Lots to read

Add comment July 1st, 2008

I get a bunch of pamphlets, newsletters and books in the mail every week. This week features a couple of reports that I’ll try to get through.

The first is the Joyce Foundation 2007 Annual Report. “The Joyce Foundation supports efforts to protect the natural environment of the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region, and to ensure that its people have access to good schools, decent jobs and a diverse and thriving culture. We are especially interested in improving public policies, because public systems such as education and welfare directly affect the lives of so many people, and because public policies help shape private sector decisions about jobs, the environment, and the health of our communities. To ensure that public policies truly reflect public rather than private interests, we support efforts to reform the system of financing election campaigns.”

The second is a report of a joint meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. The title: “The Public Good: Knowledge as the Foundation for a Democratic Society.”