Social Justice

Bucks County Democrats and Republicans each must select two nominees for county commission. The Inquirer recommends Democrats Carl F. Fonash and Lucille M. Trench, and Republicans Mark S. Schweiker and Andrew L. Warren. Mr. Fonash and Mrs. Trench are incumbents, elected four years ago primarily on their stout, reasoned opposition to the Point Pleasant Water Diversion Project, popularly known as "The Pump. " Lessons learned from that battle inform their commitment to control development, but not oppose it. Mr. Schweicker, a two-term Middletown Township supervisor, is a management consultant whose zeal to serve promises to energize the commission.

ASSIUT, Egypt - A speeding train that crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten on Saturday killed 51 and prompted a wave of anger against a government under mounting pressure to rectify the former regime's legacy of neglect. The crash, which killed children 4 to 6 years old and three adults, led to protests and accusations that President Mohammed Morsi is failing to deliver on the demands of last year's uprising for basic rights, dignity, and social justice.

In a new Oscar campaigning tactic, Universal Pictures announced Thursday that it would donate $100,000 to UCLA in the names of Erin Brockovich and her boss, lawyer Ed Masry, "to help students pursue studies in environmental and social justice. " The studio's Erin Brockovich - about the pair's successful legal crusade against a water-polluting California utility - has been nominated for a best-picture Academy Award, as are the film's star (Julia Roberts) and director (Steven Soderbergh)

An Indiana farm boy and onetime Bible smuggler in communist eastern Europe, the Rev. Ted Haggard has become one of the most influential voices in evangelical Christianity. President since 2003 of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard is conservative, outspoken and charismatic, a dependable voice for the religious right in opposition to abortion, homosexual marriage and the "activist judiciary. " But he parts ways from them with his concern about global climate change and other environmental issues, support for the Supreme Court decision protecting gays' sexual privacy, and support for social justice.

Paul Robeson, the celebrated American battler for social justice at home and abroad, was honored Tuesday with a 37-cent commemorative that continues the Black Heritage Series. Robeson was a talented presence as an end and linebacker in football, twice earning all-American honors, and as a powerful baritone hailed at the world's premier opera houses. But he paid dearly for speaking out against racism when segregation was tolerated and for years was ostracized by many in his own country.

With pomp and circumstance and the help of about $200,000 in private donations from various institutions and law firms, the Delaware County court system celebrated its 200-year history last week. It was a wide-ranging celebration Thursday: It opened with a formal ceremony at the County Courthouse in Media and was to close with a black-tie dinner highlighted by a speech by retired federal Judge Robert H. Bork. Bork was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, but rejected by the U.S. Senate.

Members of the city's African American and Hispanic communities should not fight among themselves for better representation in local government, black activists said yesterday. Leaders of the Greater Camden County Reinvestment Corp. said county political leaders had frozen African Americans and Hispanics out of key management jobs and policy decisions in Camden. "Hispanics are fighting for social justice in the wrong arena," said Roy L. Jones, the group's executive director.

They stood at their tables and held hands, about 1,600 people of various races and faiths, and tried to sing in one voice: "Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us; sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. " With those words on their lips and prayers in their hearts, political, spiritual and community leaders gathered yesterday to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to voice hope that...

"Maya Angelou makes me cry," the filmmaker Jonathan Demme said of the poet and co-recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, bestowed at a Kimmel Center gala last night. "And Norman Lear makes me crack up," Demme noted of Angelou's co-honoree, the TV pioneer and social activist. The event was star-studded and politically connected. Harry Belafonte, the first recipient of the award given in the name of the Philadelphia contralto who used her art in the service of social justice, sat for dinner with Demme and Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Friday Gingery goodness The best of Philadelphia's baking scene will compete Friday at the Gingerbread Showcase, where an abundance of painstakingly decorated gingerbread houses will be displayed. Local dignitaries and media personalities will select the winning house. The creations will be auctioned, but dinner guests can also win one of the houses. A seasonal holiday buffet and musical entertainment are part of the evening. Guests who arrive before 8:30 p.m. will receive a free auction ticket, but they can purchase more to increase their chances of winning.