Category peace protesters
Paying for Donald Trump’s Empire
This was originally written for Memorial Day weekend. I’m thinking about the things we justify by sending in our taxes. As I point out in my play HOW TO STOP THE EMPIRE WHILE KEEPING YOUR DAY JOB, being well-behaved worker bees isn’t getting us ahead and it isn’t a moral stance that can be justified. […]
The Valve Turners, the Plowshares and other protesters
I wanted to share some news about protest with you that was a bit less… gruesome than the recent protest in Prospect Park. These are the Valve Turners, who’ve shut off oil pipelines and raised havoc with the companies pumping ‘unconventional oil’ (derived from the planet-wrecking practices of refining bitumen from shale and tar-sands). One […]
The 20th anniversary of my Peace Play
The latest incarnation of ‘Father Ben, upper left; Ben Roberts as Father Ben in the Netherlands, 1999; The real thing, Father Carl Kabat, pictured prior to his breaking into another nuclear facility, mid 2000’s. Tempus Fugit. The clock goes around and I have reached a sort of milestone. 20 years ago next week, my play […]
“I feel a great disturbance in the Force”–2017 so far
I’ve never tried to predict things on the eve of a new year. This is not some bit of humility on my part. It’s because I’ve been perennially depressed by the whole Xmas season and I have no ambition by the time New Years’ rolls into sight. This year is no exception. Plans to get away […]
Pedal to the metal (updated)
Trump is ‘transitioning’ as he gets ready to be sworn in. And his Transition team includes people who are going to throw out all efforts to measure or control global heating. He’s even sworn to pull out of the Paris COP 21 agreement, even though it will mean little in terms of sacrifice. Some politicians […]
The Battle of Fallujah claims another victim
This is the story that flashed across my FB feed a few mornings ago. It had all the tear-jerk potential that you’d want in a story from Fox News 10 (the affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona). To be fair, Fox isn’t the only entity picking this story up and we’ll get to that later. Anyway, to cut to […]
Daniel Berrigan, Presente!
Father Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit priest/activist/poet/playwright/convict, passed away yesterday at age 94. I had met him several times (and had his support of my own projects) over his lifetime. I felt a real loss here, though I haven’t seen him in ages. Thanks to my friend Schuyler Rhodes, I had the pleasure of having dinner […]
Photographer goes to JAIL in US
Your government is sending an Ithaca Grandmother to prison for six months for taking photographs of a demonstration at an Air National Guard base. The convicted party is Mary Anne Grady Flores, part of a family protest lineage dating back to the 1980’s when her father John Grady did prison time for a Plowshares protest*(details […]
The Brooklyn Culture Jam 