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Newsletters

We hope you enjoy reading about the Center: Fall 2011 Newsletter and Spring 2011 Newsletter.

Drone Down

 

Reese Erlich, foreign correspondent and best-selling author, whose books include: "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis" and "Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire,"said, "The CIA has now acknowledged that a spy drone went down in Iran. Iranian authorities say their military shot it down; the U.S. maintains there were mechanical problems. The incident has forced the U.S. government to admit for the first time that it is conducting regular spying on Iran. Officials claim that the U.S. uses drones to look for an Iranian nuclear weapons program. More likely, the U.S. seeks information about existing conventional weapons and potential responses to a U.S. or Israeli military attack. The Iran Project examines changes in modern Iran.

Ghandi rap

Presentation on Gandhi's Life with Gandhi rap sung by MC Yogi

Watch the video here.

Pope Expresses Shame for Christian Violence in History

 

Pope Benedict, leading a global inter-religious meeting, acknowledged on Thursday "with great shame" that Christianity had used force in its long history but said violence in God's name had no place in the world today. Read the full article.

The Vatican’s Breathtakingly Good Statement on Economics

Article by Professor Steve Schneck, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) Board Member

Read Professor's Schneck's article and find additional text from the Vatican document that the article references.

Dr. Terrence Rynne Receives Peace Educator Honor

October 21, 2011

The Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies has selected Dr. Terrence Rynne, adjunct professor in the Marquette University Theology Department, as the 2010-2011 Dick Ringler Distinguished Peace Educator.

The award is presented annually to a “Wisconsin faculty or staff member who has made an outstanding contribution to teaching or studying war, peace and/or global cooperation.” Rynne received his doctoral degree in Theology from Marquette and is the author of Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence. Professor Michael Duffey of the Theology Department and Patrick Kennelly of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking nominated Rynne for this honor. Rynne and Duffey are co-founders of the Center for Peacemaking.

The award will be presented at the Institute’s fall conference on October 21, 2011 at Cardinal Stritch University.

Rosh Hashanah, October 2011

Code Pink activist Rae Abileah's address to Beyt Tikkun synagogue-without-walls in Berkeley, California on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 29, 2011

I first visited Israel in 1998 on a five-week trip with my Hebrew school confirmation class, similar to a Birthright trip and I fell in love with the land as soon as I stepped off the plane. I knelt on the tarmac and kissed the ground of what I immediately felt to be my homeland. I was in college in New York City in 2001 when the Second Intifada broke out and though I was barely aware of this Palestinian uprising, I was painfully aware of the polarization on campus where at flag-waving rallies students representing the two sides of the conflict would shout at one another and get in each others faces.

Fast forward to December, 2008, nearly three years ago - when Israel started bombing Gaza: In its 22-day assault, Israel’s Operation Cast Lead left in its wake over 1,400 Palestinians dead, including some 300 children. The attack razed hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. The destruction was so intense, it could not have possibly been an act of “self-defense”. We watched as news channels displayed images of grieving mothers covered in the blood of their own children and grown men sobbing among the ruins of their destroyed homes and families – you may remember seeing these images. I could no longer turn away from the massacre and violation of human rights.

I returned to Israel in the summer of 2009 with a CODEPINK delegation that attempted to break the siege of Gaza yet again. My partner, who grew up Ultra-Orthodox and who had been ordained as a rabbi and trained as an IDF soldier, joined me for the trip. I came to see that this sacred ground was not “a land without a people for a people without a land” but was in fact a land which has a vibrant thriving culture that has been (and continues to be) systematically banished, repressed and denied their basic rights.

These experiences on the ground have led to me to work for justice for Israelis and Palestinians. You see, as Jewish activist Starhawk said as well, I was raised to love Israel… a dream come true, a miraculous salvation from the grief and terror of the Holocaust… But I was also raised to love justice, to pursue tikkun olam, not tyranny—no matter who the tyrants profess to be. And I came to see that without justice for the Palestinians, there can be no security or peace for Israelis.

The full article can be read here.

Occupy Wall Street

Information on the leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions.

The Occupy Wall Street movement continues.Occupy Together is a hub for all the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Global Revolution brings live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world.

Arun Gupta, a founding editor of the New York City based Indypendent just wrote the piece "The Revolution Begins at Home: An Open Letter to Join the Wall Street Occupation."

Nomi Prins [in NYC] via Celeste Balduccim, Prins, a former investment banker turned journalist, is author of the book "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street" and the just-released "Black Tuesday." Prins said today: "Unbridled bank speculation, fraudulent inflation of home and security values, corruption, government subsidization, and lack of accountability tanked the economy and inflated the wealth gap leaving the citizenry of the world financially devastated in its wake. Never before have the governments of the world united so cohesively to back Wall Street practices and bets."

Nine El Salvador Ex-soldiers Surrender over Jesuit Killings

August 10, 2011

Nine former Salvadoran soldiers have turned themselves in to face charges that they shot dead six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter during El Salvador’s civil war in 1989.

The soldiers had been indicted in Spain under its universal jurisdiction law, which holds that some crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere; five of the Jesuit priests were Spanish.

More: http://www.jesuit.org/index.php/2011/08/10/nine-el-salvador-ex-soldiers-surrender-over-jesuit-killings/

The Path to Peace

March 14-24, 2011

Patrick Kennelly, associate director of the Center for Peacemaking, spent a week this past spring in Kabul, Afghanistan, meeting with and learning about Afghans promoting nonviolence as a path to peace. The trip was organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Details of Pat's experience can be read in a Marquette Magazine web exclusive here.