Tag: World War II

Say “Never again” to genocide

Posted on by kathiemm

Today, April 8, is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Nazi concentration camps map
Image in public domain.

Although the United Nations General Assembly chose January 27 as annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the United States Congress established its own National Days of Remembrance, which are observed this year from April 7 to 14.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared this year’s theme to be “Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs.”

Please take at least a few minutes today to honor the victims and survivors of the Nazi genocide by watching the videos linked in this post. They are compelling reminders of what the U.S. and the other democracies did as the Nazis began their attack on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other convenient scapegoats—that is, virtually nothing.

Occasionally students wend their way into my Psychology of War and Peace class declaring that the U.S. entered World War II to rescue the Jews—waving flags emblazoned with an appalling level of misinformation. “Never again” will not be achieved by Americans invested in the mythology that their government has always been the crusader for democracy, humanity, and…liberty and justice for all.

The films are also powerful reminders that genocides, a scourge on human society for centuries, continue to plague the earth. If we want to say “never again” to genocide, to what other factors do we have to say “never again”? Racism? Poverty? Revenge? Humiliation? Send us your suggestions.

Whatever our religion, ethnicity, or skin color, we can all do more to resist the forces that push us to hate, dehumanize, blame, and scapegoat others who are identified by people in power as our enemies.

We are all related. We are all one family.

Time for Cain to stop killing Abel.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Drones: Dispensing death, destroying democracy

Posted on by kathiemm

“Drones for America!,”a brief satiric video, will chill you, horrify you, and anger you. It will make you think very carefully about our government’s drone policy, its violation of constitutional principles, and its message to victims, their families, and the rest of the world.

Combat drone
Unmanned combat drone. Image in public domain.

Some of the identified cases of drone murders should also push you to act. Consider this one.

Leaders of the military-industrial complex who profit from wars are hoping that Americans won’t make the kind of fuss about drone warfare that they did about the Vietnam War, because drone warfare does not harm American service personnel. Or does it?

The arbitrary killing of Americans and others around the world, in violation of fundamental principles in our Bill of Rights, should be felt as keenly as the horrendous bloodbaths of the two world wars.

It’s not only the number of people who die in a war that is horrifying, but also the deliberate murder of human beings, particularly of innocent civilians who are simply trying to survive.

Still, the death count from drones, while not regularly reported by the news media, is gruesomely high.

Recently leaked documents reveal that the Justice Department gives the government a rather free hand in deciding who to kill.

Will you be able to sleep at night knowing that such a policy has been approved?

Like the now-obsolete weapons that lured militaries into trying out their new “toys” in World War I, drones are the latest in a series of deadly killing machines that threaten us all.

Learn about the drone killing of an American teenager and consider what can happen if ordinary people believe that there is nothing they can do about the violence being perpetrated by the power elite and those whom they have terrified.

In this Season of Nonviolence, we can be thankful that the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Counterterrorism of the United Nations is investigating drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories.

If world peace is to be achieved, then all nations, without exception, must respect international conventions for human rights.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Engaging in peace: A personal story (Part I)

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest author, Dorothy Walsh, a lifelong peace activist

My journey in understanding the importance of peace and nonviolence for the world and for myself began in the aftermath of World War II as I learned about the horrors of the war and the Holocaust. Dot at Peace Abbey

This experience led to my personal commitment to never be supportive of violent resolution of conflicts.

Traveling and hitchhiking as a student in Europe after the war, I found myself asking every German I met if they had known about the concentration camps and what happened to the Jewish people. No one would answer me except an old woman in a hostel in West Berlin. She said, “We all knew.”

During the Vietnam War, I became active with local people by attending rallies and by housing some of the activists who were away from their homes. As a young mother, I had limited opportunity to demonstrate against the war, but for the first time I called myself a pacifist.

My commitment to the practice of nonviolence has been a lifelong challenge as I learned that it took more than participating in demonstrations to be a peacemaker.

My education, focusing on the roots and causes of violence, came from the “criminals” in the prison who were my teachers during the 20 years I spent as a member of a chaplaincy team and later as a program director for men incarcerated for domestic abuse.

I was able to learn and practice trust. Several times I saw the fruit of this value in helping to resolve a hostage situation and to settle serious conflicts.

During this time I created a home for people coming out of prison. We were only three people with families and children, but we managed to run the Home of Reconciliation for several years and provide support for men who had nothing and nowhere else to go.

Dot Walsh

To make their voices heard

Posted on by kathiemm
Eleanor Roosevelt at UN
Eleanor Roosevelt at U.N. Image in public domain.

December 10 is International Human Rights Day.

According to the United Nations: “This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.”

The right to express one’s opinion and have it heard is among the rights affirmed on June 18, 1948, by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, in the International Declaration of Human Rights.

The Preamble begins:

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, and

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights resulted before and during the second World War, in barbarous acts which outraged the conscience of mankind and made it apparent that the fundamental freedoms were one of the supreme issues of the conflict, and

Whereas it is essential, if mankind is not to be compelled as a last resort to rebel against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by a regime of law….”

What do you think of these principles? Do you agree that human beings have inherent rights and that violation of those rights can lead to war?

Among the universal and inherent human rights listed in the Declaration are:

  • No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
  • Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
  • Everyone has the right to freedom of assembly and association.

Do you exercise those rights?  Would you fight to defend them? Would you follow the difficult and high road of fighting for them non-violently?

Would you deny those rights to the thousands of people around the world who are fighting for them?

View this brief video from Human Rights Day 2011 and then ask yourself:  What have you done of a peaceful nature to pursue your own rights or the rights of others?

Please share your story.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology