What Would You Fight For?

The human heart beats 70 times per minute, 4,200 times per hour and 100,800 times per day. In that day, it pumps more than 2,000 gallons of blood through the body and provides essential oxygen, nutrients and sustenance to other organs. But for the 60,000 patients in advanced stages of heart failure, their hearts can no longer do the job and their survival rests upon a heart transplant.

On a large patio overlooking verdant hills outside Kathmandu, Nepal, Professor Ebrahim Moosa sits surrounded by an unlikely group. Before him are Muslim scholars from both Pakistan and India — typically unfriendly nations — mixed with a small contingent of female, largely Christian Notre Dame undergraduates.

It was 2012. Tim Weninger was a Ph.D. student surfing Facebook and Reddit. As a computer scientist, his procrastination took a turn when he noticed some alarming trends on the sites. The Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS, was on the rise in Syria and was using social media to effectively convert and recruit young terrorists from the West. How, Weninger wondered, did they have such sway?

As Ed Striedl remembers it, the borough of Keansburg, New Jersey, tried to fortify against Hurricane Sandy. In the days and hours ahead of the storm, evacuation was encouraged. Locations on high ground were set aside for people to park cars. Shelters were put into place. And yet when the storm hit, destruction came in unlikely and devastating forms.

It has been 50 years since the Fair Housing Act made discrimination in buying and selling homes illegal. Fifty years since Edward Brooke, the first African-American senator from Massachusetts, testified that upon his return from World War II, no one would sell him a home because of his race. And 50 years since the act was passed, without debate, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But even after 50 years, there’s still discrimination and scheming against minorities who wish to own homes.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine declared itself an independent state. But political independence didn’t rid the country of Soviet or communist influence. Democracy was fragile. Corruption ruled government, business and education. People were killed for speaking out and demanding justice.