Salem-News.com Peace articles

2025: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Here comes a new year. We are about to transition from a bumbling elderly president's administration to a chaotic malignant elderly narcissist's attempt at autocracy. What could possibly go wrong?

But also, what could go right?

Seeing Our Way to Peace

Those who constantly build for war, who declare and wage war, have altogether lost their sight such that no moral compass remains visible.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - In 1918 the painter John Singer Sargent was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to visit the fields of France to capture on canvas a scene depicting the World War then engulfing the continent.

The artist was unsure he could find a single scene to perform such a formidable task.

War is Over. If You Want It.

Let’s end US complicity in the awful war in Yemen.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Last Thursday marked 42 years since John Lennon was killed. Many people, including me, lament his death and can recall where we were when we heard the heartbreaking news.

This holiday season, we can heed John’s and Yoko Ono’s 1969 “Happy Xmas, War is Over, If You Want It” call by acting to end the horrendous war in Yemen.

Patriarchy in India is Beginning to Crumble

Enlightenment is not the exclusive province of male Brahmins.

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - In the Vedic tradition of India the feminine side of creation is given equal importance to the masculine.

Unfortunately, centuries of colonial domination have made Indian society as male dominated as the West is. Fortunately, women in India are now developing a strong feminist movement to change this.

The Guru: Live in Your Living Room!

Meditation is a lifeline to sanity in a world gone crazy.

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - You can learn to meditate from one of the great spiritual teachers of India, then meditate with him live online and ask him questions – all for free.

He transmits a powerful force-field that you access by tuning in with devotion to his voice and picture.

Mercenaries today: The Wagner Group

The outsourcing of a military project to the Wagner Group provided two major advantages to the Russian government.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - For many years, substantial military operations have been conducted by mercenaries, ranging from professional soldiers hired to fight wars for European potentates in the 14th century to the combat forces of Blackwater, a private company employed by the U.S. government to undertake violent activities in the “War on Terror” of the early 21st century.

Today, the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian company engaged in the thriving mercenary business.

Why Would I Talk to Them?

Research shows we can talk across our political divides.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - We all avoid talking to the other side for similar reasons: the other person won’t listen, will get too emotional, and there would be no point. Essentially, we’re united in how uncomfortable these exchanges make us feel.

If we do engage, we often do aggressively. However, positive encounters relax us.

War is the Greatest Evil (Statement on the War in Ukraine)

Resist the war machine as best we can.

(POULSB0, Wash.) - War turns young men and women into murderers, when life has no meaning, when our political “leaders” and media outlets beat the drums of war.

Any war, proxy war, or increased hostilities between nuclear-armed nations greatly increases the chances of a nuclear war.

Goddess Power to the Rescue

The Nine Days of Mother Divine from April 2-11 can help humanity out of its current crisis.

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - Humanity is now in disaster mode, trapped in three double binds: a choice between war or national decline if we don’t fight, between climate catastrophe or economic collapse if we make changes, between COVID 19 or drastic measures that are supposed to stop it.

Threats surround us; chaos and confusion reign on all levels.

Demon Slayers to the Rescue

Humanity can think clearly and act positively.

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - We live in a time of multi-level ghastliness. People are dropping dead from COVID and dropping dead from the vaccine that’s supposed to prevent it. The weather is rampaging, the earth spewing fire. Mental illness has become normal.

All these horrors seem to be connected.