This morning I watched on television, the exceptional interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. I was impressed by the quality of the speakers. I was impressed by the by the similarity of messages that we must not let the  awareness of our good fortune be dimmed by the violent tragedy of the Boston Marathon.  I find that I am able to forgive the bombers, who in one way or another may have been left out of our good fortune, or found a lens that made Patriots’ Day appear differently to them than to the rest of us. Even though they have maimed and murdered unsuspecting children and families, I am willing to try to forgive their senseless violence. Then I thought of the U.S. Senators who blocked the vote on the bill that would have required background checks for gun buyers. And I cannot forgive them. I have clawed the air trying to find some sort of understanding, some reasonable cause for their disregard of the families of the slaughtered children, the many officials who testified, the agreement of the American people that background checks would be useful in reducing gun violence in our nation. But they blocked the vote. They did not even respect the opinion of the majority of  their peers. In effect they voted for the purchase of weapons by people convicted of violent crimes and by people known to be mentally ill. In effect they voted FOR the continuing slaughter of our people -- including children -- using guns.  U.S. SENATORS!  We can hardly say that they have been disadvantaged in our nation. We can hardly say that their careers have somehow  been blocked by our society. We can hardly say that they fear the National Rifle Association, when the majority of Senators were willing to vote for the background checks, ...

 Dear Friends of Peace, Environment and Democracy, When I was a little boy my mother and I went to visit her parents in Palm Beach. It was the middle of the depression.  Developments in the making had been abandoned after the crash of 1929. We came across one such development, only the foundations remained and grass was growing in the streets. And there, right in front of us, was a snake eating a small  rabbit. Snake’s jaws open wide, they inch forward a little at a time, until the larger animal has been swallowed. I don’t remember anything else about that visit, but that nauseating scene of the abandoned development with the snake swallowing the rabbit are engraved in my memory. Today we have something similar. A small group of corporate executives and very rich individuals are devouring our nation, a little bit at a time. Over the last three decades they are gradually swallowing both major parties, the supreme court and the presidency. They operate through a wide variety of  well-funded think tanks and lobbying groups. While some of their money was wasted on failed candidates in the last election, they are making steady progress in taking over many of our government agencies and rendering them useless. They have  managed to impose drastic cutbacks on the government, which make it appear less effective. Tax loopholes and foreign headquarters reduce their tax liabilities and increase their opportunity to accumulate more money and influence. Our “democracy” no longer represents the will or the needs of the people. It is “of, by, and for” big money. One of the most tragic examples of this influence is the failure of our government to do anything substantial to reduce our output of climate-changing greenhouse gasses. Even while people were dying during super storm ...

 Oh, m’gosh, we’re fighting the wrong war! The U.S. is now spending billions on  building more military bases in Asia and Africa. While none of these nations has attacked the U.S., we are told that we must defend our “interests.”  As I see it, stamp collecting or golf is an interest;  wanting other nations’ gold, oil or uranium is not an interest,  it is coveting, and you can read about it in the Ten Commandments.  When will we wake to the fact that with our lagging schools, unemployed workers, cutbacks on first responders, stagnant economy and rotting infrastructure, we are in no position to lavish money on building military bases around Asia and Africa to please our tax-evading international corporations? Climate Change is attacking the United States! We have droughts and fires in the West, floods and tornadoes in the Midwest and killer storms in the East. According to the National Climatic Data Center, in the last dozen years, climate change has killed 3,952 American men, women and children. It has destroyed $412 billion in property - not counting Sandy, which is yet to be totaled.  In spite of these terrible losses, we have yet to cut back on our carbon output or to harden our infrastructure to withstand climate attacks. The challenge of reducing our fossil fuel dependency, while increasing our wind, solar and other energies is still largely at the whim  of our fragmented Congress. There is not even a plan to build the new infrastructure needed to transmit alternative energy from the windy plains and burning deserts where it is generated to the industrial and urban areas where it will be needed.  It is ridiculous to be pouring money into being the world’s policeman while our people are dying ...

 Our military spending has more than doubled since 9/11/01. The threat of terrorism has diminished, al Qaeda leadership has been killed off, and there is very little likelihood of any terrorist group mounting another attack on the United States. But in spite of the huge money spent on the wars and the serious weakness in our economy, the military continues to receive more than it requests from the Congress. There is no military entitlement. The word entitlement means the right to something. The Social Security fund is a entitlement because working people and their employers have paid into that fund. If our aging population threatens that fund, the remedy is simple, we raise the ceiling on income that is taxed to compensate for the inflation since the law was established.  Medicare is an insurance which we buy, usually paid from our Social Security. If it is not in balance, it makes sense to adjust the relatively low premiums to solve the problem. The elderly have a right to it because they pay for it. It is remarkably efficient and a lifesaver.  Military expenses are not an entitlement, even though the Congress treats it as almost untouchable. It is paid for by the largest share of our disposable tax income. Its big piece of the budget pie is starving many of our federal agencies, which are loosing effectiveness - to the great joy of the antigovernment, Tea Party Vandals.  Our military expenses are huge. Here’s the estimate of Dave Lindorff in his articleAmerica’s Political Disfunction is Rooted in War Addiction on www.ThisCant’tBeHappening.net “The military budget, on the other hand, could be slashed by 50% and nobody would ...

It is time to tell the truth about nuclear weapons. They are not a deterrent to terrorists, whom security experts regard as the greatest danger to our nation. They do not deter attacks from other nations, because very few want to attack us, and our overwhelming conventional forces are more than enough for our defense. What nuclear weapons actually do is cost us a great deal of money. Just to maintain the warheads will cost us $7.6 billion next year and $2.5 billion more to prevent proliferation. As we trim our federal budget other urgently needed programs will be cut, while nuclear weapons funds are defended in the name of National Security and for the benefit of senators and representatives who have facilities in their districts. Some Congress people hope to spend at least $100 billion in the next decade on “modernizing” the planes, missiles and submarines that are ready to deliver the warheads to an unidentified “enemy.” Nuclear weapons are completely indiscriminate. They incinerate adults, children and pets in the target area without regard for innocence or guilt. The radioactive fallout drifts for miles on the shifting winds. Even a relatively small nuclear war would create so much soot that it would drift around the earth for years, blocking the sun and reducing crop yields, thus causing widespread famine. At the same time, the great heat of a nuclear fireball and the following firestorm carries radioactive materials into the stratosphere, where they weaken the ozone layer, causing blindness, skin cancer, and damaged immune systems. It would also destroy aquatic ecosystems, resulting in reduced ocean productivity for years. (for an excellent summary of these effects see: www.ippnw.org/pdf/zero-is-the-only-option.pdf ) For those who are concerned that a nation might try to cheat a Nuclear ...