Peace

Greenfield, MA (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I am heartened each time I come across a study affirming that waging war is not an innate part of human nature, that we humans are just as likely to be peaceful as we are to be violent. To quote the revered anthropologist Margaret Mead, “warfare is only […]

Featured

Muslims are understandably Protesting Qur’an Burning in Sweden, but the Qur’an itself urges them to do so Peacefully

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Swedish police permitted the burning of the Muslim scripture, the Qur’an (Koran) in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, on the grounds that previous attempts to stop such acts have been overruled by the courts on freedom of speech grounds. Hate acts targeting minorities are not actually free […]

Featured

Not just Cards and Flowers: The 1st ‘Mother’s Day for Peace’ was Held in New York in 1872

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenville, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment – Feature) – The 19th century origins of Mother’s Day differ vastly in spirit and purpose from celebrations of it in the 20th and 21st centuries. Mother’s Day was first inspired by two women with diverse but compatible social and political purposes. Prior to the Civil War, Ann Reeves […]

China

Peace may finally be returning to Yemen, but can a fractured Nation be put back Together?

The Conversation

By Leena Adel, Curtin University and Ben Rich, Curtin University | – Last month, China brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a landmark deal that restored full diplomatic ties between the two bitter rivals. There was hope the detente could also bring an end to one of the world’s longest-running – and virtually […]

Climate Crisis

As Tax Day Approaches: Is the Federal Budget Moral or Immoral?

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – April, the month tax filings are due, prompts us to ponder what our income taxes pay for. Are they used to provide all citizens sufficient resources and public goods for human security and well-being – the core of our national security? How much of our taxes pay […]

Nonviolence

The Tragic U.S. Choice to Prioritize War Over Peacemaking

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – In a brilliant Op-Ed published in the New York Times, the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi explained how China, with help from Iraq, was able to mediate and resolve the deeply-rooted conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whereas the United States was in no position to do so after siding with […]

Nonviolence

How Russians, Indigenous People and Belarusians are uniting to resist the War in Ukraine

Waging Nonviolence

By Eleftheria Kousta | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – Anastasia Witts, a U.K.-based arts producer, wasn’t yet out of bed on the morning of Feb. 24 when her phone buzzed with news notifications of Ukraine being invaded. Despite the shock, the first thing she did was post on Facebook: “This war is not in […]

Nonviolence

How local Peace Work changes Culture, Town by Town, Generation by Generation

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – Signs abound in Greenfield, Massachusetts’ downtown shop windows, among them PEACE, ART NOT WAR, FOOD FOR ALL NOT WAR, SOLAR NOT WAR, MAKE TEA NOT WAR… Why have so many shop owners and institutions, including the Greenfield Library and Greenfield Community Television, agreed to offer their store windows […]

Peace

America has staged 392 military Interventions since 1776; How Can we Have fewer in Future?

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I like to sing and what I like best is to do so at the top of my lungs when I’m all alone. Last summer, taking a walk through the corn fields in New York’s Hudson River Valley with no one around but the barn swallows, […]