Torture – Page 4 – Engaging Peace

Looking for inspiration?

Posted on March 3, 2017March 4, 2017 by kathiemm

The logo of the US Peace Memorial Foundation. See www.uspeacememorial.org and/or “World Peace: A First Step” at www.uspeacememorial.org/WorldPeace.htm. Reprinted with permission

In our country right now, frustration, anger, and fear are running rampant, along with the scapegoating that inevitably accompanies those emotions.

But know what? If you are alive, you can make a difference. Millions of people are striving actively on behalf of human rights, animal rights, environmental rights, and the bedrock that supports all of them—peace. You can join them if you have not done so already.

To see some examples of what extraordinary ordinary people can do, visit the US Peace Registry of the US Peace Memorial Foundation.

Here are just a few exemplars:

Philip D. Anderson of Maple, WI, is a retired public servant and military reservist (U.S. Army, Wisconsin Army National Guard, and Naval Reserve, 1975-2002) who is an activist for environmental, labor, social justice, and peace issues. Recent articles: Nation overspends our tax money on military, shortchanges us on essentials, 04/09/2015; Is a nuclear-free world still possible?, 08/08/2015; and All victims of war need our help, 11/08/2015.

David O. H. Barrows, born in Boston, MA in 1947, has been an activist with a variety of social justice groups including the ACLU, Amnesty International, Gray Panthers, American Indian Movement, The Catholic Worker, and Free DC. Dressed in Guantanamo Bay prisoner of war garb (orange jumpsuit and black hoods), he joined Witness Against Torture in protests including a march to White House where he chained himself to the White House fence, January 2007; fasted for 12 days, and was arrested at the U.S. Capitol steps and charged with trespassing, January 2010.

Charles F. Clark, MD, MPH served as a captain in the Medical Corps during the Vietnam War, a lieutenant colonel with NATO, and currently practices psychiatry and addiction medicine in Denver, CO. E-mails to congressmen opposing war, 2003-2011.Letters to the editor opposing invasions, war, torture, drone strikes, and prison camps, including “Media only cares about oil, money”, Boulder Daily Camera, 2002-2014.

Scotty N. Bruer of Los Angeles, CA, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, is an author, public speaker, father, grandfather, entrepreneur, and graduate of Purdue University with a degree in forest management.Founded, PeaceNow, 05/2013.Organized the successful effort to have the City of Los Angeles become an International City of Peace, 09/2014.Executive Director, PeaceNow, 2014-2016.

Stephen D. Clemens, Minneapolis, MN, peace and justice activist, member of the Ecumenical Community of St. Martin, has been active in Koinonia Community in Americus, GA, Habitat for Humanity, racial reconciliation, abolition of death penalty, and immigration justice issues. steveclemens@gmail.com. Founding Board Member of IARP (Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project), 2006-2014.

If you have enough to eat and adequate shelter, consider yourself not just as fortunate but as having a moral obligation to pay back and pay ahead. Join the ranks of the nonviolent protestors and peace advocates.

To learn more about the U.S. Peace Memorial project, click here.

And please remember to contribute to engaging peace by submitting comments on posts as well as supporting us financially.

The better word is…

Posted on February 27, 2017February 28, 2017 by kathiemm

by Anthony J. Marsella

To the many experiencing a diminution in their activism, and questioning their powers and commitment, I say:

The better term is “demoralization.” Not depression, nor any other pathological condition. Rather a normal response to life conditions denying agency, limiting will, or restraining courage thru punishment and torture.

The cure is not to be found in testosterone, serotonin, or dopamine, but in the recovery and building of a new self-identity relevant to the pressing and oppressing social conditions nurturing “demoralization.”

Demoralization!

A normal human response to anguish and desperation caused and sustained by offenses to the human spirit caused by injustice and abuses in the social fabric!

Right the wrongs, when you can, where you can, how you can.

The “demoralization” will diminish, but return until such time justice is the arbiter.

The struggle is constant, but the vision restorative.

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Marsella has promoted cross-cultural understanding and acceptance as a key to peace within and among nations. He has conducted international research for three decades, as a Fulbright Scholar in the Philippines, a project director for a psychiatric epidemiological study in Borneo, a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Culture and Mental Health Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a professor of psychology and director of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is Past President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR).

Trails of Tears

Posted on February 25, 2017February 26, 2017 by kathiemm

by Kathie Malley-Morrison

The current standoff between Native American Water Protectors and the Army Corps of Engineers is only the most recent event in a long history of inhumanity carried out unflinchingly by invasive power structures motivated by greed.

Last fall, during the closing months of the Obama administration, thousands of people—even some banks—rallied around the Water Protectors as they tried to protest yet another treaty violation and protect their water supply and land from the encroachment of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Victory was joyfully embraced when the pipeline was stopped.

Yet, less than one month into the Trump administration, the pipeline is once again underway, protestors are being forced out of the area, and the battle cry of the public is sadly diminished.

What has happened?

Are the people who are disturbed by the Trump agenda just overwhelmed with Executive Orders, resignations, firings, noisy town meetings, references to Fascism?

Are some people so focused on stopping Trump that they do not have the energy to focus on and resist his carrying out of some of his threatened actions?

If you are concerned with the changes (or extensions of former changes) that seem to be bombarding our experiment in democracy from all sides, my suggestion is to continue as best you can to roll up your sleeves and attend to the three Rs:

Resist oppression.
Reject exploitative capitalism, with its disregard for the human costs of greed.
Repair the system.

What’s in a name? (This one doesn’t smell so sweet.)

Posted on October 10, 2016 by kathiemm

Columbus Day. Everybody loves a day off, but honestly, does the United States really want to continue celebrating the name of a man who was a slave owner, a slave trader, a greedy, cruel, vicious dishonest brute? A lot of people have been asking that question.

The demythologizing of Columbus has begun; an engaging and chilling example can be found in the comic strip story by Matthew Inman. [His exposé is based on information from A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, both of which use primary sources such as eyewitness accounts, journal entries, and letters from Christopher Columbus himself. It’s worth reading.]

In recognition of the genocide started by Columbus’s invasion of the not so new “New World,” some communities have renamed Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day or Native American Day to recognize and honor the native people whose lives, communities, and cultures have continued to suffer . South Dakota has renamed the day as Native American Day and this year Vermont (I love Vermont!) is celebrating Indigenous People Day.

Matthew Inman recommends renaming Columbus Day as Bartolomé Day after Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), a settler in the New World who initially participated in atrocities committed against Indigenous Peoples by Spanish colonists but ultimately came to reject all forms of slavery. Although his name will never catch on for a U.S. holiday, he appears to be a man very much in the image of John Newton (1725–1807), who wrote Amazing Grace .

Our most recently named federal holiday is Martin Luther King Day, honoring a man who is an icon of the nonviolent pursuit of civil rights and social justice. Let us not forget that Columbus is also an icon; he represents what is most repellent, most harmful, and perhaps most dangerous in many segments of the United States today. Greed was his predominant motive. He lusted for wealth in the form of gold but enslaving and selling men for labor and women for sex would do. He relentlessly pursued power. He did not hesitate to use military violence to accomplish his goals. Sound familiar? Are these the people whom we want to represent the United States?

Recognizing that Columbus is the anti-hero surviving in our culture will not be pleasant, but it is a task that is long overdue. Maybe today should become U.S. Redemption Day.