May 2015 – Engaging Peace

Where does honor lie?

Posted on May 25, 2015May 25, 2015 by kathiemm

“Peace restraining war” part of the Bolton War Memorial by Walter Marsden
Image by Gordon Lawson and in the public domain.

Today, Memorial Day 2015, I commemorate what the United States could have been and still could be.

The participation of colonists (invaders) from abroad in the near genocide of the native peoples did not make the United States great, let alone honorable.

The bloody subjugation of the Philippines into an American colony did not make the United States great, nor were the invaders honorable.

Were the Americans who fought in WWI and WWII and Korea and Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq and the countless other forgotten little wars that Americans fought in the last two centuries brave? I am sure many but not all of them were. Were they fighting for their country? Most of them probably thought they were doing so. Were they actually fighting on behalf of the military-industrial complex, the powerful elite intent on pursuing its own interests with little concern for the human costs? I believe so.

Is it appropriate to honor members of the military who killed others, including innocent civilians, because they were told to do so and trained to follow orders? I believe sympathy for them and their families is more appropriate; however, I am also moved by the words of Ambrose Bierce, who fought for the Union in the U.S. Civil War, and was distressed by the insistence of northerners and southerners in the post-war decades to have two separate memorial days, honoring only their own dead: “The wretch, whate’er his life and lot/ Who does not love the harmless dead/ With all his heart and all his head— / May God forgive him, I shall not.”

But, I ask you, when will we start honoring the conscientious objectors, the war resisters, the anti-nuke activists, and all those who embrace nonviolence? When will we create a national peace memorial and a Memorial Day transmuted into a day honoring the pursuit of peace, nonviolence, and human rights?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

What torments my soul

Posted on May 18, 2015January 4, 2016 by kathiemm

John Ball and his dog Darcy from the UK's International Search and Rescue team go to work in Chautara, Sindhupalchok District – north east of Kathmandu, Nepal. — John Ball and his dog Darcy from the UK’s International Search and Rescue team go to work in Chautara, Sindhupalchok District – north east of Kathmandu, Nepal.
Image by Jessica Lea/DFID

Most people in the U.S. have seen the spine-chilling stories on their TVS and have read about the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, killing more than 5000 people, and injuring thousands more.

It is a tragic story, like the recent tsunamis that also destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The only bright spot in these tales of overwhelming natural disaster is the magnitude of the international relief effort.

While my heart and often my money go out to efforts to help survivors and rebuild areas hit by these unaccountable natural disasters, what keeps me awake at night is the deadliness of racism in my own country.

Protest at the Baltimore Police Department Western District building at N. Mount St. and Riggs Ave.<br>Photo by Veggies and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. — Protest at the Baltimore Police Department Western District building at N. Mount St. and Riggs Ave.
Image by Veggies and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

I believe there are people who would rather watch TV news stories about earthquakes and tsunamis than learn all they can about the over-incarceration, and human-rights defying use of prolonged solitary confinement of young black men in this country and the ferocious murdering of young black men and women, many of whom are mentally ill, by police. They would rather watch coverage of tsunamis and earthquakes than delve into the reports on police in their country murdering and torturing people because of the color of their skin.

If anyone out there needs a powerful reminder of this nation’s relentless and often deadly racism, a powerful novel on the issue is Richard Power’s unrelenting novel, “The Time of our Singing” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23007.The_Time_of_Our_Singing.

And in case you want to read about a few recent examples of police brutality and wonder why we don’t fight back against them with the same effort being expended in Nepal, read

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/27/1380630/-SC-police-officers-to-mentally-ill-woman-I-ll-let-you-go-if-you-let-me-Taser-you-in-the-forehead

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/24/1379943/-Arrested-for-sagging-pants-Ervin-Edwards-tasered-to-death-in-custody-Police-lie-in-report?detail=email

and the more familiar case of Freddie Gray: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/25/freddie-gray-death-triggers-frustration-baltimore-police

A Mom Model for all Moms

Posted on May 10, 2015January 4, 2016 by kathiemm

Activist Frida Berrigan at an anti-war rally in Newark, New Jersey, 2007.
Image by Thomas Good, licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.

For this Mother’s Day, in addition to honoring my own Mom for over 90 years of loving motherhood, I want to celebrate the work of another model of moral engagement—Frida Berrigan. Frida is a long-term peace activist (and yes, she is related to the famous Philip and Daniel Berrigans, who are themselves long-term anti-war activists). She is a columnist for Waging Nonviolence and serves on the National Committee of the War Resisters League.

For Mother’s Day 2015, Frida has written a poignant and captivating essay “Echoes of the original Mother’s Day Proclamation at home and abroad“, which celebrates women who struggle valiantly for peace and justice in 28 active war zones around the world (including the US).

Her examples include:

Madame Kamouss from the Central Republic of Africa

Froilyn Mendoza from the Philippines, and

Shereen, a Syrian refugee who lives with her daughters in a refugee camp in Kawergosk, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Her list also includes the mothers of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Sean Bell, whose sons were killed in the U.S. by police officers in the last few years; all of these mothers are pushing for non-violent protests against injustice.

Frida is also the author of “It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood,” which includes considerations of how to rear children non-violently—without spanking, hitting, and similar time-worn-out methods, which many mothers of today are gradually replacing with love, kindness, empathy and other non-violent approaches to parenting.