OLIVIA ROSANE – Three oil companies have canceled their leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “These exits clearly demonstrate that international companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples,” the Gwich’in Steering Committee said in a statement.
Category: June 2022
Organizers are reeling yet determined following Supreme Court’s dangerous expansion of gun rights
ZANE MCNEILL – After celebrating the Senate’s gun control legislation, advocates are planning new actions in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on concealed carry.
KXL is Officially Dead
JOYCE BRAUN – KXL Official Termination “marks the end of one heck of a fight!”
Archbishop Wester’s Statement re: First Meeting of State Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
ARCHBISHOP JOHN C. WESTER – The United States and the eight other nuclear-armed states are boycotting the historic First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons taking place in Vienna June 21-23. The Treaty, banning nuclear weapons just like previous weapons of mass destruction treaties banning chemical and biological weapons, has been signed by 122 countries and ratified by 62.
Largest Ever US Naval War Drills in Pacific a Threat to Both Peace and Marine Life
ANN WRIGHT – While the world’s attention is focused on the brutal Russia-Ukraine conflict, half-way around the world, in the Pacific Ocean, competition/confrontation of the U.S. and NATO toward China and North Korea is taking an increasingly military turn.
The Case for Stopping the Ukraine-Russia War
DONALD GROSS – The Ukraine-Russia war has raged for more than a hundred days. Now is a critical time to reflect on the case for people of good will to urge their leaders to end the war. The benefits of doing so are manifest.
Is our democracy at risk? Actions we all can take to protect it
MELINDA BURRELL – The January 6th Committee is showing us how fragile our democracy is. Our trust in each other and in our institutions is waning – in both parties. Norms of peaceful, inclusive democratic activity are being eroded, as we see from reports about professional election officials being intimidated.
Time to launch “Dads Demand Action to Raise Healthy Boys”
ROB OKUN – This Father’s Day, if you like, sure, fire up the grill and give Dad a new fishing rod. But also, let’s encourage men—fathers, sons, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, nephews—to move off the sidelines as bystanders and onto a field of dreams as change agents cultivating a disease-resistant crop of healthy boys.
Organizers Are Demanding a Green New Deal for the Gulf South
C.J. POLUCHRONIOU – The Green New Deal project proposed by progressive activists and lawmakers carries special weight for sustainability in the Gulf Coast.
Amid the Carnage in Ukraine, it’s Time for World Leaders to Rethink their Priorities
DEREK ROYDEN – The usual suspects in Western media, think tanks and among the political class argue not for negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian leaders to bring the conflict to an end but further escalation,
Sleepwalking into Climate Nightmares
RIVERA SUN – Political leaders are asleep at the wheel. They’re dreaming of midterm elections, business-as-usual, yet another war, and hoping to pass the buck on dealing with the non-negotiable need for a swift transition away from fossil fuels. We’re running out of time.
Protesters Take On NRA Convention After Texas Shooting
CHARLIE SCUDDER – Hundreds rally for gun control outside the NRA’s Houston meeting, calling on Americans to ‘protect kids, not guns.’
To What Extent Has Sexual Assault Become “the American Way?”
ROBERT C. kOEHLER – Curbing sexual assault — ending it — is not a power struggle. It’s far more complex than that, a process that can only begin with honoring and valuing the victims, setting aside what we think we know, and listening to them.
“Gun Control” at the Pentagon? Don’t Even Think About It.
NORMAN SOLOMON – Gun control is a great idea. For the small guns. And the big ones.
The War in Ukraine: A National Debate is Needed
ARNOLD OLIVER – There are no more important decisions that republics can make than whether to go to war. In such times of crisis, citizens are obliged to inform themselves on the facts and issues as best they can, and to speak out clearly and forcefully. But it is difficult to see how this is possible if any questioning of a rigid orthodoxy leads to immediate attacks on one’s character; or worse, if the major media outlets are in lockstep on the march to war, and deny the public access to dissenting views. All of this happened in 2003, and it is again happening now.