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“Nonviolence Is Ethical, Practical, Powerful.”

December 17, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The general public — and also many people in progressive movements for peace and social/economic justice — do not understand nonviolence adequately.  People could make much more progress in working for issues we care about if we understood nonviolence more thoroughly and if we grounded ourselves more profoundly in it. The January 2018 episode of Glen Anderson’s TV series “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” helps people understand nonviolence more richly and encourages them to practice it more effectively. Watch the video at this link:  “Nonviolence Is Ethical, Practical, Powerful.” Read a transcript at this link:  2018.01 Program Summary — Nonviolence After I […]

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Watch these TV interviews about nuclear weapons

December 9, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

You can learn a lot about nuclear weapons by watching several interviews produced in Olympia WA by Glen Anderson.  These are posted in a chronological list on the “TV Programs” part of www.olympiafor.org and in the “Nuclear Weapons” category of this website, www.parallaxperspectives.org See this short list:  Watch interviews about nuclear weapons through websites

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“Empowering Ourselves for Profound Democracy”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In modern American society, people recognize that giant impersonal systems have too much power, and often they oppress us.  These include big business corporations that cheat us out of our money, destroy our environment, outsource our jobs to low-wage countries, buy the politicians who make the political decisions, and own the media that control how we perceive the world and what we learn and think about political issues. The big impersonal systems also include governmental systems that make wars despite public opinion and protect big business interests in defiance of the public interest. All of the problems we face seem […]

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“Pakistan: What Are the Realities?”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s June 2010 TV program is about Pakistan. The US war in Iraq seems to have dropped out of the news, but are those problems really solved? Or has a sleight-of-hand maneuver of public relations trickery shifted our attention from the “bad” war in Iraq to the “good” war in Afghanistan? And why has the US war in Afghanistan escalaated into Pakistan, where the US is attacking people – including many innocent civilians – in a country that is supposed to be our ally? The American people are long overdue in understanding Pakistan and the realities […]

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“Understanding and Protecting Civil Liberties”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The American people want our society to provide freedom and social justice. The building blocks for this are human rights and civil liberties. Unfortunately, too few Americans understand and support our basic constitutional rights. If we don’t understand civil liberties, we can’t protect them. As a result, governments and right-wing agitators have been expanding police and surveillance powers, chipping away at our freedom, and reducing our human rights. After September 11, 2001, this process got even more reckless and dangerous. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s July 2010 TV program helps viewers better understand the range of civil liberties and how […]

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Understand Korea. Don’t bomb it.

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Understand Korea.  Don’t bomb it. During much of 2017 Trump has vented anger and ignorance against North Korea.  He has rejected diplomacy and threatened to utterly destroy the nation and kill 10 million or more of its citizens. Decent people know we must reject Trump’s terrorism. Also, we must reject the U.S.’s 65-year-long history of threatening war (including nuclear war) against North Korea.  It is within this long-standing history of U.S. foreign policy’s ignorance and violence that Trump was able to vent his own ignorance and cruelty. If you want to resolve a conflict with someone, it is necessary to […]

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“Starting to Understand Africa”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Africa is a gigantic continent with a rich history. Africa’s creative and adaptive cultures have sustained themselves for thousands of years in a vast variety of climates and ecosys-tems, ranging from harsh deserts to dense jungles. Our school systems and mainstream media have failed to inform Americans about Africa. Much of what Americans think we know about Africa is simplistic, distorted, or not true. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s August 2010 TV interview features three guests who share their experiences, information and insights: • Jens-Dieter Stahmer is well known and well respected in the greater Thurston County area and beyond. […]

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TV: “More Information on the 9-11 Attacks”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s September 2010 TV program adds to the information we had provided in our September 2008 TV program.  Both interviews examined some of the flaws in the government’s official story of what had happened on September 11, 2001. A growing number of people – including many scientists, architects, engineers, pilots and other professionals – have continued to analyze and provide new information beyond what we knew for the 2008 program, so in September 2010 we presented some of that new information along with some persistent critiques of the government’s official story. On the very next day […]

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“Honduras”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In the early morning of June 28, 2009, about 100 soldiers from the Central American nation of Honduras forced their way into the bedroom of Honduran president Manual Zelaya, kidnapped him while he was still in his pajamas, and forced him into exile in another country. This military coup – backed by conservative business leaders – overthrew a freely elected president. Latin American nations unanimously denounced this military coup against democracy. U.S. politicians and news media have distorted the realities, so the American people do not understand what really happened, or why. The crisis has continued ever since.  Human rights […]

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“International Day of Peace: Olympia Connects with the World”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

n 1981 the United Nations established the International Day of Peace to encourage individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. In 2002 the United Nations General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace. For 2010, volunteers from the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace Chapter 109, the Rachel Corrie Foundation, Media Island International, Earthbound Productions, and other groups collaborated to produce a truly stunning and inspiring display and international conversation. These events marked the International […]

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“Converting to a Peace Economy”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, we had occasional wars and then de-mobilized afterward. But after World War II we launched the Cold War and maintained a permanent war status. We also created a “permanent war economy.” Massive military spending year after year – decade after decade – since the 1940s – has distorted and disrupted the U.S. economy and hurt our society in many ways. This is the topic of the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s December 2010 TV program. Every year Congress makes decisions about how much money to spend for which purposes. For example, Congress could spend less on nuclear […]

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“Create a Publicly Owned Washington State Bank”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Serious problems require bold, creative solutions!  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s January 2011 TV interview explores a creative solution to help our state’s economy. Even during hard financial times, a lot of money flows through the state government. Property tax payments, sales tax revenue, payroll taxes, fees for licenses, and other revenues arrive at various times. From time to time the state pays out this money for salaries, equipment, supplies, rent, payments to local governments, and so forth. What happens to the money while the state has it? The state deposits most of it with the big Wall Street banks […]

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“A Nonviolent Society for the Common Good”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In recent years American society has experienced a serious upsurge of anti-government rhetoric, including threats of violence against members of Congress – and in January 2011 an actual shooting. We have seen a continuation of war, torture and human rights abuses by our government, cutbacks in vital social and health services, a mania for privatizing public services, intolerance of minority races and religions, and an overall breakdown in the sense of our common humanity. Are these interconnected?  Do they have common roots? Can we find solutions that will resolve these problems and restore our public ethics and our common humanity? […]

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“Real Democracy, Not Corporate Personhood”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

“End ‘Corporate Personhood’ and Other Power Grabs” In its January 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that big business corporations can give as much money as they want to election campaigns. By a 5-4 majority (all 5 were appointed by Reagan or George W. Bush), they overturned a century of settled law that had protected election campaigns from excessive corporate interference. This decision further entrenched the bizarre notion that money is “speech” and that corporations are “persons” with free speech and the same civil rights as living, breathing human beings. The Citizens United […]