• We Can Reverse Global Warming

    We Can Reverse Global Warming by John M Repp We know now that ExxonMobil spent millions of dollars to create doubt about the science that tells us our planet is warming due to human activity. They designed their disinformation campaigns after what the tobacco companies did to create doubt about the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. The fossil fuel effort to sow doubt has resulted in many climate activists doubling down on efforts to convince their fellow citizens of the reality of climate change and the gravity of our situation. Today polls show that the majority of U.S. citizens now believe that we have a climate crisis, although one of our two main political parties, the one which has…

  • Another Boeing Is Possible

    Another Boeing Is Possible (remarks prepared by John M Repp for the Sunday, September 29, 2019 People’s Town Hall on Nuclear Weapons, Seattle)   Boeing is a key part of the U. S. military industrial complex, making and maintaining nuclear weapon delivery vehicles and guidance systems. Boeing will maintain the Minuteman III nuclear weapon carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles until 2030. Boeing also produces the guided tail kit for the new B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb. Boeing makes key components for US and UK Trident II (D5) nuclear weapons[i]. A few years after the 1973 energy crisis in the U.S. when there were shortages of oil and huge waiting lines at gas stations, Boeing won a contract from the Federal Government to…

  • Chaos and Choice

    Chaos and Choice by Weldon D. Nisly  7/29/19  for September Hospitality One man consumes us/US. Consumes our attention-energy-emotion. Disordering creation with obsessive compulsive chaos. Noxious character casts blinding spell over us/US. We let him mire us/US in chaos. We let him manipulate us/US with fear. We let him sacrifice vulnerable humanity on the altar of vitriolic inhumanity. We let him demonize and dehumanize the Holy Other/Wholly Other. We let him scorn decency and dignity on the altar of demeaning tweets. Who are we? What have we become? What do we choose? Personal self is embroiled in cauldron of toxic hate. Not True Self or Spiritual Truth. National psyche is hung on the cross of sacrificial enmity. Not true democracy of-the-people,…

  • Deep Cooperation Made Us Human

    Deep Cooperation Made Us Human by John M Repp Humanity could use a new understanding of how we got here that can help us survive the coming era of climate catastrophe. The origin story needs to be more cross-cultural, more universal than Genesis, the traditional Judeo-Christian story. The story needs to show us a variety of human behaviors, unlike a simplistic “survival of the fittest” understanding of evolution, which paints humans mainly as competitors. The story should be based in science. Some of the parts of a new story can be found in the work of several anthropologists who have published books and articles over the last few decades. Their work is not widely known, and this essay is an…

  • Larry’s Latest Letter to the Editor , August 6, 2019, Hiroshima Day

    by Larry Kerschner Is it too late for America to elect a President who cares more for our children and our future than for those who care only about money and power? Can we elect a Senate not owned by the insurance companies, Big Pharma, Wall Street and the arms manufacturers? In 900 days in the White House, Donald Trump has told over 10,000 lies. Last month, Secretary of State Pompeo declared that Iran is “the largest state sponsor of terror” with no evidence. Also with no real evidence, Democrats have pushed the position that Russia interfered with our elections. The International Research Agency, who Mueller claims to be behind this dastardly attack by Russia, spent $44,000 on Facebook ads…

  • Making Sense of NAFTA and its Replacement

    Making sense of NAFTA and its replacement Why we need new economic policies before we can fix trade deals By STAN SORSCHER (June 10, 2019) — In 2016, Donald Trump’s trade message was very simple: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the worst trade deal ever negotiated. He has renegotiated NAFTA, rebranding the deal as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). We never quite understood his objection to the original NAFTA, and we don’t understand how USMCA fixes it. You need to squint to see the difference between NAFTA and its replacement. “I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me,” Trump has said. His gut instinct said NAFTA…

  • Movement Building is a PARTY

    Movement Building is a PARTY* by Bruce Pruitt-Hamm *Well, actually, PARTY(S), because movements are made up of campaigns, and each campaign is, if well organized, a PARTY, but I get ahead of myself. 1 Introduction This article addresses an overarching lesson, enshrined in a mnemonic acronym, learned while attending the 2019 James Lawson Institute (“JLI”) in Portland, Oregon.  The 90 yr. old Rev. James Lawson is perhaps the closest we get to having access to Martin Luther King, Jr., if he had lived until today. The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Ohio at Oberlin College in 1957, while King was lecturing. At the time Lawson, having returned from 3 years of teaching…

  • Why are Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S.?

    Why are Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S.? Yes, there is a crisis at our southern border, as hundreds of thousands of migrants have made the arduous, treacherous, and very long journey from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and several other countries to seek asylum in the United States. There is a certain irony here — the U.S., to which they make their asylum appeals, is the very country whose interference in the internal affairs of their home countries over the last 65 years, has left behind a legacy of right wing, often military governments, many imposed upon the people by CIA funded and directed over-throws of officials elected by the people. Their priority then becomes the protection of U.S.…

  • A Letter to Our U.S. Senator About Boeing

    May 5, 2019 Honorable Senator _______,   Boeing could use some good PR right about now, and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to be on the right side of history. As a senator you could facilitate this by proposing to send them contracts to build a sustainable energy infrastructure. Enough with the defense contracts!  We need to focus on our real security needs — a livable planet.  This means we need to transition from fossil fuels to solar and wind.  Boeing has the resources to contribute to this effort.  With government contracts they could be environmental heroes. Although Boeing moved their headquarters to Chicago, they still have a huge presence here in Washington.  Our economy can’t afford to have…

  • Larry’s Latest Letter to the Editor May 1, 2019

    by Larry Kerschner In the Fall of 2002, many people all over the world were appalled as the Cheney/Bush administration were threatening to attack the people of Iraq over non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. A group of Lewis County citizens started a weekly peace vigil in front of the Centralia Library each Saturday at noon beginning the third weekend in October 2002. We had from 30-50 participants each Saturday. 15 February 2003, was a world-wide day of protests, including in Centralia, in which people in more than 600 cities declared opposition to the imminent war against Iraq in what was described as “the largest protest event in human history”. Ignoring the wishes of the people, the US government invaded Iraq…