I was asked to write an opinion piece on the recent reports of Donald Trump disparaging combat veterans. I am a veteran. It would seem that the reports of these comments would be offensive to me, but they are not. ... While the headlines are filled with Donald Trump’s latest words, his policies go unheeded and undiscussed.
March on KC 9/4 marks 47th anniversary of MLK’s March on Washington
The March on KC included PeaceWorks-KC leaders. “There were many denunciations of police violence and murders, many calls for the civil rights movement to be fully realized,” says Ann Suellentrop. Charles Carney highlights “the interlocking injustices” of police brutality, white supremacy, racism, and poverty.
In these disastrous times of violence … how can nonviolence bring healing to our world?
Building on the work of Gandhi and King, informed by his own early life of trauma, Kazu Haga promotes the personal work of healing from trauma for those practicing nonviolence actions.
How to move “From Spirit to Street Action”
The 3-hour training that was part of an online conference Aug. 7 (but will be repeated) helped participants exercise nonviolence in three inter-related arenas: nonviolence to self, nonviolence to all others, and nonviolence to the entire earth and all its creatures.
White supremacy: cornerstone of US
White people are often so entrenched in white supremacy that it is difficult to see any other alternatives.. … The earthquakes we are feeling in our society today are the shockwaves as this foundation cornerstone of white supremacy is being wrenched from underneath white persons.
Help wanted preparing for KKFI special August 13 on election integrity: voter fraud, voter suppression, gerrymandering
Might you have time to write to any candidate for public office this year in Missouri or Kansas, asking them for their thoughts about the relative magnitudes of threats to “Election integrity: Voter fraud, voter suppression and gerrymandering”?
Can Do
Ron Faust of PeaceWorks-KC begins his poem thus:
I am what I am
Stricken by a pang in the leg
Halted in my march to a higher calling
Tired by people who can’t get along
I rest in the journey to remember John Lewis
PeaceWorks leaders speak up for monitoring KCK police
“We, as citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, have no trust in the KCK police department,” Christopher Overfelt testified July 13 at a budget hearing for the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County. Overfelt and three others from the PeaceWorks Board, speaking at the hearing, called for independent oversight of police. And by July 16, the Unified Government commissioners passed a budget including a new watchdog over the police.
Use funds from war economy for health care and education for all, says vet
“We need to work to stop funding systems of brutality and violence, and begin to fund systems of love that support everyone in our communities,” said Chris Overfelt in his talk on the June 20 online program sponsored by the Poor People’s Campaign and the Institute for Policy Studies.
Rosemarie Woods, we miss you!
Rosemarie Woods, a member of the PeaceWorks-KC Board of Directors in 2014, died May 24 at age 71. Farewell, friend! Highly political, Rosemarie was a long-time Democrat who resonated with the Green Party. She wrote a play for Women’s Equality Week several years ago, tracing women’s demand for the right to vote.