OpEdNews - Articles - Author's Page for John Graham

John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley's North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two.

A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO's top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. At the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.

Since 1983 Graham has been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. A familiar keynote speaker, he's done TV and radio all over the world. He's the author of Outdoor Leadership and Stick Your Neck Out-A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. His memoir, Sit Down Young Stranger, was published in January.

Graham walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.

He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use

www.johngrahamspeaker.org

OpEdNews Member for 86 week(s) and 5 day(s)

11 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 0 Comments, 0 Diaries, 0 Polls

11 Articles

Sunday, October 18, 2009
Afghanistan—Winning Lessons from Vietnam
(4 comments) The Karzai government seems eerily reminiscent of the corrupt, incompetent regime of Nguyen van Thieu in Vietnam 40 years ago. The US must push hard for a government in Kabul that enjoys broad popular support. If that kind of government can't be found, then we should get out, focus on Pakistan and leave enough military might in the region to prevent Al-Queda from using Afghanistan/Pakistan as a base to attack us.

Thursday, July 30, 2009
How Do We Be Safe?
The Caux Forum for Human Security, recently concluded in Switzerland, provided important new perspectives. By emphasizing the link between personal and political change, and by broadening the definition of human security to include freedom from poverty and injustice, the Forum suggests a wise and practical template for solving public problems.

Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Health Care We Deserve
(1 comments) The country is finally beginning to address health care reform in a meaningful way, in what could well be the most important domestic policy debate since the New Deal. Here's what's at stake.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
When the Lights Went On
(2 comments) The events that caused this economic collapse were failures not just of politics and governance, but of culture. They were the inevitable consequences of our nation and its leadership losing any operating concept of the common good.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Pirates and Poverty
(4 comments) Killing the Somali pirates was a short term victory, not a long term solution to the security problems that plague us in the 21st century. It's not enough to hunt down pirates (and terrorists), so long as the conditions that breed them continue to exist.

Monday, February 2, 2009
Stimulating
(2 comments) Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the massive package now before Congress should contain short-term measures, such as tax cuts and unemployment benefits, meant to immediately pump cash into the economy. The debate is whether the package should also include longer-term job-creating investments in key sectors such as health care, energy, transportation and education.

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Obama Rocks Abuja
I was in Nigeria when CNN announced that Barack Obama had won the Presidency. The country--and indeed the entire developing world--erupted in joy, and not just because of the color of Obama's skin.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Why the Bailout is a Bandaid
(1 comments) The bailout package that Congress is now posed to pass is skin deep. Similar problems will emerge unless we go deeper. Here's why.

Monday, July 28, 2008
Ich Bin Ein Kansan
In Berlin, Obama reminded his audience of the dangers of living in a splintered world. International challenges will not be met unless nations and peoples learn to work together as inhabitants of a crowded, interconnected planet.

Saturday, March 29, 2008
Obama's Speech and Me
(5 comments) Author/activist John Graham looks at race in a new way after Obama's speech.

Sunday, November 11, 2007
Watch List Update
've been on the Watch List for 30 months. It's quite possible that, like the four-year old children and 89-year-old nuns who are also on the List, it might be a case of mistaken identity. Then again, as President of the Giraffe Heroes Project, author of Stick Your Neck Out, and vocal critic of the Iraq war, I may be exactly the person the Feds mean to hassle.

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