The 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women10 to 21 March 2025
I am in the halls of the United Nations building in New York attending the 69th yearly sessions of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. This is the 30th time for me; for 30 years I have represented an NGO (Non-governmental Organization), PEN...
Time to End the Two-Party Duopoly: It no longer serves our democracy
It might come as a surprise to most citizens of the United States of America that our founding fathers were deeply suspicious of political parties and partisan politics. In his 1796 Farewell Address George Washington warned that political parties inevitably lead to...
WWC at the International PEN Congress in Oxford 24 September 2024
Our new Women Writers Committee Chair Judyth Hill (San Miguel PEN) opened the meeting with an eloquent introduction of the Empty Chair. Narges Mohammadi, the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has been sentenced to 30 or more years in prison in Iran, and has been...
Writers Worldwide Call for Freedom of Expression: 90th World Congress of PEN International – Oxford, England, 24-27 September 2024
The eve of the PEN International Annual Congress, this time in Oxford, was chilly and sodden. I arrived at night. Flood alerts lighted up my phone. The theme of the conference, “Writers in a World at War,” and the dark and desolate plaza where the coach from...
TIME TO ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: It disenfranchises significant segments of our voting populations
Twice, in the five presidential elections since the year 2000, two candidates for the U.S. presidency, who won the popular vote, lost in the Electoral College. In 2000, Albert Gore Jr won the popular vote against George W. Bush by 543,895 but failed in the Electoral...
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