Silent Genocide
By Robert C. Koehler image above: An example of the damage done by depleted uranium shells on armour plating. WN: Below is another form of blowback we keep hearing about, but it is consistently denied by militaries . . . What do you think? An excerpt: It’s time to listen for a moment not to […]
Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018
At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]
Was America Great When It Burned Native American Babies? (Audio and Transcript) – Truthdig
Posted initially on Aug 5, 2016 Interview by Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer “Benjamin Madley1 has changed the conversation on genocide and American Indians. After An American Genocide, it will no longer be possible to debate whether or not genocide took place. Instead we will need to confront the questions of how and why […]
The Secret Path – Gord Downie’s Secret Path In Concert
WN: The concert and the TV Special, “The Secret Path” (the latter written and directed by Gord Downie of “The Tragically Hip,” co-created by his brother Mike), are simply powerful. They remind of Canada’s horrific treatment of Aboriginal children in a longstanding cultural genocide through residential schools that has left an enduring legacy of profound […]
Why I Oppose the Death Penalty
WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska because debate was heating up in a state with no death penalty on the books. (Since the death penalty’s abolition in 1957, […]
The Mumbai Bombs, July 2006
July 12, 2006 Dear Editor: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay predictably was the pot that called the kettle black in (otherwise legitimately) condemning the bombing horror in Mumbai this week. Last July Prime Minister Tony Blair likewise as hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote […]
On A letter from Hell
By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist photo above: pxhere.com WN: It is interesting that the photo chosen for the article highlighted below (not shown above) is along the lines of what Larry Dixon wrote (The Other Side of the Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ teaching on hell 1 in apparent approval of an instance of […]
9/11 was a test:
Essay by Carlos Lozada Illustration above: by Patrik Svensson Sept. 3, 2021 WN: Below are excerpts from an outstanding essay by a Pulitzer Prizer winner for criticism in 2019. But the last lines, though intended to be hopeful, ring perversely hollow–especially given what one can read on this website about the horrors of American Expansionism/Exceptionalism/Empire: […]
Haiti’s fate is intertwined with the U.S.
By Ishaan Tharoor with Claire Parker Email photo above: A man speaks on the phone next to a mural in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami on July 8. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) WN: Haiti is a made-in-France-and-America tragedy . . . Please see Egberto Willies on this: My wife Esther and I visited there in 1991, […]
The Catholic Church must come clean—completely—about what it did to Native Americans
The Editors June 30, 2021 photo above: A young woman takes part in a rally in Toronto June 6, 2021, after the remains of 215 children were on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May. For years Indigenous people in Canada have wanted an apology from the pope for the church’s role […]
John A. Macdonald can wait
By Stephen Maher June 7, 2021 photo above: Shoes sit in front of the Parliament buildings during a ceremony on June 3, 2021 in Ottawa (Adrian Wyld/CP) WN: It is the human condition that historians from within a culture generally silence any contrary narrative that might put into a negative light the moral rectitude of […]
I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry
WN: This review is from THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM Review: “I Was a Catholic Zionist“–An Eloquent Exploration of Judaism’s Moral and Ethical Tradition and Zionism’s Departure From It by Allan C. Brownfeld Issues Winter 2019 I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry By Ted Schmidt 430 pages, $28.00 (information […]
Chris Hedges: God’s Covenant in the Promised Land
WN: The following video, God’s Covenant in the Promised Land, was powerful in 2014. It is tragically as true now as then! Below is the text with some commentary from Canadian Catholic writer/activist/professor Ted Schmidt (please see his recent book: I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry); jtschmidt@bell.net. Then Jesus said […]
Return the National Parks to the Tribes
Story by David Treuer May 2021 Issue Editor’s note: This article is part of a new series called “Who Owns America’s Wilderness?” photo above: Katy Grannan–Glacier National Park, in Montana, as seen from the Blackfeet Reservation, near Duck Lake. WN: It’s hard to fathom the horror of White genocide against the Indigenous of North America. […]
Joe Biden’s War Powers:
Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill April 28 2021 Recording: Go to website and listen to Joe Biden’s War Powers 2021-04-28·36 min. Transcript excerpts below. illustration above: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism by Joel Andreas. WN: In the end, Joe Biden’s devout Catholicism, his profound empathy from personal tragedy, his commitment to the welfare […]
Empire Politician:
The new president’s paper trail reveals a man who has often betrayed his own bedrock principles. Jeremy Scahill April 28 2021 WN: The article highlighted pulls no punches in underscoring Biden’s war-hawk and pro-police brutality policies over a lifetime as a politician. He–as anyone–still may change! But not his brutal record, as laid out in […]
Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre Rescinded
Mark Walker April 23, 2021 photo above: Kristina Barker for The New York Times WN: This kind of story can be repeated ubiquitously in European worldwide Empire/colonization history over many centuries. One post of many is: The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism. Related posts may be pursued there. “Moving on” as beneficiaries […]
Dear White America – “History Has its Eye on You”
By Community April 16, 2021 photo above: The quote is from The Talmud. WN: The above from The Talmud echoes Micah 6:8, seen to the left. It in turn is picked up in Matthew 23:23, featuring Jesus’ indictment of the religious establishment of the day: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you […]
The wrong kind of normal
By RENUKA RAYASAM and MYAH WARD 03/23/2021 photo above: There Have Already Been 104 Mass Shootings In US So Far In 2021, by Cameron Frew on 24 Mar 2021. WN: Mass shootings in America, like genocide in Rwanda, are the first thing to come to mind when one thinks about gun violence. Please see my […]
Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity.
Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity. By Christine Mungai, Truthout Part of the Series: Religion’s Role in the Struggle for Justice December 16, 2020 photo above: howafrica.com WN: This is the central theme of this website! A significant portion of what follows is from the previous highlighted part. There is […]
An Open Letter To Joe Biden
Dear Mr. Biden. If I might be so bold, I wonder about connecting some dots at this incredible kairos moment of U.S. and world history. I was moved by your empathetic videoed message to the Floyd family during the funeral service in Houston. You have deeply suffered multiple losses as this article sensitively points out: […]
Cornel West Says ‘Neo-Fascist Gangster’ Trump and Neoliberal Democrats Expose America as ‘Failed Social Experiment’
WN: Please see in light of the title this outstanding article by Canadian Wade Davis: The Unraveling of America. 1. Introduction to the Post: This post, updated numerous times, has become a kind of dog’s breakfast. One could spend hours working through all the written, cartoon, and video material. Footnote 7 in particular is full […]
Black Toronto residents 20 times more likely to be shot dead by police, study says
Black people made up 61% of cases where police used force that resulted in death, Ontario human rights commission report said Leyland Cecco in Toronto Mon 10 Dec 2018 photo above: rt.com WN: The article from a year and a half ago highlighted below was brought to mind by today’s “Trudeau: Canadians watching US unrest […]
Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP
Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP Apr 28, 2020 by NCR Editorial Staff photo above: New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrates Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral April 12 during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS/Reuters/Jeenah Moon) WN: The article highlighted below shows American Catholic leadership in relation to Trump and his party […]
New Book! — Justice That Transforms: Volume 1
WN: Wipf and Stock Publishers gratefully re-published (my re-edited) Volume 1 of a series by the same title, January 9, 2020. The first edition had been published September 2018. The graphic artist created a beautiful cover, as you can see! You may click on the cover to be taken to the Publishers’ website page for […]
The Exposure of the Republican Party
The Exposure of the Republican Party The GOP will not be a great or good party until those who lead it straighten their backbone. November 13, 2019 Peter Wehner Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC photo above: Pool / Reuters WN: This rings so true. When unchecked hubris and unbridled greed […]
We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism
It is staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path photo above: Trump’s rhetoric is infused with notions of violence and dehumanization’. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images by David Schanzer WN: While I do not believe anyone is pure evil, manifestations of such are arguably […]
Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism
Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism March 15, 2019 by Ben Debney drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair WN: There is much on “savage capitalism” on this website. This expression likely references Rudyard Kipling’s famous line “The savage wars of peace” from his classic pro-American Empire poem: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States […]
Millennials are so over US domination of world affairs
by Bruce Jentleson Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Duke University July 26, 2018 6.36am EDT photo above: Millennials are not into the ‘We are the greatest country’ idea. Shutterstock WN: The article highlighted below is immensely hopeful – if millennials stay the course. Its final paragraphs read – significantly understated that they […]
The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years
The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years America’s prison sentences are far too long. It’s time to do something about it. By German Lopez; @germanrlopez; german.lopez@vox.com Feb 12, 2019, 7:30am EST image above: Christina Animashaun/Vox WN: The article highlighted is eminently reasonable, the evidence-based research solid, the way forward worldwide hopeful in […]
The Cautious Case for Climate Optimism
The Cautious Case for Climate Optimism Believing in a comfortable future for our planet probably means some giant carbon-sucking machines. life after warming Feb. 4, 2019 By David Wallace-Wells Photo illustration by Joe Darrow Adapted from The Uninhabitable Earth, by David Wallace-Wells, to be published on February 19 by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint […]
Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019
Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019 By Michael I. Niman,Truthout Published January 13, 2019 WN: The article highlighted below is a call to see beyond dystopian rise of fascism in the world to what we Christians call “Kingdom Come”. The article is nonetheless very sobering. excerpts: bitchute.com [su_dropcap size=”5″]T[/su_dropcap]he New Year’s Day […]
Justice That Transforms — Book Series
First 3 Volumes Fall 2018; Volume One Republished January 2020; two more projected late 2023 SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. WN: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018. They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) […]
Pope revises catechism to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’
Commits the church to working toward its abolition worldwide1 Aug 2, 2018 by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Theology photo above: Pope Francis gestures before speaking about the death penalty at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican in this Oct. 11, 2017, file photo. […]
The Last Temptation
How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]
Billy Graham and the Gospel of Fear
February 21, 2018 byCecil Bothwell Photo above by Richard Bromley | CC BY 2.0 [NOTE: For a differing view with my reflection on it, please also see my February 23, 2018 post about Billy Graham.] WN: Billy Graham’s passing (February 21, 2018) will occasion countless eulogies the world over; he will be touted as the […]
The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism
Posted on July 21, 2015 by christian hegemony Challenging Christian Hegemony Practical tools for recognizing and resisting Christian dominance WN: Every time I read an essay so well presented as that highlighted below (and so beyond tragic!), as a committed follower of Jesus, I know that I don’t have to wear the blame, but I […]
Utilizing Indigenous Thought to Cope in the Age of Trump
Sunday, November 26, 2017 By Four Arrows, Truthout | Op-Ed photo above: aljazeera.com WN: Below is a wise, challenging, hopeful piece. As I read it, I reflected on how similar it is to The Great Tradition within the Judaeo-Christian Story, and beyond. Today’s reading on this is copied below: An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Reverence,” […]
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 3 (3) (2011) pp 54-70 ©2011 International Journal of Critical Pedagogy Permission to quote from paper granted by the author, Dr. Robin diAngelo WN: In our immediate family, we have a non-white daughter and daughter-in-law, a non-white nephew and his non-white partner, and two non-white grandsons. As I reflect […]
Getting Through U.S. Immigration – Spoof
WN: This brief spoof captures something tragically larger about American Empire. [su_video url=”http://waynenorthey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/USA-spoof.mp4″]
Fifty Years On: MLK’s Concerns Still Plague Us, Including Militarism
Tuesday, 04 April 2017 photo above: Racism, extreme materialism and militarism are still inextricably linked, and still prevent our society’s becoming anything close to Dr. King’s “beloved community.” (Photo: Susan Melkisethian) KEVIN MARTIN AND REVEREND DR. HERBERT DAUGHTRY WN: The United States has acted like an empire since its inception: its two foundational sins are indigenous […]
Palestinian Women – One for All, All for One
Editor: We are proud that Samah, one of the women profiled in the article below [click on Palestinian Women] from International Women’s Day got her start in activism as a member of CFOS Ottawa. She will be touring Canada next month with her play, mentioned below [click on Palestinian Women]. Look for more info shortly on our website. […]
Trump travel ban hits major setback after judges uphold temporary restraining order
Ben Jacobs in Washington @Bencjacobs Thursday 9 February 2017 23.17 GMT Complete victory’: attorney general celebrates Trump travel ban verdict Judges upheld order issued last week to prevent 90-day travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries and 120-day freeze on US admission of any refugees Travel ban: judges refuse to reinstate Trump’s order – live WN: One […]
Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports
February 8, 2017 What the author is describing is scapegoating, ubiquitous in human cultures and history. René Girard, recently deceased, is the dominant modern theorist in this regard. For more on scapegoating violence and Girard on my website, please see amongst others this and this. (You will also see below each article related posts highlighted.) […]
Calvin Prof on ‘Radical’ Watchlist: ‘The Call of the Prophet Is to Speak Truth’
By Joseph Kuilema 12-07-2016 an excerpt: My own discipline, social work, emerged in part out of the social gospel movement of the early 1900s. One of the great minds of that movement, the Baptist preacher Walter Rauschenbusch, once gave the conference sermon at a gathering of social workers. “Social work, the kind that deals with […]
Millions Will Be Harmed by Trump’s Policies, Warns Rights Advocate in Open Letter
‘As president, you will have the heavy responsibility to prevent enactment of dangerous pledges and proposals that were made in the course of the campaign’ Published on Thursday, November 24, 2016 by Common Dreams By Nika Knight, staff writer WN: Human Rights Watch Director Kenneth Roth, subject of the article highlighted below, valid as it […]
The Republic Repeals Itself
By Andrew Sullivan WN: The article linked below is one of despair. There is no doubt this is a sentiment joined in by untold millions around the world, not least in America. However, Andrew Sullivan’s painting of the American Republic as an ideal to emulate was only ever that: an ideal with a hollowed-out centre. […]
My Journey to the Center of the Alt-Right – The Huffington Post
By Luke O’Brien Illustrations By Mariano Pascual November 3, 2016 I went to a white nationalist ethnostate in Indiana. I got bounced from a secret meeting in D.C. I spent weeks figuring out how hate gurgles up from the nastiest recesses of the Internet. And I’m sorry to report that unconscionable racists will be a […]
PAULIST FATHERS STATEMENT ON MORAL ISSUES IN THE 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
photo above: St. Mary’s of the Lake, Lake George, N.Y. – Paulist Fathers, www.paulist.org Though this is not a ringing disavowal of war (when will the RC Church – and so many other churches – ultimately reject “just war” for the heresy it is?), it in many ways is encouraging. And though the Paulist Bishops […]
The CIA’s Involvement in Indonesia and the Assassinations of JFK and Dag Hammarskjold
By Edward Curtin and Greg Poulgrain Global Research, July 22, 2016 In the “City of God,” St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great. The Emperor angrily demanded of him, “How dare you molest the seas?” To which the pirate replied, “How dare you molest the whole world? Because I […]
An Open Letter to Michelle Obama, October 13, 2016
WN: A friend reminded me, in response to that below, that none of us in the first world is untainted vis à vis violence. And with that taintedness is a bending at least towards hypocrisy and Pharisaism – which my friend also reminded me about. So with that mea culpa, please read on.: Dear […]
Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (C.U.R.E.)
Upcoming World Conference Human Rights and Prison Reform Seventh International CURE Conference April 25-29, 2017, San Jose, Costa Rica, Courtyard Marriott Airport Alajuela Theme: Implementing United Nations Mandela Rules in the Americas (the treatment of prisoners in the Twenty First century) Photo above is an Argentine prisoner, the dove of peace is actually a pigeon. […]
An ‘American Holocaust’
Dr. Stannard, by most accounts, published in 1993 a meticulously researched, powerful book about genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas: in fact by far the greatest generations long genocide in the history of the world; primarily promulgated by white Christians. See. for instance, the Kirkus review that sums up the book thus: Genocide on […]
‘They’re Coming for the Ones You Love’: My Weekend of Gun Training in the Desert
photo above: “John Wayne,” an active- duty serviceman, watches his trainer demonstrate a “controlled pair”—two shots to the center of a target. (Evan Simko-Bednarski) At Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, fear is a booming business. By Patrick Blanchfield August 9, 2016 WN: John Lott published a book that has gone through two reissues, most recently […]
There’s No Business Like the Arms Business
photo above: A mural near the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. (David Holt / CC-BY-2.0) July 26, 2016 Tomgram: William Hartung, How to Arm a “Volatile” Planet Editorial by WN It is a very strange world: Michelle Obama makes a highly impassioned, brilliant speech at the Democratic National Convention – one nearly universally praised, […]
Opposing Mass Incarceration Is “Trendy,” but Can We Stop the Train of Piecemeal Reform?
Friday, 03 June 2016 00:00 By James Kilgore, Truthout | Op-Ed photo above: Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout This kind of reflection will likely always be needed in any nation-state. Thank God for organizations such as C.U.R.E. an excerpt: Unlike mainstream pundits might have us believe, the inspiration for this momentum for change is not […]
Neighbors in Rwanda: An Interview with Denise Uwimana
Denise and her sons survived the [Rwandan] genocide against immense odds. Many of her relatives, though, were killed. So was her husband – she still does not know how or when his death occurred. In spite of this loss, Denise chose to forgive the perpetrators of the genocide and work for reconciliation in her country. […]
The London Bombs, July 2005
By Wayne Northey July 9, 2005 Dear Editor: Prime Minister Tony Blair hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote to the major powers that aerial bombing of civilians had “profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” and was “inhuman barbarism.” He later as disingenuously referred to the December 7, 1941 […]
A Partial List of Democides in the Last Hundred Years
WN: Democide: “the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.” While this is a partial list, Wikipedia contains an expanded list of Genocide here. The Most Dangerous Animal by David Livingstone Smith of course puts humans at the top of the list. • Eight million residents of […]
Capital Punishment
image above: izquotes.com WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska, and took place March 22, 1997 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was teleconferenced throughout Alaska including into […]
Chrysalis Crucible – a novel
SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. PLEASE NOTE: In that there is no need to make money from sales, here is a PDF version of the novel: Crysalis Crucible. My only request is that, if you wish to share about the novel, you acknowledge the author, and send them […]
Restorative Justice and Prison Visitation
WN: The following was written for the Mennonite Brethren Herald, and published August 2001. This was also typical of similar articles and presentations while I worked with M2/W2 Association (eventually known fully under my leadership as Man-To-Man/Woman-To-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries). I was a volunteer with the program beginning in 1974, and never stopped visiting prisoners […]