Are you feeling a little down about the state of the nation and the world?
Is is hard to summon up the right mix of thankfulness and patriotism that Thanksgiving seems to require?
Let Blase Bonpane, the antiwar and anti-imperialism radio commentator, help you.
Here's part of his list of what he's thankful for this week, taken from my notes during today's broadcast "World Focus" (aired weekly on Sunday by Pacifica and other independent radio stations).
This former Maryknoll priest is thankful:
~~That the Roman Catholic Church is no longer enslaving and killing in the name of God, as was done for many centuries.
~~That the LA Times ran an editorial today about "The nuclear code football." But Blase goes further, asking the US to join China and India in supporting No First Use (NFU) at all. See "In Defense of a Nuclear No-First-Use Policy" in The Atlantic, September 2016. Blase points out that handcuffing the president would still leave nations like North Korea nervous about a congressionally-declared first strike. Thus they might justify their own defensive first strike against the US Coalition
~~That some US general have declared that they "would never obey an illegal order..." i.e. an order to start nuclear war on a whim.
~~That some Americans are aware of the hellish wealth inequality in this country... and that they know about the distributive justice called for by the Bible.
~~That the UN has warned that 7 million people will die of famine in Yemen if the Saudi-led and US-backed blockade against humanitarian aid is not lifted. We know, so we can demand that this blockade end. See opinion piece in the NY Times "How War Created the Cholera Epidemic in Yemen."
~~That Bill Moyers' video series No Choice launched Nov. 13 to air the personal stories of women who sought abortion prior to 1972. http://billmoyers.com/story/no-choice/
~~That Mark Twain opposed American imperialism and helped to found the Anti-Imperialism League
See? You too have a lot to be thankful for--including the good work of Bill Moyers, Blase Bonpane, and Mark Twain.
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