[NOTE: It pains me to be hoping this opinion column is correct. I’m new to the business of promoting wars. But here I am, still rooting for Ukraine to avoid the destruction and erasure planned for it and its people by Putin, and knowing no other way. No surprise that I’m also thinking today of … Continue reading Ukraine: Not Losing, But Not Winning
AP News: In Wake of Ukraine Invasion, global food crisis looms June 8, 2022 The consequences of the war are being felt far beyond Eastern Europe because shipments of Ukrainian grain are bottled up inside the country, driving up the price of food. Ukraine, long known as the “bread basket of Europe,” is one of … Continue reading Ukraine: Death Sentences & An International Food Crisis
[NOTE: This review does not mention that amid the spreading devastation of the English Civil War, which in 1649 led to the execution of the defeated Charles I, a new radical religious group, derisively called Quakers, was coming into being. The earliest Friends were at least in sympathy with Cromwell’s anti-monarchical “Commonwealth,” and not a … Continue reading Quakerism was born in a terrible civil war. Could it survive another one?
[NOTE: Repression of dissent is a communicable disease. How many variants are loose in our own atmosphere? And are we preparing to resist their spread?] New York Times Thousands Swept Up as Kremlin Clamps Down on War Criticism The arrests are a stark gauge of how the Kremlin has intensified repression of critics. At least … Continue reading The Front Lines May be In Doubt, But Putin’s War on Dissenters is Going Great
Pope Francis, Ukraine and “effective nonviolent resistance” National Catholic Reporter – May 30, 2022 by Eli McCarthy — Opinion Ukraine – so many new graves A bird sits on a cross amid newly made graves at a cemetery near Mariupol, Ukraine, May 15. (CNS/Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko) So much energy is being expended to urge Pope … Continue reading Is This the “Pope Francis Alternative”? Ukraine and “Effective Nonviolent Resistance”