Category Archives: North America

The Rez of the Story: What is a culture of peace?

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Vince Two Eagles in the Lakota Times (located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, USA)

Yesterday, February 4th, was recognized as the “International Day of Human Fraternity by the United Nations.” The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls for we humans to “…reaffirm our commitment to bridging divides, fostering religious understanding and cooperation among people of all cultures and beliefs. Together, let us forge a path towards a more peaceful, just and harmonious work for all.”

The headline reads, “Human fraternity for peace and cooperation” on the UN website. The very valid question, “What is the culture of peace?” is asked and answered as follows:

“The culture of peace is a set of values, attitudes, traditions and models of behavior and ways of life based on:

1. Respect for life, ending of violence and promotion and practice of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation;

2. Full respect for the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of States and non-intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law;

3. Full respect for and promotion of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

4. Commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts;

5. Efforts to meet the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations;

6. Respect for and promotion of the right to development; Respect for and promotion of equal rights and opportunities for women and men;

7. Respect for and promotion of the right of everyone to freedom of expression, opinion and information;

8. Adherence to the principles of freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, culture diversity, dialogue and understanding at all levels of society and among nations; and fostered by an enabling national and international environment conducive to peace; (Source: A/ RES/53/243).”

The UN site goes on to state:”We need — perhaps more than ever before — to recognize the valuable contribution of people of all religions, or beliefs, to humanity and the contribution that dialogue among all religious groups can make towards an improved awareness and understanding of the common values shared by all humankind.”

(continued in right column)

Question for this article:

Can the vision of a culture of peace help inspire action?

(continued from left column)

“We also need to underline the importance of raising awareness about different cultures and religions, or beliefs, and the promotion of tolerance, which involves societal acceptance and respect for religious and cultural diversity, including with regard to religious expression. Education, in particular at school, should contribute in a meaningful way to promoting tolerance and the elimination of discrimination based on religion or belief.”

“Furthermore, we must acknowledge that tolerance, pluralistic tradition, mutual respect and the diversity of religions and beliefs promote human fraternity. Thus, it is imperative that we encourage activities aimed at promoting inter-religious and intercultural dialogue in order to enhance peace and social stability, respect for diversity and mutual respect and to create, at the global level, and also at the regional, national and local levels, an environment conducive to peace and mutual understanding.”

“Within that frame, the General-Assembly took note of all international, regional, national and local initiatives, as appropriate, as well as efforts by religious leaders, to promote inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, and in this regard took note also of the meeting between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad al-Tayyib, on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, which resulted in the signing of the document entitled ‘Human fraternity for world peace and living together’.”

“Following the devastation of the Second World War, the United Nations was established to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. One of its purposes is to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems, including by promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”

“In 1999, the General-Assembly adopted, by resolution 53/243, the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, which serves as the universal mandate for the international community, particularly the United Nations system, to promote a culture of peace and non-violence that benefits all of humanity, including future generations.”

“The declaration came about as a result of the long held and cherished concept — contained within the Constitution of UNESCO — that “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” The Declaration embraces the principle that peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but also requires a positive, dynamic participatory process, in which dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.”

“On 20 October 2010, the General-Assembly in resolutionA/RES/65/5 pointed out that mutual understanding and inter-religious dialogue constitute important dimensions of a culture of peace and established World Interfaith Harmony Week as a way to promote harmony between all people regardless of their faith. It further recognized the imperative need for dialogue among different faiths and religions to enhance mutual understanding, harmony and cooperation among people.”

“At the core of all the faith systems and traditions is the recognition that we are all in this together and that we need to love and support one another to live in harmony and peace in an environmentally sustainable world. Our world continues to be beset by conflict and intolerance with rising numbers refugees and the internationally displaced in a hostile and unwelcoming world around them. We are also, unfortunately, witnessing messages of hate spreading discord among people. The need for spiritual guidance has never been greater. It is imperative that we double our efforts to spread the message of good neighborliness based on our common humanity, a message shared by all faith [and non-faith] traditions.”

“The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 4 February as the International Day of Human Fraternity, with resolution 75/200.”

And now you know the Rez of the story.

Doksha . . . (“see you later” in the Sioux language)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global, North America,

United States: The Black Choreographers Dancing Toward Justice

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Hannah J. Davies from Hyperallergic (produced in collaboration with the Arts & Culture MA concentration at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism)

Since it began over a decade ago, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has celebrated the literal movements of its participants. People protesting killings of Black people have not only marched in the streets; they have krumped, twerked, vogued, and resurrected the electric slide of the ’70s and ’80s in often impromptu responses to the emotions underpinning their demonstrations. Black choreographers, in turn, have woven the grief, anger, and sadness of the BLM movement into formal concert dance.


Choreographer Chanel DaSilva’s Tabernacle (2023) (photo by Amitava Sarkar, courtesy the Dallas Black Dance Theatre)

Choreographer Kyle Abraham presented “Absent Matter” in 2015, just two years after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, ignited BLM and one year after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A work of fluid and athletic gestures, Abraham’s performance took its cues from hip-hop, ballet, and politically minded anthems like Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” In 2016, David Roussève’s “Enough?” — with an accelerating choreographic phrase danced to a soundtrack of Aretha Franklin — asked whether dance can be a sufficient medium for considering the brutality often inflicted on Black people.

Now (January 2024), eight years later, that question is being answered in the affirmative on major dance stages around the United States. Choreographer Jamar Roberts’s “Ode,” a somber and sensuous dance first performed in 2019 as a response to gun violence, was restaged for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 65th anniversary in December. Last May, Chanel DaSilva’s “Tabernacle” premiered at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, fusing Afrofuturism, hip hop, and African dance in a direct response to BLM. And last fall, as part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s (FIAF) Crossing the Line festival, the French-Malian choreographer Smaïl Kanouté’s “Never Twenty One” made its New York debut, its title borrowed from a BLM slogan. A trio of dancers whose bare arms and torsos were emblazoned with words like “death,” “negro,” and “PTSD” engage in movements akin to mortal combat onstage, punctuated by moments of kinship, in homage to people of color killed through gun violence in the US, South Africa, and Brazil before they had reached their 21st birthdays. After the performance at FIAF, one audience member noted that she had cried 63 times while watching.

While there is a clear difference between dance erupting on sidewalks and performances choreographed for the stage, there is overlap between the two forms. In addition to a sense of urgency, they share some of the same movements and gestures. In “Never Twenty One,” for example, the spasmodic krumping motions that originated in South Central Los Angeles in the ’90s were seen in protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. One audience member animatedly joined in from her chair during the show at FIAF in perhaps an unusual move, but in another setting, it would be almost rude not to.

Dr. Shamell Bell, a dancer, Harvard lecturer, and one of the founding members of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, explained to Hyperallergic the importance of rooting such pieces in lived experience and “[reaching] out to the people that you’re supposedly wanting to bring attention to.” Having begun her career dancing on the streets as a youth activist, Dr. Bell now works on performance pieces that, like “Never Twenty One,” play with the conventions and traditions of vernacular Black dance genres to shine a light on difficult topics.

(continued in right column)

Question for this article:

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?, What is, or should be, their role in our movement?

(continued from left column)

Dr. Bell served as a co-social impact director for Ritual of Breath Is The Rite to Resist (2022), a transmedia opera at Dartmouth and Stanford that brought together dance, music, visual art, and text. Composed by Jonathan Berger and choreographed by Neema Bickersteth and Trebien Pollard, the piece was loosely based on the last moments in the life of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old African-American man who was killed by a New York City Police Department officer in 2014. His final words — “I can’t breathe” — became a major slogan for the BLM movement.

“We asked the community what they needed to heal,” Dr. Bell said. “One of the most important aspects of doing performance as activism is making sure it has tangible resources for and connections with the community it matters the most to.”

Dr. Bell reached out to Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, and others who had lost children to police brutality, not only entering into a dialogue with them but also creating rituals aimed at supporting them emotionally. In a similar vein, Kanouté incorporated the testimonies of bereaved families into his piece at FIAF, including haunting monologues in multiple languages that comprise the show’s soundtrack. Both works go beyond archiving the experiences of their subjects to also provide a space for grieving. “Dance is a healing modality,” Dr. Bell added. “And we need to heal ourselves in order to heal this world.”

Of course, BLM and other movements for racial justice are just the latest chapters in a long history of Black cultural activism in the United States. Artist and academic Stafford C. Berry Jr., a scholar of what he describes as “African-rooted” dance at Indiana University, told Hyperallergic that these choreographic works extend and are part of “the trajectory and existence of Black lives from enslavement up until now,” adding that the BLM movement “is really a contemporary recapitulation of our earlier movements.” Mentored by the influential choreographers Chuck Davis and Kariamu Welsh, Berry noted that he has long drawn inspiration from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, which emerged in tandem with Black Power. Even so, Berry sees the BLM movement’s resurgence in recent years as a step forward in understanding Blackness in America. Berry noted that the works that BLM has inspired have been “bold and unapologetic, by people who are centering themselves and trying to figure out what BLM means for the United States, and the world.”

This certainly seems true of Kanouté, who is based in Paris and was inspired by what he described to Hyperallergic as the “powerful echo” of events in the US to look at the loss of Black lives across the world. “We had a young man called Nahel [Merzouk] who was shot by the police,” he said, catching his breath backstage after the FIAF performance as he recalled the case of the 17-year-old boy of North African descent who was killed by French police last June, sparking protests across France. “The racism and separation I grew up with was under the surface, but now it’s come out.”

In the same way that popular dance can offer a sense of hope and resistance at protests, there is a cathartic quality to Kanouté’s work. Despite the frequent choreographed clashes among the three men on stage, “Never 21” was infused with a sense of truly owning and embracing Blackness and Black joy in its many forms. Kanouté explained that he draws particular inspiration from Black communities living in cities like Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro, whose joy often exists side by side with danger and precarity.

“They have to create their own identity, their own music, their own dance, because they don’t know if tomorrow they will still be there,” Kanouté said. “In that kind of atmosphere, you create powerful things.”

– – – – – –

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

David Malcom Krieger, Man of Peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An obituary from Waging Peace

David Malcom Krieger, man of peace, passed away on December 7, 2023 and left the world with one less champion.

David was born on March 27, 1942 to Herbert and Sybil Krieger in Los Angeles. The family settled in the San Fernando Valley where his father was the first pediatrician. David attended North Hollywood High before heading to Occidental College where he graduated with a degree in Psychology. He was getting his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii when he met and married Carolee, his wife of 57 years. He did get the PhD, too.

David traveled to Japan to study as part of his PhD work and was so moved by what he experienced and learned in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that he dedicated the rest of his life to abolishing nuclear weapons and achieving peace. He was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War almost simultaneously. However, his clarity of mind and morals would not allow for participating in war and killing. He was, as far as we know, the first Officer in the Vietnam War to sue for Conscientious Objector status.

In 1972, David came to Santa Barbara to work as an assistant to Elisabeth Mann Borgese at the Center for The Study of Democratic Institutions. Here he collaborated with some of the greatest minds of the time on the subject of democracy. He and Carolee stayed in Santa Barbara, raising their three children among the blood orange trees and peacocks on the property they worked tirelessly to convert from rocks and weeds to the artists’ and gardeners’ paradise that it is now.

In 1982, David, Frank Kelly, Wally Drew, and two others founded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. This was to be David’s proudest accomplishment. David Krieger led the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation until his retirement in 2019. His work, educating, advocating, writing extensively, and speaking all over the world about the dangers of the nuclear age and the insanity of the nuclear arms race helped advance the cause of peace with justice, particularly among young people, however, also with nearly everyone he personally encountered. David’s charisma, honesty, and depth of knowledge on the subject were hard to disagree with. David Krieger was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten separate years.

(Article continued in the column on the right)

Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(Article continued from the column on the left)

David developed a passion for karate when he was in Japan in his early 20s. As with everything he was passionate about, he dedicated himself to being among the best at it, earning his black belt in the Shito-Ryu form, and founding and running his own Dojo, Pacific Karate-Do Institute. He taught many Santa Barbarians karate in the 1970s and 1980s, and counted some of those former students among his closest friends.

David loved to play tennis and for years, his free afternoons and weekend mornings were spent playing with some of his other closest friends.

David was also a prolific poet. He found poetry to be an excellent way to express his impression of world events and daily joys.

David Krieger was a man of thought, of conviction, and of honor. He wanted to make the world safer, more peaceful, and ultimately a kinder and more just place for everyone and everything. He never stopped believing it was possible. In his honor, we admonish you to carry this work on.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to: The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

– –

Here is an excerpt from his last message as President of the Nuclear-Age Peace Foundation:

When we founded NAPF in 1982, the world was adrift in nuclear dangers. We began with a belief in the necessity of awakening people everywhere to the dangers of the Nuclear Age – a time in which our technological prowess exceeded our ethical development. This dilemma continues today. For nearly four decades, we have been a steady, consistent and creative voice for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons.

As the calendar page turns to 2020, we are working to create a peace literate world, based upon empathy, caring, kindness and overcoming fear, greed and trauma: a world in which nuclear weapons can be abolished and stay abolished. Our Peace Literacy Initiative, headed by Paul K. Chappell, a West Point graduate, goes to the root causes of war and nuclear weapons. It is a profound way of waging peace.

As the next generation prepares to take the helm at NAPF, I ask you to believe in the power of our work now more than ever. We have exciting plans to scale up our Peace Literacy work and deliver measurable and increasing impacts over the coming months and years.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North America

USA: Union Leaders Join Progressive Lawmakers in Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire Now

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams ( licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Leaders of major U.S labor unions joined progressive members of Congress at a Thursday rally and press conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where they implored President Joe Biden to support a cease-fire in Gaza without delay.

Leaders of unions including the United Auto Workers (UAW); the Postal Workers Union; and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America held a press conference outside the Capitol, where they were joined by Democratic U.S. lawmakers including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

“The world has seen enough slaughter and devastation. Peace is the only path forward," UAW president Shawn Fain—who recently led the fight for historic new contracts for Big Three autoworkers—told attendees. "While we call for a cease-fire, we also condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, [and] anti-Arab racism, all of which are growing in our nation at this moment and must be stopped.”

“As union members, we know we must fight for all workers and suffering people around the world. We must fight for humanity,” he added. “That means we must restore people's basic rights and allow water, food, fuel, humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. We must also call for the release of all hostages.”

(article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
What is the contribution of trade unions to the culture of peace?

(article continued from left column)

Bush, the lead sponsor of a congressional cease-fire resolution drafted in October, said that “as an activist and organizer and a proud daughter of a former union member, I know that the foundational message of every guild is to stand with the people, to fight for their dignity and to advocate for those most marginalized.”

“Our humanity needs a cease-fire, and that is precisely why I’m so happy to have unions here today to join in this fight,” she added, “because we know that unions know how to organize. Unions know how to mobilize and galvanize and energize.”

Thursday’s rally came as Israeli forces continued attacking Gaza by land, air, and sea. Since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 people in southern Israel, over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel’s retaliatory war, which many critics have called genocidal.

Additionally, around 1.9 million Gazans—or over 85% of the besieged strip’s population—have been forcibly displaced, and hundreds of thousands of cases of infectious diseases have been reported.

While Biden this week privately decried what he acknowledged as Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, the president remains a staunch Zionist who is seeking $14.3 billion in additional U.S. military aid to Israel atop the nearly $4 billion it already receives annually from Washington.

Tlaib, who introduced the cease-fire resolution with Bush, said, “I’m a proud daughter of a UAW worker, and I know my Yaba (father), if he was here, he would be so proud.”

“The UAW taught him he deserved human dignity, even though he only had a fourth-grade education, even though he was Palestinian, even though he was Muslim," continued Tlaib, who last month was the target of a successful House censure motion over her defense of Palestinian rights. "On that assembly line, he was equal to every single human being on that line. Who did that for him? The United Auto Workers did that for him.”

I’m so grateful for each and every one of your voices in this movement to save lives,” she added. And I’m proud to stand alongside you all. So today we raise our collective voice to say, “Enough is enough. Cease-fire now.”

(Editor’s note: One day after the above press conference, America’s largest health-care union, 1199SEIU , voted also to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.)

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission hosting nonviolence youth summit at Hall STEAM Magnet High School

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Excerpts from text of video at Yahoo News

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of unity, service and nonviolence, the Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission is hosting their 2023 Nonviolence Youth Summit: Building a Culture of Peace.

(continued in right column)

Question for this article
 
What’s the message to us today from Martin Luther King, Jr.?

(continued from left column).

Dorothea Wilson joins us live from Hall High School in Little Rock to help us learn more about today’s summit about building a culture of peace: “Commission officials say they’re going to be discussing topics like non-violence, anti-bullying and financial literacy.”

Principal Carlton McGee tells us that this event is very important not only to our students here at Hall, but the community of Little Rock as a whole. “Because here at Hall we foster a culture of non-violence in our students and that is the same goals that the summit sets out to achieve.”

Program director Diana Shelton tells us this year ten such summits have been organized. “We go across the state of Arkansas with these programs, encouraging and empowering our youth to be change agents for their community and to make our world a better place.”

“The workshops include alumni who are super excited to come back and give back to their school. and so, we have the community as partners.”

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

In memoriam: Betty Reardon (1929-2023)

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article from the Global Campaign for Peace Education

Betty A. Reardon, internationally celebrated as a founder of the field of peace education and feminist peace scholar, passed away on November 3, 2023. She was the co-founder of the Global Campaign for Peace Education.

The child of Julia Florence Reardon (Burke) and Michael Augustus Reardon, she was born on June 12, 1929 and brought up in Rye, New York where she attended Rye Grammar School and then Rye High School. She spent her adult life as a resident of New York City.  She held a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University, a master’s degree in history from New York University, and a B.A. in history from Wheaton College, Norton, MA.  She is survived by nieces Noël Menadier, Christie Menadier, Coley Menadier-Fisher and husband Rick Fisher, great nephew Adam Fisher and wife Whitney Timmons, great nephew Grayson Fisher, nephew Mark Menadier and great nephew Burke Menadier and great niece Kalani Menadier, niece Dani Menadier Thorn and great nieces Sabrina Thorn and Savannah Thorn.

She began her teaching career at Rye Country Day School, and then in 1963 she began her work in peace education as Director of the Schools Program with the Institute of World Order. What intrigued and drove her was an interest in war, not as an isolated eruption in human affairs, but as a social system justified by particular ways of thinking. She had a hunch that not only the structures of society, but the structures of consciousness as well, could, and should be, transformed through a comprehensive education for and about peace. Betty Reardon’s life-long endeavor has been informed and shaped by this perspective and these formative experiences.

She held prominent roles in the establishment and work of key institutions that define the field of peace studies and peace education, including the founder and long-time director of the Peace Education Center and Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, the founder and director of the International Institute on Peace Education, the General Coordinator, of the Feminist Scholar Activist Network on Demilitarization, Coordinator International Network of Peace Education Centers, the founding Academic Coordinator of the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education,  the Director of the Peacemaking in Education Program, United Ministries in Education, Executive Secretary of the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction, the School Program Director, Institute for World Order, New York, NY, the Associate Director of Leadership and World Society (LAWS), and a founder of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association.

(Article continued in the column on the right)

Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

(Article continued from the column on the left)

Dr. Reardon also held a number of prestigious visiting professorships, including the Savage Chair, Distinguished Visiting professor of International Relations and Peace, University of Oregon, the A. Lindsay O’Connor Chair in American Institutions, Colgate University, Visiting Professor of Peace, Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Visiting Professor, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan, Visiting Professor, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, Visiting Professor, Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan Unviersity, Kyoto, Japan.

In addition, Dr. Reardon was an accomplished scholar of peace studies and peace education.  She published numerous articles, books, book chapters, and reports, and has presented scholarly papers at numerous scholarly meetings. Her essential works include:

° Comprehensive Peace Education (Teachers College Press, 1988);
° Educating for Global Responsibility (Teachers College Press, 1988);
° Women and Peace: Feminist Visions of Global Security (State University of New York Press, 1993);
° Educating for Human Dignity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994);
° Sexism and the War System (Syracuse University Press, 1996);
° Tolerance: The Threshold of Peace (UNESCO,1998);
° Passport to Dignity: The Human Rights of Women (PDHRE, 2001); and
Education for a Culture of Peace in a Gender Perspective (UNESCO, 2001).
° The Gender Imperative: Human Security vs. State Security. (Routledge, 2010).
Betty A. Reardon: A Pioneer in Education for Peace and Human Rights. (Springer Press, 2015)
° Betty A. Reardon: Key Texts in Gender and Peace. (Springer Press, 2015)

Her many prestigious awards include:
° the Pomerance Award for contributions to disarmament efforts within the UN system,
° Nomination and honorable mention for UNESCO Peace Education Prize by ICAE, IPRA, WCCI,
° the American Association of University Women (AAUW) New York State Peace Award,
° Golden Balloon Award for Peace Education from World Children’s Association (presented at the United Nations),
° the 1986 Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing for Sexism and the War System,
° the 1994 Peace Studies Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association,
° the 2000 Jane Adams Peace Activist Award,
° Distinguished Alumna Award from Teachers College Columbia University, 2004,
° Volvo Heroes nomination 2006,
° Nomination for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize (among 1000 women nominated as a group).
° Nomination for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize by the International Peace Bureau (Norway).
° The 2010 Sean McBride Peace (International Peace Bureau).
° The 2013 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize (The El-Hibri Foundation)

World War II, and then later, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and the Feminist movement were formative in the development of her worldview. In the face of the horrors of world war, she believed, as early as the fifth grade, that there must be an alternative to war, and in the face of racism and sexism she pondered early on the limits and possibilities of justice.  In these formative experiences were the seeds of her fundamental approach to peace, as both the elimination of violence and the establishment of justice.  She chose to be a teacher, believing that education was the key to a peaceful and just world.
Betty Reardon was a tireless student, exponent, and advocate of peace, justice, and peace education. She mentored and inspired generations of educators, scholars, and activists through her teaching and scholarship.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North America

Israeli War on Gaza Sparks ‘Largest Mass Mobilization of Jews in American History’

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Brett Wilkins from Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaims in genocidal undertones  his army’s “holy mission” to invade Gaza, Jewish American peace activists are ramping up their nationwide effort to bring about a cease-fire in the three-week war.


Jewish Voice for Peace: Thousands are sitting in at Grand Central Station demanding a #CeasefireNOW

“We’re watching a genocide unfold in real-time. In just three weeks, the Israeli military has killed over 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza, among them over 3,000 children,” Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said early Monday. “That’s more than the annual number of children killed  in conflicts across the globe since 2019.”

“Jewish people all throughout the United States are protesting in unprecedented numbers against Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the United States’ unwavering support,” JVP noted, with Liv Kunins-Berkowitz, the group’s media coordinator, calling the movement “the largest mass mobilization of Jews in American history.”

(Continued in right column)

Questions related to this article:
 
Can International Pressure Stop the War in Gaza?

(Continued from left column)

“We will not sit by as a genocide is waged in our name.”
JVP, along with Jewish-led groups—mainly IfNotNow—and allies have held demonstrations large and small across the United States since October 7, when Israeli forces launched their latest war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,400 people.

“From Albuquerque to Minneapolis, Seattle to Miami, Washington D.C. to Detroit, students, elders, faith leaders, and activists… are organizing sit-ins in congressional offices and blocking streets as they demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza,” the group continued, adding that demonstrations have also been held in cities including Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

On Friday evening, thousands of JVP members and allies took over  Grand Central Station in Midtown Manhattan, where more than 400 people were arrested while holding a sit-in and hanging banners that read, “Cease-fire Now,” “Never Again for Anyone,” “Palestine Should Be Free,” and “Mourn the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living.”

“For decades, Jewish Americans have criticized the Israeli occupation of Palestine. American Jews are no longer willing to be silent—they are speaking up louder than ever before and taking to the streets to demand an immediate cease-fire,” Kunnis-Berkowitz asserted on Monday. “We will not sit by as a genocide is waged in our name.”

While the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has thwarted international efforts to bring about a cessation in hostilities, a group of 18 congressional Democrats led by Rep. Cori Bush  (D-Mo.) has introduced a resolution urging the administration to push Israel for an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Gaza.

Some co-sponsors of the resolution—especially Muslim Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who is Palestinian—have faced bipartisan indignation, right-wing death threats, and in the case of Tlaib, a censure motion brought by far-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Critics have noted the irony of Greene—who once suggested that a "Jewish space laser" started a California wildfire—baselessly accusing Tlaib of antisemitism.

“There can be no business as usual while our tax dollars are used to fund a genocide in Palestine,” JVP insisted. “From congressional offices, to the halls of the Capitol, to the center of New York City, we will do everything in our power to demand an end to U.S. support for genocide and apartheid,” referencing the billions in annual U.S. military aid to Israel.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

ABC News Report Claims No Past Mass Shooters Have Been Veterans; At Least 31% Have Been

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

A blog by David Swanson

A report from ABC 3 WEAR, reports:

“Chris Lambert is a decorated Vietnam veteran whose battled PTSD for more than 40 years. Lambert’s a three-time Purple Heart recipient, all before his 20th birthday. He says after hearing reports that the suspected gunman in the Maine shooting was treated and released from a facility only weeks later, it’s clear that more long-term care for veterans is needed. However, he feels the shooting suspect’s mental health issues during his service in the military is overplayed. ‘How many people have we watched in these mass shootings and none of them are veterans,’ Lambert said. Stillm, Lambert acknowledged the suspect’s service potentially played a major role in the high number of fatalities. ‘Being a firearms instructor, how accurate he could be, I don’t care if you’re 100-50 yards and you’re jerking a little bit, you’re missing that target. But if he’s instructed and he knows how to breathe, he can take down a lot of people, and that’s tragic,’ Lambert said.”

This is a remarkable report in that, it quotes a supposed expert falsely informing us that the lastest mass shooter is the first military veteran mass shooter, when in fact mass shooters have always been very disproportionately military veterans. It is also remarkable in that it is the only report I have found about any of these veteran mass shooters that bothers to comment at all on the relevance of their training.

In the United States, only a very small percentage of men under 60 are military veterans.

In the United States, at least 31% of male mass shooters under 60 (which is almost all mass shooters) are military veterans.

That’s 40 out of 127 mass shooters in Mother Jones’ database whom I’ve been able to identify as U.S. military veterans, with no help from Mother Jones and darn little help from any media outlets at all. It is very likely that more than those 40 have actually been military veterans.

We now have reports of a U.S. Army reservist who trained others in shooting guns having committed the worst mass shooting in some time.

There is much we do not know about the latest mass shooting in the United States, but of these two things we can be certain:
The U.S. Congress will do nothing to make U.S. gun laws resemble those of a normal nation.
Media outlets will focus on mental health, rightwing politics, and anything other than military experience. There will be a hunt for “motive,” but little interest in ability.

As I reported in June, a University of Maryland report touching on this topic was virtually ignored by media outlets.

But here are the facts:

Looking at males, aged 18-59, veterans are well over twice, maybe over three times as likely to be mass shooters compared with the group as a whole. And they shoot somewhat more fatally. Counting this latest shooting as having 16 fatalities, though that actually went up to 18, I calculated that the veteran shooters on this list have killed on average 8.3 people and those who have not been identified as veterans have killed on average 7.2 people.

The numbers have changed slightly since I began writing about this:

(Continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Do you think handguns should be banned?, Why or why not?

(Continued from left column)

° May 10, 2023: At Least 32% of U.S. Mass Shooters Were Trained to Shoot by the U.S. Military

° March 23, 2021: At Least 36% of Mass Shooters Have Been Trained By the U.S. Military

° June 4, 2019: Updated Data: Mass Shooters Still Disproportionately Veterans

(At this point it was 35%)

November 4, 2018: Mass Shooters’ Histories in the U.S. Military Most Amazing Coincidence

(At this point it was 35%)

November 14, 2017: U.S. Mass Shooters Are Disproportionately Veterans

(At this point it was 34%)

The rise from 34% to 36% and then drop to 31% is not large, and not as large as the decrease in the percentage of veterans in the overall population.

All sorts of correlations are carefully examined when it comes to mass shooters. But the fact that the largest institution in the United States has trained many of them to shoot is scrupulously avoided.

Those mass shooters who are not actually military veterans tend to dress and speak as if they were. Some of them are veterans of police forces with military-sounding titles, or have been prison guards or security guards. Counting those who’ve been in either the U.S. military or a police force or a prison or worked as an armed guard of any kind would give us an even larger percentage. The factor of having been trained and employed to shoot is larger than just the military veterans, yet carefully ignored because so many of those professionally trained to shoot have been trained by the U.S. military.

Some of the non-military mass-shooters have worked as civilians for the military. Some have tried to join the military and been rejected. The whole phenomenon of mass-shootings has skyrocketed during the post-2001 endless wars. The militarism of mass-shootings may be too big to see, but the avoidance of the topic is stunning.

Needless to say, out of a country of over 330 million people a database of 127 mass shooters is a very, very small group. Needless to say, statistically, virtually all veterans are not mass shooters. But that can hardly be the reason for not a single news article ever mentioning that mass shooters are very disproportinately likely to be veterans. After all, statistically, virtually all males, mentally ill people, domestic abusers, Nazi-sympathizers, loners, and gun-purchasers are also not mass-shooters. Yet articles on those topics proliferate like NRA campaign bribes.

There seem to me to be two key reasons that a sane communications system would not censor this topic. First, our public dollars and elected officials are training and conditioning huge numbers of people to kill, sending them abroad to kill, thanking them for the “service,” praising and rewarding them for killing, and then some of them are killing where it is not acceptable. This is not a chance correlation, but a factor with a clear connection.

Second, by devoting so much of our government to organized killing, and even allowing the military to train in schools, and to develop video games and Hollywood movies, we’ve created a culture in which people imagine that militarism is praiseworthy, that violence solves problems, and that revenge is one of the highest values. Virtually every mass shooter has used military weaponry. Most of those whose dress we are aware of dressed as if in the military. Those who’ve left behind writings that have been made public have tended to write as if they were taking part in a war. So, while it might surprise many people to find out how many mass shooters are veterans of the military, it might be hard to find mass shooters (actual veterans or not) who did not themselves think they were soldiers.

There seems to me to be one most likely reason that it’s difficult to find out which shooters have been in the military (meaning that some additional shooters probably have been, about whom I’ve been unable to learn that fact). We’ve developed a culture dedicated to praising and glorifying participation in war. It need not even be a conscious decision, but a journalist convinced that militarism is laudable would assume it was irrelevant to a report on a mass shooter and, in addition, assume that it was distasteful to mention that the man was a veteran. That sort of widespread self-censorship is the only possible explanation for the complete whiting out of this story.

The phenomenon of shutting down this story does not exactly require a “motive,” and I would like to recommend to reporters on mass shootings that they, too, devote a bit less energy to the often meaningless hunt for “a motive,” and a tad more to considering whether the fact that a shooter lived and breathed in an institution dedicated to mass shooting might be relevant.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

US State Department Official Resigns Over ‘Destructive, Unjust’ Arms Transfers to Israel

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

A U.S. State Department official announced his resignation Wednesday over the Biden administration’s decision to send more arms to Israel as it carries out a massive assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, killing more than 3,400 people, decimating the enclave’s civilian infrastructure, and strangling the population with an unlawful blockade.


Photo from Josh Paul Linked-in

“I cannot work in support of a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of the conflict, that I believe to be shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse, and which I wholeheartedly endorse: a world built around a rules-based order, a world that advances both equality and equity, and a world whose arc of history bends towards the promise of liberty, and of justice, for all,” Josh Paul, who spent 11 years as director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, wrote in his resignation letter.

Paul helped oversee the transfer of U.S. weaponry to allies, a position that he acknowledged “was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises.”

“I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do,” Paul wrote. “In my 11 years I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued—indeed, expanded and expedited—provision of lethal arms to Israel—I have reached the end of that bargain.”

Paul’s resignation came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and “reiterated his steadfast support for Israel” even as United Nations experts, human rights organizations, and international law scholars accuse the country of committing egregious war crimes—including genocide.

(Continued in right column)

Questions related to this article:
 
The courage of Mordecai Vanunu and other whistle-blowers, How can we emulate it in our lives?

(Continued from left column)

The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, said in a report  released earlier this week that “the damage and casualties caused by Israeli attacks” on Gaza “were not proportionate to the military advantage and so the actions constitute a war crime.”

The commission added that “the prevention of entry of food and medical supplies into Gaza is a violation of international humanitarian law.”

While the Biden administration helped negotiate a deal to allow limited humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through its border with Egypt, U.S. leaders have thus far refused to call for a cease-fire and pledged to continue arming the Israeli military as it prepares for a ground invasion.

HuffPost reported  last week that the U.S. State Department has instructed American diplomats not to use the word “cease-fire” in press materials, and some administration staffers have expressed concern  about retaliation if they question U.S. support for Israel’s attack on Gaza.

In recent days, U.S. shipments of ammunition, so-called “smart bombs,” and other weaponry have arrived in Israel, which was already the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance. The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to ask Congress to approve a new $100 billion military aid package  for Israel and Ukraine.

The Associated Press reported  that the Biden administration is “also getting U.S. defense companies to expedite weapons orders by Israel that were already on the books.” Without imposing restrictions on the use of American weaponry, U.S. officials are at risk of being complicit in Israeli war crimes, human rights advocates have warned.

In his resignation letter, Paul argued that the administration’s response to the deadly violence in Israel and Gaza “is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia.”

“Decades of the same approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security, nor to peace,” Paul wrote. “The fact is, blind support for one side is destructive in the long-term to the interest of the people on both sides. I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North America

2023 US Peace Prize: National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Excerpts from the website of the US Peace Prize

The 2023 US Peace Prize was awarded to the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) “For National Efforts to Stop U.S. Military Influence on Young People, Saving Lives Here and Abroad.” NNOMY was selected unanimously by the Board of Directors of the US Peace Memorial Foundation.

The US Peace Prize was presented on September 19, 2023, at the Peace Resource Center of San Diego by Michael Knox, Chair and Founder of the US Peace Memorial Foundation. In his remarks, Dr. Knox said, “National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth shields young lives from some of the strongest influences of militarism. Your work not only saves U.S. lives by dissuading young people from joining the military – it also saves the lives of people in distant countries who they could harm once they were part of the U.S. war machine. NNOMY positively impacts countless young adults, and its nationwide efforts involve the contributions of many stellar antiwar figures and organizations. The US Peace Prize is a prestigious honor that will help call attention to and reinforce your important work for peace.”

(Continued in right column)

Questions related to this article:
 
The peace movement in the United States, What are its strengths and weaknesses?

(Continued from left column)

The award was accepted by Rick Jahnkow, the organization’s Steering Committee Representative, and several network members. Pictured above are Kendall Brown of On Earth Peace, Gary Ghirardi of NNOMY, Michael Knox, and Rick Jahnkow and Cassy Hernandez of Project YANO.

Rick Jahnkow responded, “NNOMY is grateful for receiving this award and the recognition it will, hopefully, bring to the urgent need to counter the militarization of young people. Protesting war once it begins is never enough; if we are ever going to have a truly effective peace movement, it must include proactively reaching out to and engaging with younger generations in order to groom them to become activists for peace, instead of war. It is this long-term vision that NNOMY brings to the peace movement.”
 
NNOMY is an organization that brings together national, regional, and local groups to oppose the military’s growing intrusion into young people’s lives, focusing on trying to slow the process of militarization in schools by Pentagon programs designed to promote recruitment into military service. By training and sending antiwar counter-recruiters to speak with high school students, NNOMY attempts to change the minds of young adults considering joining the U.S. military. NNOMY also offers alternatives to entering the military and its wars, focusing on communities significantly affected by military recruiting and the violence of militarism.
 
Other US Peace Prize nominees in 2023 were Gerry Condon, Francesco Da Vinci, Daniel Ellsberg, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Abby Martin, and Jill Stein. Read about the antiwar/peace activities of all recipients and nominees in the US Peace Registry.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America