The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Debra Winger and Rights Camera Action!

James Byrd Jr. and the Struggle for Tolerance

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Video of the Week: 5 Tips for Reducing Your Garbage

The Week in Green Politics

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Andy Kondrat:

Disappearing Destinations: Visit Before They Vanish

Chuck Norris Wants America to Start Drilling for Oil Here and Now!

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Jon Popham:

NASA Plans Voyage to the Sun

The Girl Effect

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Giulia Rozzi:

Gay Discrimination at Seattle Baseball Game

Bison Brucellosis

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Gina Telaroli:

Fathers Day Celebration of Movie Dads #1

My Father’s Gift of Tecumseh!

James Byrd Jr., a black man, was a 49 when three white men beat him, chained him by the ankles to the bumper of a pickup truck, and dragged down three-miles of country road in Jasper Texas. Byrd’s head, limbs, dentures and wallet were found along the road where Byrd was tortured, dismembered and killed. That was 10 years ago. Today, this unspeakable episode of racism and hatred continues to haunt the town of Jasper. And yet, out of this “modern day lynching” reconciliation and healing has occurred, thanks to the Byrd family. Days after his son was killed, then 73-year-old James Byrd Sr. announced “We may be hurting, but we’re not hating.” To prove that they were choosing healing over hating, the family created the James Byrd Jr. Foundation for Racial Healing, which conducts diversity workshops, awards scholarships to students of color and helped pass a hate crime bill in Texas. The foundation also runs an oral history project which has collected over 2,600 people’s experiences of racism.

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