IRENE KAI – The first World Peace Flame in North America was installed in the lobby of the Civil Rights Museum, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002. Ashland (Oregon) Culture of Peace Commission (ACPC) installed the second North American World Peace Flame on the International Day of Peace two years ago, 21 September 2018.
Category: August 2020
The Israel-UAE Agreement: Good for a Few, Bad for Most
MEL GURTOV – Commentators evidently desperate for good news are touting the Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreement as a welcome path to Middle East peace. The agreement trades Israel’s promise not to annex portions of the West Bank for the UAE’s recognition of Israel. One conservative writer for the Washington Post actually thinks Trump’s role in helping bring the agreement about makes him a Nobel Prize candidate. But hold on.
What New Orleans’ Common Ground Collective Can Teach Us about Surviving Crisis Together
SHANE BURLEY – Fifteen years after Hurricane Katrina, the Common Ground Collective’s uncommon success offers lessons on how to build effective mutual aid projects today.
Listen Democratic Party: Your Supporters Want Military Budget Cuts
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – Democratic majorities were crucial this summer to the defeat of three separate bills, introduced by progressive Democrats, to reduce military spending and/or undo the militarization of police departments. These included amendments in both the Senate and the House to the National Defense Authorization Act, diverting 10 percent of the Department of Defense budget to health care, education and jobs; as well as a Senate proposal to end the 1033 Program, which allows the Pentagon to transfer military gear to the police. The amendment’s defeat in the House was especially an outrage in that the Dems hold a majority in the House and could have passed it.
Andrew Bacevich’s Prescription for Biden’s First Two Weeks
ANDREW BACEVICH – Free of charge, Joe, here is an action plan that will get you from Election Night through your first two weeks in office. Follow this plan and by your 100th day in the White House observers will be comparing you to at least one President Roosevelt, if not both.
Los Angeles County Approves Plan Seeking to Combat Racism and Inequality
ASSOCIATED PRESS – Leaders of the nation’s largest county unanimously approved a sweeping plan to address systemic racism and bias in its policies, practices and services.
An Open Letter to the National Democratic Leadership
PETER BERGEL – In the wake of the COVID epidemic, the movement to ensure that Black Lives Matter, the inadequacies revealed in our health care system, the movement to address climate change and the growing disgust our people feel for the U.S.’s ongoing foreign wars and international bullying, the time has come for system-wide changes.
Mending the Broken Femur: Listening for Each Other’s Humanity
WIM LAVEN – We will start healing as a country, as a people as soon as we start finding the humanity in each other. We are so busy angrily shouting at each other that we have forgotten to listen; let’s take our power back, find our shared humanity, and take care of ourselves—we’ve got work to do.
OR Providence Hospital Workers Call for Livable Wages
ERIC TEGETHOFF – Health care workers at an Oregon hospital say they are rallying for livable wages. Members of the Service Employees International Union local 49 are urging Providence Hospital management in Milwaukie to complete bargaining with workers.
“Reluctant Democracy” Abets Election Theft
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – America’s reluctant democracy: It demands a lot more of us than we’re taught to believe. Yes, voting is important (if you can), but claiming the right to vote and have your vote counted — and being able to vote for more than simply the lesser evil and the maintenance of the status quo — requires continual struggle in the face of lies and teargas. Election season never ends.
Dropping Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Was Unnecessary
GAR ALPEROVITZ and MARTIN SHERWIN – The overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic bombs had not been used — and documents prove that President Truman and his closest advisors knew it.
People of Color Are Not Alone in Facing Lethal Discrimination
MENTAL HEALTH ALLIANCE OF PORTLAND, OREGON – While we are doing everything we can to battle the systemic racism that has built up over hundreds of years, we must help those who are struggling with mental health and addictions, and are most likely right now to face excessive police force.
Preparing a Nonviolent Response to a November Surprise
MARIA J. STEPHAN, CANDACE RONDEAUX and ERICA CHENOWETH – With elections four months away, and the rule of law under steady attack, people power could prove decisive in ensuring a constitutional transfer of power without violence.
Pressured by Climate Activist Groups, Deutsche Bank Ditches Drilling in the Arctic
KRISSY WAITE – Deutsche bank joins a list of two dozen others that will not back Arctic drilling projects.
US and Other Arms Sales Prolong War, Yemenis’ Misery
KATHY KELLY – The cries against war in Yemen fall like rain and whatever thunder accompanies the rain is distant, summer thunder. Yet, if we cooperate with war making elites, the most horrible storms will be unleashed. We must learn–and quickly–to make a torrent of our mingled cries and, as the prophet Amos demanded, ‘let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.â€