE magazine created a list of the most progressive cities in each state or Canadian province. We're reproducing the bare essentials of that list here (we're amazed at how many of our links have died over the years). Our recommendation would be that Progressives interested in joining progressive communities consider moving to those cities. Note that for American states we've also indicated the percentage of the state that voted Green in the 2000 election, in order to provide a sense of how progressive the state as a whole is.
We've also added links to the city governments of those cities where government links are available.)
State/Province
UTNE Progressive City
% of votes in 2000
% Green %Democratic
Alabama Birmingham : 1/41.6
Alaska Homer : 10/27.7
Arizona Bisbee 3/44.7
Arkansas Fayetteville : 1/45.9
California Arcata : 4/53.5
Colorado Boulder : 5/42.4
Connecticut New Haven : 4/55.5
Delaware Newark : 3/55
Florida Tampa : 2 /48.8
Georgia Athens : .5/43
Hawaii Kamuela : 6/55.8
Idaho Boise : 2/27.6
Illinois Bloomington : 2/54.6
Indiana Bloomington : .8/41
Iowa Iowa City : 2/48.5
Kansas Lawrence : 3/37.2
Kentucky Berea : 2/41.4
Louisiana Lafayette : 1/44.9
Maine Portland : 6/49.1
Maryland Takoma Park : 3/56.6
Massachusetts Northampton : 6/59.8
Michigan Ann Arbor : 2/51.3
Minnesota Minneapolis/St. Paul : 5/47.9
Mississippi Oxford : .8/40.7
Missouri Columbia : 2/47.1
Montana Missoula : 6/33.4
Nebraska Lincoln : 4/33.3
Nevada Carson City: 2/46
New Hampshire Portsmouth : 4/46.8
New Jersey Trenton : 3/56.1
New Mexico Santa Fe : 4/47.9
New York Ithaca : 4/60.2
North Carolina Durham : */43.2
North Dakota Fargo : 3/33
Ohio Athens : 3/46.5
Oklahoma Norman : */38.4
Oregon Portland : 5/47
Pennsylvania Pittsburgh : 2/50.6
Rhode Island Providence : 6/61
South Carolina Charleston : 1/40.9
South Dakota Sioux Falls : */37.6
Tennessee Chattanooga : 1/47.3
Texas Austin : 2/38
Utah Salt Lake City : 5/26.3
Vermont Burlington : 7/50.6
Virginia Arlington : 2/44.4
Washington Seattle : 4/50.2
West Virginia Morgantown : 2/45.6
Wisconsin Madison : 4/47.8
Wyoming Laramie : 2/27.7
Alberta Canmore :
British Columbia Vancouver
Manitoba Winnipeg
New Brunswick Burnt Church
Newfoundland St. Johns
Nova Scotia Halifax
Ontario Toronto
Prince Edward Island Wellington
Quebec Montreal
Saskatchewan Regina
Logical initial physical contact points for Progressives in each of these cities would be local Unitarian churches (which often have singles groups), or state Green Party headquarters. Please note that we are also developing a resource for the creation of intentional communities. To find out more, follow this link. An intentional community may provide an even better fit for you than a progressive city — or maybe you'd like to start an intentional community in a progressive city?
And while we're making suggestions, why not start a Progressive charter school once you get to the Progressive city of your choice? Find out more here.
The EditorsProgressive Living
The purpose of this resource is to help you to find local, geographical community in the most progressive cities in the US and Canada. If you're an American Progressive, then you are a member of a sizable (and growing) minority. (In the 2000 presidential election, about 3 million Americans voted for Ralph Nader. Substantially more might have voted for him had they been more confident he could win.)
Since human relationships are among the most important things in life, and since it greatly increases the quality of life to be able to share one's life with others who share one's values, we suggest that Progressives join communities where they can meet other Progressives. Moreover, there is political strength in numbers: a large number of Progressives in any given community free it up to make enormous strides. Progressive communities make it possible for Progressive politicians to gain experience. And supersuccessful progressive cities like Boulder, Colorado and Burlington, Vermont and Toronto, Canada make the case for Progressivism far more strikingly and conclusively than a thousand political discussions. (So far as we can tell, Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" didn't result in worldly bliss anywhere in Georgia, let alone the rest of the US.)
A while back, UTNE magazine created a list of the most progressive cities in each state or Canadian province. We're reproducing the bare essentials of that list here (we're amazed at how many of our links have died over the years). Our recommendation would be that Progressives interested in joining progressive communities consider moving to those cities. Note that for American states we've also indicated the percentage of the state that voted Green in the 2000 election, in order to provide a sense of how progressive the state as a whole is.
We've also added links to the city governments of those cities where government links are available.)
State/Province
UTNE Progressive City
% of votes in 2000
% Green %Democratic
Alabama Birmingham : 1/41.6
Alaska Homer : 10/27.7
Arizona Bisbee 3/44.7
Arkansas Fayetteville : 1/45.9
California Arcata : 4/53.5
Colorado Boulder : 5/42.4
Connecticut New Haven : 4/55.5
Delaware Newark : 3/55
Florida Tampa : 2 /48.8
Georgia Athens : .5/43
Hawaii Kamuela : 6/55.8
Idaho Boise : 2/27.6
Illinois Bloomington : 2/54.6
Indiana Bloomington : .8/41
Iowa Iowa City : 2/48.5
Kansas Lawrence : 3/37.2
Kentucky Berea : 2/41.4
Louisiana Lafayette : 1/44.9
Maine Portland : 6/49.1
Maryland Takoma Park : 3/56.6
Massachusetts Northampton : 6/59.8
Michigan Ann Arbor : 2/51.3
Minnesota Minneapolis/St. Paul : 5/47.9
Mississippi Oxford : .8/40.7
Missouri Columbia : 2/47.1
Montana Missoula : 6/33.4
Nebraska Lincoln : 4/33.3
Nevada Carson City: 2/46
New Hampshire Portsmouth : 4/46.8
New Jersey Trenton : 3/56.1
New Mexico Santa Fe : 4/47.9
New York Ithaca : 4/60.2
North Carolina Durham : */43.2
North Dakota Fargo : 3/33
Ohio Athens : 3/46.5
Oklahoma Norman : */38.4
Oregon Portland : 5/47
Pennsylvania Pittsburgh : 2/50.6
Rhode Island Providence : 6/61
South Carolina Charleston : 1/40.9
South Dakota Sioux Falls : */37.6
Tennessee Chattanooga : 1/47.3
Texas Austin : 2/38
Utah Salt Lake City : 5/26.3
Vermont Burlington : 7/50.6
Virginia Arlington : 2/44.4
Washington Seattle : 4/50.2
West Virginia Morgantown : 2/45.6
Wisconsin Madison : 4/47.8
Wyoming Laramie : 2/27.7
Alberta Canmore :
British Columbia Vancouver
Manitoba Winnipeg
New Brunswick Burnt Church
Newfoundland St. Johns
Nova Scotia Halifax
Ontario Toronto
Prince Edward Island Wellington
Quebec Montreal
Saskatchewan Regina
Logical initial physical contact points for Progressives in each of these cities would be local Unitarian churches (which often have singles groups), or state Green Party headquarters. Please note that we are also developing a resource for the creation of intentional communities. To find out more, follow this link. An intentional community may provide an even better fit for you than a progressive city — or maybe you'd like to start an intentional community in a progressive city?
And while we're making suggestions, why not start a Progressive charter school once you get to the Progressive city of your choice? Find out more here.
The EditorsProgressive Living
mardi 16 octobre 2007
Charge of the Goddess
Traditional by Doreen Valiente, as adapted by Starhawk:
Listen to the words of the Great Mother,
Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names:
Whenever you have need of anything, once a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.
You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you be free you shall be naked in your rites.
Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My Presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth.
For My law is love is unto all beings.
Mine is the secret that opens the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is the cauldron of Cerridwen, that is the holy grail of immortality.
I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal, and beyond death I give peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone before.
Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured out upon the earth.
Hear the words of the Star Goddess, the dust of Whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircles the universe:
I Who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,
I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.
For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.
From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.
Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.
And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.
For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.
Listen to the words of the Great Mother,
Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names:
Whenever you have need of anything, once a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.
You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you be free you shall be naked in your rites.
Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My Presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth.
For My law is love is unto all beings.
Mine is the secret that opens the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is the cauldron of Cerridwen, that is the holy grail of immortality.
I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal, and beyond death I give peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone before.
Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured out upon the earth.
Hear the words of the Star Goddess, the dust of Whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircles the universe:
I Who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,
I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.
For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.
From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.
Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.
And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.
For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.
dimanche 14 octobre 2007
The Naked Face
homeblinkthe tipping pointthe new yorker archiveetc.blog
August 5, 2002ANNALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Can you read people's thoughtsjust by looking at them?
1.
Some years ago, John Yarbrough was working patrol for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. It was about two in the morning. He and his partner were in the Willowbrook section of South Central Los Angeles, and they pulled over a sports car. "Dark, nighttime, average stop," Yarbrough recalls. "Patrol for me was like going hunting. At that time of night in the area I was working, there was a lot of criminal activity, and hardly anyone had a driver's license. Almost everyone had something intoxicating in the car. We stopped drunk drivers all the time. You're hunting for guns or lots of dope, or suspects wanted for major things. You look at someone and you get an instinctive reaction. And the longer you've been working the stronger that instinctive reaction is."
Yarbrough was driving, and in a two-man patrol car the procedure is for the driver to make the approach and the officer on the passenger side to provide backup. He opened the door and stepped out onto the street, walking toward the vehicle with his weapon drawn. Suddenly, a man jumped out of the passenger side and pointed a gun directly at him. The two of them froze, separated by no more than a few yards. "There was a tree behind him, to his right," Yarbrough recalls. "He was about seventeen. He had the gun in his right hand. He was on the curb side. I was on the other side, facing him. It was just a matter of who was going to shoot first. I remember it clear as day. But for some reason I didn't shoot him." Yarbrough is an ex-marine with close-cropped graying hair and a small mustache, and he speaks in measured tones. "Is he a danger? Sure. He's standing there with a gun, and what person in his right mind does that facing a uniformed armed policeman? If you looked at it logically, I should have shot him. But logic had nothing to do with it. Something just didn't feel right. It was a gut reaction not to shoot-- a hunch that at that exact moment he was not an imminent threat to me." So Yarbrough stopped, and, sure enough, so did the kid. He pointed a gun at an armed policeman on a dark street in South Central L.A., and then backed down.
Yarbrough retired last year from the sheriff's department after almost thirty years, sixteen of which were in homicide. He now lives in western Arizona, in a small, immaculate house overlooking the Colorado River, with pictures of John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and Dale Earnhardt on the wall. He has a policeman's watchfulness: while he listens to you, his eyes alight on your face, and then they follow your hands, if you move them, and the areas to your immediate left and right-- and then back again, in a steady cycle. He grew up in an affluent household in the San Fernando Valley, the son of two doctors, and he is intensely analytical: he is the sort to take a problem and break it down, working it over slowly and patiently in his mind, and the incident in Willowbrook is one of those problems. Policemen shoot people who point guns directly at them at two in the morning. But something he saw held him back, something that ninety-nine people out of a hundred wouldn't have seen.
Many years later, Yarbrough met with a team of psychologists who were conducting training sessions for law enforcement. They sat beside him in a darkened room and showed him a series of videotapes of people who were either lying or telling the truth. He had to say who was doing what. One tape showed people talking about their views on the death penalty and on smoking in public. Another featured a series of nurses who were all talking about a nature film they were supposedly watching, even though some of them were actually watching grisly documentary footage about burn victims and amputees. It may sound as if the tests should have been easy, because we all think we can tell whether someone is lying. But these were not the obvious fibs of a child, or the prevarications of people whose habits and tendencies we know well. These were strangers who were motivated to deceive, and the task of spotting the liars turns out to be fantastically difficult. There is just too much information--words, intonation, gestures, eyes, mouth--and it is impossible to know how the various cues should be weighted, or how to put them all together, and in any case it's all happening so quickly that you can't even follow what you think you ought to follow. The tests have been given to policemen, customs officers, judges, trial lawyers, and psychotherapists, as well as to officers from the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the D.E.A., and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms-- people one would have thought would be good at spotting lies. On average, they score fifty per cent, which is to say that they would have done just as well if they hadn't watched the tapes at all and just guessed. But every now and again-- roughly one time in a thousand--someone scores off the charts. A Texas Ranger named David Maxwell did extremely well, for example, as did an ex-A.T.F. agent named J.J. Newberry, a few therapists, an arbitrator, a vice cop-- and John Yarbrough, which suggests that what happened in Willowbrook may have been more than a fluke or a lucky guess. Something in our faces signals whether we're going to shoot, say, or whether we're lying about the film we just saw. Most of us aren't very good at spotting it. But a handful of people are virtuosos. What do they see that we miss?
2.
All of us, a thousand times a day, read faces. When someone says "I love you," we look into that person's eyes to judge his or her sincerity. When we meet someone new, we often pick up on subtle signals, so that, even though he or she may have talked in a normal and friendly manner, afterward we say, "I don't think he liked me," or "I don't think she's very happy." We easily parse complex distinctions in facial expression. If you saw me grinning, for example, with my eyes twinkling, you'd say I was amused. But that's not the only way we interpret a smile. If you saw me nod and smile exaggeratedly, with the corners of my lips tightened, you would take it that I had been teased and was responding sarcastically. If I made eye contact with someone, gave a small smile and then looked down and averted my gaze, you would think I was flirting. If I followed a remark with an abrupt smile and then nodded, or tilted my head sideways, you might conclude that I had just said something a little harsh, and wanted to take the edge off it. You wouldn't need to hear anything I was saying in order to reach these conclusions. The face is such an extraordinarily efficient instrument of communication that there must be rules that govern the way we interpret facial expressions. But what are those rules? And are they the same for everyone?
In the nineteen-sixties, a young San Francisco psychologist named Paul Ekman began to study facial expression, and he discovered that no one knew the answers to those questions. Ekman went to see Margaret Mead, climbing the stairs to her tower office at the American Museum of Natural History. He had an idea. What if he travelled around the world to find out whether people from different cultures agreed on the meaning of different facial expressions? Mead, he recalls, "looked at me as if I were crazy." Like most social scientists of her day, she believed that expression was culturally determined-- that we simply used our faces according to a set of learned social conventions. Charles Darwin had discussed the face in his later writings; in his 1872 book, "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," he argued that all mammals show emotion reliably in their faces. But in the nineteen-sixties academic psychologists were more interested in motivation and cognition than in emotion or its expression. Ekman was undaunted; he began travelling to places like Japan, Brazil, and Argentina, carrying photographs of men and women making a variety of distinctive faces. Everywhere he went, people agreed on what those expressions meant. But what if people in the developed world had all picked up the same cultural rules from watching the same movies and television shows? So Ekman set out again, this time making his way through the jungles of Papua New Guinea, to the most remote villages, and he found that the tribesmen there had no problem interpreting the expressions, either. This may not sound like much of a breakthrough. But in the scientific climate of the time it was a revelation. Ekman had established that expressions were the universal products of evolution. There were fundamental lessons to be learned from the face, if you knew where to look.
Paul Ekman is now in his sixties. He is clean-shaven, with closely set eyes and thick, prominent eyebrows, and although he is of medium build, he seems much larger than he is: there is something stubborn and substantial in his demeanor. He grew up in Newark, the son of a pediatrician, and entered the University of Chicago at fifteen. He speaks deliberately: before he laughs, he pauses slightly, as if waiting for permission. He is the sort to make lists, and number his arguments. His academic writing has an orderly logic to it; by the end of an Ekman essay, each stray objection and problem has been gathered up and catalogued. In the mid-sixties, Ekman set up a lab in a ramshackle Victorian house at the University of California at San Francisco, where he holds a professorship. If the face was part of a physiological system, he reasoned, the system could be learned. He set out to teach himself. He treated the face as an adventurer would a foreign land, exploring its every crevice and contour. He assembled a videotape library of people's facial expressions, which soon filled three rooms in his lab, and studied them to the point where he could look at a face and pick up a flicker of emotion that might last no more than a fraction of a second. Ekman created the lying tests. He filmed the nurses talking about the movie they were watching and the movie they weren't watching. Working with Maureen O'Sullivan, a psychologist from the University of San Francisco, and other colleagues, he located people who had a reputation for being uncannily perceptive, and put them to the test, and that's how Yarbrough and the other high-scorers were identified. O'Sullivan and Ekman call this study of gifted face readers the Diogenes Project, after the Greek philosopher of antiquity who used to wander around Athens with a lantern, peering into people's faces as he searched for an honest man. Ekman has taken the most vaporous of sensations-- the hunch you have about someone else-- and sought to give them definition. Most of us don't trust our hunches, because we don't know where they came from. We think they can't be explained. But what if they can?
3.
Paul Ekman got his start in the face-reading business because of a man named Silvan Tomkins, and Silvan Tomkins may have been the best face reader there ever was. Tomkins was from Philadelphia, the son of a dentist from Russia. He was short, and slightly thick around the middle, with a wild mane of white hair and huge black plastic-rimmed glasses. He taught psychology at Princeton and Rutgers, and was the author of "Affect, Imagery, Consciousness," a four-volume work so dense that its readers were evenly divided between those who understood it and thought it was brilliant and those who did not understand it and thought it was brilliant. He was a legendary talker. At the end of a cocktail party, fifteen people would sit, rapt, at Tomkins's feet, and someone would say, "One more question!" and they would all sit there for another hour and a half, as Tomkins held forth on, say, comic books, a television sitcom, the biology of emotion, his problem with Kant, and his enthusiasm for the latest fad diets, all enfolded into one extended riff. During the Depression, in the midst of his doctoral studies at Harvard, he worked as a handicapper for a horse-racing syndicate, and was so successful that he lived lavishly on Manhattan's Upper East Side. At the track, where he sat in the stands for hours, staring at the horses through binoculars, he was known as the Professor. "He had a system for predicting how a horse would do based on what horse was on either side of him, based on their emotional relationship," Ekman said. If a male horse, for instance, had lost to a mare in his first or second year, he would be ruined if he went to the gate with a mare next to him in the lineup. (Or something like that-- no one really knew for certain.) Tomkins felt that emotion was the code to life, and that with enough attention to particulars the code could be cracked. He thought this about the horses, and, more important, he thought this about the human face.
Tomkins, it was said, could walk into a post office, go over to the "Wanted" posters, and, just by looking at mug shots, tell you what crimes the various fugitives had committed. "He would watch the show "To Tell the Truth,' and without fault he could always pick the person who was lying and who his confederates were," his son, Mark, recalls. "He actually wrote the producer at one point to say it was too easy, and the man invited him to come to New York, go backstage, and show his stuff." Virginia Demos, who teaches psychology at Harvard, recalls having long conversations with Tomkins. "We would sit and talk on the phone, and he would turn the sound down as Jesse Jackson was talking to Michael Dukakis, at the Democratic National Convention. And he would read the faces and give his predictions on what would happen. It was profound."
Ekman's most memorable encounter with Tomkins took place in the late sixties. Ekman had just tracked down a hundred thousand feet of film that had been shot by the virologist Carleton Gajdusek in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea. Some of the footage was of a tribe called the South Fore, who were a peaceful and friendly people. The rest was of the Kukukuku, who were hostile and murderous and who had a homosexual ritual where pre-adolescent boys were required to serve as courtesans for the male elders of the tribe. Ekman was still working on the problem of whether human facial expressions were universal, and the Gajdusek film was invaluable. For six months, Ekman and his collaborator, Wallace Friesen, sorted through the footage. They cut extraneous scenes, focussing just on closeups of the faces of the tribesmen, and when the editing was finished Ekman called in Tomkins.
The two men, protégé and mentor, sat at the back of the room, as faces flickered across the screen. Ekman had told Tomkins nothing about the tribes involved; all identifying context had been edited out. Tomkins looked on intently, peering through his glasses. At the end, he went up to the screen and pointed to the faces of the South Fore. "These are a sweet, gentle people, very indulgent, very peaceful," he said. Then he pointed to the faces of the Kukukuku. "This other group is violent, and there is lots of evidence to suggest homosexuality." Even today, a third of a century later, Ekman cannot get over what Tomkins did. "My God! I vividly remember saying, "Silvan, how on earth are you doing that?' " Ekman recalls. "And he went up to the screen and, while we played the film backward, in slow motion, he pointed out the particular bulges and wrinkles in the face that he was using to make his judgment. That's when I realized, "I've got to unpack the face.' It was a gold mine of information that everyone had ignored. This guy could see it, and if he could see it, maybe everyone else could, too."
Ekman and Friesen decided that they needed to create a taxonomy of facial expressions, so day after day they sat across from each other and began to make every conceivable face they could. Soon, though, they realized that their efforts weren't enough. "I met an anthropologist, Wade Seaford, told him what I was doing, and he said, 'Do you have this movement?'" --and here Ekman contracted what's called the triangularis, which is the muscle that depresses the corners of the lips, forming an arc of distaste-- "and it wasn't in my system, because I had never seen it before. I had built a system not on what the face can do but on what I had seen. I was devastated. So I came back and said, 'I've got to learn the anatomy.' " Friesen and Ekman then combed through medical textbooks that outlined each of the facial muscles, and identified every distinct muscular movement that the face could make. There were forty-three such movements. Ekman and Friesen called them "action units." Then they sat across from each other again, and began manipulating each action unit in turn, first locating the muscle in their mind and then concentrating on isolating it, watching each other closely as they did, checking their movements in a mirror, making notes of how the wrinkle patterns on their faces would change with each muscle movement, and videotaping the movement for their records. On the few occasions when they couldn't make a particular movement, they went next door to the U.C.S.F. anatomy department, where a surgeon they knew would stick them with a needle and electrically stimulate the recalcitrant muscle. "That wasn't pleasant at all," Ekman recalls. When each of those action units had been mastered, Ekman and Friesen began working action units in combination, layering one movement on top of another. The entire process took seven years. "There are three hundred combinations of two muscles," Ekman says. "If you add in a third, you get over four thousand. We took it up to five muscles, which is over ten thousand visible facial configurations." Most of those ten thousand facial expressions don't mean anything, of course. They are the kind of nonsense faces that children make. But, by working through each action-unit combination, Ekman and Friesen identified about three thousand that did seem to mean something, until they had catalogued the essential repertoire of human emotion.
4.
On a recent afternoon, Ekman sat in his office at U.C.S.F., in what is known as the Human Interaction Laboratory, a standard academic's lair of books and files, with photographs of his two heroes, Tomkins and Darwin, on the wall. He leaned forward slightly, placing his hands on his knees, and began running through the action-unit configurations he had learned so long ago. "Everybody can do action unit four," he began. He lowered his brow, using his depressor glabellae, depressor supercilli, and corrugator. "Almost everyone can do A.U. nine." He wrinkled his nose, using his levator labii superioris, alaeque nasi. "Everybody can do five." He contracted his levator palpebrae superioris, raising his upper eyelid.
I was trying to follow along with him, and he looked up at me. "You've got a very good five," he said generously. "The more deeply set your eyes are, the harder it is to see the five. Then there's seven." He squinted. "Twelve." He flashed a smile, activating the zygomatic major. The inner parts of his eyebrows shot up. "That's A.U. ---- distress, anguish." Then he used his frontalis, pars lateralis, to raise the outer half of his eyebrows. "That's A.U. two. It's also very hard, but it's worthless. It's not part of anything except Kabuki theatre. Twenty-three is one of my favorites. It's the narrowing of the red margin of the lips. Very reliable anger sign. It's very hard to do voluntarily." He narrowed his lips. "Moving one ear at a time is still the hardest thing to do. I have to really concentrate. It takes everything I've got." He laughed. "This is something my daughter always wanted me to do for her friends. Here we go." He wiggled his left ear, then his right ear. Ekman does not appear to have a particularly expressive face. He has the demeanor of a psychoanalyst, watchful and impassive, and his ability to transform his face so easily and quickly was astonishing. "There is one I can't do," he went on. "It's A.U. thirty-nine. Fortunately, one of my postdocs can do it. A.U. thirty-eight is dilating the nostrils. Thirty-nine is the opposite. It's the muscle that pulls them down." He shook his head and looked at me again. "Oooh! You've got a fantastic thirty-nine. That's one of the best I've ever seen. It's genetic. There should be other members of your family who have this heretofore unknown talent. You've got it, you've got it." He laughed again. "You're in a position to flash it at people. See, you should try that in a singles bar!"
Ekman then began to layer one action unit on top of another, in order to compose the more complicated facial expressions that we generally recognize as emotions. Happiness, for instance, is essentially A.U. six and twelve-- contracting the muscles that raise the cheek (orbicularis oculi, pars orbitalis) in combination with the zygomatic major, which pulls up the corners of the lips. Fear is A.U. one, two and four, or, more fully, one, two, four, five, and twenty, with or without action units twenty-five, twenty-six, or twenty-seven. That is: the inner brow raiser (frontalis, pars medialis) plus the outer brow raiser (frontalis, pars lateralis) plus the brow-lowering depressor supercilli plus the levator palpebrae superioris (which raises the upper lid), plus the risorius (which stretches the lips), the parting of the lips (depressor labii), and the masseter (which drops the jaw). Disgust? That's mostly A.U. nine, the wrinkling of the nose (levator labii superioris, alaeque nasi), but it can sometimes be ten, and in either case may be combined with A.U. fifteen or sixteen or seventeen.
Ekman and Friesen ultimately assembled all these combinations--and the rules for reading and interpreting them-- into the Facial Action Coding System, or FACS, and wrote them up in a five-hundred-page binder. It is a strangely riveting document, full of details like the possible movements of the lips (elongate, de-elongate, narrow, widen, flatten, protrude, tighten and stretch); the four different changes of the skin between the eyes and the cheeks (bulges, bags, pouches, and lines); or the critical distinctions between infraorbital furrows and the nasolabial furrow. Researchers have employed the system to study everything from schizophrenia to heart disease; it has even been put to use by computer animators at Pixar ("Toy Story"), andat DreamWorks ("Shrek"). FACS takes weeks to master in its entirety, and only five hundred people around the world have been certified to use it in research. But for those who have, the experience of looking at others is forever changed. They learn to read the face the way that people like John Yarbrough did intuitively. Ekman compares it to the way you start to hear a symphony once you've been trained to read music: an experience that used to wash over you becomes particularized and nuanced.
Ekman recalls the first time he saw Bill Clinton, during the 1992 Democratic primaries. "I was watching his facial expressions, and I said to my wife, 'This is Peck's Bad Boy,' " Ekman says. "This is a guy who wants to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and have us love him for it anyway. There was this expression that's one of his favorites. It's that hand-in-the-cookie-jar, love-me-Mommy-because-I'm-a-rascal look. It's A.U. twelve, fifteen, seventeen, and twenty-four, with an eye roll." Ekman paused, then reconstructed that particular sequence of expressions on his face. He contracted his zygomatic major, A.U. twelve, in a classic smile, then tugged the corners of his lips down with his triangularis, A.U. fifteen. He flexed the mentalis, A.U. seventeen, which raises the chin, slightly pressed his lips together in A.U. twenty-four, and finally rolled his eyes--and it was as if Slick Willie himself were suddenly in the room. "I knew someone who was on his communications staff. So I contacted him. I said, 'Look, Clinton's got this way of rolling his eyes along with a certain expression, and what it conveys is "I'm a bad boy." I don't think it's a good thing. I could teach him how not to do that in two to three hours.' And he said, 'Well, we can't take the risk that he's known to be seeing an expert on lying.' I think it's a great tragedy, because . . ." Ekman's voice trailed off. It was clear that he rather liked Clinton, and that he wanted Clinton's trademark expression to have been no more than a meaningless facial tic. Ekman shrugged. "Unfortunately, I guess, he needed to get caught--and he got caught."
5.
Early in his career, Paul Ekman filmed forty psychiatric patients, including a woman named Mary, a forty-two-year-old housewife. She had attempted suicide three times, and survived the last attempt--an overdose of pills--only because someone found her in time and rushed her to the hospital. Her children had left home and her husband was inattentive, and she was depressed. When she first went to the hospital, she simply sat and cried, but she seemed to respond well to therapy. After three weeks, she told her doctor that she was feeling much better and wanted a weekend pass to see her family. The doctor agreed, but just before Mary was to leave the hospital she confessed that the real reason she wanted to go on weekend leave was so that she could make another suicide attempt. Several years later, a group of young psychiatrists asked Ekman how they could tell when suicidal patients were lying. He didn't know, but, remembering Mary, he decided to try to find out. If the face really was a reliable guide to emotion, shouldn't he be able to look back on the film and tell that she was lying? Ekman and Friesen began to analyze the film for clues. They played it over and over for dozens of hours, examining in slow motion every gesture and expression. Finally, they saw it. As Mary's doctor asked her about her plans for the future, a look of utter despair flashed across her face so quickly that it was almost imperceptible.
Ekman calls that kind of fleeting look a "microexpression," and one cannot understand why John Yarbrough did what he did on that night in South Central without also understanding the particular role and significance of microexpressions. Many facial expressions can be made voluntarily. If I' m trying to look stern as I give you a tongue-lashing, I'll have no difficulty doing so, and you' ll have no difficulty interpreting my glare. But our faces are also governed by a separate, involuntary system. We know this because stroke victims who suffer damage to what is known as the pyramidal neural system will laugh at a joke, but they cannot smile if you ask them to. At the same time, patients with damage to another part of the brain have the opposite problem. They can smile on demand, but if you tell them a joke they can't laugh. Similarly, few of us can voluntarily do A.U. one, the sadness sign. (A notable exception, Ekman points out, is Woody Allen, who uses his frontalis, pars medialis, to create his trademark look of comic distress.) Yet we raise our inner eyebrows all the time, without thinking, when we are unhappy. Watch a baby just as he or she starts to cry, and you'll often see the frontalis, pars medialis, shoot up, as if it were on a string.
Perhaps the most famous involuntary expression is what Ekman has dubbed the Duchenne smile, in honor of the nineteenth-century French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne, who first attempted to document the workings of the muscles of the face with the camera. If I ask you to smile, you' ll flex your zygomatic major. By contrast, if you smile spontaneously, in the presence of genuine emotion, you' ll not only flex your zygomatic but also tighten the orbicularis oculi, pars orbitalis, which is the muscle that encircles the eye. It is almost impossible to tighten the orbicularis oculi, pars lateralis, on demand, and it is equally difficult to stop it from tightening when we smile at something genuinely pleasurable. This kind of smile "does not obey the will," Duchenne wrote. "Its absence unmasks the false friend." When we experience a basic emotion, a corresponding message is automatically sent to the muscles of the face. That message may linger on the face for just a fraction of a second, or be detectable only if you attached electrical sensors to the face, but It's always there. Silvan Tomkins once began a lecture by bellowing, "The face is like the penis!" and this is what he meant--that the face has, to a large extent, a mind of its own. This doesn't mean we have no control over our faces. We can use our voluntary muscular system to try to suppress those involuntary responses. But, often, some little part of that suppressed emotion--the sense that I' m really unhappy, even though I deny it--leaks out. Our voluntary expressive system is the way we intentionally signal our emotions. But our involuntary expressive system is in many ways even more important: it is the way we have been equipped by evolution to signal our authentic feelings.
"You must have had the experience where somebody comments on your expression and you didn't know you were making it,"Ekman says. "Somebody tells you, "What are you getting upset about?' "Why are you smirking?' You can hear your voice, but you can't see your face. If we knew what was on our face, we would be better at concealing it. But that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. Imagine if there were a switch that all of us had, to turn off the expressions on our face at will. If babies had that switch, we wouldn't know what they were feeling. They' d be in trouble. You could make an argument, if you wanted to, that the system evolved so that parents would be able to take care of kids. Or imagine if you were married to someone with a switch? It would be impossible. I don't think mating and infatuation and friendships and closeness would occur if our faces didn't work that way."
Ekman slipped a tape taken from the O.J. Simpson trial into the VCR. It was of Kato Kaelin, Simpson's shaggy-haired house guest, being examined by Marcia Clark, one of the prosecutors in the case. Kaelin sits in the witness box, with his trademark vacant look. Clark asks a hostile question. Kaelin leans forward and answers softly. "Did you see that?" Ekman asked me. I saw nothing, just Kato being Kato-- harmless and passive. Ekman stopped the tape, rewound it, and played it back in slow motion. On the screen, Kaelin moved forward to answer the question, and in that fraction of a second his face was utterly transformed. His nose wrinkled, as he flexed his levator labii superioris, alaeque nasi. His teeth were bared, his brows lowered. "It was almost totally A.U. nine," Ekman said. "It's disgust, with anger there as well, and the clue to that is that when your eyebrows go down, typically your eyes are not as open as they are here. The raised upper eyelid is a component of anger, not disgust. It's very quick." Ekman stopped the tape and played it again, peering at the screen. "You know, he looks like a snarling dog."
Ekman said that there was nothing magical about his ability to pick up an emotion that fleeting. It was simply a matter of practice. "I could show you forty examples, and you could pick it up. I have a training tape, and people love it. They start it, and they can't see any of these expressions. Thirty-five minutes later, they can see them all. What that says is that this is an accessible skill."
Ekman showed another clip, this one from a press conference given by Kim Philby in 1955. Philby had not yet been revealed as a Soviet spy, but two of his colleagues, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, had just defected to the Soviet Union. Philby is wearing a dark suit and a white shirt. His hair is straight and parted to the left. His face has the hauteur of privilege.
"Mr. Philby," he is asked. "Mr. Macmillan, the foreign secretary, said there was no evidence that you were the so-called third man who allegedly tipped off Burgess and Maclean. Are you satisfied with that clearance that he gave you?"
Philby answers confidently, in the plummy tones of the English upper class. "Yes, I am."
"Well, if there was a third man, were you in fact the third man?"
"No," Philby says, just as forcefully. "I was not."
Ekman rewound the tape, and replayed it in slow motion. "Look at this," he said, pointing to the screen. "Twice, after being asked serious questions about whether he's committed treason, he's going to smirk. He looks like the cat who ate the canary." The expression was too brief to see normally. But at quarter speed it was painted on his face--the lips pressed together in a look of pure smugness. "He's enjoying himself, isn't he?" Ekman went on. "I call this--duping delight-- the thrill you get from fooling other people." Ekman started the VCR up again. "There's another thing he does." On the screen, Philby was answering another question. "In the second place, the Burgess-Maclean affair has raised issues of great"-- he pauses-- "delicacy." Ekman went back to the pause, and froze the tape. "Here it is,"he said. "A very subtle microexpression of distress or unhappiness. It's only in the eyebrows-- in fact, just in one eyebrow." Sure enough, Philby's right inner eyebrow was raised in an unmistakable A.U. one. "It's very brief," Ekman said. "He's not doing it voluntarily. And it totally contradicts all his confidence and assertiveness. It comes when he's talking about Burgess and Maclean, whom he had tipped off. It's a hot spot that suggests, 'You shouldn't trust what you hear.' "
A decade ago, Ekman joined forces with J. J. Newberry--the ex-A.T.F. agent who is one of the high-scorers in the Diogenes Project-- to put together a program for educating law-enforcement officials around the world in the techniques of interviewing and lie detection. In recent months, they have flown to Washington, D.C., to assist the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. in counter-terrorism training. At the same time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has asked Ekman and his former student Mark Frank, now at Rutgers, to develop experimental scenarios for studying deception that would be relevant to counter-terrorism. The objective is to teach people to look for discrepancies between what is said and what is signalled--to pick up on the difference between Philby's crisp denials and his fleeting anguish. It's a completely different approach from the shouting cop we see on TV and in the movies, who threatens the suspect and sweeps all of the papers and coffee cups off the battered desk. The Hollywood interrogation is an exercise in intimidation, and its point is to force the suspect to tell you what you need to know. It does not take much to see the limitations of this strategy. It depends for its success on the coöperation of the suspect--when, of course, the suspect's involuntary communication may be just as critical. And it privileges the voice over the face, when the voice and the face are equally significant channels in the same system.
Ekman received his most memorable lesson in this truth when he and Friesen first began working on expressions of anger and distress. "It was weeks before one of us finally admitted feeling terrible after a session where we' d been making one of those faces all day," Friesen says. "Then the other realized that he'd been feeling poorly, too, so we began to keep track." They then went back and began monitoring their body during particular facial movements. "Say you do A.U. one, raising the inner eyebrows, and six, raising the cheeks, and fifteen, the lowering of the corner of the lips," Ekman said, and then did all three. "What we discovered is that that expression alone is sufficient to create marked changes in the autonomic nervous system. When this first occurred, we were stunned. We weren't expecting this at all. And it happened to both of us. We felt terrible . What we were generating was sadness, anguish. And when I lower my brows, which is four, and raise the upper eyelid, which is five, and narrow the eyelids, which is seven, and press the lips together, which is twenty-four, I' m generating anger. My heartbeat will go up ten to twelve beats. My hands will get hot. As I do it, I can't disconnect from the system. It's very unpleasant, very unpleasant."
Ekman, Friesen, and another colleague, Robert Levenson, who teaches at Berkeley, published a study of this effect in Science. They monitored the bodily indices of anger, sadness, and fear--heart rate and body temperature--in two groups. The first group was instructed to remember and relive a particularly stressful experience. The other was told to simply produce a series of facial movements, as instructed by Ekman-- to "assume the position," as they say in acting class. The second group, the people who were pretending, showed the same physiological responses as the first. A few years later, a German team of psychologists published a similar study. They had a group of subjects look at cartoons, either while holding a pen between their lips--an action that made it impossible to contract either of the two major smiling muscles, the risorius and the zygomatic major-- or while holding a pen clenched between their teeth, which had the opposite effect and forced them to smile. The people with the pen between their teeth found the cartoons much funnier. Emotion doesn't just go from the inside out. It goes from the outside in. What's more, neither the subjects "assuming the position" nor the people with pens in their teeth knew they were making expressions of emotion. In the facial-feedback system, an expression you do not even know that you have can create an emotion you did not choose to feel.
It is hard to talk to anyone who knows FACS without this point coming up again and again. Face-reading depends not just on seeing facial expressions but also on taking them seriously. One reason most of us--like the TV cop-- do not closely attend to the face is that we view its evidence as secondary, as an adjunct to what we believe to be real emotion. But there's nothing secondary about the face, and surely this realization is what set John Yarbrough apart on the night that the boy in the sports car came at him with a gun. It's not just that he saw a microexpression that the rest of us would have missed. It's that he took what he saw so seriously that he was able to overcome every self-protective instinct in his body, and hold his fire.
6.
Yarbrough has a friend in the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, Sergeant Bob Harms, who works in narcotics in Palmdale. Harms is a member of the Diogenes Project as well, but the two men come across very differently. Harms is bigger than Yarbrough, taller and broader in the chest, with soft brown eyes and dark, thick hair. Yarbrough is restoring a Corvette and wears Rush Limbaugh ties, and he says that if he hadn't been a cop he would have liked to stay in the Marines. Harms came out of college wanting to be a commercial artist; now he plans to open a bed-and-breakfast in Vermont with his wife when he retires. On the day we met, Harms was wearing a pair of jean shorts and a short-sleeved patterned shirt. His badge was hidden inside his shirt. He takes notes not on a yellow legal pad, which he considers unnecessarily intimidating to witnesses, but on a powder-blue one. "I always get teased because I'm the touchy-feely one," Harms said. "John Yarbrough is very analytical. He thinks before he speaks. There is a lot going on inside his head. He's constantly thinking four or five steps ahead, then formulating whatever his answers are going to be. That's not how I do my interviews. I have a conversation. It's not "Where were you on Friday night?' Because that's the way we normally communicate. I never say, "I'm Sergeant Harms.' I always start by saying, "I'm Bob Harms, and I'm here to talk to you about your case,' and the first thing I do is smile."
The sensation of talking to the two men, however, is surprisingly similar. Normal conversation is like a game of tennis: you talk and I listen, you listen and I talk, and we feel scrutinized by our conversational partner only when the ball is in our court. But Yarbrough and Harms never stop watching, even when they're doing the talking. Yarbrough would comment on my conversational style, noting where I held my hands as I talked, or how long I would wait out a lull in the conversation. At one point, he stood up and soundlessly moved to the door-- which he could have seen only in his peripheral vision--opening it just before a visitor rang the doorbell. Harms gave the impression that he was deeply interested in me. It wasn't empathy. It was a kind of powerful curiosity. "I remember once, when I was in prison custody, I used to shake prisoners' hands," Harms said. "The deputies thought I was crazy. But I wanted to see what happened, because that's what these men are starving for, some dignity and respect."
Some of what sets Yarbrough and Harms and the other face readers apart is no doubt innate. But the fact that people can be taught so easily to recognize microexpressions, and can learn FACS, suggests that we all have at least the potential capacity for this kind of perception. Among those who do very well at face-reading, tellingly, are some aphasics, such as stroke victims who have lost the ability to understand language. Collaborating with Ekman on a paper that was recently published in Nature, the psychologist Nancy Etcoff, of Massachusetts General Hospital, described how a group of aphasics trounced a group of undergraduates at M.I.T. on the nurses tape. Robbed of the power to understand speech, the stroke victims had apparently been forced to become far more sensitive to the information written on people's faces. "They are compensating for the loss in one channel through these other channels," Etcoff says. "We could hypothesize that there is some kind of rewiring in the brain, but I don't think we need that explanation. They simply exercise these skills much more than we do." Ekman has also done work showing that some abused children are particularly good at reading faces as well: like the aphasics in the study, they developed "interpretive strategies"--in their case, so they could predict the behavior of their volatile parents.
What appears to be a kind of magical, effortless intuition about faces, then, may not really be effortless and magical at all. This kind of intuition is a product of desire and effort. Silvan Tomkins took a sabbatical from Princeton when his son Mark was born, and stayed in his house on the Jersey Shore, staring into his son's face, long and hard, picking up the patterns of emotion--the cycles of interest, joy, sadness, and anger--that flash across an infant's face in the first few months of life. He taught himself the logic of the furrows and the wrinkles and the creases, the subtle differences between the pre-smile and the pre-cry face. Later, he put together a library of thousands of photographs of human faces, in every conceivable expression. He developed something called the Picture Arrangement Test, which was his version of the Rorschach blot: a patient would look at a series of pictures and be asked to arrange them in a sequence and then tell a story based on what he saw. The psychologist was supposed to interpret the meaning of the story, but Tomkins would watch a videotape of the patient with the sound off, and by studying the expressions on the patient's face teach himself to predict what the story was. Face-reading, for those who have mastered it, becomes a kind of compulsion; it becomes hard to be satisfied with the level and quality of information that most of us glean from normal social encounters. "Whenever we get together," Harms says of spending time with other face readers, "we debrief each other. We're constantly talking about cases, or some of these videotapes of Ekman's, and we say, "I missed that, did you get that?' Maybe there's an emotion attached there. We're always trying to place things, and replaying interviews in our head."
This is surely why the majority of us don't do well at reading faces: we feel no need to make that extra effort. People fail at the nurses tape, Ekman says, because they end up just listening to the words. That's why, when Tomkins was starting out in his quest to understand the face, he always watched television with the sound turned off. "We are such creatures of language that what we hear takes precedence over what is supposed to be our primary channel of communication, the visual channel," he once said. "Even though the visual channel provides such enormous information, the fact is that the voice preëmpts the individual's attention, so that he cannot really see the face while he listens." We prefer that way of dealing with the world because it does not challenge the ordinary boundaries of human relationships. Ekman, in one of his essays, writes of what he learned from the legendary sociologist Erving Goffman. Goffman said that part of what it means to be civilized is not to "steal" information that is not freely given to us. When someone picks his nose or cleans his ears, out of unthinking habit, we look away. Ekman writes that for Goffman the spoken word is "the acknowledged information, the information for which the person who states it is willing to take responsibility," and he goes on:
When the secretary who is miserable about a fight with her husband the previous night answers, "Just fine," when her boss asks, "How are you this morning?"--that false message may be the one relevant to the boss's interactions with her. It tells him that she is going to do her job. The true message--that she is miserable--he may not care to know about at all as long as she does not intend to let it impair her job performance.
What would the boss gain by reading the subtle and contradictory microexpressions on his secretary's face? It would be an invasion of her privacy and an act of disrespect. More than that, it would entail an obligation. He would be obliged to do something, or say something, or feel something that might otherwise be avoided entirely. To see what is intended to be hidden, or, at least, what is usually missed, opens up a world of uncomfortable possibilities. This is the hard part of being a face reader. People like that have more faith in their hunches than the rest of us do. But faith is not certainty. Sometimes, on a routine traffic stop late at night, you end up finding out that your hunch was right. But at other times you'll never know. And you can't even explain it properly, because what can you say? You did something the rest of us would never have done, based on something the rest of us would never have seen.
"I was working in West Hollywood once, in the nineteen-eighties," Harms said. "I was with a partner, Scott. I was driving. I had just recently come off the prostitution team, and we spotted a man in drag. He was on Sunset, and I didn't recognize him. At that time, Sunset was normally for females. So it was kind of odd. It was a cold night in January. There was an all-night restaurant on Sunset called Ben Franks, so I asked my partner to roll down the window and ask the guy if he was going to Ben Franks-- just to get a reaction. And the guy immediately keys on Scott, and he's got an overcoat on, and he's all bundled up, and he starts walking over to the car. It had been raining so much that the sewers in West Hollywood had backed up, and one of the manhole covers had been cordoned off because it was pumping out water. The guy comes over to the squad car, and he's walking right through that. He's fixated on Scott. So we asked him what he was doing. He says, "I was out for a walk.' And then he says, "I have something to show you.'"
Later, after the incident was over, Harms and his partner learned that the man had been going around Hollywood making serious threats, that he was unstable and had just attempted suicide, that he was in all likelihood about to erupt. A departmental inquiry into the incident would affirm that Harms and his partner had been in danger: the man was armed with a makeshift flamethrower, and what he had in mind, evidently, was to turn the inside of the squad car into an inferno. But at the time all Harms had was a hunch, a sense from the situation and the man's behavior and what he glimpsed inside the man's coat and on the man's face-- something that was the opposite of whatever John Yarbrough saw in the face of the boy in Willowbrook. Harms pulled out his gun and shot the man through the open window. "Scott looked at me and was, like, "What did you do?' because he didn't perceive any danger," Harms said. "But I did."
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