I can now report that the place to meet your friends in the post gift-giving season is a technology store. As I wandered around Best Buy, I ran into folks I hadn’t seen in years.  Our faces were mirror images of the techie wannabee - wistful optimism combined with the resignation of a going-down-for-the-third-time drowning.  That’s what a major computer overhaul can do to you. I’ve comforted myself by recognizing that I’m not alone in cyberspace limbo.  Join me in a laugh and a sigh with these famous quotes from generations of techie and anti-techie experts. Here’s the good, bad and the ugly; you be the judge of which technology quotes are which.

Happy Holiday! It's time again for our National Sugar Buzz. Regardless of any religious significance you may or may not attach to holidays, it’s hard to deny that a National Sugar Buzz begins with Halloween and courses through our blood through Valentine's Day. Yet while we recognize the national threat of obesity and chronic diseases, these sugary holidays are cultural icons. Yet, the outcry against sweets-stuffing, particularly of small children, is modest at best and the push back against healthy eating is loud and often mean-spirited. Who can withstand the look of horror on the kiddies faces as we drop an apple in their bags? While these tough economic times may decrease sales somewhat, our sugar overload marches on virtually unchecked.  What could jump start a National Sugar Buzz Debate?

Diverse women are the creators of the most powerful interfaith and multicultural networks that I've seen in my more than 25 years in the diversity field.  My first experience of the phenomenon was in the early 1990s when I founded the DuPage Interfaith Resource Network (DIRN) in Chicago's high-tech corridor of DuPage County.  With a grant from the NCCJ , then called the National Conference on Christians and Jews,  a sub-group of DIRN was created of women:  Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian women including Mormon, Catholic and Protestant traditions.  New community leaders emerged from the dialogue and support of this group including women leaders who are still making news decades later.  This was not a liberal or conservative effort, it was a human effort to cross religious and cultural boundaries with a goal of inclusion and improvement of the quality of life for all in the community.  The efforts morph with leadership, current events and social issues.  The 2012 cultural programs in Chattanooga TN should prove, " The best is yet to come!"

The videos of troops arriving home for the holidays, or for good, have me glued to the TV.  Who can resist the men and women in uniform shaking hands with volunteer greeters at the airport and hugging waiting wives, parents and siblings?   And then there are the kids, the babies never held before, the youngsters in matching uniforms, the jumping up and down, the tears and grins that we shouldn’t really be privy to even though the site is mesmerizing.  But nothing got me more than a young soldier surprising his 3-year old daughter in day care.  She didn’t remember him and cried, terrified of this stranger.  It was a reminder of the true sacrifices made of military families, a reminder of my own family’s history and a reminder of why I do much of what I do.

Founded in 2001 by Deborah Levine, the Women's Council on Diversity held its first meeting the day after 9/11.  The multicultural network was quickly launched in Chattanooga TN, crossing cultural boundaries and bridging differences of gender, ethnicity, race, economics and religion.  Over the next 4 years, cultural groups joined the Arts, Culture and Educational events.  Workshops, speaking and diversity training materials were generated to create the next generation of inclusion expertise in the Southeast.  Today, the Women’s Council on Diversity is the planning group for community-wide multicultural Arts & Culture programs including  The Women's History Month Storytelling, Diversity Thanksgiving and the Youth Multicultural Video Contest.  The newest blog in the American Diversty Report family is dedicated to the Council.  See the latest, news, photos and videos generated by our cross cultural efforts at COUNCIL ON DIVERSITY.

Award-winning author Deborah Levine shares 4 decades in 5 stories of humor and horror on the cutting edge of the Women's movement .  American Diversity Report announced the release of its You Go Girl Kit, a CD for training or just for fun storytelling.   Get a bird's-eye view of the early days of Women’s Liberation, laugh & cry over gender follies in New York City’s garment district, take a tour through technology path with a reluctant techno-Deb, defy gravity with dancing stars and get religion with Network Lessons.

Unbridled creativity and a childlike curiosity are part of being a writer. These are traits often associated with childhood, but we writers never quite outgrow them. I was reminded how much of our childhood remains with us while working on my global leadership training book. Childhood is at the heart not only of the writer’s inspiration but also of our world view as adults.  Young minds absorb the attitudes of our parents and the humanity or inhumanity in our daily lives. We may not fully understand the world events and the cultural diversity that surround us, but we feel their impact.  We absorb small life lessons and large human values in story form, storing away their global context for later, more adult, reflection.