Nuclear Power is a Social Justice Issue: We Need to Oppose It

I've spent several years working on nuclear power, weapons, and waste issues prior to becoming a social worker.  I helped document and share the environmental, health, and economic costs of the nuclear industry and the government in the U.S., U.K., Ukraine, and Russia.  I've seen opposition to nuclear power decline over the past 10 years despite the fact that disasters and other catastrophes continue to put our children and children's children at massive risks.  There are many policy-makers, including Sen. Al Franken and President Obama, who have come out in favor of nuclear power, especially in regard to its potential to offset carbon emissions caused by coal-based power plants.  Now with the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan we have seen another disaster unfolding before our eyes that may take decades before the total health and environmental impacts can be fully assessed.  If you concerned about public health, the environment, or social justice issues, you absolutely cannot be in favor of nuclear power.

To learn more about nuclear power and how to get involved in opposing it, please visit one of the following organizations' sites that I've been privileged to work with in the past.

www.nukewatchinfo.org - Nukewatch
www.nirs.org - Nuclear Information & Resource Service
www.greenpeace.org - Greenpeace

For more information on Chernobyl, please visit the recently updated Friends of Chernobyl Centers, U.S. (FOCCUS) website at www.friendsofchernobylcenters.org

Creative Approaches in Combatting Obesity

My friend Gabe Johnson recently forwarded me a link to a video he recently put together at the NY Times called 'Food Fight,' which highlights a community based program that aims to reduce obesity among Philadelphia schoolchildren. The video accompanies investigative journalist Michael's Moss' piece, "Philadelphia School Battles Students’ Bad Eating Habits, on Campus and Off."

Vegan Myths Debunked

Love this video debunking myths about veganism through song!

Religion may die out in 9 Western Countries

Data shows increasing trend in several European countries showing more people, and ultimately a critical mass of people, will identify themselves as unaffiliated with any religious group over time.  The Netherlands, for example, is predicted to have 70% of its population as religiously unaffiliated by the year 2050.

Source: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/23/religion-to-go-extinct-in-9-countries-experts-predict/

Pacifism is Messy, but Not as Messy as War

During times of armed conflict, powers great and small instinctively react with brute force:  sanctions, no-fly zones, occupation, embargoes, freezing of assets.  Short and medium term goals are achieved with acceptable amounts of casualties and other costs.  Long term peace is rarely secured, unless it is in the form of an uneasy truce (North and South Korea) or when the enemy has literally had its ability to engage in armed conflict taken away (Germany and Japan).

I am a committed pacifist.  I think that all war can and should be actively opposed, whether it is a international conflict like the one simmering between several Arab states and Israel, or the civil war that is beginning to take place in Libya.

How, you ask, can I sit idly by when a dictator threatens to massacre his own people?  Would I have let Hitler murder half the world in addition to the millions of Jews, homosexuals, and others who he thought should be exterminated?

My answer is simply that we must try to find out.  It is more in our nature to get along than it is to fight.  Opposing war, and finding nonviolent resolutions to conflict may be difficult - it may be costly - it may seem insane.  But it is not as difficult as resorting to organized conflict - or as costly - or as insane.

We must find a new period of enlightenment in the world where there are more choices than just doing nothing or engaging in force.  We must find within ourselves the forces of truth, of reconciliation, of love... and these forces will overcome all our obstacles and challenges.  We just have to believe.

How can people of the world believe in a Heaven above and beyond us which they have never seen, but discount a world which seeks to ban nuclear weapons, land mines, and crimes against humanity.  This is the world we live in, and can not afford to write off pacifism any more than we can afford to write off nuclear disarmament and universal human rights.

I believe in this world, for all its faults and missed opportunities.  I believe that peace is achievable if we want it.  If only a critical mass of people in every nation big and small were to believe it as well, and in believing it make it real by building the institutions and platforms necessary for it to succeed.

Belief in peace alone will not suffice.  We need activists and community builders to put it together, here on our streets and in our state houses, as well as at our nations' borders.  If we are lucky and work quickly we may be able to not only save the world, but to have a world worth saving.

Thoughts and Reflections on Religions and Religiosity

Today is the traditional beginning of Lent in western Christianity, and it is also known as Ash Wednesday.  The day marks 46 days before Easter, and is considered to be a time of sacrifice commemorating Jesus' time if deprivation spent in the desert before beginning to preach or minister to the masses.  Lent is a time when followers of Jesus traditionally give up thing like alcohol, meat, or chocolate in order to show their own ability to sacrifice.

I did not grow up in a religious tradition, but it has been a part of the fabric of civilization for thousands of years and therefore I feel like I should try to continue to understand parts of it that I can. As an undergraduate I majored in philosophy and religion, and although I switched from religious studies to social work in graduate school I still have a lot of interest in religion in general.  Here are some facts before I get down to some of my own understandings and views on these complicated belief systems.

Rank Order of Largest Religions or Belief Systems by Total Number of Adherents Worldwide:  1. Christianity, 2. Islam, 3. Secular/Atheist/Nonreligious, 4. Hinduism, 5. Traditional Chinese Religions. *

Rank Order of Largest Religions or Belief Systems by Percentage in the United States:  1. Christianity (76-82%), 2. Unaffiliated, Agnostic, or Atheist (11.6-16.1%), 3. Judaism (1.2-2.2%), 4. Islam (0.6-2.6%), 5. All other beliefs (Hinduism, Buddhist, etc.) are fewer than 1% of total U.S. population. *

Number of Christians in the World: 2.2 Billion *

Percentage of World Population who are Christian:  33.2% *

Largest Christian Denomination: Roman Catholic (50% of total) *

World Population Growth Rate: 1.13% per year *

Growth Rate of Christianity Worldwide: 1.3% per year *

Religions with Higher Growth Rates per Year than Christianity:  Islam (1.84%), Bahai (1.7%), Sikhism (1.62%), Jainism (1.52%), Hinduism (1.52%) *

Taking into account these figures, it would seem as though the trend around the world is toward more and more numbers of believers in Christianity but a decreasing percentage overall due to increasing growth rates of other religions as well as increases in numbers of people who do not believe in religion at all.

Christianity continues to dominate American culture and politics.  With 76-82% of Americans listing themselves as Christian, this may continue to be a reality for some time to come.  Christians are very different of course.  Some are liberal, some are conservative.  Some are not either. The fastest growing Christian churches are ones that are evangelical.  The slowest growing churches, and those who are actually losing members, are the older and more established ones.  Even among members of the largest church in America, the Roman Catholics, views are varied about social justice and political issues such as women's rights, war, and poverty.

What does all of this complicated information mean?  Time will tell, but my personal belief is that the world's most highly organized religions are struggling to remain in control (politically and just in terms of survival) in a world where science and secularism has shown that it is clearly more useful in society.  Denominations that are non-hierarchical and have less bureaucracy will be more successful in the long term as long as they are perceived to be helping their adherents.  Once a religion does not offer any help to its followers, it will cease to be relevant and people will cease to call themselves adherents even if they believe only part of the particular system. Religion and the concept of the nation-state will continue to be intertwined and bog down the world in war and inequality for many years to come.  Atheists and secularists will continue to be marginalized in the United States until they outnumber people of other belief systems.  The current political divisions in the United States have only to do with Christianity and not much else (taxes, abortion, war on terror, welfare reform, etc.), and therefore it has shown itself to be a very divisive element in our society.

That all being said, I don't think we need to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Religion is a valuable part of our history.  There are great teachings that we can take from religion, and our churches provide comfort and safety to millions of people. Religion is a part of the fabric of our lives and we should not attack it.  We must, on the other hand, allow it to recede and let other belief systems like Humanism to come forward.

Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty

Pat Quinn, the Governor of Illinois, the United States' fifth largest state and home to Chicago, the country's third largest city, has abolished the death penalty and commuted the death sentences of 15 inmates.

Source: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2011/03/quinn-signs-death-penalty-ban-commutes-15-death-row-sentences-to-life.html

Thursday, March 3rd is Madison's 1st Annual Winter Bike to Work Day

Spread the word!  Select coffee shops will be giving free cups of java to bicycle commuters on March 3rd. Check out the event's flyer here for locations, and be sure to share this with your 'biker' friends: http://goo.gl/n5OYH

Gov. Walker's Dept. of Health Services Secretary is from the Heritage Foundation and Wants to Destroy Medicaid - Please Share!

I posted about this guy, Dennis Smith, back in January (link) but that was a month before the Budget Repair Bill came out. There was no press on it at the time, and maybe people thought it was a pretty normal appointment. It's not! They are going to be able to drop 70,000 people from Medicaid or BadgerCare and be able to go around the legislature in changing Medicaid rules.  This is a major reason to immediately call or write your state representatives and the governor and tell them that SB-11, the Budget Repair Bill, is seriously flawed and needs to be given a chance to receive more input from the public before it is signed.

Here's where you can find your legislators' email and phone contact information: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

Read more about Dennis Smith and what the coming changes may mean for Wisconsin here: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/February/25/Dennis-Smith-Wisconsin-Medicaid-Cuts.aspx