Taking Action is designed for discussion groups and staff development programs in a wide range of service-oriented organizations. Fifty-five short readings—essays, stories, and poetry—and six visual images provide the perfect material for group sessions of educators, social workers, community organizers, medical and law enforcement personnel, and book discussion groups of all kinds. Discussion questions are provided for each selection and there is an appendix with guidelines for conducting successful discussions.
NEED AND CARE
- Photograph for discussion
- Okay
- Let’s Beat Up the Poor!
- The Glass of Milk
- The Shopping-Bag Lady
- Poverty Medicine
- The Bath
- Admission, Children’s Unit
- please, thank you
- Giving
DIFFERENCE AND CONNECTION
- Photograph for discussion
- The Same Inside
- A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison
- Bilingual/Bilingüe
- Nikki-Rosa
- Say Yes
- How to Watch Your Brother Die
- Gate A-4
- You Will Forget
- Death of a Doorman
- Told in the Drooling Ward
TEACHING AND LEARNING
- Photograph for discussion
- Learning the Trees
- The Boy Who Was Sacrificed
- What I Learned from My Mother
- Hands
- On Children
- Islands of Decency
- Significant Other
- What These Children Are Like
- Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern
- The Gift
SERVING AND PROTECTING
- Photograph for discussion
- The Veteran
- Letter to the Local Police
- Summer Solstice, New York City
- Wewiibitaan
- Memorial Day
- Facing It
- On Some Streets
- What Every Soldier Should Know
- Singapore
ACTION AND OUTCOMES
- Photograph for discussion
- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander*
- A Journey
- In Search of a Majority
- My Optimism
- Sunrise
- It Is Dangerous to Read Newspapers
- Decisions
- Imagine the Angels of Bread
- What I Didn’t Know Then
HERE AND NOW
- Photograph for discussion
- The City
- I’m Explaining a Few Things
- kitchenette building
- What Kind of Times Are These
- Don’t Think
- Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change
- America
- Try to Praise the Mutilated World
*Indicates a selection from a longer work