MICHAEL MOORE: You want something to do? Well, you’ve come to the right place! ‘Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.
Category: Archive
We Were Arrested for Speaking
DAVID SWANSON: The president was holding a press conference inside the White House fence with a bunch of doctors who oppose serious healthcare reform. Donna Smith, star of Michael Moore’s “Sicko”, was standing next to me and telling me that every patient who had appeared in that movie had determined that the healthcare…
News Reports from Inside the Financial Coup
DAVID DEGRAW: The past few days have been very revealing when it comes to the financial coup that has occurred here in the U.S. When we say financial coup, we’re not giving you hyperbole. We’re telling you the technical term for what has occurred.
Beltway Bulletin
Phil Carver’s Beltway Bulletin will not appear this month because Phil spent the month of October participating the 350-mile Oregon 350 Climate Crisis Walk. The column will return next month.
Humanity Reconstitutes the World — As Never Before
PAUL HAWKEN: When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.
Obama and Medvedev Cut Nuclear Weapons
BEN SPENCER: Barack Obama last July thrashed out a deal which could see Russia and the U.S. scrap about 1,000 nuclear warheads each. Obama, determined to rebuild relations with Russia, signed a preliminary agreement with President Dmitry Medvedev at a Moscow summit.
Rev. Gail McDougle — 2009 Salem Peacemaker Award Winner
PETER BERGEL: Each year during the annual Salem Peace Lecture, the Salem Peacemaker Award is bestowed upon an outstanding peace advocate. This year the award was given to Rev. Gail McDougle, pastor of Salem’s First Congregational Church (First Church of Christ) in recognition of her many years of service to the homeless, immigrant communities, the peace community and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) community.
Sgt. Kevin Benderman, An American Hero
CYNTHIA McKINNEY: On July 28, 2005, in a small nondescript courtroom at Ft. Stewart in Georgia, Sgt. Kevin Benderman was sentenced to 15 months for his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Benderman is just one of thousands of modern heroes who have followed their conscience and taken the difficult stand of resistance within the armed forces.
Making Nature Sacred Again – The Politics of Enchantment
WILLIAM JAMES GIBSON: Like Special Forces commandos, the L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters came at 2 a.m., Jan. 10, 2002, when they knew their enemy would be asleep. After a 71-day siege, the lone warrior knew the end was coming and chained himself into place for one last stand. Mesmerized, the public watched the arrest of a tree-sitter, who was charged with trespassing.
WWII Pacifists Served in Oregon
JEFFREY KOVAC: Largely overlooked and unmentioned in the discussion of America’s military entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan is the story of some 12,000 conscientious objectors who refused to fight in World War II and instead performed free labor in Civilian Public Service camps across the United States.
Brief-ings
Brief insights: 1) Website to Help High Schoolers Opt Out of the Military; 2) Former OPW Staffer Arrested; and 3) Sign of the Times.
Obama at the U.N.: Securing Our Future
ROBERT F. DODGE: President Obama reestablished the United States global leadership role in creating a secure tomorrow as he made his U.N. debut this past week. Speaking before the General Assembly he put forward “four pillars” that he said are “fundamental to the future that we want for our children — for a safer America and world.
Another Nobel Controversy
LAWRENCE S WITTNER: The swirling controversy over President Barack Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize brings to mind another controversy that began in October 1985, when the Norwegian committee announced that that year’s prize would go to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).
Imagine Eugene City of Peace
DAVID HAZEN: Imagine what it would mean to you personally if peace were the guiding principle for everyone around you. Imagine meeting face-to-face with people who already focus on living peacefully. Would that be fun or what? Eugene City of Peace will demonstrate the joy, wonder, and power of community connection and cooperation. Imagine the freedom to be different and be safe!
350.org Walk, Other Oregon Actions, Join Worldwide Event
PETER BERGEL: October 24 marked a day of world-wide demonstrations drawing attention to global heating. It was billed as “the biggest day of action the world has ever seen.” Whether that is true or not, it surely signaled a new level of awareness about the threat posed by the climate crisis.
Dolores Huerta Brings Her Message to Salem
PETER BERGEL: Legendary labor organizer Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Worker Union (UFW) with Cesar Chavez, was the Salem Peace Lecture speaker this year. She spoke at Willamette University on October 21. She also spoke with The PeaceWorker and other alternative news media. This is a summary of her message from the lecture and the interviews.
Holiday Party, Annual Meeting and Great Getaway Raffle
PETER BERGEL: Terrific vacation packages to be raffled off in OPW’s popular Great Getaway Raffle are being secured. Tickets will be on sale as soon as all packages are complete. If we have your address, we will mail you a raffle entry form. If we have your email address we will also email you the form. Otherwise, you can check our website www.oregonpeaceworks.org for details.
Calendar
To offer calendar items, post them at www.oregonprogressivenetwork.org or email them to: updates@oregonpeaceworks.org before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.
Building a Better Strategy for the Peace Movement
PETER BERGEL: I have recently become increasingly critical of the strategy and tactics that have guided the peace movement for the last decade or more. The dangers that threaten the human race have multiplied rapidly, even as our ability to address them has weakened, yet we continue to invest the bulk of our resources in approaches that are not working — exactly the error we regularly criticize the military and the government for making. It is time — past time — for a major strategic overhaul based on a broad peace vision.
The Afghanistan Gap: Press vs. Public
NORMAN SOLOMON: This month, a lot of media stories have compared President Johnson’s war in Vietnam and President Obama’s war in Afghanistan. The comparisons are often valid, but a key parallel rarely gets mentioned the media’s insistent support for the war even after most of the public has turned against it.
Spooks on the Loose
KEN MCCORMACK: The CIA and over 20 other such agencies are rapidly spreading our national disease — much more dangerous than the flu — diagnosed by doctors “terminal hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy syndrome appears with two levels of truth. Truth one is public. Truth two is simply the dirty laundry.
Recovering to Death
TOM H. HASTINGS: If stimulus packages for corporate sinkholes are good enough for the American taxpayer, why can’t we find $5.4 billion to create minimum wage jobs, with full health care benefits, for the 216,000 Americans who lost their jobs in August? Coincidentally, $5.4 billion is the amount the Pentagon will spend next year on unmanned vehicles, such as the Predator, which is killing so many civilians in Pakistan and turning our friends into our sworn enemies.
When “Public Options” Serve the Public — and When They Don’t
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: Currently, there is nothing more controversial in President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposal than the “public option.” Much of the controversy, of course, has been generated by private insurance companies, determined to safeguard their hefty profits, and by Republican politicians, eager to destroy anything that might redound to the benefit of the Democrats. Even so, a little clear thinking on the subject of public programs might illuminate their advantages and disadvantages.
Major Religions Call for Investigation into Torture
CHARLES BUSCH: Our nation is presently involved in a debate about the sanctioned use of torture by the United States since 9/11. Is it enough to denounce torture and focus on the future, or do we need to investigate the past and seek accountability?
Letters to the Editor
This months LETTERS include: 1) Resist Tearing the Tops Off Mountains to Mine Coal; 2) Recruiters: Replacing Those They Have Killed; and 3) Obstructionists Ignore American Health and Well-Being.
Insitu Deserves a Harder Look
SUSAN GARRETT CROWLEY: Insitu, a local drone developer now owned by Boeing, has recently approached cities in the Columbia River Gorge as a part of a public relations campaign to develop public support for its operations. Since Boeing/Insitu has initiated this discussion, Washington and Oregon citizens may want to carefully consider the true nature of what it is designed to do for the U.S. military.
News That’s Not Fit to Print
PROJECT CENSORED: Some news is just too hot to cover and Project Censored for 34 years has been exposing the most under-covered censored news stories of the year with their annual release of the Censored yearbooks.
Racial Profiling and Domestic Terrorism: Making White Terror Invisible While Blaming the Victim
DR. BEAU GROSSCUP: Since the 9/11 attacks, racial profiling has become an accepted component of the War on Terror. Given that the perpetrators of 9/11 were assumed to be members of Al Qaeda, anyone looking “Middle Eastern” or Arab or Muslim was/is racially profiled as suspicious. But in combating domestic terrorism, racial profiling of people of color makes no objective sense.
Beltway Bulletin
PHIL CARVER: This month’s Beltway Bulletin includes: 1) Ending the Afghanistan War; 2) The Health Care Bill; 3) Debunking Climate Change Deniers; and 4) More Information.
Confronting an Evil Past
JORGE HEINE: The initial trickle of evidence about the many illegal ways in which Washington pursued its counterterrorist offensive from 2001 to 2008, first exposed by the pictures from Abu Ghraib in 2004, has turned into a veritable flood.
Blackwater’s Private Spies
JEREMY SCAHILL: Blackwater had largely receded from the headlines save for the occasional blip on the media radar sparked by Congressman Henry Waxman’s ongoing investigations into its activities. Its forces remained deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and business continued to pour in.
Covert Action 101
J. V. GRADY: It is quite possible, even probable, that many of the bombings against the Shi’ia and Sunni populations have been carried out by American, British, and even Israeli operatives.
The Illegal Spying Game, Played Over and Over
GLENN GREENWALD: Ever since The New York Times revealed in December, 2005 that the Bush administration had spent the last four years illegally spying on Americans’ communications without warrants, there have been numerous additional revelations of various types of massive illegal government spying.
Brief-ings
Brief insights: 1) Despite Slump U.S. Role As Top Arms Supplier Grows; 2) Intelligence Agencies Say No New Nukes in Iran; 3) Radio Play for Peace – Get Your Free Copy; 4) U.S. Dominates Arms Sales; 5) Keeping Nuclear Abolition on the Agenda; and 6) Think Outside the Box.
OPW Welcomes Leonard Perez as 5% Solution Staff
LEONARD PEREZ: Oregon PeaceWorks is delighted to once again have a staff person working on its 5% Solution to the Climate Crisis program.
Two Events to Feature Claude AnShin Thomas
CLAUDE ANSHIN THOMAS: Highly decorated combat veteran, zen priest, world renowned retreat leader, and public speaker Claude AnShin Thomas will facilitate a meeting with soldiers/veterans and peace activists to address the painful alienation often existing between them at 4 p.m. Sunday November 22, 2009 above the Tea Party Bookshop, 210 Liberty Street N.E. Salem, OR.
Iconic Farm Worker Organizer to Speak in Salem Oct. 21
DOLORES HUERTA: The annual Salem Peace Lecture will celebrate its 20th year by presenting United Farm Worker union organizer Dolores Huerta on Wednesday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Hudson Hall in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center at Willamette University. Ms. Huerta will speak on “Immigration Reform and Farm Worker Justice.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
If Peace Broke Out, What Would It Look Like?
PETER BERGEL: Response to OPW’s call for better peace movement strategy has been warm. What’s it all about? Read my editorial (include link here) in this month’s PeaceWorker or visit OPW’s blog at http://oregonpeaceworks.org/wordpress/?cat=4.
Are You Getting OPW’s Emails?
OREGON PEACEWORKS: OPW periodically sends out information about current events, OPW projects, new PeaceWorker postings, other groups’ projects, and more. If we have your email address, we have added it to our lists, but if we don’t, we can’t send you any of this great stuff.
Coming Soon: the Great Getaway Raffle
OREGON PEACEWORKS: Tickets for OPW’s popular Great Getaway Raffle will be available as soon as we secure all our great getaway packages. Watch your email for details.
Calendar
To offer calendar items, post them at www.oregonprogressivenetwork.org or email them to: updates@oregonpeaceworks.org before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.
“If You’re Not Teaching Peace, What Are You Teaching?”Â
DARREN REILEY: This sign was carried by one of our Peace Village teachers at Eugene, Oregon’s annual March protest against the war in Iraq. The explicit, rhetorical question carries within it, naturally, several subtler, implicit ones. One of the main critiques suggested by this question is that “peace,” as a subject, philosophy, or even as a topic for class discussion, is rarely addressed in our public school system.
NPP Tallies Cost of War Through September 2009
Congress has appropriated another $84.8 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of the 2009 fiscal year ending September 30, 2009. The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, signed into law by President Obama on June 24, 2009, allocates $45.5 billion for war-related actions in Iraq and $39.4 billion to Afghanistan[1] [2].
Senate Rubber Stamps Army Increase on 93-1 Vote
JASON DITZ: In a 93-1 vote, the U.S. Senate has agreed to authorize a “temporary†increase of the size of the army by up to 30,000 additional troops. The vote appears to be little more than a rubber stamp approving an announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates about his intention to increase the military by at least 22,000. The bill only authorizes the increased size for the next three years and would leave making it permanent to a future vote.
Lust for Profit is Out of Control
PETER BERGEL: $700 billion is a number that rings a bell for most Americans these days. It was the first installment U.S. taxpayers were forced to pony up for Wall Street to “stimulate” the economy. But, according to analyst Don Monkrude, that sum is also, coincidentally, the amount by which the 400 richest Americans increased their net worth during the Bush years.
The Incredible Shrinking Health Care Reform
NORMAN SOLOMON: Like soap in a rainstorm, “health care reform” is wasting away.
They’ve Got the Whole World in Their Hands
KEN McCORMACK: If we are to have peace, it must begin with the children.
Seeing Obama as Norwegians See Him
GEORGE LAKEY: I just returned from a research trip to Norway where the people I interviewed often brought up the topic of our new President. The first was Kristin Clemet, the director of a conservative think tank. “This spring on a delegation to Washington I was struck again,” she said, “by how different the political spectrum is in Norway from your country. Here, Obama would be on the right wing.” I checked her view with others — academics, politicians, activists all over the Norwegian spectrum — and all but one agreed. In Norwegian terms, our President’s positions are very conservative.
Letters to the Editor
This month’s letters to the Editor: 1) Vote With Your Dollars Against Chevron ; 2) Mountaintop Removal Protest Prompts Bail Money Request; 3) ACES Bill Too Watered Down to Support; and 4) Voice of the People? Not.
Now We See You, Now We Don’t: The Human Cost of Drone Attacks
KATHY KELLY: In early June, 2009, I was in the Shah Mansoor displaced persons camp in Pakistan, listening to one resident detail the carnage which had spurred his and his family’s flight there a mere 15 days earlier. Their city, Mingora, had come under massive aerial bombardment. He recalled harried efforts to bury corpses found on the roadside even as he and his neighbors tried to organize their families to flee the area.