by David Berrian Ras al-Auja is the last Bedouin community in the West Bank of Palestine. They get by from raising sheep and goats and doing just a bit of agriculture. There had been many other Bedouin communities in the area, but because of Israeli settler harassment and violence the families in those villages have had to flee. Ras al-Auja is the only Bedouin community remaining that has been able to resist ethnic cleansing up until now. The families in Ras al-Auja are trying to stay. However, they face almost daily incidents of harassment, trespass, humiliation, theft, and assault. Israeli police protect the settlers even when settlers are clearly committing violence on the Palestinians. Women are afraid to go out…

by Jean Buskin A few months ago, I started receiving messages from email@buildingourmovement.com.  As many people reading this may not have the privilege of being on the email list, I thought I would give those deprived people  a taste of what they are missing. At first, most of the emails urged me to submit my “Voter Verification.”  Often, they sounded desperate!  “We’ve reached out multiple times.” [true] “Top Republicans have personally asked for your response. And yet, we’ve been met with silence.” [also true] Then there were threats, “If you don’t act NOW, we may have to remove you from our Republican voter database. That means you won’t be counted in critical polling, and the Democrats will gain the upper hand. “You have…

Cascadia Daily News, Bellingham, WA (posted on Aug 5, 2025) Editor, In 1945, only one country in the world, the USA, had the world’s supply of two nuclear bombs. “Little Boy” (the nickname given to the bomb) was dropped on Aug. 6 in Hiroshima and “Fat Man” (the nickname given to the other bomb) was dropped on Aug. 9 on Nagasaki. Over 210,000 were killed.     Thousands died from radiation poisoning later. Let’s remember this on Aug. 6. In 2025, there are nine countries with nuclear bombs and 15,000 nuclear bombs in the world. Both the U.S. and Russia have 6,000-plus each. The explosive yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 15,000 kilotons of TNT. In 2025, one nuclear warhead on a…

The latest issue of our newsletter, Pacific Call, June 2025, is now available in pdf form at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June2025PacificCall.pdf.   Thanks as always to our editor and writer, John M Repp, and the other contributors.

Stephen Zunes’s Keynote Address at the May 17, 2025, Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation Spring Assembly from an artificial intelligence (AI) transcription, edited by Cindy Cole and John Repp.  Available at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SA2025Keynote.pdf.  And if you’d rather see and hear Stephen’s talk, the YouTube video of Stephen’s talk and other parts of the Assembly is available;  see links at https://wwfor.org/spring-assembly-2025/.

Enough’s Enough in Magic Skagit: A small little town, empowered to do the right thing.  by Gene Marx.  On April 22, with nuclear powers trigger-loaded for confrontation in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, La Connor, Washington became the first municipality in the  state to join 86 other towns and cities in the U.S. to formally recognize the global nuclear threat and adopt a Back from the Brink resolution, endorsed and promoted by the local group No More Bombs.  Read more at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LaConnerResolution.pdf.

Newsletter Editor John M Repp starts this article with the question, ‘Why would I write an essay about our closest animal relatives and their dominance systems in a newsletter of WWFOR, a group that writes on its masthead that they want “to replace violence, war, racism and economic injustice with nonviolence, equality, peace and justice?” Good question!’  Read his article which touches on matriarchy, evolution, geology, meteorology, and more at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BobonosAndChimps.pdf.

A double-hitter post: First a letter to the editor by Jean Buskin (rejected by the Seattle Times) recognizing President Trump’s brilliant actions to end terrorist attacks on the U.S. Second a bonus cartoon showing the wondrous nature of AI. Both available here [ https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/JeanBuskinLetEdPlusCartoon.pdf ]

WESTERN WASHINGTON FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION SPRING ASSEMBLY 2025Saturday, May 17, 9 am to 12:30 pm PT on Zoom “Building a Nonviolent Movement in a Time of Chaos” Stephen Zunes, keynote speaker, see below  see wwfor.org/spring-assembly-2025 to register soon or call 206-789-5565 by David Lambert We are in governmental, political, and societal turmoil, when each of us is affected in so many different ways. Helplessness and a strong sense of loss of control is an understandable reaction to what some have termed an administrative coup by the Trump Administration. Yet, seemingly daily, there are court actions blocking actions by this administration, people massing together in angry street protests, communicating with the Congressional Representative and Senators in town halls, and writing letters,…

A new issue of the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation newsletter, The Pacific Call, is out!  Thanks to editor John M Repp and to all the contributors.  There are 12 pages full of information – with 12 articles about local, national, and international topics.  The full issue can be viewed as a pdf at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/March2025PacificCall.pdf and links to the individual articles are available here, https://wwfor.org/category/the-pacific-call/ and listed below. SPRING ASSEMBLY 2025 “Building a Nonviolent Movement in a Time of Chaos” with Stephen Zunes, keynote speaker.  See https://wwfor.org/spring-assembly-2025-announcement/ for David Lambert’s article and the spring assembly page where additional information and a registration link will be added at https://wwfor.org/spring-assembly-2025 or call 206-789-5565. Nuclear Weapons: Under Trump, the global ‘Doomsday Clock’ creeps…