I am pleased to report that today the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky
Teachers' Retirement System unanimously passed a resolution to establish
a formal policy of divesting of companies which prop up the Sudanese
government, which, according to the United States government, is engaged
in genocide in the nation's Darfur region.

The resolution also calls on the System to monitor research that
identifies companies that have business relationships with Sudan, that
provide little benefit to the country's underprivileged, and that have
not developed a business-practice policy that acknowledges and deals
with the fact that the company is doing business with a government that
is involved in genocide and largely supported in its efforts by foreign
direct investment.

This is not just about doing what's right. We also have a legal,
fiduciary responsibility to protect Kentucky's retired teachers from the
devaluation of shares in companies that are engaged in the risky and
potentially damaging action of doing business with the Sudanese
government.

As you may be aware, in 2003, a rebellion broke out in the Darfur region
of western Sudan. In seeking to defeat the rebel movements, the
Government of Sudan armed and supported local tribal and other militias,
which have come to be known as the Janjaweed. Attacks on the civilian
population by the Janjaweed, often with the direct support of government
forces, have led to the deaths of at least 400,000 people in Darfur,
with more than 2 million people being displaced in Darfur and
neighboring Chad. More than 3.5 million men, women, and children are
completely reliant on international aid for survival.

I am very grateful to those of you who provided input and support on
this issue. I will keep you informed as events merit.

Gary L. Harbin, Executive Director
Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System
479 Versailles Road
Frankfort, KY 40601-3868


Dear Gary,

These are desperate times in the country of Sudan, specifically in the Darfur region. A devastating civil war among various rebel factions, militia groups and the government has resulted in more than 400,000 people being killed, and more than 2 million have been displaced from their homes. The Sudanese government has been complicit in these ongoing attacks. And the U.S. government, which blames the Sudanese government for the conflict, has declared this to be genocide.

My colleagues in North Carolina and California have identified nine companies that are providing monetary or military support to the Sudanese government. These companies – Bharat Heavy Electricals, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Nam Fatt, Oil & Natural Gas Company, PECD Berhad, PetroChina Company, Sudan Telecom Company, Tatneft OAO and Videocon Industries Limited – have demonstrated little or no interest in changing their activities or helping to improve the welfare of the Sudanese people. Because of their close ties to the brutal, unpopular Sudanese regime, they also pose serious long-term investment risks to their shareholders.

While Darfur is halfway around the world, we can do something here to respect the paramount value of life, as we protect our investment return. From our previous discussions on this matter, I know you share my concerns, and I know that the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System has already taken steps to divest from companies associated with the Sudanese regime. As we also discussed, I urge the System to make sure it is fully divested of any interests in all of the above companies. Additionally, I intend to introduce a resolution at the next board meeting encouraging the System to continue to both monitor its holdings and stay aware of the research being done by our colleagues to determine if there are other bad actor companies to add to the list above that should require our divestment.

I have been proud to serve as a trustee of the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System for nearly seven years. Your staff is among the finest in the nation, and their outstanding investment record is not only envied across the country, it is certainly appreciated by those of us involved in the System. Thank you for your work on behalf of Kentucky’s retired teachers.

Respectfully yours,



Jonathan Miller
State Treasurer

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Book Review
Miller's 'new moral vision' for America
By James O. Chatham
Special to The Courier-Journal

Many of us Americans have convinced ourselves that the only way for us "to win" is to trash and vilify our adversaries. It happens in the marketplace, in courtrooms, in athletic contests, in religious organizations and most emphatically in political campaigns: We believe we have to show how rotten and evil the adversary is for us to prevail.

We may win temporary victories this way -- especially elections. But the great loser is human community, which gets battered, undermined and destroyed. We create a society that does not respect or trust its leaders and feels deeply cynical about its own prospects.

Jonathan Miller has set out to find a better way. Are there fundamental values people of differing religious and political persuasions can find in common, values that will bring us together and upbuild community? Is there an escape from our current adversarial suicide?

Miller, the state treasurer of Kentucky and a devout Jew, wants us to focus on values he finds in several religious traditions, including his own. The greatest is compassion. "There is no value more celebrated in the human experience than compassion. ... Nearly every world religion ... has accepted God's revelation of compassion for others." The central theme of The Compassionate Community is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." This is where religious ethics begin.

Building on compassion, Miller develops "10 essential American values that emanate from this core theme:" opportunity, responsibility, work, family, freedom, faith, justice, peace, respect and life. He associates each with a biblical character (Noah, Moses, Esther, etc.). With stories from his political and family life, he discusses each, naming specific programs across the country that act on that value. And he bids us, his readers, to join the effort. A section at the end provides organization names and e-mail addresses.

The book gives a new moral vision for America, a vision to replace the "politics of self-interest" that currently ravages us. It also issues a strong call to commitment, connecting the vision with specific commitments we can make.

The question the book leaves us with is: How are we, and our leaders, going to abandon our current path and replace it with another? Miller writes, "All it takes is a recommitment by all Americans to show compassion for others and to demand that our elected representatives, civic activists and religious leaders join in ... this journey." Miller provides www.TheCompassionateCommunity.com for more information.

Miller is a deeply devout man. He also has broad knowledge of governmental and private human help programs. In this book, he brings the two together to show us, his people, a better way. The book seems idealistic. It is hard to imagine how great numbers of people will follow its call. But with the innate compassion that resides in the hearts of millions of Americans, is it not possible that effective national leadership can ignite the flame. Many of us live in that hope.

James O. Chatham is pastor emeritus of Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville.

In today's San Francisco Chronicle, I have laid out what I believe is the only workable path to combat global warming. This isn't the plan that will curb the steady climb of the Earth's temperatures; no, I'll leave that up to those with a greater science background than mine. Rather, this is a plan of cooperation -- a call to arms, if you will -- for liberal and secular environmentalists and religious conservatives to recognize that we all want to preserve God's creation. Only by working together and recognizing that we share the same goal, will we be able to have the discourse necessary to face this great challenge.

Read the Op-Ed here.

Publishers Weekly, the premier publication of the publishing industry, ran an outstanding review of The Compassionate Community. Read it below:

For too long, we've seen the pitfalls of mixing religion and politics. Miller, state treasurer of Kentucky and an active leader of such groups as the Democratic Leadership Council and the United Jewish Communities, manages to gently merge the two into a less-than-gentle plea for American compassion in virtually all corners of our country. Each chapter begins with a concept highlighted by a Hebrew Bible hero and then quickly turns to politics. For example, through Moses and his representation of freedom, Miller lays out a 10-point plan for giving our military and their families the respect, help and benefits he believes they deserve. Jacob's story provides the backdrop for a particularly intriguing chapter on finance, covering everything from predatory credit card companies to identity theft and a call for national financial education. Tempered with anecdotes from his own experiences, political and otherwise, Miller provides extensive examples of successful state programs across the country that he thinks can and should be implemented at the national level. He takes care to consider not just the followers of the Abrahamic religions but Eastern faiths as well as no particular faith at all, making this a must-read for all Americans concerned about the future of their country.(Oct.)

Last week, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a national story on Kentucky's blog ban, and interviewed me. The audio can be heard at npr.org.

I would appreciate your comments!

Authors Find Religion
Politicians, Clergymen Among Those With New Books

(AP) This fall, former Sen. John C. Danforth will tour the country in support of his new book, "Faith and Politics," an attempt, he says, to start a discussion about the role of religion in elections and government.

Danforth will not be alone.

Religion in politics, a key topic of the 2004 presidential campaign and possibly again in 2008, is the subject of numerous books coming out this fall, including Mel White's "Religion Gone Bad," Dan Gilgoff's "The Jesus Machine," Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and the Rev. Barry W. Lynn's "Piety & Politics."

Most of the authors have harsh criticism for religion's impact, with Dawkins writing in disgust about "a system of morals which any civilized modern person, whether religious or not, would find ... obnoxious." Dawkins' book has an announced first printing of 75,000 and his editor at Houghton Mifflin, Eamon Dolan, says that "The God Delusion" reflects a "rising unease with the current state of the world."

"I feel that there's a growing sentiment among thoughtful people in general, whether they're religious or not, that religious belief has gotten us into many of the problems we now find ourselves in — from 9/11 to the Israel-Lebanon conflict to the ban on stem cell research," says Dolan, Houghton Mifflin's vice president and editor in chief.

Others, such as Jonathan Miller, a Democrat and Kentucky's state treasurer, see a positive, unifying role for religion. His "The Compassionate Community" advocates a "values-based policy agenda," based in part on biblical writings, and includes an afterword by former Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, and a blurb from Republican Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey governor and head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Danforth's book may remind readers of Whitman's "It's My Party Too," published in 2005 and a call for GOP moderation. Danforth, an Episcopal priest and former Republican senator from Missouri, says he was inspired to write "Faith and Politics" by the dispute over Terry Schiavo, the irreversibly brain-damaged Florida woman who became a favorite cause of the religious right, and leading Republicans.

"That was the 2-by-4 that hit me over the head. I felt that was totally inappropriate and out of hand," says Danforth, whose book is being published by Viking with a first printing of 100,000.

"The question is whether religion is a reconciling participant in world affairs and American life, or whether it's divisive. To the extent that there has been a marriage of the Republican party with the Christian right, I think religion has been a divisive factor in political life."

Jonathan Karp, publisher of the Warner Twelve imprint at Warner Books, notes a related trend among other new books, what he calls the "feeling among blue state writers that they are out of touch with America and their need to go into that part of America themselves."

Karp cites Brian Mann's "Welcome to the Homeland," coming from Steerforth Press and billed as an antidote to "the condescending conclusion that supporters of President Bush and the right wing Republicans who control Congress are either dumb or mean." Similar works include Peter Feuerhard's "HolyLand USA," Lauren Sandler's "Righteous" and Jeffery L. Sheler's "Believers."

"We keep hearing about the evangelical movement, but many people don't know all that much about it," says Carolyn Carlson: executive editor of Viking Penguin, which is publishing Sheler and Sandler. "It's a much more diverse movement than we're often led to believe."

Today, my office has asked the Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT) to restore access to Treasury employees to the Web sites that it blocked in its directive on Tuesday.

The misguided attempt to limit access to select news sites raises serious constitutional concerns. Further, blocking the eBay website would impair Treasury's ongoing efforts to conduct and monitor online auctions of unclaimed property, which have proven lucrative for Kentucky taxpayers.

We face many difficult challenges in Frankfort. Censoring critical speech, however, will not assist us in moving the state forward.

My office has established guidelines on use of the Internet, among them that only state business is to be conducted on state time. We will be prepared to respond to any reports of computer misuse in our department, and will continue to require our employees’ compliance with our office policy.

I am constantly asked by current KAPT families if they can upgrade or extend a contract they currently hold for their children or grandchildren. The policy is as follows (If you have further questions, call 888-919-KAPT):

Accounts opened prior to fall 2004 enrollment can be upgraded either by adding years and/or changing plans. Accounts opened during fall 2004 enrollment cannot add additional years but can change plan type as long as the same # of years (or less). For example, a 2 yr standard plan could be upgraded to a 1 or 2 yr premium plan.

I am very proud to announce that today marks the official publication launch of my wife Lisa’s book: Girls Rock! Just the Way We Are: Wise Teens Offer Tweens & Moms Advice on Healthy Body Image, Self-Esteem and Personal Empowerment.

If there are young, pre-teen girls in your life—daughters, granddaughters, sisters, nieces—then this book is for you.

Fed up with the lie that beauty is only skin deep, Lisa established Girls Rock!, a non-profit organization which has facilitated workshops for tween girls (9-13) and their mothers since 2004. These workshops shatter the shallow ideal of beauty in our culture while reinforcing character, self-respect, and true health. Facilitators have included health experts (pediatrician, nutritionist, psychologist, martial artist, yoga instructor, pastoral counselor) and teen mentors who have received training in leadership and media literacy facilitation.

In Girls Rock! Just the Way We Are, these same teen mentors and health experts offer critical advice. Written for pre-teens and mothers by the best inside sources around—the teenage girl who navigates adolescence with self-esteem intact—Girls Rock! Just the Way We Are is unique and compelling. The book, edited by Lisa, is written for girls and moms to read aloud together.

Your opportunity to review and purchase Girls Rock! Just the Way We Are, as well as to read detailed information about the non-profit Girls Rock! Organization and the teen authors, is now available at www.TheCompassionateCommunity.com/GirlsRock/.

None of the authors or editors will receive financial compensation. 100% of the net proceeds will be used to fund future Girls Rock! projects.