Working for a world of peace without war and its weapons.
Learn moreJayne Molt, now a UMKC law student, won the PeaceWorks-KC peace scholar award for 2018-19, an award of $1,500. Last spring, she graduated from Avila University with a baccalaureate in criminology and justice studies and a minor in women’s and gender studies. In her application for the award, she wrote, “My goal is to be a public defender in Kansas City.”
A gathering of peace-&-Earth-loving people—what could be more fun? Come enjoy our PeaceWorks Annual Meeting on Sunday, March 3, from 2 to 4pm, at Simpson House, 4509 Warwick, KC MO. On tap: snacks, tabling, reports, elections, awards, and a trio on the interface of race, ecology, war, and peace.
Pat Elder of World Beyond War will give a free talk, “Countering Military Recruitment in Public Schools & Confronting Contamination Near Military Bases,” on Thursday, Feb. 21, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 4501 Walnut, KC MO. Elder will suggest a way to require parental consent before schools forward students’ information to military recruiters.
Robert McNamara and Daniel Ellsberg have said (a) the world is extremely lucky that the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't end in major nuclear war, and (b) it's only a matter of time until such a nuclear war occurs unless we destroy our large nuclear arsenal first.
When we hear GOOD NEWS—for example, U.S. troops are coming home from Syria and Afghanistan—why is it that the news media almost exclusively report the viewpoints of those who have been managing our country’s endless wars, stating that bringing U.S. troops home is a bad idea? Where is the other side of the story? With, hopefully, troops coming home, a Senate vote to end U.S. support for the brutal Saudi war in Yemen, and a newly elected, more progressive Congress, the Peace Movement needs to seize the moment.
The Dec. 7 hearing at the Kansas City, Mo., Municipal Court was dubbed “Nukes on Trial,” but there was no trial because the lone witness for the prosecution did not come to court; no one appeared to testify against the five defendants’ act of civil disobedience. Nonetheless, nuclear weapons were tried and found guilty as the defendants held their own court after the judge dismissed the trespass charge.
A planned trial of five protesters who were arrested for trespassing on the property of a weapons producer became an impromptu symposium about the dangers of nuclear weapons manufacturing after a key witness for the prosecution failed to appear in court Dec. 7.
The national movement called the Poor People’s Campaign held a Poor People’s Hearing in Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 10. An overflow audience heard the heartbreaking stories of an undocumented person, a Native American, a farmer, a low-wage worker, and a veteran. After each of their stories, the audience chanted, “Someone is hurting my brothers and sisters, and we are not going to take it anymore!”
The irony that the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh became the scene of multiple shooting deaths on a peaceful Sabbath morning is a senseless contradiction, difficult to take in. We at PeaceWorks, Kansas City, join the nation in grief for the victims of the Oct. 27 massacre and their loved ones.
Truth can be ambiguous. When the Senate Judiciary Committee was taking testimony concerning a Supreme Court nominee, the side that seemed more truthful was unassuming, in quiet, plain repose, in contrast to a loud, boastful defense.
