By Abby Brockway As a Christian, obedience is a theme that has been in my life and appears as I study scripture. My story of obedience began on a cold January evening when I spoke at a climate rally in Seattle. After the talk, a spiritual leader representing an indigenous group called Idle No More encouraged me to think more about obedience. I did just that. Last summer, Lummi leader and Master Carver Praying Wolf Jewell James stopped at Saint Marks Cathedral in Seattle on a journey with his totem pole from Montana to Alberta. Letters of apologies signed by various church leaders in the Northwest was presented to James Jewell and to the Lummi Nation acknowledging the historical disrespect…

By John M Repp A review of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate 2014 by Naomi Klein What is wrong with us? Why can’t we answer history’s hard knock on our front door in the form of super storms, record droughts, floods, wildfires, globetrotting diseases, food shortages and finally threats of tipping points like the melting of the West Antarctic glacier and massive releases of methane from Arctic permafrost. The answer is denial, denial of climate change. Naomi Klein tells us exactly when and how she broke through her denial of climate change. It came when she heard a young Bolivian woman tell her in late 2009 that climate change was both terrible threat and an opportunity. When she…

By Bruce Pruitt-Hamm They say “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.” After nearly 40 years of enjoying paid staff, the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR) is transitioning to become all volunteer… and all active! Following chronic budget concerns, our “board” decided this spring to terminate the position of our WWFOR Organizer of 10 years, Ellen Finkelstein. A “Transition Committee” was commissioned and has been working for months to ensure that the regional organization continues and expands its tradition of networking unpaid activists (aka “volunteers”). WWFOR has, using volunteers, organized (with Oregon FOR) a Northwest-wide annual conference at Seabeck conference grounds on Hood Canal for over 60 years. The WWFOR is updating that tradition with new technologies for networking and…

By Larry Kerschner   The end result of the war between the U.S. Empire and the Spanish Empire in 1898 marked the beginning of the global American Empire.  Spain had been losing control of its empire due to internal corruption and external national liberation movements, especially in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines.  On September 23, 1868, at Lares, nearly 1000 Puerto Rican revolutionaries declared the first Republic of Puerto Rico.  Many of these rebels were former African slaves who had escaped. The revolt would be known as El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares). These revolutionary forces eventually controlled the mountains and much of the rural areas around the towns with Spanish garrisons.     Although unable to push…

Insights from 2014 PATs Farhiya Abdi and Amy Olson and trainer Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm. Reflections from a Trainer by Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm I wonder what passersby at Westlake Mall were thinking when they saw a gaggle of high school students solemnly rising up by the escalator, in black and white striped t-shirts, their hands clasped behind their backs with handcuffs. Signs on their front read such things as “12 years old; Incarcerated for unruly behavior; ordered to pay court costs.” Their backs each revealed another message: “We do not deserve this.” Although this sight may have been taken differently depending on the eye of the beholder, the intent was to evoke the question: is youth incarceration the answer? This act of guerrilla theater…