Why We Should Care About Yemen
by Mary Anne Mercer Basic facts: Yemen is a country of some 30 million people, located at the heel of the boot of the Arabian Peninsula. It’s a country with a rich cultural and religious history. For over 2000 years, what is now Yemen was the center of a series of powerful kingdoms that controlled commerce in the luxury goods of the time —frankincense, myrrh, and spices. The first cup of coffee was brewed in Yemen, and the port of Mokha was once the center of the coffee trade. As described in both the Bible and the Quran, the famed Queen of Sheba ruled the area nearly 1000 years BCE, at the time of her famed visit to the wise…
SHORT ITEMS for Pacific Call October 2020 Vol 4 issue 5
SHORT ITEMS for Pacific Call October 2020 Vol 4 issue 5 WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE AT RECENT DEMONSTRATIONS by Black Lives Matter activists since George Floyd’s murder? Trump is trying to blame antifa. But there are reports that racist white provocateurs have infiltrated some demonstrations and broken windows, looted stores and thrown things at the police. This is a new tactic by white racists. They are making Black Lives Matter demonstrators seem violent. And, it must be said that 93% of the demonstrations have been peaceful. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/nearly-all-black-lives-matter-protests-are-peaceful-despite-trump-narrative-report-finds See the links below for the reports on right-wing infiltration of Black Lives Matter demonstrations: https://www.washingtonpost.com/p olitics/2020/06/22/who-caused-violence-protests-its-not-antifa/ Here is a quote from the Washington Post article of June 22, 2020. “Roughly 80…
Confessions of a Racist
Confessions of a Racist by Marjorie Prince I am a racist. Racism is not a condition that I chose, but I am and have been a participant in and beneficiary of a society built on racism. My continuing job is to become anti-racist in word and deed. Confession of sin is not the end of racism but is a crucial first step in becoming anti-racist. James 5:16 tells us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” John 1:9-10 teaches that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not…
A Federal Job Guarantee or a Universal Basic Income
by John M Repp Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18) We need to reimagine a better America to get beyond the overlapping crisis we face in this summer of 2020, a pandemic, massive unemployment, uprisings protesting police violence and an approaching election. I want to discuss two ideas for reform: A Federal Job Guarantee and the Universal Basic Income. After the financial crash and recession of 2008-2009, it took 10 years before the American economy got back to what conventional economists said was “full employment”. But even then, there were millions of people who were not working full time as well as millions who were discouraged about finding work at all. A Federal Job Guarantee is…
Testing, Testing and More Testing
by John M Repp In early April of 2020, a friend of mine from Germany emailed me that she and her husband were shocked at the stories they were seeing coming out of the United States. She was shocked at our incompetence in the face of this pandemic. She thought we would be competent if nothing else. After all, we were one of the nations that helped defeat the Nazis and rebuilt her country after World War II. Dominique Moisi, a political scientist from France, has said it more forcefully: “America has not done badly, it has done exceptionally badly.” America has some of the world’s best scientists, but many of our political leaders are not listening to them. The…
The Virtual WWFOR 2020 Spring Assembly
WWFOR 2020 Spring Assembly Conference by David Lambert This year’s WWFOR Spring Assembly, a video-conference, was held on Saturday, May 2 and consisted principally of five workshops. Fifty- Five people attended this video-conference. Planners for the event were: Rick Trombley; Vivi Bartron, Fran Hall, Marti Lambert, Susan Donaldson and David Lambert. David was Host and Co-Host was Carly Brook. Carly has had previous experience with Zoom Webinars and David was grateful to Carly for offering very competent assistance. Following a brief introduction, David introduced Paul Cheoketen Wagner, a Saanich First Nation Tribal member who has worked extensively in activism with the Puyallup Indian Tribe and who has organized walks from Pierce County to the state Capitol. Paul gave a moving…
Putting the Green in the Green New Deal
by John M Repp One of the things we must learn from our experience of the Covid-19 pandemic is to listen to our scientists. The United States has some of the best scientists in the world. Epidemiologists tried to warn the Trump Administration for months that they needed to take precautions as a pandemic could break out at any time. Epidemics from newly evolved viruses have become more common over the last forty years. Think of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and Ebola among others; even though those viruses did not spread here in the U.S. Biologists tell us “the rate of deforestation in a given area was the number one predictor of where the next pandemic would occur”. Climate scientists told us…
Stop state budget cuts during coronavirus pandemic and focus on tax reform
Stop state budget cuts during coronavirus pandemic and focus on tax reform Originally published in The Seattle Times, April 7, 2020 by Mark Vossler, a Kirkland cardiologist, chair of the Climate Task Force and president-elect of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Max Savishinsky, executive director of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Stephen Bezruchka, a senior lecturer, University of Washington School of Public Health, and a board member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. His views are his own and not those of the University of Washington. We are in a time of crisis, a time of great uncertainty. We don’t know how many people will die of COVID-19, nor the extent of the economic harm that will result from physical distancing.…
Covid-19 lesson: The Free Market failed us
For this crisis and the next, we must manage our future better than our past by Stan Sorscher reprinted from The Stand, April 6, 2020 (April 6, 2020) — The pandemic has dominated our minds for weeks. Each day, new important lessons are drawn into the spotlight, demanding attention. ● We needed much better testing. ● We should have comprehensive health care coverage. ● We should have more reserves of medical supplies, and more surge capacity. ● We shouldn’t have mocked other countries whose citizens wear masks in public. ● We should have an industrial base that can make more test kits, nasal swabs, face masks, and ventilators. These must all be national strategies promoted by political leaders. For-profit corporations…
This Is How Civilizations Collapse from Within
This Is How Civilizations Collapse from Within by Bruce Amundson, Vice President, WPSR In December, Congress passed the 2020 military spending act, a grotesque $738 billion bill representing even $30 billion more than last year. Pentagon spending in 2019 is actually higher than it was at the peak of either the Korean or Vietnam conflicts. As fear of terrorism generated by the 9/11 attacks set the stage for 18 years of ill-advised military adventures, we have witnessed the relentless expansion of the military budget and, at least as disconcerting, the militarization of our foreign policy and our diplomatic face to the world. The end of the Cold War resulted in the rarest of things: real cuts in the Pentagon…
