Here is a creative nonviolent way to protest: Women are marrying trees in Mexico. This takes the “tree-hugger” image to a whole new level. They are concerned about illegal logging and deforestation in the state of Oaxaca, so they are doing this to raise public awareness. See the article at this link: https://www.treehugger.com/conservation/why-are-women-marrying-trees-mexico.html
A non-profit organization, the Center for American Progress, offered this informative set of information in March 2018. See their fact sheets, action suggestions and short videos at this link: https://www.americanprogress.org/series/6-ways-to-reduce-gun-violence-in-america/view/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=progReport
Stop gun violence — Stop nuclear weapons The link immediately above says this: Guns are designed to kill one person or dozens. Nuclear weapons are designed to kill millions or hundreds of millions. Guns and nuclear weapons are rooted in similar problems: • Anger and fear cause someone to shoot a gun – and also to build and launch nuclear weapons. • A temporary impulse can shoot a gun – or start a nuclear war. • Big business corporations build guns and nuclear weapons for profits. • Manufacturers of guns and nuclear weapons bribe and lobby Congress to continue building […]
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/04/23/idiots-world-unite
The U.S. has a very harsh (and ineffective) criminal justice system, compared to other modern nations. Here is some information about Norway and Sweden that I saved from a few years ago: Norway’s prisons are much better than the U.S.’s. Instead of dehumanizing their inmates, they help prisoners retain their human dignity, so they will become better able to reenter society. http://www.alternet.org/drugs/michael-moore-norway-prison-tony-papa-sentence?akid=13995.2186.s12ezx&rd=1&src=newsletter1051042&t=10 In 2013 Sweden acted sensibly to reduce prison populations. They accomplished this for several reasons including reducing sentence length and emphasizing rehabilitation. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/12-0 I would like to see ordinary Americans (including taxpayers and conservatives) confront elected officials and […]
We keep seeing how ALL ISSUES are INTER-CONNECTED. Among the reasons why the U.S. has so much gun violence is that the U.S. government sets a bad example with our violent militaristic foreign policy. On July 9 2016, I wrote about how President Obama was in Poland meeting with heads of NATO nations and expanding NATO provocatively to Russia’s borders and expanding NATO’s militarism into other part of the Eastern Hemisphere and pushing NATO’s member nations to spend more on militarism. During his press conference there during that visit, Obama praised those military escalations and at the same time he […]
U.S. culture has long perpetuated what has been called “The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” Look at the plots of movies about the Wild West, about cops & robbers, about spies, etc. Nearly every movie ends with a big shoot-out in which “the good guys” use violence to defeat “the bad guys.” The U.S. assumes that our military is “the good guys” and we can use violence to defeat “the bad guys” just like in the movies. The problem is that reality does not work that way. The U.S. LOST the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Violence is also PROFOUNDLY […]
Military “solutions” are really the problem! Instead of solving problems, military violence actually makes problems worse! It causes more threats to us and weakens our national security! Military violence provokes more people to want to attack the U.S.! Militarism creates new enemies faster than we can kill them. Militarism is a “domino theory” in reverse: the U.S. keeps spreading chaos into more and more countries. Sometimes high-level reports from the Pentagon and CIA conclude that militarism is doing this. (Indeed, the term “blowback” came from the CIA before Chalmers Johnson wrote a great book by that title.) Since 9-11-2001 the […]
“Nonviolence isn’t sitting back with your arms folded. It is first recognizing that the very person who is your oppressor is also your brother or sister. One day he or she may stop being your oppressor, but they’ll never stop being your brother or sister.” — Jose Maria Pires, in Mev Puleo, The Struggle Is One: Voices and Visions of Liberation
by Glen Anderson We need to keep protesting against the cruelty, corruption, injustice and violence that continually assault us. But if we spend most of our time and efforts fighting the bad stuff, the oppressors will continue to have the upper hand because they can keep throwing bad stuff at us and we will always be on the defensive. We need to spend most of our time and efforts taking the initiative to organize for the positive goals that we want instead. We need to be proactive, envision the future we want instead of the current mess, and organize to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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? […]
For a long time the world has been suffering depressing news about war, violence, eco-nomics, human rights, environment, climate, and other issues. As a result, people who care about these issues can feel depressed and demoralized. But – over the years – people who persist in grassroots movements for civil rights, peace, labor, environment, and so forth keep saying that what keeps moving these move-ments ahead is people sharing their stories. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s June 2011 TV program features personal experiences, stories and insights from six local people who have worked effectively for peace and social justice. The […]
Our culture wants us to be afraid of Muslims, homeless people, immigrants – and young people. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s August 2011 TV program gives you an opportunity to meet four teen-agers and a 21-year-old who is working with them. You can decide whether to fear them – or to respect them. But don’t decide until you have had the opportunity to get to know them during this hour. Every year starting in 2001 the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation’s staff and volunteers have developed and carried out some creative and ambitious training for a select number of Puget […]
Copyright © 2024 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes