Daily Archives: August 11, 2021

This week, we mourn the hundreds of thousands who died as a result of the making, testing, and dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We do so amid an ever-increasing arms race among the nine nuclear nations. Our own country has committed 1.7 trillion to upgrading our nuclear stockpiles.

In 1977, six years after releasing the Pentagon Papers, when he was part of a Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, Daniel Ellsberg wrote: "At this moment, the likelihood that our life will long survive on this planet seems less than that it will not. Yet it is not less it could hardly be than the likelihood, billions of years ago, that we would be here today, that there would ever be on this particular planet any human life to be risked, to be lived and used."

Forty-four years later, the likelihood of our survival is certainly less. We cannot coexist with nuclear weapons. We must get rid of them before they get rid of us. As Ellsberg suggests, it took a miracle to get us here and will take another one to keep us here.

Work for the miracle. Work for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Patrick Henry

Walla Walla

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Work for the abolition of nuclear weapons | Letters To Editor | union-bulletin.com - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

(Pixabay/Cristian Ibarra)

During his historic visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2019, Pope Francis declared that "the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral."

The pontiff said the world "must never grow weary of working to support the principal international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons."

Francis' pronouncement was clear: The very possession of nuclear weapons is immoral! Therefore, if it is wrong for followers of Jesus to possess nuclear weapons, then it is equally wrong to build and modernize them, let alone use them.

The Biden administration is requesting $43 billion for nuclear weapons in its budget for fiscal year 2022. During this Aug. 6-9 period commemorating the 76th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, should not all Catholics, including President Joe Biden and all other Catholic politicians, be following the lead of Francis in advocating for total nuclear disarmament?

Instead of advocating for this exorbitant nuclear expenditure a continuation of the last two presidents' projected $1.7 trillion upgrade of the U.S. nuclear arsenal that will span several decades Biden should provide bold leadership to bring about total nuclear abolition and redirect all nuclear and other military expenditures to meet urgent human needs.

In his 1976 World Day of Peace Message, Pope Paul VI described the atomic bombings of Japan as "a butchery of untold magnitude." During the ceremony that awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Setsuko Thurlow, Hiroshima survivor and ICAN member, spoke these words in her acceptance speech:

I speak as a member of the family of hibakusha those of us who, by some miraculous chance, survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For more than seven decades, we have worked for the total abolition of nuclear weapons. ... We were not content to be victims. We refused to wait for an immediate fiery end or the slow poisoning of our world. We refused to sit idly in terror as the so-called great powers took us past nuclear dusk and brought us recklessly close to nuclear midnight. We rose up. We shared our stories of survival. We said: humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.

Today, I want you to feel in this hall the presence of all those who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I want you to feel, above and around us, a great cloud of a quarter-million. ...souls. Each person had a name. Each person was loved by someone. Let us ensure that their deaths were not in vain. ... The development of nuclear weapons signifies not a country's elevation to greatness, but its descent to the darkest depths of depravity. These weapons are not a necessary evil; they are the ultimate evil.

Pope Francis participates in a moment of silence at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan in 2019. "The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral," the pope said during that visit. (CNS/Paul Haring)

In the U.S., a nation that has legally sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons and relies on them for its ultimate security, what would Jesus have us do? Clearly, Jesus teaches that we must place our trust in God, not in the nuclear idol, for our true security. He calls us to disarm our hearts of fear, hate, racism and greed. He instructs us to forever put away the sword, love unconditionally and renounce all killing.

Due to the existential threats posed by both nuclear weapons and the climate crisis, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has now turned its Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds before midnight. The U.S. possesses nearly 5,500 nuclear weapons, many of which are on hair-trigger alert. The U.S. refuses to adopt a no-first use policy.

With the very future of human survival and our planet's existence at stake, how can we avert global catastrophe and make disarmament a reality for our time? First and foremost, we must have the faith, courage, and will to believe that total nuclear disarmament can occur. If we are to take seriously the magnitude of the nuclear threat and the admonitions of Francis and the hibakusha, we must risk taking action that is commensurate with the colossal threat we face.

Can followers of Jesus be employed in nuclear weapons-related work? Christians who work to produce and upgrade nuclear weapons, or who are otherwise involved in their potential use today face a serious faith and moral dilemma. The following insights from Catholic peacemakers serve to counsel us on this matter.

Jesuit Fr. Richard McSorley stated: "It's a sin to build a nuclear weapon. We cannot seriously imagine Jesus pushing the button to launch a nuclear bomb, or registering for the draft, or wearing the uniform of any national state, or paying taxes for nuclear weapons, or working in a plant that manufactures weapons of death."

The late Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas, told the Catholics in his diocese who worked at the nearby Pantex nuclear weapons plant: "In the name of the God of peace, quit your jobs." In making this appeal, he said he would offer financial assistance to any defense workers who would quit their jobs.

And the late Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen asserted: "I say with deep sorrow that our nuclear war preparations are the global crucifixion of Jesus. Our nuclear weapons are the final crucifixion of Jesus, in the extermination of the human family with whom he is one. We have to refuse to give incense in our day, tax dollars to our nuclear idol."

Seven Catholics were convicted for participating in the 2018 Kings Bay Plowshares action at the Naval Submarine Base in Kings Bay, Georgia, to protest nuclear weapons. It was among about 100 disarmament actions since 1980 in which activists have symbolically beaten swords into plowshares. (CNS/courtesy Kings Bay Plowshares)

The nuclear challenge before us is great but not insurmountable, for with God, and people acting on their faith convictions, all things are possible. History bears out this truth. Drawing on the rich biblical tradition of nonviolence and the many examples of nonviolent resistance in human history, Plowshares activists have been inspired to carry out over 100 disarmament actions since 1980, whereby the nuclear swords of our time have symbolically been beaten into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3).

The most recent action, the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, took place on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in St. Marys, Georgia. They declaredin their action statement: "Nuclear weapons eviscerate the rule of law, enforce white supremacy, perpetuate endless war and environmental destruction, and ensure impunity for all manner of crimes against humanity."

In October 2019, the activistswere tried and convictedby a jury in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia. All seven have served or are serving prison terms ranging from 8 months to 3 years.

The nuclear challenge before us is great but not insurmountable, for with God, and people acting on their faith convictions, all things are possible.

As one who has participated in two Plowshares actions and other peace actions, I, along with many others, believe that if people have the faith to believe that disarmament is possible, and act on that faith, the abolition of nuclear weapons can occur.

The U.S. bishops and all churches have a crucial role to play in following Francis' lead in bringing about nuclear abolition.

What if the bishops called for the conversion of arms industries to nonmilitary production, while advocating for full and just protection of workers' rights during the transition process? What if the church provided material resources for those who quit their jobs for reasons of conscience?

What if leadership in all Christian denominations called on believers in the nuclear chain of command to refuse orders to use nuclear weapons, and for all Christians to publicly support those who do so? What if the churches demanded, too, that the U.S. government ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which now makes nuclear weapons illegal under international law?

These efforts would go a long way to help create the climate necessary to bring about real disarmament.

Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemoration actions worldwide Aug. 6-9 will call for nuclear abolition. "In the Presence of All Who Perished: Remembrance in the Age of the Ban Treaty" is the theme for actions coordinated by the U.S. Days of Action Working Group.

The purpose is twofold: to note that the U.N. treaty has shifted the conversation about nuclear weapons from military and policy considerations to the humanitarian and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons; and to elevate the voices of those who have witnessed the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

Now is the time to join together and act with people worldwide working for nonviolent social transformation, peace and justice.

As Dr. King famously said in his 1967 speech on Vietnam: "Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism."

If the human family and earth, our common home, are to survive, if our children are to have a future, we need to recapture the hope and revolutionary spirit that Dr. King spoke of. Moreover, we need to commit our lives to the commandment of gospel nonviolence as we join with others seeking to create the Beloved Community, thereby making God's reign of love, peace, and justice a reality for our world.

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Originally posted here:

Catholics must act on Francis' mandate to abolish nuclear weapons - National Catholic Reporter

A new report details allegations of nationwide retaliation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and now immigrant advocacy groups and organizers are calling on the Biden administration to act.

The report, prepared by the University of Washington School of Law Immigration Clinic, and nationwide organizers found that federal officials are regularly engaged in a sustained campaign of ICE surveillance and repression against advocacy groups and activists.

It cited a compilation of interviews, court filings and documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and documents a myriad of allegations of instances of retaliation and surveillance across the country, where immigrant rights activists say they experienced intimidation, targeting, and in some cases, deportation for their prevalence in advocacy circles.

In these cases, ICE agents followed, photographed, and monitored the social media activity of activists who engaged in protests or other public advocacy, sometimes in violation of state law.

ICE agents launched immigration raids, explicitly targeting these individuals. Agents placed individuals into deportation proceedings, and in one instance, arrested 20 members of an immigrant rights organization following the organizations attempts to sever the ties between local police and ICE.

The findings of the report are troubling, not only for immigrant rights groups but also for the people they are advocating for. ICEs actions suggest that the federal government is openly using its power to retaliate against these communities.

It raises serious concerns that ICE is punishing individuals for First Amendment-protected activities.

The report documents retaliation committed against individuals associated with five immigrant rights groups: Grassroots Leadership, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Comunidad Colectiva, La Resistencia, and Migrant Justice.

"This pattern of retaliation is not about a few ICE agents scattered across the country," Jacinta Gonzalez, senior campaign organizer at Mijente told AL DA. It makes a mockery of our First Amendment if activists can be surveilled, jailed, and deported for nothing more than protesting abuse carried out by the government.

She added that the Biden administration should ban this sort of retaliation within its upcoming enforcement memo for ICE.

It is imperative that the Secretary of Homeland Security do so and issue guidelines forbidding this targeted harassment of activists.

Despite the danger of organizing against ICE, especially for those who are undocumented, advocacy groups have made it clear they are not going to stop.

Our work is to make public all the brutality of the immigration detention system, Maru Mora Villalpando of La Resistencia said in a statement. ICE retaliation only made us stronger and more committed to continue our work to end all detentions and deportations.

While DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said that retaliation by ICE is unacceptable in the past, activists say there still continues to be substantial reason for concern of retaliation and surveillance.

Its why theyre calling on the Biden administration to intervene.

"These cases show that retaliation is systemic, so the administration must take immediate action to stop it. Following people to meetings, scouring their social media accounts, arresting their friends and family this is harassment and abuse, actions totally unacceptable for a government agency, Gnzalez said.

With the upcoming enforcement memo for ICE, the administration has the opportunity to institute and advocate for a range of policy interventions to protect advocates, and address the harmful effects of ICEs tactics. But will it? Those tactics include exercising prosecutorial discretion in favor of civil, labor, and human rights organizers and activists.

The reports authors also offer several policy recommendations for the administration to consider, from bringing home immigrant activists and organizers who have been targeted and deported because of their affiliation with advocacy work, to ending

mass surveillance of immigration activists, organizers and protests in general.

DHS has used intrusive modern technological tools and boots on the ground to engage in widespread surveillance of immigrant activists, immigrant-led organizations, and protests across the country, the report reads.

The complete list of recommendations listed in the report can be found here.

The goal, the report says, is to re-envision the immigration system in its current form, away from treating it as an extension of the criminal justice system.

To abolish the immigration enforcement agencies, in other words, ICE, is the long-term goal for these groups, and they maintain that the pattern of surveillance and retaliation detailed in the report merits the call for abolition.

View original post here:

New report says ICE is targeting immigrant advocacy groups with retaliation and surveillance - AL DIA News

GCSE results this week will include all of the usual highs and lows, with students exceeding, meeting and some sadly missing their expectations and ambitions.

The work they have put in and the teaching and support they have received should be celebrated particularly in this most disrupted year. At the Association of Colleges (AOC) well certainly be working hard to acknowledge the work done and the achievements of hundreds of thousands of college students.

But alongside all of that is an underlying discontent from many commentators about GCSEs as a qualification, with some calling for their abolition. The main argument is a simple one: the GCSE was established as an end-point qualification for compulsory education when 16 was the school leaving age. With young people now required to stay in education or training until 18, that purpose is undermined and its use for adults is stretching things too far.

For colleges, there are other concerns about GCSEs and particularly about the obsession the government seems to have with GCSE English and maths. The Department for Education English and maths GCSE resits policy requires every 16 year old who has failed to achieve at least a grade 4 to re-take the GCSE or equivalent until they have. That means over a third of young people having to resit and for those on free school meals it is more than half, showing how unequal education outcomes are.

This week the GCSE results will once again show that the majority of those resitting will fail to improve their grade. Thats hardly a surprise given the norm-referenced nature of the grading which literally means that it is impossible for everyone to achieve the required grade 4.

Its an odd world we live in that the government implores young people to achieve a grade 4 knowing that around a third will not, and even after resits, around 25% will still not achieve it. If being competently numerate and literate are requirements for all of us, why not have a test more like the driving test which is criterion-referenced and everyone can pass at least theoretically?

This matters because the GCSE policy is one of the sharp cliff-edges which face young people throughout their education. Research by Machin, McNally and Valenzuela Entry through the narrow door: The costs of just failing high stakes exams (2020) showed that students on the wrong side of the grade 4 boundary, even by one single point, are more likely to drop out of education early and less likely to achieve a good upper secondary education because the available opportunities are insufficient. The reason for that is how the GCSE English and maths is used as a gateway or a barrier to progression in learning as well as access to jobs.

Take the approach to the new T Levels where the government has, wrongly in my view, made achievement of English and maths at grade 4 or better a requirement for all students to achieve a T Level. The laudable aim is to show how rigorous and high quality the new T Level qualification is, but it means many young people will not be able to achieve it. Weirdly, the same requirement does not exist for A Levels and degrees, and every year some people achieve those without the GCSE English and maths.

For adults the GCSE is also problematic, with only set points in the year when it can be taken, and the high-stakes end-point assessment creating a barrier for many who are returning to learning and need their confidence boosted. In prisons, a GCSE in English or maths is often impossible to achieve in the time available, so learning is often not translated into concrete achievement.

So whats to be done? We can all agree that children, young people and adults need strong literacy, numeracy and digital skills. We can also agree that too many young people leave school without those abilities and many adults are held back without them. The current system, it is fair to say, is not working to meet the aims we all agree on and, even if teaching and learning improved substantially and very quickly, too many people would still not be well-served.

A modular GCSE would help, allowing the banking of achievements at all ages and stages in school, college, community or workplace so that positive progress can be built upon. It would help children struggling at key stage 4 by giving them some achievements to take with them into their next stage rather than being haunted by the failure of a low GCSE grade. It would mean no more resits, which are mentally taxing as well. It would mean prisoners able to bank an achievement during a short sentence and able to top-up after prison. It would allow adults to dip their toes back into learning and build the confidence to progress.

The other change needed is for English and maths, as well as digital skills, to be properly funded. We have called repeatedly for specific funding to be used to support this government priority, but it remains poorly supported. For 16 to 18 year olds, the number of hours of teaching and support they receive is around 15 hours per week, lagging the 25+ hours in other OECD countries. Its no wonder that young people struggle, given the lack of investment made in their learning.

Finally, we need an adult literacy, numeracy, digital skills and language strategy. We had that in the early 2000s and it made an impact, but there is nothing now. Developing a strategy would concentrate minds, galvanise actions and generate interest, and with the right funding could make a big impact.

So, yes, lets review GCSEs, but more importantly, lets think about the English, maths, digital and language skills we want everyone to have as well.

Originally posted here:

Comments on: It's time to rethink how we teach our children - Politics.co.uk

Don't look now, but it seems that there actually will be some kind of bipartisan infrastructure deal. Enough Senate Republicans have agreed to a roughly $1 trillion dollar package including money for roads, bridges, broadband, and Amtrak, among other things that it is expected to be passed sometime Tuesday.

It raises the question: Are Democrats about to get played by Republicans once again? The answer is that it is entirely up to them. Now is the time for House Democrats to stand firm and demand that Senate Democrats pass the party's own prioritiesbefore they accept the bipartisan compromise.

Now, I have to admit that I was apparently too skeptical of the chances of a bipartisan bill getting through. Under President Obama, Republicans' signature move was to hold out the promise of bipartisan compromise, dragging out negotiations for months and squandering precious congressional calendar time, only to pull back at the last second. In 2009-10, dimwitted and/or corrupt moderate Democrats fell for this clumsy trick over and over and over, and I thought it would probably work again, but I was mistaken.

However, it is still absolutely certain that Republicans are operating in bad faith here. If they are advancing this bipartisan bill, it is because they perceive that to be their best chance at blowing up the rest of the Biden agenda and thereby damaging the Democrats' political prospects. The old goal of wasting tons of floor time has indeed succeeded. Now the GOP is almost certainly hoping that by agreeing to this bill, moderate Democrats like Sens. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.)and Joe Manchin (W. Va.) will get cold feet about the rest of Biden's policy program, and that will be the end of major policymaking for the rest of his presidency.

It is worth noting again that both in terms of policy and in terms of the political objectives of the Democratic Party, the bipartisan bill is completely pointless. As Alex Pareene writes at The New York Times, the sole objective is to assuage a neurotic desire from a handful of Senate moderates like Manchin and Sinema to demonstrate that the Senate still functions: "The Senate (with the White House's support) wasted months cajoling and rehabilitating a handful of key Republicans, only to pass a smaller version of something Democrats could theoretically have passed entirely on their own." The whole process proved beyond any doubt that the Senate is a worthless obstacle to human flourishing.

If and when the deal does pass, the Democrats' explicit intention is to pass another much larger budget bill that can sidestep the filibuster through the reconciliation process tacking on manyof the party's objectives that weren't included in the bipartisan bill.(Republicans appear to have calculated that if they didn't do something bipartisan, Manchin and Sinema would be forced to go along with the rest of their party, so they are trying to give them an escape hatch to start running away from liberal priorities.) Senate Democrats released an outline of what that second bill couldlook like Monday morning.

However, one small but important thing is missing from that proposedreconciliation bill an increase in the debt limit. The government is going to run out of legal borrowing authority in mid-September, and Democrats are reportedly going to try to force Republicans to vote for a separateincrease rather than just doing it themselves.

This is almost unbelievably stupid, even for long-time students of Democratic blundering. Republicans have already taken the debt limit hostage more than once, and their desire to inflict harm on the country to damagethe Bidenadministration is right out in the open. Right now, in the midst of a resurgent pandemic that is again stuffing hospitals full to bursting, Republican elites are spreading anti-vaccine propaganda and instructing their followers to ignore pandemic containment guidelines. Republican senators are publicly sayingthey will not vote for a debt ceiling increase without massive austerity measures that would wound the economy and therefore Biden. "I don't think there are going to be any Republican votes to increase the debt limit without some structural reforms," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Politico.

Furthermore, the debt ceiling is a pointless anachronism that does not exist in any other country (except Denmark, where they have effectively abolished it) and is arguably unconstitutional. In any sane country, when the legislature votes to spend and tax, it has thereby voted to borrow the balance of revenue needed. It is irresponsible politics to play chicken with the worst major political party in the developed world, and it is irresponsiblepolicy not to clean up this poisonous legal idiocy while Democrats have the chance.

All this means that right now is an excellent time for progressives in the House by which I mean not just the "Squad" but anyone who is in favor of Biden's agenda and wants to see him succeed as president to hold the line and force Senate Democrats to behave. If the Housepockets the bipartisan bill and refuses to move on it until they also havethe reconciliation bill in hand from the Senate, including an abolition of the debt limit (or at least a large increase), they can likely force through the whole thing. Make it clear to Sinema and Manchin that it's an all-or-nothing deal. Otherwise Biden's entire presidency could run aground in a month.

Read more:

Democrats make governing much harder than it needs to be - The Week Magazine