NAMIC Notebook

Gripping lineup of speakers at the final day of NAMIC ‘s annual conference in NYC. Mariane Pearl, who’s book “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl,” was recently turned into a movie starring Angelina Jolie , held a captivated audience as she spoke of her and her slain husband’s mission to promote tolerance and inspire respect for differences. — Later, CNN ‘s Anderson Cooper, NAMIC’s Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement award recipient, recounted tales of dying children in Niger and tragedy in New Orleans (including the lack of a marker recognizing where 91-year-old Ethel Freeman died—she was the woman in a wheelchair who died and had been wheeled off to the side at the city’s convention center, a photograph seen all over the world). Cooper said he used to believe that his reporting would move someone to act. Now, “I’m not sure my stories make a difference,” he said, noting that he believes it’s his duty to tell the stories nevertheless.