Salem-News.com Peace articles

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.

The Real Vaccine

Poetry by William Hathaway

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - "Beneath your terror and turmoil lies the tranquility of the transcendent.

"You’re trapped on the surface mind, tossed by the waves.
Now dive to the depths and merge with me.

"...Come on down, look around,
here is where your Self is found.”

12 Healthy Recommendations for a Better Life

Time is your most valuable asset. Never waste it.

(OCCUPIED PALESTINE) - 12 recommendations for good health (physical and psychological) from an old student of science (aka scientist) who strives to do better and welcomes your views*:

1) Children of all ages need to be in nature.

What Can Be Done: A New Year`s Wish

A call for healing- to mend, to tolerate, and begin to narrow the wide divides in our society.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Lately, I have been reflecting on what I have in common with extremists. It turns out that the list is longer than one would think.

I hold their same passions for change, an ability to withstand discomfort--put more bluntly, tolerance for risk of pain that some term masochism--and I share a lack of tolerance for passivity and denial. Extremists are people of action.

Systemic Change Starts with Us

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The first World Peace Flame in North America was installed in the lobby of the Civil Rights Museum, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002.

The World Peace Flame is eternal as the ideals and inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are universal and timeless.

U.S.: Hands Off Venezuela

What’s next — an invasion and occupation?

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) - I am sure everyone would agree that Venezuelans deserve a better government.

Let’s face it, the late Hugo Chávez's vision of a modern day “Bolivarian revolution” — a Latin American political block with a socialist bent as an alternative to U.S. hegemony — has descended into repression and economic decline under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.