Chicago and Martin Luther King, Jr:  What Can We Learn? by Mary Lou Finley  It was June of 1965, just three months after the march across the Selma bridge, when I headed for Chicago, a newly-minted graduate of Stanford University.    I had desperately wanted to work in the South for the civil rights movement during my college years, but one thing and another got in the way—mostly my parents’ objections. I was, however,  determined that when I graduated, I would find a way.  Meanwhile, one of my college classmates from our Methodist church group, two years older and already in Chicago as a volunteer for the West Side Christian Parish’s social gospel ministry, urged me to come to Chicago instead. …

Where Are We Going Politically? by Stan Sorscher              first published in Huffington Post, May 2, 2017, updated May 5, 2017 Governance is all about power relationships. Donald Trump’s first few disorienting months leave many people wondering what governing looks like any more. It’s time to look away from the political spectacle, and take a deep breath. Consider two opposing value statements.   “We all do better” Value Statement The purpose of our economy is to raise our standard of living. Here, “standard” applies to our community and our country. We value opportunity and fairness, stronger communities, shared prosperity, and investment in the future. All work has dignity. We are each other’s co-workers, neighbors, friends, relatives, and customers. We all do…

We Can Afford to Save the Planet by John M Repp We live on a beautiful blue and green planet full of life. The last 12,000 years has been an especially abundant and fruitful period for our planet and our species as the planet warmed and got wetter after the end of the last glacial period. But now we face a crisis, a crisis of our own making, human induced climate change. We must be clear, “to save the planet” is a metaphor. The planet will be here even if there is catastrophic climate change gravely effecting human civilization. We know many of the things we need to do to save ourselves: get off fossil fuels, change how we farm,…

United State’s Nuclear Weapons Policy is a Violation of International Law and the U.S. Constitution By Larry Kerschner Twenty miles west of Seattle is the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the United States. Most politicians in this country are under the strong influence of the well-paid war and weapons making lobbyists. However, the United States at Nuremberg urged that individual citizens have an affirmative duty to publicly disassociate themselves from a known violation of international law. Chief Prosecutor for the United States, Robert H. Jackson, later U.S. Supreme Court Justice stated “International law, as such, binds every citizen just as ordinary municipal law.” International law is the “supreme law of the land” under Article VI, Clause 2 of…

The 4 (or 5) Worst Market Failures in Human History   by Stan Sorscher                      first publisher September 4, 2013 in Huffington Post   I’m a capitalist for one reason: to raise living standards in my community. A familiar mantra of capitalism guides me: Markets are powerful and efficient. I’m also a realist, so I temper that mantra: Markets are powerful and efficient. And markets fail. Market failure is an established, well-understood field of study in mainstream economics. Generations of economists accept the basics of market failure. However, American economists turn their heads away at the mention of it, because it sounds like heresy. Consider the four biggest market failures in human history: Climate change: $40 trillion, so far Health care…

Protest Works; Resistance Works Better   review of Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace Movement (2017) by Tom Hayden by John M Repp   Tom Hayden was the primary author of the Port Huron Statement, the 1962 political manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society – SDS. He was one of the defendants in the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial of 1970 where anti-war activists were arrested and charged for what later was determined to be a “police riot” at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Sadly, Hayden died in October 2016. We could use his wisdom now. He wrote Hell No out of concern that the role Vietnam peace movement played in the history of our country was…

Haiku on peace and justice

“why – for many people  — war feels better than peace”   a review of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (2016) by Sebastian Junger by John M Repp  jmrepp@q.com   The title of this review is a quote from the introduction to Tribe (p xvii) where the author tells us what his book is about. In a related TED talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_junger_why_veterans_miss_war , Junger says that we need to understand this counter-intuitive fact if we want to stop war. Junger was a war correspondent for the magazine Vanity Fair. He was embedded in Afghanistan and made the acclaimed documentary film “Restrepo”. Soldiers form a “tribe” when they train together and especially when they go into combat together. They must band together…