Julia Ward Howe was born May 27, 1819, the fourth child of banker Samuel Ward and occasional poet Julia Rush Cutler. Among her siblings was Samuel Cutler Ward. Her father was a well-to-do banker.
Her mother, granddaughter of William Greene, Governor of Rhode Island and his wife Catharine Ray, died when Julia was five after having borne seven children by the age of 27.
By filmmaker Sue Useem.
Lian Gogali was born in a tiny village in rural Poso, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
She made herself a serious student and managed to leave the island and eventually complete her Master's Degree. During civil conflict in Poso, Lian came to live in the internally displaced camps with women and children.
Phyllis Rodriguez and Aicha el-Wafi have a powerful friendship born of unthinkable loss.
Rodriguez' son was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001; el-Wafi's son Zacarias Moussaoui was convicted of a role in those attacks and is serving a life sentence.
To me the image of the Tianamen Square 'Tank Man' epitomizes the David and Goliath struggle of the weak and vulnerable against the strong and powerful.
Today, thousands of sites including Wikipedia, went black in protest of anti-free speech legislation in the United States.