Articles by GlenAnderson

About GlenAnderson
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org
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TV: “Strategy and Creativity for Grassroots Power”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, the best political and social changes have been organized through grassroots movements. In the modern era too, if we are to make progress on the issues we care about – peace, social justice, a humane economy, environmental stewardship, and so forth – we must learn how to strategize, organize and build effective grassroots movements. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s March 2012 TV program focuses on this.  During this interview we explore broad insights and strategies for making positive changes in our political and social systems. Our guest is Bill Moyer from the Backbone Campaign — (206) 408-8058 […]

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TV: “Local Economics”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

For many of the topics the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s TV series addresses – such as coping with peak oil and the climate crisis, opposing the global economic system that causes wars and oppresses people in poor countries, and strengthening democracy and human rights – we keep coming back to one solution that pertains to all of these: creating a sustainable and humane local economy so we can meet our needs with fewer resources, without damaging the rest of the world, and while strengthening our local community’s resilience and democracy. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s April 2012 TV program focuses […]

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TV: “A Publicly Owned Electric Utility for Thurston County?”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Puget Sound Energy, the capitalist-owned electric and gas utility that serves Thurston County and other parts of Western Washington, was based in Bellevue, Washington until a few years ago when it was sold to a different group of capitalists based in Australia – on the opposite side of the world. In 2012 local people in Thurston County Now the Thurston County Public Utility District – which is owned by the general public of our own local community – were exploring the feasibility of buying out Puget Sound Energy’s business in Thurston County and operating it with local ownership, local management, […]

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TV: “Interfaith Voices for Peace”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

When discussing current events – in news media and in comments by politicians and ordinary people – we often hear people speak negatively about other people’s religions. They make broad accusations based on the actions of one or a few persons. Actually – even though some individuals fall short – the authentic beliefs and teachings of various religious faiths actually support profound respect for all human beings, profound compassion, and peace. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s June 2012 TV program explores humane truths in four different faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. We explore how the scriptures and other writings […]

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TV: “Women Share Experiences, Insights, Wisdom about Peace and Justice Organizing”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The peace and justice movement has accomplished a lot because of the wise and effective efforts of women throughout the world. Our local community is much better thanks to local women’s skillful and dedicated organizing. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s July 2012 TV program features several local women to share their experiences, insights and wisdom about organizing for peace and social justice. Right now the world and our nation are facing huge problems related to war and other kinds of violence, economic crises rooted in dysfunctional and anti-human economic systems, many kinds of persistent social injustice, and worsening environmental and […]

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TV: “How to Reform Prisons and Sentencing”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Many people have observed that a good way to judge a society is by how it treats the people on the bottom. People in prison are among those at the bottom of our society.  Many people want to grind them farther into the dirt and diminish their humanity. But what happens when they get out of prison? Society will reap what it has sown. Society’s contempt for them will flow back upon society at large. The moral and sensible solution is to break the cycle – to restore every person’s full humanity. If we want to live in a decent […]

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TV: “Let’s Meet Our Arab Neighbors”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Although the whole world is interconnected in many ways, most Americans do not know enough about Arab culture, and most Americans don’t have enough friends from countries in the Arab world. If we did, we would be more likely to make peace instead of war. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s September 2012 TV program is an enjoyable conversation with people whose roots are in different countries within the Arab world. We’ll learn something of Arab culture. And we’ll sow the seeds of peace. Locally, the Olympia-based Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice does a lot of good work, so […]

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TV: “Nonviolence in the Real World”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

It’s typical to assume that danger requires a “fight or flight” response: Either use violence or run away. When applied to foreign policy this leads us to rely on militarism and war. Domestically we end up with people arming themselves, passing “stand your ground” gun laws, and getting into fights. Movies and much of popular culture (and our foreign policy) rely upon “the Myth of Redemptive Violence,” the notion that prob-lems can be solved only by an ultimate confrontation in which the “good” person uses violence to triumph over the “evil” one. Movies show this as a shootout on a […]

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TV: “Militarism Is the Problem, Not the Solution”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Since World War II – and especially since the Soviet Union collapsed more than 20 year ago – the US has been the world’s #1 military power. And, indeed, the US has used that military power continuously since the 1940s in many places throughout the world. The justifying buzz word has always been “national security” – as if a bigger military, more nuclear weapons, and more military attacks on other countries would make our nation more secure. But even after all of this, Americans still feel insecure. Indeed, when you look at how the US interacts with other nations around […]

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TV: “Effective Grassroots Organizing”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, the best things we have accomplished for the public well-being have resulted from organizing grassroots movements. We organized grassroots political pressure to end slavery, achieve women’s right to vote, create environmental consciousness, pass laws to protect our environment, end child labor, and establish worker rights, ad-vance equal rights for gays and lesbians, and so forth. All of these came about because people organized from the grassroots up and built movements that nonviolently forced the people on top to change. If we were more skilled in grassroots organizing, we could accomplish a lot more! The Olympia Fellowship […]

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TV: “Local Government Fairness and Accountability”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

How many people actually pay much attention to local governments’ detailed decisions about zoning, funding streets and sewers, and so forth? Hardly anyone pays attention – except those who have a direct financial stake in those decisions, such as real estate developers and other persons who have direct financial interests in local governments’ decisions. So what happens as a result? The “special interests” are able to exploit local governments to serve their narrow economic profits, while the rest of us never know that we are being ripped off. For example, the local elites that run many local governments and media […]

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TV: “ITTP Cracks the Cycle of Trauma in World Conflicts”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Wars and violent conflict occur in many places throughout the world. Also, torture occurs more often and in more places than ordinary people might assume. Experiencing any of these can traumatize a person, so a great many persons around the world have been traumatized by torture, war, or violent conflicts. What do traumatized persons need in order to recover? How can we support practitioners who are providing treatment for this trauma? The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s February 2013 TV program explores these concerns. Our two guests have worked extensively in this field: • John Van Eenwyk is an Episcopal priest […]

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TV: “Consequences of Denying Hard Realities”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In our world — and in our nation — many hard realities exist.  But too often, people try to avoid dealing with them.  Denial is rampant.  Denying hard realities means we fail to solve the problems.  It also causes psychological and even spiritual problems. This is the topic of Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s April 2013 TV interview. Three wise, insightful guests explore the topic: John Van Eenwyk is an Episcopal priest, a Ph.D. clinical psychologist, and Clinical Director of the International Trauma Treatment Program. He has special insights and skills to help people deal with severe trauma, such as war […]

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TV: “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Increasingly, people are getting savvier about how to deal with food.  In our local community, more and more people are interested in sustainability, are growing good food locally, and are helping other people grow food.  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s May 2013 TV program is all about “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System.” Three knowledgeable guests with interesting first-hand experience teach us a lot during this program: • TJ Johnson is a former Olympia City Council member, organizer of the October 2011 Food Summit, and a vigorous participant in the local food movement. The Food Summit attracted so many pre-registrants […]

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3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

We could make much more progress in working for peace, social justice, environmental issues, and other issues we care about if we were to be more savvy in how we do outreach to the public. To read a practical 5-page resource in Word format at THIS LINK:  3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach To read it in .pdf format at THIS LINK:  3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach.docx