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 of radioactive wastes still without a safe, permanent storage place for tens of thousands of years.
Category: Archive
Peacebuilding for Conservatives
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.
Paying Extra for Green Power and Getting Ads Instead
KATE GALBRAITH: The solicitations have been flooding people’s mailboxes lately: pay a bit more on your electricity bill for 100 percent clean wind power. Or, the fliers say, buy “green power certificates†to offset your global warming emissions.
Obama’s Afghan “Strategy”  Another American Tragedy
JOSEPH GERSON: Shortly after President Obama’s Afghanistan War escalation speech, I was contacted by the Voice of America’s Russian Language Service. They wanted to interview me. These are the questions they asked: What do you think about Obama’s new strategy for Afghanistan? Were you surprised by it? Do you think it would be possible to carry out all Obama’s objectives by 2011? Would Afghanistan, you think, cease being a failed state?
International Criminal Court Complaint Filed Against Bush & Co.
FRANCIS A. BOYLE: Champaign, U.S.A./The Hague, Netherlands — Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.
Brief-ings
BRIEF INSIGHTS: 1) Postwar Deformities; 2) Kaufman Bill to Hold U.S. Contractors Overseas Accountable; 3) Stunning Statistics About the War That Everyone Should Know, by Jeremy Scahill; and 4) NRC Looks to Technology to Cut Energy Use.
Western Shoshone Prevail on Mt. Tenabo – Open Pit Gold Mine Enjoined
CORTEZ HILLS GOLD MINE: On December 3, 2009, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling enjoining the construction and operation of the Cortez Hills gold mine, proposed by Barrick Gold Corporation. The Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, which had denied the motion for preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs.
WRL Activist Gets Jail Time for “Blood Money”
MATT DALOISIO: Three Washington DC-area peace proponents interrupted a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy last May 21, calling out “No more blood money for wars!” and “End the wars now.”
Climate Change Ups and Downs in 2009
PHIL CARVER: While the outcome of Copenhagen negotiations on limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was disappointing, 2009 saw good progress on restricting emissions.
Democrats Boosting Right-Wing Populism
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.
PSR Announces Greenfield Peace Writing Contest
KELLY CAMPBELL: With great pleasure, I announce the second annual Greenfield Peace Writing Contest, sponsored by Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, and named for Del Greenfield, our first executive director. Any 11th or 12th grade student in Oregon may enter by submitting an original piece of fiction, poem, or essay (maximum 600 words) reflecting on the following question: In a world where we struggle with wars, injustice, violence in our communities and the threat of environmental devastation…what does peace mean to you?
Middle East Conflict: Fighting to Improve the Past
VALERIE SATUREN: With the rising power of Hamas and a rightward shift in Israeli politics, a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians appears farther out of reach than it has in decades. Meanwhile, the window of opportunity is closing on a two-state solution to the conflict.
Lowering the Bar: How Young is Too Young to Recruit?
JON LETMAN: How old is old enough for students to be approached by military recruiters? High school? Junior high? Fourth grade? How about ten weeks into kindergarten?
Privatizing the Military: Full Speed Ahead Under Obama
JEREMY SCAHILL: A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it.
Our Security is Threatened and We Don’t Have Time for War
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.
Government Hinders Gaza Freedom March
JEAN ATHEY: We are in the Middle East, seeking a nonviolent solution to the blockade of Gaza. Free Gaza actions are occurring all over Cairo, and so the police, who are often in riot gear, have had a busy day — they show up wherever we go. They are incredibly young, maybe 18 or 19. Typically, they surround us with moveable steel fences, which they line up behind and they watch us with what seems to be curiosity, not malice.
J Street Comes to Eugene
COMING TO EUGENE OREGON: J Street, the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement, is setting up shop in Eugene. Its official opening will be celebrated Thursday, February 4th at 7 p.m. at Temple Beth Israel, 1175 E. 29th Ave.
Unique Peace Video
KSIYA SIMONOVA: The winner of “Ukraine’s Got Talent,†Kseniya Simonova, 24, draws a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her unusual talent is mesmeric to watch.
Nuclear Terrorism: How It Can Be Prevented
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.
Native Nations Respond to Climate Change Threats
VALERIE TALIMAN: Nearly 400 Native leaders, scholars, elders and Tribal College students from across the country, joined by scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), came together at a watershed gathering, the Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop II, to formulate a collective response to the far-reaching impacts of climate change on Native lands and communities.
Solarize Portland Makes Solar More Affordable
SOLAR POWER: Homeowners in a Southeast Portland neighborhood have banded together to buy and install solar panels, knocking significant chunks off the price through high-volume purchasing. The 6-month-old Solarize Portland program has wildly exceeded expectations.
Where’s the Money?
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 States, our own Oregon is ninth among the ten “worst†states, and 30th among all states, with a 14.5 percent budget gap for 2009-10 (as of July 2009).
Youth Empowered Action Camp
NORA KRAMER: Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp is training the next generation of leaders and activists who will work for the environment, peace, animal rights, justice, gay rights, etc. We will be having three sessions next summer — two at last year’s beautiful venue near Santa Cruz, CA, and one just outside Portland, Oregon.
Global Warming Caused by Global Warring
CLIMATE CHANGE: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will more than wipe out any reduction in carbon from the government’s proposed climate measures …
100 Ways You Can Help Stop Violence
WORDS TO LIVE BY: Practical ideas for living and teaching peace.
Letters to the Editor
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.
New Afghan War Cost Analysis
JO COMERFORD: The president’s $30 billion figure for getting those 30,000-plus new surge troops into Afghanistan is going to prove a “through-the-basement estimate.†As for the dates for getting them in and beginning to get them out? Well, it’s grain-of-salt time there, too. According to Steven Mufson and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, some of the fuel storage facilities being built to support the surge troops won’t even be completed by the time the first of them are scheduled to leave the country, 18 months from now.
Traumatized Soldiers Bring the War Home
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.â€
Are Americans a Broken People?
BRUCE E. LEVINE: Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
In War, Winners Can Be Losers
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.
It’s Time to Escalate the Peace
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 no one watched it on television.
PGE to Close Boardman Coal Plant
BOB JENKS: Portland General Electric (PGE) announced January 14, 2010 that, rather than attempt to upgrade its Boardman coal fired power plant and operate it until 2040 or longer, it now wants retire the plant in 2020. A number of folks in the Northwest have been working to stop PGE from investing $500 million in new pollution control and operating the plant indefinitely into the future. Investing that kind of money in a pulverized coal plant makes little sense for the planet and is a big financial risk to customers.
Where There is No Vision, the People Perish
PETER BERGEL: “Where there is no vision, the people perish†says the King James Bible in Proverbs 29:18. Certainly the people are in danger of perishing today. If not from wars and nuclear weapons, then from global warming. If not from that, then from a series of other threats. Could vision be what rescues us?
Biggest State Party to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan
NORMAN SOLOMON: There’s a significant new straw in the political wind for President Obama to consider. The California Democratic Party has just sent him a formal and clear message: Stop making war in Afghanistan.
How Patriotism Can Save America
PAUL K CHAPPELL: As a soldier in the United States army, I have often pondered what it means to be patriotic, what it means to serve our country, and what it means to love America. In Will War Ever End? I described a dangerous misconception of patriotism that I witnessed while deployed in Baghdad.
How Television Affects Our Lives
A C NIELSEN: Approximate number of studies examining TV’s effects on children: 4,000
Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children’s TV watching: 73
Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
Opium, Rape and the American Way in Afghanistan
CHRIS HEDGES: The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality.
Obama to Native Americans: You Will Not Be Forgotten
OBAMA: President Barack Obama vowed not to forget American Indian tribes as representatives gathered for a White House conference on native issues.
Beltway Bulletin
The focus of this month’s Beltway Bulletin is “We Are the Climate Catastrophe Deniers”.
Introduction to Cutting Your Carbon Footprint
PETER BERGEL: Helping you and encouraging you to cut your carbon footprint is a major purpose of OPW’s 5% Solution to the Climate Crisis project. In addition to the information provided in this PeaceWorker’s focus topic articles, you will find a great deal more about this subject on OPW’s website, www.oregonpeaceworks.org. On our homepage, click the 5% Solution link.
Study Claims Meat Creates Half of All Greenhouse Gases
MARTIN HICKMAN: “A vegetarian driving a Hummer leaves less of a carbon footprint that a non-vegetarian driving a Prius.†– Reader’s comment.
New MPO Task Force Rolls Up Its Sleeves
1000 FRIENDS OF OREGON: As the issue of global warming occupies center stage on the national and international arena, here in Oregon, attention is focused on a newly appointed committee looking at how Oregon can combat global warming pollution from cars and trucks.
British Challenge: Cut Your Emissions 10% in 2010
10:10 is a mass movement that is signing up people and organizations from every corner of British life. From councils and hospitals to faith groups and scout troops, organizations across the country are deciding to get on board at the start of the journey to a low-carbon society.
British Government Pledges to Cut Carbon Emissions 80% by 2050
DEBORAH SUMMERS & DAMIAN CARRINGTON: The government has committed the U.K. to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by the middle of the century in a bid to tackle climate change. In a move that was widely welcomed by environmental campaigners, Ed Miliband, the new energy and climate change secretary, said that the current 60% target would be replaced by the higher goal in the climate change bill.
What About Carbon Offsets?
Every time we heat our homes, take a flight or drive the car, fossil fuels are burnt and CO2 is released into the atmosphere causing climate change. Carbon offsetting enables you to take responsibility for the carbon emissions you create by paying an organization to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere on your behalf.
Mullen Announces Afghanistan Strategy: Prepare to Nonviolently Resist
JEFF LEYS: Last month, Admiral Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) announced that the Pentagon will seek additional war funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2010. While he did not give a firm dollar amount, the New York Times reported that defense budget analysts are kicking around the number of $50 billion.
Pro-Gaza Activism Contrasts with Congressional Votes
NANCY HEDRICK: Recent activism and awareness-building events around the Israel-Palestine issue and the ongoing siege in Gaza are in contrast with an unfortunate vote in Congress to support belligerent actions by Israel once again.
Tell the State Not to Give Sweetheart Deals to LNG Companies
The State of Oregon is leasing 92 acres of waterfront industrial state-owned land for a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal for just $38,400 per year. This is 3000% less than comparable leases.
Great Getaway Raffle Underway; Drawing Slated for Holiday Party Dec. 6
PETER BERGEL: The Great Getaway Raffle, OPW’s annual fundraiser in which 5 awesome vacation packages are raffled off to ticket holders all over the state is under way. Tickets are currently available at $1 each.
OPW, Allies Meet with Congressman Kurt Schrader
PETER BERGEL: On November 9, a delegation organized by Oregon PeaceWorks met with Oregon’s 5th District congressional representative Kurt Schrader. On the agenda were the wars in the Middle East, global warming and health care. The meeting included representatives from OPW, Veterans for Peace, 1000 Friends of Oregon, Fellowship of Reconciliation and Physicians for Social Responsibility.