Having recently returned from Pakistan meeting with drone victims, on November 4 my partner Tighe Barry and I were having a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast. The discussion turned to John Brennan, Obama’s counterterrorism chief and the key person making decisions about drone strikes. We wondered if Brennan ever had a chance to meet innocent drone victims, as we did, and feel their pain.
“Maybe we should go to his house and talk to him,” quipped Tighe. We laughed at the absurdity of the idea but decided to do a little bit of research. Fifteen minutes later, we were out the door, driving to a Virginia suburb an hour south of Washington DC. I had no idea if it was really John’s address, but it was a lovely day for a drive—and Tighe was willing to indulge me.
On May 29, The New York Times published an extraordinarily in-depth look at the intimate role President Obama has played in authorizing US drone attacks overseas, particularly in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. It is chilling to read the cold, macabre ease with which the President and his staff decide who will live or die. The [...]
I participated in a march from City Hall to LA’s school district headquarters yesterday afternoon and at 10 p.m. when the call came from teachers at Occupy LAUSD that they needed backup from Occupy LA, I was able to lead the OLA supporters to the LAUSD encampment through a route that offered amplification by a [...]
One of the things that fascinates me most about Occupy Together is the use of consensus decision making. As a national and international board member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), I experienced this decision-making process for eight years. And I’m sad to see that the essence of consensus does not seem [...]
Today, the second largest city in the country went on record in support of the OccupyTogether movement. The city council didn’t just vote in support of OccupyLA, they also called into question corporate personhood and the banking industry. They connected to people’s movement with their own inability to act on city-wide banking regulation. This caused [...]
I went to DC three weeks before my wedding because there are two things that matter to me right now: marrying the love of my life and ending the Afghanistan War. In her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, Parliamentarian Malalai Joya reminds us that on July 6, 2008 the U.S. military bombed a wedding party [...]
Monday, November 5, 2012
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