Hard copies are also available in outlets throughout central Oklahoma, or by contacting the [...] Continue reading March-April 2013 issue of Peace Strategy News now online]]> In this issue:

• IRAN: The US Choice is Diplomacy or War P. 13
• The Wisdom of Peace P. 2
• Medicaid Expansion A Benefit to Oklahoma P. 4
• VAWA and other Alerts P. 5
• Sierra Club Climate Conversation P. 9
• Why We Resist the KXL Pipeline P. 10
• Cheyenne Peace Chief to be Honored P. 16

Hard copies are also available in outlets throughout central Oklahoma, or by contacting the Peace House.

Oklahoma needs the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid that Governor Mary Fallin is refusing. It would extend Medicaid to some 150,000 Sooners currently not insured. She says Oklahoma cannot afford it, but it is 100% federally funded the first three years, then Oklahoma begins to pick up a maximum of 10% of the cost. [...] Continue reading Oklahoma Needs Medicaid Expansion]]> Sent the following letter to eight newspapers in Oklahoma. Hope you will call the Governor about this.

Oklahoma needs the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid that Governor Mary Fallin is refusing. It would extend Medicaid to some 150,000 Sooners currently not insured. She says Oklahoma cannot afford it, but it is 100% federally funded the first three years, then Oklahoma begins to pick up a maximum of 10% of the cost. Oklahoma will benefit from a half billion dollars every year by investing only 10% of the federal cost.

Others say Oklahoma should not encumber the federal government the half billion dollars a year to fund it. But Oklahoma already receives $25 billion from the federal government every year for highways, military bases, public education, etc., etc. Nobody suggests refusing that. Medicaid expansion is a national program to benefit every state, and Oklahoma should be one of them.

If we don’t take Medicaid expansion, Oklahoma taxes will pay for other states that do take it. It is an offer we can’t refuse. Governor Fallin needs to hear from the people that she should change her mind. Call her at 405-521-2342.

Nathaniel Batchelder, Oklahoma City

On Feb. 5 and 6, Col Wilkerson visited Central Oklahoma, speaking at several events.

On Feb. 5, he was the guest of the University of Central Oklahoma, and his speech at the Nigh University Center, attended by over 100 students and local residents, was entitled “We Need Not be Enemies: Iran the the U.S. in the 21st Century.”

The talk was [...] Continue reading Col. Lawrence Wilkerson visit to Oklahoma focuses on peaceful solutions to international issues]]>

Lawrence Wilkerson with Hal Spake and Nathaniel Batchelder

On Feb. 5 and 6, Col Wilkerson visited Central Oklahoma, speaking at several events.

On Feb. 5, he was the guest of the University of Central Oklahoma, and his speech at the Nigh University Center, attended by over 100 students and local residents, was entitled “We Need Not be Enemies: Iran the the U.S. in the 21st Century.”

The talk was followed by a lively question and answer period. The talk was filmed by UCO and is provided here courtesy on the school’s Youtube channel.

On Wednesday, Feb. 6 Col. Wilkerson joined members of Americans Against the Next War for a morning press conference at the Oklahoma State Capitol, emceed by AANW’s Nathaniel Batchelder of the Oklahoma City Peace House. His remarks about U. S. foreign policy in the Middle East and around the world serve as a call for a new perspective by Americans, whose spirits and coffers are drained by more than 10 years of ceaseless war. A different future is possible, if we heed that call.

The following photo montage and audio recording of the press conference was produced by AANW member Rena Guay, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research.

At noon on Wednesday, he made visit to the OU campus for a lunchtime discussion with students, and locals yet more of his experience on the world scene and hard-earned wisdom of politics and diplomacy. That event was sponsored by the College of International Studies and the OU Iranian Studied Program.

Col. Wilkerson jokingly remarked during his visit that Oklahomans sure know how to get their money’s worth out of a speaker. But throughout the visit to our area, the Colonel was forthcoming — seeming to be more than happy to tell his story and share his opinions. Those of us who attended any of his events learned a good deal, and were heartened that his strong voice calling for peace and mutual cooperation, instead of war and threats, was so widely available to us.

Col. Wilkerson is part of The Iran Project, and invites those interested to use the reports and other resources on the project’s web site.

Originally posted at AANW site.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, Continue reading Rachel Maddow will examine the build up to the Iraq war in new documentary]]> Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, a documentary with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow will premiere on Monday, Feb. 18 at 8pm Central Time.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Nathaniel Batchelder

The title of today’s talks – The Wisdom of Peace – is crucial to our times. Dr. King’s words – his sermons and speeches – ring in our ears today as we commemorate his life and lift up again his prophetic messages for the ages.

He advocated nonviolence and [...] Continue reading The Wisdom of Peace]]> Speech at the Midwest City Martin Luther King Breakfast
Jan 21, 2013

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Nathaniel Batchelder

The title of today’s talks – The Wisdom of Peace – is crucial to our times. Dr. King’s words – his sermons and speeches – ring in our ears today as we commemorate his life and lift up again his prophetic messages for the ages.

He advocated nonviolence and love as a grounding for all efforts for social change. And indeed, our society and world badly need more love, compassion, understanding, civility, and nonviolence in speech as well as action.

We support your dream, Dr. King, of overcoming racism and all divisions among people simply on account of who they are.

We support your dream, Dr. King, to overcome poverty by creating a society and an economy in which every person has access to development.

We support your dream, Dr. King, to overcome militarism and war that destroy lives, drain resources, and render unaffordable the programs that serve people in our society.

And I suggest that Dr. King would expand his vision of peace today to include harmony with nature, with all other species, and with the natural systems that support life on earth.

Spiritual people whose prophetic voices ring across the ages were always those called to speak out about things that were just not right … as we have heard the words of Amos in the Old Testament: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Jesus, Gandhi, and Dr. King all challenged their societies for justice and compassion for the outcast, the vulnerable, and the oppressed, and love for all members of the human family.

I daresay everyone here is an activist for peace in the expansive way Dr. King described peace. The Rev. Wm. Sloane Coffin said it’s our spirituality that calls us to action for justice and peace. He said, “Spirituality is all about choices and causes. Spirituality is what people do with their freedom. To all the prophets, a spiritual person was somebody whose mind was open to truth, whose conscience was open to justice, and whose heart was open to compassion and love for others.”

Like Jesus, Gandhi and King, spiritual people are disturbed – you might say angry and sad – about things that are not right or fair in the world. They speak up about them, often arousing opposition, because people find unpleasant truths hard to swallow. Perhaps this explains Jesus’s puzzling statement in Matthew,  “I came not to bring peace but with a sword.” Perhaps Jesus refers to the sword of truth spoken to power.

So, what are some issues today disturbing to spiritual people?  Here are some issues disturbing to me:

I’m disturbed that we do not have universal single-payer health care in America as they do in Canada and many other countries. There’s private insurance for folks who want it, but most use the national system. Too expensive? Nonsense. Even Cuba has universal health care, and Cuba’s health statistics rival those of Canada and the U.S.

I’m disturbed that US military forces were misused in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course we should have pursued Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attack, but that was happening. Then we got side-tracked by talk about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction. The result was the longest wars in US history. Whenever there is international discord, somebody advocates military solutions, perhaps because America spends a trillion dollars a year on our military. And Dr. King said, “A nation that spends more on military defense than on programs for social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

Thank God – and this administration – that there has been no attack on Iran, which does NOT have a nuclear weapon – nor – according to United Nations inspectors, does Iran even have a program to develop a nuclear weapon.

I’m disturbed that 440 billionaires in America own or control as much wealth as the bottom 55% of Americans. Since 1980 the numbers of billionaires in America has grown from TEN to 440. That’s not the result of genius or hard work, but of tax and trade policies that shifted money up the economic ladder, from working families to the wealthiest 1%.

I’m disturbed about the impact of excessive money in politics, especially the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision calling money “free speech”. Our democracy needs campaign finance reform, and that Supreme Court decision must be revisited.

I’m disturbed about injustice in our justice system incarcerating a high percentage of people of color in what has been called the New Jim Crow. The statistics are horrible about lives and families of people of color disproportionately torn apart by incarceration for crimes, many of which are nonviolent, where alternative sentencing would be appropriate.

I’m disturbed that women still struggle for equal pay and dignity at work, and still need protections against violence against women. But women voted in unprecedented numbers in this election, surely in part because women perceived that reproductive freedoms were under attack. The numbers of women voting in 2012 actually increased 20% over 2008, and, as a result, there are now more women in the US Senate than ever before.

I’m disturbed about those in America who make political hay by arousing fear and suspicions about Hispanic/Latino people in America … and gay and lesbian people in America. Latino people not properly documented deserve fair treatment while they apply, and Latino citizens deserve protection from insulting investigation of their status.

And regardless how you feel about gay and lesbian people, surely we can agree they deserve the same civil rights and liberties afforded to all people. Not long ago, “marriage equality” was not about same-gender marriage, but about marriage between people of different races.

I’m disturbed that our nation and government have still done so very little about global warming and environmental sustainability. I studied the challenges of population, resources, and pollution at OCU in 1972.  And reporting began in the 1980s, that the release of greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane causes atmospheric warming. Since then, world population has risen from 5 to 7 billion, and sources of greenhouse gases have expanded.

Baby birds soil their nests, but baby birds are not going to live in their nests forever. Humanity is soiling our planet, but folks, there is no place else for us to go. We are the stewards of God’s Creation, and we must support every effort and program contributing to sustainability.

Now in all of these issues, our personal behaviors and choices are crucial to changing things. The ways we use energy affects the environment. Our treatment of people in other groups expresses our expansive or narrow beliefs regarding human dignity. Participation or non-participation in military actions makes a difference.

But on all these issues, the policies and regulations of government will always have the greatest impact. And that requires all of us to be as politically involved as we can stand, or to stand on the sidelines of significant issues of our day.

Some say they want change, which is spiritual, but they prefer to avoid politics. To that, it was Gandhi, who said, “Those who claim that the spiritual and the political don’t mix understand neither” … a point well understood by Dr. King, whose political actions for justice often landed him in jail.

But I feel a newborn surge of hope for change since the astonishing outcomes of the elections just past. Voters had the clear choice of candidates representing either the agenda of the wealthiest 1% – - or candidates for the rest of us, more committed to the Middle Class, and the 99%.

The deck was stacked against candidates of the Middle Class … by voter suppression laws; by excessive money now in politics; by the shock-jocks on Fox radio who ridicule and vilify everything progressive, liberal, compassionate, peaceful, or Obama.

The elections proved that motivated people can overcome the odds to support policies in the general interest and common good. A New and Reasonable Majority voted into office candidates who demonstrated love of diversity, compassion for the suffering, perhaps even commitment to environmental sustainability.

It was majorities of women, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, Middle Eastern-Americans, gay and lesbian Americans. It was majorities of young people, environmentalists, activists for human rights, social justice, and peace. It is a Diversity Majority. Just imagine if every one of those populations increased voter registration and voter participation by 20%.

I want to believe that the victories of November signal hope for progress moving America toward Dr. King’s dream of a Beloved Community – with justice for all – and for all earth’s inhabitants, even the possibility that America could come to be seen as a good neighbor in the world and not just a Super Power exerting its will through military might.

Now, we must push the candidates we have elected to improve the prospects for human rights, social justice, and peace.

The future of life on earth is in our hands. It is WE who must advocate for Dr. King’s dreams – for a peace that is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice.

May we go forward with passion and conviction that more victories lie ahead for all our dreams – yours, mine, and Dr. King’s.

Thank you.

Check out photos of the Tee’s and samples of the wide variety of buttons and stickers on our [...] Continue reading ‘Say Your Peace’ with Peace House T-shirts, stickers, buttons and yard signs]]> Be a proud advocate and promoter of peace and justice by wearing or displaying some of the Peace House merchandise. We have T-shirts for your body, buttons for your clothing, stickers for your car, and “War is not the answer” signs for your yard (or anywhere you can think to share it).

Check out photos of the Tee’s and samples of the wide variety of buttons and stickers on our Peace & Justice Merchandise page.

You can get some of these goodies at events where the Peace House is tabling, or during store hours at Panoply Hippy Store in Oklahoma City, 2412 N. Shartel.