At a time when the United States continues to sew and water the seeds of war around the world, it is timely to consider the speech delivered by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 56 years ago when our nation was immersed in one of a litany of foreign misadventures. Dr. King delivered his Beyond Vietnam speech at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. It was an extraordinary speech in which he questioned not only the role of the United States in the world, but also the very nature of our economic system. It resonates as […]
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Hell Is Not Predestined
TMS PEACE JOURNALISM, 16 Oct 2023 Robert C. Koehler | Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service 11 Oct 2023 – Humanity’s cancer shows up in Israel and Palestine. Missiles fly, hell makes global headlines, thousands of people die, many of them (oh God, of course) children. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declares: “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly. . . . We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.” That’ll show ’em! Revenge rules. Kill the human animals, even if they’re […]
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Hear the Hibakusha… Before it’s Too Late!
Introduction by Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action Testimony by Ms. Tokie MIZUNO, Hibakusha of Hiroshima, as recorded on May 5, 2010 at First United Methodist Church, Seattle, Washington Seventy eight years ago, on August 6, 1945, a United States (US) warplane dropped an atomic bomb, which detonated over the city of Hiroshima, Japan early in the morning. The blast, radiation and firestorm caused by just a single bomb left approximately 80,000 people dead and 70,000 injured. Of the injured, tens of thousands more died in the subsequent days, weeks, months and years due to radiation-related effects.The multigenerational […]
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After 78 years can we put the nuclear genie back in the lamp?
By Leonard Eiger July 16th marks the day 78 years ago when the United States let the nuclear genie out of the lamp. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM at the Alamogordo Test Range, on the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, in the test named Trinity, Manhattan Project scientists detonated the experimental device known as the “Gadget,” creating a light “brighter than a thousand suns.” A mere 6 kilogram (13.2 pound) sphere of plutonium, compressed to supercriticality by the surrounding high explosives, created an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT (20 Kilotons). Was this, as thought […]
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Following The Golden Rule
By Leonard Eiger For most of humanity’s recorded time on Earth people have tried to follow the Golden Rule, which is essentially the principle of treating others as we would like to be treated. And yet today it seems that in far too many ways and situations this fundamental axiom has been turned on its head, especially when it comes to relations among nations. Racism, xenophobia, militarism, and their ultimate manifestation – nuclear weapons – rule the day as a symbol and tool of power in many nations. As for the United States, we have twisted the Golden Rule, expecting […]
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