William F. Schulz

This memoir begins with Schulz schmoozing at a party, being cutesipated by Lauren Bacall, and goes on to admit that he liked fundraising. That's the crucial skill for success in many nonprofit organizations that employ people with "activist" as a job title. Also a Unitarian Universalist minister, Schulz favored leniency for everyone. (At the heart of this book is a long impassioned argument against the death penalty.) Amnesty International, based in Britain, gained US and Canadian members, supported many celebrity "prisoners of conscience," and made people it supported celebrities. Schulz helped many people and was promoted to the top of the organization.

Then he felt the heat from below. People who volunteered or were employed with AI seemed to him to be abnormally acrimonious. Haters in America often hate America. Schulz listened to people he'd hired for "diversity" reasons, alienated supporters by wanting to work on same-sex marriage instead of humane treatment for prisoners, then criticized the War on Terror in a horribly effective way. The effects were to reduce the popularity of the US in other countries that had AI chapters, and to reduce the popularity of AI in the US. As a denouement he developed a slowly progressing fatal disease, giving his memoir the structure of a tragedy--but he seems to be denying the tragedy, and remains bland, pleasant, and optimistic to the end.

The question is whether people should read this book for the history and celebrity trivia alone, or are prepared to read it as a cautionary piece of history. I recommended it as a cautionary piece of history, but it'd be worth reading for the celebrity gossip, too.… (mais)

About the author: quoting from the book's back cover, "The Reverend William F. Schulz, fifth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, was educated at Oberlin College, the University of Chicago, and Meadville/Lombard Theological School. He is the contributing editor of 'Transforming Words,' an anthology of essays on the art of preaching." About the book: quoting from the book's back cover, "Here are the most memorable essays from Schulz's 'Finding Time' column in the 'World' [now 'UU World'] magazine. Begun in 1985, 'Finding Time' gives voice to diverse and deeply affecting explorations of contemporary Unitarian Universalism. Also included here are selections that originated as opinion pieces in publications such as 'The Los Angles Times' and 'The Progressive'. . ."… (mais)