In December 2013 post entitled Schell: Complete Disarmament is the only Sane Path, we wrote about an excerpt from Jonathan Schell‘s 1982 book The Fate of the Earth which forms the nineteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace .
Below are the obituaries from the AP and Democracy Now! Continue reading RIP Jonathan Schell, anti-war anti-nuke, pro-Occupy activist
Howard Zinn‘s 1970 essay Vietnam: The Moral Equation is the seventeenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace . I am proponent of Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, and especially the graphic novel version, A People’s History of American Empire. And Zinn seems to be a force behind this book of pacifism, including contributing the introduction.
Yet, here I go committing heresy: Howard Zinn is wrong. In the first few paragraphs of this essay he gives away the whole pacifist store. Now I am all for the concept of free, but not when it means surrendering my pacifism from the get-go. Zinn starts by giving up on pacifism:
I would start such a discussion from the supposition that it is logically indefensible to hold an absolutely nonviolent position . . . . Continue reading Howard Zinn’s The “Moral Equation” of War is Wrong
The twelfth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains A.J. Muste‘s 1959 essay Getting Rid of War. The essay leads off the third section of the book: The Cold War and Vietnam. Muste’s life was a journey toward pacifism and through politics and religion. He was a labor organizer, anti-war leader and civil rights mentor.
Muste seeks a path to “abolish war and the benumbing threat of nuclear destruction.” He defines the problem as having two “characteristics”: 1) the cancerous growth of weapons of mass destruction, and 2) the political intransigence between the Western and Eastern blocs. The first problem has not been resolved. The second has only changed players, but the fight over resources has not. Continue reading Nonviolence: Muste’s Getting Rid of War
It’s the last day of “Sonny Meadows Week” at Peace Couple! (If you have not headed over to CD Baby to check out his work, and get copies for yourself and as gifts, you should do so now, while you remember.)
On this last day: What song should we pick?…
“Drums of War” by Sonny Meadows is the Peace Song of the Day for December 11th. You can find this song on the album Bibles, Guns & Flags. In the liner notes, Sonny Meadows comments on his inspiration for this song:
Written in response to Kosovo and my own personal experiences in Viet Nam, but applies to the Mid-East, Africa and everywhere we let vengeance take the place of common sense.
You can find a sample of this song, or buy the album or MP3,
at CD Baby: here.
(Drums of War is Track 4)
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Excerpt from lyrics: Continue reading Drums of War: Peace Song for 12/11/2011
