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Non-violence and social justice are essential to any philosophy - political, religious or otherwise - that celebrates a "culture of life". Opposing the death penalty, supporting laws to reduce gun violence, reducing the bloated military budget, using diplomacy rather than force in international relations, and ensuring that basic human rights are protected and needs are met are all actions that help bring about a just and peaceful world.
There are numerous organizations working for peace and justice and against violence. Here are some of them.
Left Bank Cafe Peace & Justice Posts
War & Peace & Non-Violence
Armistice Day, the Gulf of Tonkin and the Berlin Wall - Nov. 2014
MLK, BHO and Non-Violence in the 21st Century - January 2012
On Monday...the nation celebrated the most famous of those mid-twentieth century heroes, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s legacy is one of non-violent resistance that was instrumental in ending the institutionalized racism of those days. Opposition to war goes hand-in-hand with nonviolence and towards the end of his life, MLK became more and more outspoken an opponent to the Vietnam War. In an ultimate irony, his death, his assassination, came as a result of violence, specifically gun violence - once again in the news these days....
When Will They Ever Learn? - Feb. 8, 2012
That famous line from Peter, Paul and Mary's 1960's anti-war anthem "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" should give us all something to think about as America approaches the eleventh anniversary of the Afghanistan War.
Peace and Light - Dec. 25, 2012
For 2000 years, Christians have been celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Masters of War - April 28, 2013
I've been a Bob Dylan fan for many years.....I especially appreciated his sense of outrage at the injustices in society in those early years. I did however think that his anti-war song "Masters of War"...was a bit naive. It seemed to lay blame more at the feet of the arms manufacturers than at the feet of the politicians that lead us into wars. Well, I no longer feel that way. To varying degrees, both are to blame....
Peace On Earth - Dec. 23, 2010
The Insane Military Budget - July 17, 2012
Fifty-one years ago, Republican Dwight Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States, warned against the increasing militarization
of the United States in his famous speech on the "military-industrial complex."....Militarism has powerful and influential supporters in government. Large swaths of the populace confuse it with patriotism....Republicans will cut just about every program imaginable except the bloated military budget. Democrats, ever fearful of seeming not militaristic enough, have been ineffective at best and complicit at worst.
Sunday Roundup Aug 10, 2014 (Nuclear Weapons Era)
On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It was the beginning of the nuclear weapons era. In his introduction to a Noam Chomsky article, Tom Englehardt at TomDispatch writes that the way for the bombing of Hiroshima had been paved by an evolution in warfare: the increasing targeting of civilian populations from the air (something that can be seen again today in the carnage of Gaza)....
Earth to Hillary: We Don't Need An Ignorant Hawk in the White House Aug 19, 2014
As a one-term Secretary of State, she accomplished nothing of note. Today, her rhetoric on foreign policy as she gears up for the 2016 campaign is becoming hawkish to the point of stupidity. She is distancing herself from Obama's more moderate policies, getting in line with AIPAC's support of Likud policies, and, just may be, endangering the last chance for a two-state solution and a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis....
Sunday Roundup Oct 12, 2014 (Nobel Peace Prize)
The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to 17 year-old Pakistani child education activist, Malala Yousafzai, and 60 year-old Indian child rights campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi....
Sunday Roundup Dec 21, 2014 (Nuclear Weapons)
James Carroll at TomDispatch plots the long, sad course from Obama's 2009 Prague speech on banishing nuclear weapons ("As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act... So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.") to his role as an enabler of their renewal....
Death Penalty and the Criminal Justice System
The machinery of death - September 2014
Twenty years ago, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote an emotional dissent from the Court's decision not to hear the appeal of a mentally impaired Texas inmate on death row. Blackmun had become convinced that the death penalty could no longer be carried out in a constitutional manner in our country. Several recent news items brought Justice Blackmun's dissent to mind...
Crime and Punishment in America - May 2014
During my politically formative years in the 1960's and '70's, there was a lot going on. The civil rights and anti-war movements were operating at full throttle. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs and the environmental movement were getting underway. In addition to the events and ambiance of that time, two books played a major role in the development of my political positions. One was The Other America: Poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington. The other was Crime in America: Observations on its Nature, Causes, Prevention and Control by Ramsey Clark...
Before I Forget - Apr. 27, 2012
Death Penalty: Connecticut joined the civilized world by abolishing the death penalty. Governor Dannel Malloy's signature made Connecticut the 17th state to abolish the death penalty...
The Failed War on Drugs - Jan. 11, 2012
The post I prayed not to have to write - September 2011
Tomorrow an innocent man will be executed by the State of Georgia. The final clemency appeal for Troy Davis was turned down by the Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles after listening to testimony Monday. The testimony included that of one juror who says that had she known at the time of the trial what she knows now (see below - ballistics report), she would never have voted to convict....
Gun Violence
The Leader and the Demagogue - Jan. 13 2011
What a contrast we saw yesterday between the healing and unifying words of President Obama and the divisive and self-serving words of Ms. Palin...
Political Violence - Jan. 10, 2011
This weekend’s tragedy in Tucson points out once again how hate speech and “Second Amendment” rights have distorted and are now on the verge of seriously damaging American democracy...
America's Deadly Fascination - Jan. 19, 2011
Martin Luther King’s birthday was celebrated earlier this week. His life was one dedicated to peace and social justice. It was ended violently by a gunman in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. Coming on the heels of the Tucson shootings, MLK’s birthday gives us one more reason to reflect on America’s blind and deadly fascination with guns...
A Deafening Silence - July 23, 2012
If there was ever a time that spoke to the intimidating power of NRA money, this is it. If there was ever a time when the poisoning influence of political funding was apparent, this is it. NRA's millions in campaign donations over the years have effectively silenced all debate on rational gun laws in this country...
Gun Madness - Dec. 9, 2012
Sportscaster Bob Costas ignited a firestorm when he referenced a piece by former NFL player Jason Whitlock on the murder-suicide by a Kansas City Chief linebacker. Whitlock's primary point was that the Chiefs' game should not have been played the day after the tragedy. His secondary point was that our gun culture is out of control. Costas, paraphrasing Whitlock, said during his halftime editorial: "“If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.” The response from the right-wing echo chamber and Second Amendment rights nuts was as expected...
A Good Start on Gun Violence - Jan. 16, 2013
President Obama unveiled the recommendations from the Joe Biden-led commission formed to reduce gun violence in the wake of the massacre in Newton, Connecticut. In what has been called "the biggest gun control push in decades", the President urged Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, tighten up and close loopholes in background checks, and pass a new Federal gun-trafficking law. In addition, he announced 23 steps he intends to take immediately without congressional approval....
Sunday Roundup - April 21, 2013: US Gun Control
What can you say about a political system where the will of 80-90% of the country is thwarted by a minority filibuster vote ? In one of its more gutless acts, the US Senate was unable to muster the required 60 votes to pass universal background checks designed to keep guns out of the hands of felons and the mentally disturbed.
Sunday Roundup - April 28, 2013: Gun control fails in US Senate
The rest of the civilized world is still shaking its collective head about the failure of background check legislation and practically any other meaningful Federal legislative action to reduce gun violence...
Masters of War - April 28, 2013
The ongoing gun slaughter on our streets is appalling. There is an undeniable correlation between gun ownership, gun laws and gun deaths. 10 times the number of people who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 die each year in the US from guns. By 2015, annual gun deaths in the United States are expected to exceed deaths caused by automobiles.
Sunday Roundup - Sep. 22, 2013
Earlier this month, NRA-backed candidates won recall elections in Colorado against two state legislators who were instrumental in passing Colorado's tough new gun control law. On Monday, a deranged shooter, who was able to purchase a gun legally in the state of Virginia, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard....
Gun Deaths, the Second Amendment and the NRA - Oct. 23, 2013
The shooting tragedy at the Nevada middle school this Monday has brought gun violence back to the nation's attention. A twelve year old, a seventh grader, wounded two students, killed a teacher and then killed himself. It's not a mass shooting (there have been 16 mass shootings since Newton) so it won't stay in the news cycle for long. But it's the kind of tragic event that should give us all pause to think what the American attitude towards guns is costing the nation...
Assassinations and History - Nov. 13, 2013
November 22 is the fiftieth anniversary of President John Kennedy's assassination. It is a time to reflect on how the world may have been different without the political assassinations that have marred human history - not just JFK's but others that might have made a difference....
Best News of the Year - Dec. 11, 2013
State legislatures introduced and/or passed legislation to control gun violence and foster clean energy initiatives. In the absence of any Congressional action, this comes as good news...
Let's Repeal the Second Amendment - Mar. 18, 2014
One of the many pieces of legislation bottled up by the do-nothing-Republican-controlled-and-Republican-filibustered Congress is gun control regulation. Even after Sandy Hook, Republicans managed to prevent meaningful Federal gun legislation from being enacted - not even the requirement for universal background checks or a ban on assault rifles. Recourse to the courts for a common sense interpretation of the Second Amendment for the common good is useless....
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly - April 2014
Stop the Madness - May 28, 2014
This weekend's tragedy in Santa Barbara leaves us wondering what will it take to get the country to confront the widespread availability of guns that lies at the heart of our developed-world-leading murder rate. The craven toadies in Congress beholden to the NRA have done nothing - not after Sandy Hook, not after Gabby Giffords' shooting, not after the D.C. navy yard, not after any number of other recent mass shootings. Gun lobby apologists and paranoid wing-nuts stifle any discussion of our unreasonably lax gun laws...
Mass shootings continue in the US with no Congressional action to even establish standards for universal background checks anywhere in sight...
Sunday Roundup Aug 3, 2014 (Guns and Domestic Violence)
Sunday Roundup - Oct. 12, 2014 (Gun Laws)
In its October 6 issue, The Nation asks "Whatever happened to gun control?" The Newtown tragedy was supposed to change everything about gun politics. It hasn't....
Two Years Since Newtown Dec 17, 2014
Two years ago on December 14, 2012, a disturbed 20 year-old shot and killed his mother, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children and 6 adults before turning the Bushmaster rifle on himself. This shooting was supposed to be the one that finally changed everything about the availability of guns in the United States and our national epidemic of gun violence....
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