Tag: Activists

Drifting Away (From Peace)

As I typed the title my mind went back to my youth and the song……but those were happier times….in this case I am talking about peace…..my regulars know that while I study war I am an antiwar person and have been for 45 years….and in the process of research I read an article that did not necessarily surprise me……

With the Cold War ending in the early 1990s, some Western scholars predicted a more peaceful world with liberal democracy the only game in town. The findings of the Global Peace Index suggest otherwise.

The twelfth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI) reports that the global level of peace deteriorated by 0.27 per cent last year. Europe and United States, the world’s most peaceful regions, recorded a decline in peacefulness for the third straight year. This is not merely a one-year decline. Rather, it’s part of a decade-long trend: global peacefulness has deteriorated by 2.38 per cent since 2008.

The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a non-partisan think tank headquartered in Sydney, has been publishing yearly editions of GPI for the last 13 years. Covering 99.7 per cent of the world population, the index ranks 163 independent states and territories in three domains – safety and security in the society, involvement in ongoing conflicts, and militarization – according to 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators.

https://original.antiwar.com/Sajjad_Hussain/2018/08/07/drifting-away-from-peace/

The sad thing about our children growing up is that they are staring at another generation of war……and we should make goddamn sure that they do not have to travel the world looking for a fight……

On September 11 of this year, those who weren’t yet born at the time of the 9/11 attacks will finally be old enough to fight in the war on terror. In 2012, U.S. Marines killed Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks, yet American soldiers are still losing their lives overseas in the name of preventing terrorism against the United States—despite the fact that there hasn’t been another major attack on U.S. soil.

Now a new generation is set to join the conflict, even though the presence of our brave troops has actually increased the power and influence of terrorist groups—the very threat they meant to eradicate. It is time to rethink what has become the longest war in American history. We need to prevent the War on Terror from continuing forever so my generation doesn’t have to pay an even higher price.

https://theantimedia.com/young-people-fight-war-on-terror/

I ask myself how this country could allow a war/wars go on for 17 years with NO end in sight?  What happened to the antiwar movement that I was a part of for most of the 1970’s and into the 80’s?

Well there is one possible answer to my questions…..

It is time for a re-birth of the anti war mentality and only the young can do this…us old farts no longer have a part other than helping in direction for our wars are done and soon forgotten…the young will be facing these wars for another generation if they do not learn to speak up and demand and end.

The sad part is the number of  “war memorials” in our nation’s capital…..we take time to remember war but we learn nothing from those wars…..

Two articles in different weekend magazines have me thinking about America’s many wars. David Montgomery in last weekend’s Washington Post pondered the proliferation of war memorials in our nation’s capital. The second, an excerpt from C.J. Chivers’s new book in the latest New York Times magazine, details the experiences of an Army unit in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley.

Some of those killed in that desolate distant place will be remembered, indirectly at least, in a new Global War on Terrorism Memorial. Montgomery reports that President Donald Trump “signed legislation waiving the statutory 10-year post-war waiting period so planning could begin.” He continues:

https://warontherocks.com/2018/08/remembrance-of-war-as-warning/

How Did The Slacker Generation Produce These?

Another Saturday and another weekend begins….

My daughter is what some call Generation X or what others call the Slacker Generation…..recently with the deaths in Florida the students have become activists and have been protesting for better gun laws…..but the question has come out…how did a generation of slackers produce these children dedicated to protest?

Read an article that has tackled this question……

I, for one, welcome our new teenage overlords. Over the past six weeks — since the February 14 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida — the generation born in the 2000s has stepped up in new and extraordinary ways. They’ve participated in town halls, they’ve staged walkouts, they’ve marched and they’ve presented action plans for positive, sensible change. If, like me, you’re lucky enough to have teenagers in your life, the passion and and integrity of these adolescent leaders comes as no great surprise. The only real mystery is how the generation that was literally called “slacker” managed to become the parents of these badasses.

The prevailing image of my Gen-X peers is of mumbly, flannel-wearing whatevers. Our cultural influence appears limited to Smashing Pumpkins and the anguished early seasons of “The Real World.” We associate boomers with student protest. We associate millennials with innovation. We associate our own youth with zines and Chanel Vamp. And then we look at our own kids and are dazzled at how motivated they are in their energy and their ability to mobilize.

https://www.salon.com/2018/03/27/how-did-the-slacker-generation-get-these-activist-kids/

As an activist from days gone by…I am proud to see these children stepping up and demanding that society do something about all the deaths, especially deaths of children.

Grand kids of radicals….apparently radicalism is like male pattern baldness….it skips a generation.

100 years later: 5 timeless lessons from Joe Hill

A couple of decades ago I was a delegate for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)…..a union organizer and activist…..and back in the early years of the 20th century when labor was starting to organize to help workers and their lives…….labor is still as despised as it was make in the day on difference is they use political games instead of baseball bats to defeat the movement…….back in the beginning  there was an organizer named Joe Hill….

In 1902, after the death of his parents, Joe and his brother Paul immigrated to America where they expected to “scrape gold off the ground.” After working various jobs in New York City, Joe moved to Chicago and found work in a machine shop. Shortly thereafter, he was fired from his job and blacklisted for attempting to organize the workers. As a result, Joel Haaglund changed his name to Joe Hill. He traveled extensively around the country before joining the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in San Pedro, California in 1910.

Joe quickly became immersed in the IWW and devoted his life to the “awakening of ‘illiterates’ and ‘scum’ to an original, personal conception of society and the realization of the dignity and rights of their part in it.” He wrote songs like “The Preacher and the Slave” and “Casey Jones – the Union Scab” to inspire solidarity in the ranks of the IWW and to recruit new members. He encouraged a “conscientious withdrawal of efficiency,” which was not a call for violence, but rather a sprinkle of sand in the workings of machinery, and, more specifically, the efforts of non-union friendly employers.

In 1914, on his way from California to Chicago, Hill stopped to earn some money in the Utah mines. There he encountered three friends who he had met while working in San Pedro: Otto Applequist and the Eselius Brothers. Edward and John Eselius allowed Joe to live at their house as a guest. Otto Applequist was one of Joe’s closest friends and may have been involved in the alleged murder of the Morrison’s. Joe Hill was eventually convicted of murdering John and Arling Morrison, and took his last breath in Utah before the firing squad. His trip to Chicago was eventually completed – in a casket.

There many things that Joe Hill teaches the labor movement……things that can be applied today….things that would make the American worker more important than they are today……

Source: 100 years later: 5 timeless lessons from Joe Hill

Egyptian Woman Protests ISIS

WARNING! POST COULD BE OFFENSIVE TO READERS!

A member of FEMEN a protest and activist group mostly made of women has made a video protesting ISIS and Sharia law.  FEMEN are noted for their shock value in their protests.

I have wrestling with myself and agonizing on whether to post this situation or not…..since the graphic nature of the protest I decided to post the link and let the reader decide whether to view it or not.

Keep in mind if you choose to view the link that, I reiterate,  FEMEN are noted for the shock value in protest and believe me this is quiet shocking!

 

I will leave viewing of this to the discretion my reader………Once again……….WARNING:   THIS POST IS GRAPHIC AND CAN BE SHOCKING TO MANY….OPEN LINK AT YOUR OWN DECISION….YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/42R01zNvq9A/powerful-egyptian-feminists-literally-sh | actu.

How To Be Effective

This may be my only post today….I have to settle a bunch of legal stuff dealing with my father’s estate…….but do not despair I shall return….probably more opinionated than I was……we can only hope that I do not take offense and try and strangle some random attorney……my handler will be with me to keep me on the straight and narrow……Let us pray!

All of us bloggers, especially those of us that write on politics, want to be effective.  We try and bring issues and situations to light to hopefully start a dialog…..we all want what is best for the country and its people.

When I began my political writing and analysis I was given some great advice by my grandfather…….”Never write a novel when a paragraph will do.”  Basically, keep it short and precise and always stay on topic.  It has proven to be excellent advice that has served me well over the years of writing and speaking.

I try to help my fellow bloggers in any way that I can….I am by no means an expert and have made many mistakes in the last 8 years of blogging….a lot of hit and miss……I pass on some of the stuff that I have come across in those years that could possibly help my friends and fellow bloggers……

Awhile back I was reading on the ‘net and came across some advice that a man, Ramzy Baroud, had given to a 16 year old that wanted to get involved in activism….let me pass on a couple of his points that I found helpful……..

Humanize – But don’t sanctify your subject

It doesn’t matter how worthy a cause is, if it is too distant or disconnected from people. It is essential that you allow your audience the chance to relate to your cause as that of people, with names and stories, beautiful, inspiring, but also disheartening and complex. But it is important that you don’t provide a sanctified, thus unrealistic narrative either, for your audience will disown you and question your credibility. Humanize your subject, but remain truthful in your presentation.

Be educated, strive for intellect and be wary of ideology

Education will give you access to otherwise inaccessible platforms. It will empower you and your message with the articulation you need to widen your circle of support. But you are also an intellectual. The right education could further develop your intellect. And when it is done with sincerity, both education and intellect will feed on one another. While there is no harm in adhering to an ideology that you may perceive to hold the answers to the dilemmas with which you contend, be wary of becoming an ideologue, a slave to stubborn dogmas. That will stifle your intellect and will make your education a mere platform to serve unworthy, elitist causes.

Keep an open mind

No matter how powerful your argument may seem, how high your education and how insurmountable your intellect is, remain humble and open-minded. If you close your mind, it will cease to grow. Your ideas will eventually become outdated, and your ability to imagine a world beyond your own will wither and die under the weight of your own sense of self-importance.

These are excellent points and I feel that if we try to keep them in mind there could be a better dialog and possibly find the answers we are all striving to find…..Just a few of my thoughts early in the morn after a good cup of Joe…….Have a day, my friends.

Pete Seeger Dead!

As an old fart and activist I was always a fan of the early protests songs and the folk singers that sang them…..people like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Peter, Pauland Mary and Pete Seeger……yesterday we lost the last of the greats….Pete Seeger died at 94…..

(Newser) – Pete Seeger, a towering presence in American folk music and activism for many decades, has died after 94 years—and more than 100 albums. The bearded, banjo-playing protest singer gained fame with the Weavers in the ’40s and is best known for popularizing songs like This Land Is Your Land and We Shall Overcome, as well as writing or co-writing folk classics like If I Had a Hammer and Turn, Turn, Turn, the BBC reports. He spearheaded the American folk revival of the ’50s and ’60s and was an inspiration and mentor to many younger singers including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

But activism was as important to Seeger as music. A lifelong believer in causes like civil rights, racial equality, and anti-militarism, he saw folk music and community as “inseparable, and where he saw a community, he saw the possibility of political action,” a New York Times obituary notes. Blacklisted in the McCarthyite ’50s, his activism continued until the very end. At a 90th birthday tribute concert—a benefit to clean up New York’s Hudson River—Bruce Springsteen introduced him, saying, “He’s gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He’s gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your ass. At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country’s illusions about itself,” USA Today reports.

As a nostalgic SOB…he will be missed….and his voice of social change will be silent something that many wanted to do back in the day…..he will be remembered!

Rest In Peace!