7 great new articles compiled and some written by our wonderful newsletter editor, John M Repp! You can read or download the full Pacific Call September 2023 issue in pdf format by clicking here [full URL https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PacificCallSept2023.pdf ] or go right to the individual articles listed below. CONTENTS and links to individual articles (page numbers refer to the pdf version) WWFOR 2023 Fall Retreat p.1 First announcement of our November 11, 2023, Fall Retreat.  Watch for details to come at our website https://www,wwfor.org and in future emails. More Trains, Not More Lanes by Mary Paterson p.1-2 Local activist Mary Paterson discusses the proposal for “ultra-fast” trains and concludes this is not a practical way to reduce the climate crisis.  But…

Crisis for Pacifism – Again: Thoughts on Ukraine War and other Crises by Jean Buskin Recently, I followed a link to this article:  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/20/2159214/-No-more-Ben-Jerry-s-founder-comes-out-as-tankie . There I learned two new words “tankie” and “Holodomor,” so that’s something.  If they are new to you too, each one has a Wikipedia page. This article criticizes Ben Cohen, the Ben of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, for opposing the U.S. sending weapons to Ukraine.  Ben has company, such as Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Helena Cobban.  I count myself among that school of thought.  Weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the suffering of the Ukrainians, yet in this camp we are seen as enemies of Ukraine, and sometimes seen as apologists for the Russian…

A new issue of our quarterly newsletter, Pacific Call, is now available for you to read online or download. Click here to see it. Articles in this issue include: WWFOR Fall Retreat p.1 March in Seattle against nukes Sept 24 p.1 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons p.1 To the midterm election WAPPC p.2 Measures to Stop Global Warming p.3-4 Yemen and Ukraine p.5 US military budget p.6 Letters to the ST editor on nuclear weapons p.7 What Gandhi learned reading John Ruskin p.7 2022 Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship p.8 Our main newsletter page, is https://wwfor.org/category/the-pacific-call/ [The full URL for the latest issue is https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PacificCall0922.pdf ]

8 Pages of thoughtful and thought-provoking articles are now available in a nicely laid out pdf file, ready for you to read online, download, or print! Most of these articles are also available in separate posts at our main newsletter page, https://wwfor.org/category/the-pacific-call/ Contents include WWFOR Spring Assembly                           p.1book review of Revolutionary Nonviolence p.2Poor People’s Campaign pandemic report    p.3Biden should organize a peace summit        p.4Nick Mele’s Seattle Times Op-ed                 p.4Underground Draft Resistance, Vietnam era p.5Bernie Sanders to the Budget Committee      p.6Insights from Democracy in Chains            p.7Pramila Jayapal: Roe v Wade                     p.7Letters to Editors                                         p.8 Click here to get to the newletter in pdf form! [Full URL is https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/PacificCall0622.pdf ]

The latest print version of Pacific Call is now available as a pdf to view or download. See the latest articles including the ones posted since our last newsletter issue! Plus some excellent letters to the editor, interesting graphics, and tidbits. CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE INCLUDE WWFOR Spring Retreat online                                  p. 1 A review of The Ministry of the Future        p. 2-3 Stop Privatizing Medicare                                p. 3 Less disinformation, more Internet savvy    p. 4 A review of The Dawn of Everything              p. 5-6 Zoltan Grossman: geography of Ukraine     p. 7 Cindy and Tom’s letters to editors        p. 8 U.S. Senate blocks Freedom to Vote bill       p. 8 Click here to see the pdf version. Full…

The latest print version of Pacific Call is now available as a pdf to view or download. See the latest articles including the ones posted since our last newsletter issue! Plus some excellent letters to the editor, interesting graphics, and tidbits. Click here Full URL is https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PacificCall1221.pdf

Reposting, written November 8, 2011, after a month in Afghanistan, midway through the 20 years of US. occupation and war in Afghanistan. This is the last entry from the journal of our recent trip to Afghanistan.  I now realize how little I have known and still know about Afghanistan and the people who live here.  Afghanistan appears to me to be teetering on the brink of collapse despite “the light at the end of the tunnel” talk by the militarist machine.  Three and a half billion people on the globe live on less than $2.50 a day- most of the people of Afghanistan among them.  Many people here express the desire that the apparent stability maintained by the military presence…

by David Lambert It was just a few minutes into the recent WWFOR sponsored Braver Angels workshop held virtually this past July, that I realized I had not been chosen as a participant in work/sharing groups. Instead, observing this workshop proved to be an enlightening and rewarding experience for me. I had earlier this year participated in another three-hour Braver Angels workshop with the identical title: Depolarizing Within. This previous experience with the workshop content assisted me in my observer role; a role I perceive the Braver Angels staff wanted me to be in. Following my short welcome, Dee Edelman, the principal Braver Angel Moderator, mentioned that this workshop was geared to help members and supporters of WWFOR and other…

by Bruce Pruitt-Hamm, reprinted from Fellowship, summer 2021 (the national FOR magazine) …our elders have lots of wisdom and experience to share with us, and to make changes to the world, our movements must be intergenerational. … But young people? We are yet to be broken and burned out. We are still closer than adults to that part of ourselves that is full of questions, challenges, and a refusal to accept the state of the world around us. We have fresh energy, insight, and a unique power to create change in our world. Jamie Margolin, 2017 Mike Yarrow Peace FellowYouth to Power, p. xiv. Hachette Books. Kindle Edition (2020) The Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship is a unique long-term training program…

An article by Stoney Bird, explains how ranked-choice voting works, gives us some history, and explains how this is a tool for a more democratic way of choosing our elected officials. Ranked-Choice Voting Won in New York and is on its Way in Washington by Stoney Bird And not just ranked-choice voting (RCV). The voters won, too. New York City just conducted the biggest ranked-choice voting election ever in the U.S. The bumble of the test ballots grabbed headlines – but that had nothing to do with RCV. That was just human error (darned humans!) from the election officials – and it was promptly corrected. As far as RCV goes, the election was a huge success. We know this thanks…