Opinion | The PeaceWorker

Letter to the Editor

September 1, 2015

DIANE RUSHCAMP - Organizing means bringing people together around an issue we all can relate. In this spirit, explain why an action is being requested, and when using acronyms, take the time to spell them out.

Tags: Diane Rushcamp
Posted in Letters, September 2015 | No Comments »

Are Banks Soft-Pedaling Clawbacks?

October 5, 2012

DAVID MCCANN - At a time when news of banking scandals is uncomfortably frequent, a new report says that last year only 17% of global banking organizations “clawed back” compensation payments previously made to employees. The survey of financial-services institutions by the consulting firm Mercer was not expansive, with only 42 banks participating (in...

Tags: 2008, 2011, 2012, Andrew Liazos, bank, Bank of America, CEO, Citigroup, clawback, David McCann, Dodd-Frank, Equilar, Eric Daniels, Europe, financial-services, Fortune, gross negligence, JPMorgan, LIBOR rates, Lloyds Banking Group, London Whale, malfeasance, Malus, McDermott Will & Emery, Mercer, Mercer Global Financial Service, misconduct, North America, performance, regulators, risk, scandal, subprime-mortgage, UBS, Vicki Elliott
Posted in Editorials, October 2012 | No Comments »

Bill McKibben is Wrong, We Must Not Forget That “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us”

August 18, 2012

NICKOLAS C. ARGUIMBAU - This is a response to Bill McKibben's Rolling Stone article, "Warming's Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is," Global Warming's Terrifying New Math. Bill McKibben has once again put his heart and soul into an...

Tags: "Speaking Out on Population, 350.org, Ari Fleischer, Bill McKibben, Bob Massie, co2, Diane Francis, fracking, George Bush, global warming, How and Why Journalists Avoid the Population-Environment Connection, I = P x A x T, International Energy Agency, John Q. Public, Julia Whitty, Keystone XL, Maher, Mother Jones, Nicholas C. Arguimbau, non-fossil energy, Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Peak Minerals, Peak Water, Population: the Last Taboo, Sierra Club, The Real Inconvenient Truth
Posted in August 2012, Editorials, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Activist Film: “American Autumn: An Occudoc”

July 3, 2012

DAVID SWANSON - Dennis Trainor, Jr., has produced a full-length movie of the Occupy movement, and he's done a hell of a great job. The Occupy movement was created, as are all movements in the United States, in large part by the corporate media...

Tags: American Autumn, corporate media, David Swanson, Dennis Trainor, occudoc, Occupy, revolution
Posted in July 2012, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Book Review: Hail Holy Light

June 27, 2012

CRAIG CLINE - The title of the book is true to the author’s intent: to explore both the historical and the psychological-social-spiritual events that took place in the 1960s. He makes this exploration personal; a memoir of his own journey and “healing” -- from his old self to his new one.

Tags: 1960s, Alduous Huxley, Camelot, Craig Cline, John Kennedy, Ken McCormack, The PeaceWorker
Posted in June 2012, Reviews | No Comments »

U.S.-Afghan Strategic Partnership: Where Are the Voices of Afghan Citizens?

May 9, 2012

ERIN E NIEMELA - As the NATO summit approaches in May, throngs of peace protestors are expected to descend on Chicago to pressure the U.S.-led, 28-nation military alliance for an end to the war in Afghanistan. But for some activists, it will be too late to protest the greatest threat to a peaceful Afghanistan:...

Tags: Afghan Defense Minister, Afghanistan, Erin Niemela, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, General John R. Allen, military, military spending, Strategic Partnership Agreement, war
Posted in Big Picture, Editorials, May 2012 | 2 Comments »

Backward Glance and Some Advice for Dick Cheney

April 25, 2012

CRAIG CLINE - Former Vice President Dick Cheney is the fortunate beneficiary of a heart transplant. I hope his new heart has more compassion than his old one did.

Tags: Craig Cline, Dick Cheney, economic justice, economy, freedom, Halliburton, heart transplant, military, military spending, Obama, terrorism, war, war profiteer
Posted in April 2012, Letters | 1 Comment »

Department of Defense Should Further Reduce Its Budget

March 10, 2012

CRAIG CLINE - Last summer, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, a law that requires the DoD to reduce its enormous “budget” by close to $1 trillion over the next 10 years.

Tags: budget, Congress, DoD, middle east, military threat, nuclear arms, oil, peace, war
Posted in Letters, March 2012 | 1 Comment »

The Big Money Behind State Laws

February 15, 2012

NY TIMES EDITORIAL - It is no coincidence that so many state legislatures have spent the last year taking the same destructive actions: making it harder for minorities and other groups that support Democrats to vote, obstructing health care reform, weakening environmental regulations and breaking the spines of public- and private-sector unions. All of...

Tags: ALEC, bias, corporate influence, E.P.A, interest groups, legislation, regulators, Right wing politics
Posted in Big Picture, Editorials, February 2012 | No Comments »

Keystone XL Pipeline Will Cost 20,000 Jobs Per Year

February 13, 2012

MARK WIGG - Canada has a surplus of crude oil and the US is pretty much their only market. About 20% of our oil now comes from Canada. According to today’s Toronto Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/crude-glut-in-us-suppresses-canadian-oil-prices/article2330013/) , we are paying $30 less per barrel for tar sands oil because they have no place...

Tags: gas export, Keystone XL pipeline, natural gas, oil, pipeline, Texas
Posted in February 2012, Letters | 2 Comments »

Uncle Sam is Making the Wrong Choices

January 4, 2012

NORMAN SOLOMON - On a recent day in Petaluma, two very different events spotlighted grim results of upside-down priorities from the federal government. Upwards of 600 people gathered for an early breakfast at the Veterans Memorial Hall to raise money for the Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), a nonprofit organization that last year sheltered nearly...

Tags: budget, Congress, economic woe, policy, poor getting poorer, Post-Offie, poverty, Republican strategy, rich getting richer, solvent, US Government, Wall St., war efforts
Posted in January 2012, Opinion | No Comments »

Is Your Cell Phone Spying on You?

December 9, 2011

JIM COOK - Many people have cell phones. Many of those love their phones, and some are so attached to them that they should seriously consider a surgical implant. I am not one of this crowd and, when I was working, only carried a cell phone under protest and rarely turned it on. I...

Tags: Carrier IQ, Cell phones, corporate, GPS, illegal, lawsuits, spying, tracking
Posted in December 2011, Letters | 1 Comment »

Congress Needs Basic Reform

August 9, 2011

DAVID BALL - I am writing to you today to pass on some information that I came upon recently that I thought you at Oregon PeaceWorks might be interested in. This is bipartisan in nature and is aimed at both Democrats and Republicans.

Tags: citizens, Congress, equitable, health-care costs, lawmakers, Legislators, pension, reform, tenure
Posted in August 2011, Letters | 2 Comments »

Mexicans Use Nonviolence to Address War on Drugs

June 8, 2011

PATRICK T. HILLER - A new, citizen-driven nonviolent reality is emerging in the escalated war on drugs in Mexico.

Tags: border, citizenship, corruption, drug cartels, immigration, Mexico, military
Posted in Analysis, June 2011, Opinion | No Comments »

The Search for War Never Ends in DC

June 6, 2011

NORMAN SOLOMON - In times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked about yearning for peace. But the last decade has brought a gradual shift in the rhetorical zeitgeist while a tacit assumption has taken hold -- war must go on, one way or another.

Tags: Afghanistan, budget, humanitarian, military, peace, terrorism, war
Posted in Analysis, June 2011, Opinion | No Comments »

It’s Time to Close California’s Nuclear Power Plants

May 3, 2011

NORMAN SOLOMON - The facts all point to this “inconvenient truth” -- the time has come to shut down California’s two nuclear power plants as part of a swift transition to an energy policy focused on clean and green renewable sources and conservation.

Tags: environment, fiscal responsibility, leadership, Nuclear Meltdown, Nuclear regulation, protect the planet, sustainable energy
Posted in May 2011, Opinion | No Comments »

Idealism is the New Realism

March 6, 2011

PETER BERGEL - I was among the 800 or so who turned out in Salem, OR on Feb. 26 to support preservation of Wisconsin public employees’ collective bargaining rights and protest the increasing domination by corporations of our political and economic system. It was one of those heady moments when ordinary people scent the...

Tags: environmental, global warming, human rights, political policy, Realism, sacrifices, species, status-quo, survival, sustainability
Posted in March 2011, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Reader: Tea Party is “Grossly Racist”

December 12, 2010

RON LOWE - Let's cut to the chase about the Tea Party. Do you want to spend another year listening to their hypocrisy and tomfoolery? Could it be that Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, and Republicans, are getting away with their lies because their base and many Americans are simply dumber than...

Tags: Ron Lowe, Tea Party
Posted in Dec. 2010, Letters | No Comments »

Peace Workers Must Commit to the Long Haul

December 8, 2010

PETER BERGEL - Former U.S. Poet Laureate William Stafford wrote in his journal on March 20, 1990, “Artists and peace workers are in it for the long haul and not to be judged by immediate results. Redemption comes with care.” Seeing the results of last month’s election, it would be easy to get discouraged....

Tags: Oregon PeaceWorks, Peter Bergel
Posted in Dec. 2010, Editorials, OPW News | No Comments »

Oppose Animal Wrongs

October 21, 2010

CRAIG AND CHERIE CLINE -- We have given our personal support to a great many “animal issues” organizations over the past 40 years. We think it would be highly beneficial for all of the organizations (and at least indirectly beneficial for all the animals) if they were to better engage and network with each...

Tags: animal issues, animal rights, animal wrongs, Craig and Cherie Cline
Posted in Letters, Oct 2010 | 1 Comment »

You Must Read This Book: Washington Rules

September 29, 2010

CRAIG CLINE -- I want to recommend a "must read" book for anyone who wonders why our country is still at war after nine years. We wage war - -despite the deep wounds and dreadful deaths that it imposes not only on our so-called enemies, but also on ourselves.

Tags: Andrew J. Bacevich, Craig Cline, Dwight D. Eisenhower, SemiWarriors, Washington Rules
Posted in Letters, Sept 2010 | 1 Comment »

How Many Attacks on our Liberty Can We Tolerate?

September 5, 2010

PETER BERGEL -- Here’s another intrusion into the rights that most of us thought were sacrosanct in these United States: now government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This development is...

Tags: Benjamin Franklin, Constitution, Drug Enforcement Administration, GPS, PeaceWorks, Peter Bergel, The PeaceWorker
Posted in Editorials, Opinion, Sept 2010 | 2 Comments »

You Can Get It If You Really Want

August 24, 2010

PETER BERGEL -- Two days ago, The PeaceWorker published an explanation by Rep Peter DeFazio of his recent votes on funding the war in Afghanistan. This article was encouraging in that it expressed the misgivings many of us have about the war and those prosecuting it. It also explained in a cogent way what...

Tags: 9-11, acidification, Afghanistan, force projection, global warming, mission, nuclear annihilation, Peter Bergel, Peter DeFazio, war
Posted in Aug 2010, Editorials | 1 Comment »

PeaceWorker Comments on Social Security Article

August 14, 2010

PETER BERGEL -- For decades, beginning during the Vietnam War, our elected leaders have tried to mask the size of the national debt they have permitted to accumulate by “borrowing” the surplus from the Social Security Trust Fund. This was done without consulting the public in any way, and largely without public knowledge, even...

Tags: economy, insurance, MoveOn.org, national debt, Nita Chaudhary, Peter Bergel, social security
Posted in Aug 2010, Editorials | 1 Comment »

The War Supplemental Vote Was Not Even Close

August 2, 2010

JOE WALSH -- The vote was not even close and especially when you know that it took a 2/3 vote. The reason for the 2/3 vote to pass, was it was a rule change. We have been informed that all our delegation except that one republican voted against war funding, I want...

Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Joe Walsh, middle east, war supplemental appropriation
Posted in Aug 2010, Letters | 1 Comment »

Why Not Ask for More?

April 27, 2010

I have been thinking about a verse from Leonard Cohen’s oft-recorded country song Bird on a Wire, a lot recently. Written in 1968, this simple, if depressing, song has been covered by artists as varied as Cohen himself, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, The Bobs, Dave Van Ronk, k.d. laing and the Neville Brothers, to...

Tags: Bird on a Wire, cooperation, domination, Leonard Cohen, new paradigm, Patriotism, peace visioning, Peter Bergel, restructuring, treason
Posted in Apr 2010, Editorials, Peace Visioning | No Comments »

Attacks on Taxing Can Promote Goofed-Up Government

April 16, 2010

BARRY-LEE COYNE: Whether you are a conservative or liberal or lie somewhere in between, I have a challenging question to pose: Do you really want to suffer from the pitfalls of Government-on-the-Cheap?

Tags: budget, government, Lee Coyne, public revenue, public services, taxes
Posted in Analysis, Opinion | No Comments »

Preserving the Golden Rule as a Piece of Anti-Nuclear History

March 31, 2010

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: The Golden Rule is in danger. No, not the famed ethical code -- though proponents of selfishness certainly have ignored it -- but a thirty-foot sailing ship of the same name that rose to prominence about half a century ago.

Tags: Albert Bigelow, Atomic Energy Commission, Earle Reynolds, Golden Rule, Lawrence Wittner, nuclear testing, nuclear weapons, Phoenix, SANE
Posted in Analysis, March 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Haiti Disaster Highlights Need for International Law on “Looting”

March 23, 2010

BECKEY SUKOVATY: When desperate Haitian earthquake victims tried to save themselves or rescue others by looking for resources needed to survive in the collapsed buildings of Port-au-Prince, they were often branded “looters.” New Orleans residents in dire need after Hurricane Katrina were similarly condemned.

Tags: Beckey Sukovaty, disaster, earthquake, international law, looting, New Orleans, survival
Posted in Analysis, March 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Don’t Call It a “Defense” Budget

March 15, 2010

NORMAN SOLOMON: The new budget from the White House will push U.S. military spending well above $2 billion a day. This isn’t “defense.” Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.

Tags: defense, Department of Defense, guns and butter Cartoon: Use Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Cartoon, Norman Solomon, Pentagon, warfare state
Posted in Analysis, March 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Have Americans Given Up?

March 2, 2010

PETER BERGEL: In an enormously provocative article entitled “Are Americans a Broken People? Why We've Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of Oppression” psychologist Bruce E. Levine divines what ails the American body politic.

Tags: broken Americans, Bruce Levine, demoralization, depression, hope, Peter Bergel
Posted in Editorials, March 2010, Opinion | 2 Comments »

Howard Zinn and the State of the Union

February 28, 2010

TOM H. HASTINGS: Howard Zinn has crossed over. He was a mensch, a historian and a peace and justice activist. He was not convinced that nonviolence was always the answer, but he often provided expert testimony for nonviolent resisters seeking help in conducting a robust defense of their actions in opposition to militarism and...

Tags: George Bush, history, Howard Zinn, John McCain, State of the Union, Tom Hastings
Posted in Analysis, March 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life

February 21, 2010

NORMAN SOLOMON: When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the Presidents’ Day weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.

Tags: Afghanistan, Haiti, Norman Solomon, spending priorities
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Nuclear Power: Still a Bad Idea

February 18, 2010

RALPH NADER: A generation of Americans has grown up without a single nuclear power plant being brought on line since before the near meltdown of the Three Mile Island structure in 1979. They have not been exposed to the enormous costs, risks and national security dangers associated with their operations and the large amount...

Tags: Amory Lovins, Chernobyl, corporate welfare, nuclear industry, nuclear power, Ralph Nader, subsidies
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Peacebuilding for Conservatives

February 17, 2010

WINSLOW MYERS: There is big money in polarization, as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other media kingpins understand all too well. But one of the many tragic by-products of our polarized political culture is the demonization of conservatives by progressives.

Tags: Andrew Bacevich, Beyond War, conservative, left-leaner, liberal, polarization, Winslow Myers
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Democrats Boosting Right-Wing Populism

February 9, 2010

NORMAN SOLOMON: In his triumphant speech on election night, the next senator from Massachusetts should have thanked top Democrats in Washington for all they did to make his victory possible.

Tags: corporate healthcare, Democrats, healthcare, healthcare reform, Norman Solomon, Obama, Progressives
Posted in Editorials, Feb 2010, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Our Security is Threatened and We Don’t Have Time for War

February 5, 2010

PETER BERGEL: The government and the Pentagon are right. Our national security is definitely at risk. Afghanistan? Iraq? Al Qaeda? Small potatoes. Yemen? Iran? Even smaller. Nope, the big threats are not military. Nor can they be addressed by the military.

Tags: fascism, global warming, military, national security, Peter Bergel, Vision, war
Posted in Editorials, Feb 2010, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Nuclear Terrorism: How It Can Be Prevented

February 2, 2010

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: The recent furor over an unsuccessful terrorist attempt to blow up an airliner is distracting us from considering the possibility of a vastly more destructive terrorist act: exploding a nuclear weapon in a heavily-populated area.

Tags: fissile material, Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Lawrence S. Wittner, non-proliferation treaty, nuclear weapons, terrorism, War on Terror
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Where’s the Money?

January 29, 2010

CRAIG CLINE: On January 4th, the Statesman Journal ran an Associated Press article entitled: “Most state budgets on path to even leaner times.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that state budgets are likely to fall $180 billion short for the new fiscal year. According to the Pew Center on the...

Tags: Craig Cline, military spending, taxes, war
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | No Comments »

Letters to the Editor

January 25, 2010

LETTERS: 1) "Lack of Draft Leads to Apathy" from Carla Mikkelson; and 2) A poetic letter, "Where Does the President Go?" from Virginia Bailey or Portland, OR.

Tags: Afghanistan, antiwar demonstrations, Carla Mikkelson, Dover, draft, president
Posted in Feb 2010, Letters, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Traumatized Soldiers Bring the War Home

January 23, 2010

ROBERT C. KOEHLER: There’s no armor, it turns out, for conscience. So our men and women are coming home from the killing fields wounded in their heads, used up, greeted only by the military’s own meat grinder of inadequate health care and intolerance for “weakness.”

Tags: cultural ignorance, Dr. Shira Maguen, factors causing PTSD, guns, military mental health, murder, negative psychological effects of killing, PTSD, racism, Robert Koehler, suicide, Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | 2 Comments »

In War, Winners Can Be Losers

January 22, 2010

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: Thus far, most of the supporters and opponents of escalating the U.S. war in Afghanistan have focused on whether or not it is possible to secure a military victory in that conflict. But they neglect to consider that, in war, even a winner can be a loser.

Tags: Afghanistan, death toll, Lawrence Wittner, military victory, the greatest nation in the world
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | 1 Comment »

It’s Time to Escalate the Peace

January 21, 2010

RANDALL AMSTER: What if they held a war and no one came? No one was out in the streets, no one paid the "big speech" much mind, no one asked for permission to protest, no one wrote an open letter to the President. No one enlisted for it, no one paid for it, and...

Tags: be peace, building a pro-peace movement, Jr., Martin Luther King, nonviolence, nonviolent protest, peace escalation movement, Randall Amster
Posted in Analysis, Feb 2010, Opinion | No Comments »