Thank you for having me here. I know a lot of people have been involved in planning this event. Thank you!

I'm going to try this morning to address the question of how we can best talk our fellow human beings out of one of the primary myths that allows war to continue. And in a second speech later today I'm going to turn more to the question of activism and building a peaceful world.

I mailed a box of my books here, and I had to mail another one because the first box arrived undamaged except that all of the books were missing. Although I don't know who stole the books, Mary Hanna recommended I inform you that the message I bring you was so threatening that the books were taken, and the empty box delivered, by a bunch of -- and I quote -- Weannie-heads!

Now, you see what I've done. I've called somebody a weannie head in a speech about peace but arranged it so you'll blame Mary (and maybe the U.S. Postal Service) instead of me. But of course when Michigan State's basketball team beat Virginia's I said something worse than Mary has probably said in her life, just as I'd done the year before, not that I'm holding any grudges.

The Ukrainian parliament today approved a law banning “Communist and Nazi regimes,” outlawing all such political parties and the symbols related to them. It also criminalizes any denial of the “criminal character” of such regimes.

The move will primarily ban old Soviet-era flags and monuments in the country, though the ruling will also effectively ban Ukraine’s existing Communist Party, an opposition party that is generally pro-Russian and critical of the new government. The party has no seats in the national parliament, but has 112 seats in regional parliaments.

Communist Party leader Pyotr Simonenko was critical of the move not so much over questions about his own party’s status, but on the grounds it would criminalize the celebration of Soviet troops defeating the Nazis in the nation in WW2, and would bar WW2 veterans from wearing their medals.

If war were only “itself” — the violence and horror, the conflagration and death — it would be bad enough, but it’s also an abstraction, a specific language of self-justifying righteousness that allows proponents to contemplate unleashing it not merely in physical but in moral safety.

War, the abstraction, is an instrument of policy, an “option” that can be waged or threatened to get one’s way. It is always contained and sure of itself, limited in its goals and, of course, necessary. Its unintended consequences are minimal and quickly neutralized with an official apology, then forgotten. If we didn’t forget, the next war wouldn’t seem like such a viable, enticing option.

An issue-driven documentary like The Hunting Ground aims to spur viewers into action. A common related goal is to make viewers angry.

On this latter point, director Kirby Dick succeeds.

The film focuses on sexual assault on American college campuses. Even if you come into the theater already convinced that campus rape is a major problem, the featured victims’ stories are guaranteed to make your blood boil.

As more than one interviewee states, the attack itself was bad, but what happened to them afterward was far worse. The victims—mostly women but also a few men—went to school authorities for help, only to be discouraged from reporting the crimes.

The problem, experts on the issue charge, is that officials are more concerned about protecting their schools’ reputations than they are about protecting their students. And sexual assault is clearly not good for a school’s reputation. 

As the documentary proceeds, two students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill emerge as its prime protagonists. Annie Clark and Andrea Pino respond to their individual assaults by banding together, first as friends and later as activists.

Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation - torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora - will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to do? Plenty.

Those who counted on some sort of a miracle to emerge from the outcome of the recent Israeli elections have only themselves to blame. Neither logic nor numbers were on their side, nor the long history laden with disappointing experiences of “leftist” Israelis unleashing wars and cementing occupation. Despite a few differences between Israel’s right and the so-called left on internal matters, their positions are almost identical regarding all major issues related to Palestine. These include the Right of Return and the status of occupied Jerusalem to the illegal settlements.

But Palestinians are not without options. Sure, the odds against them are great, but such is the fate of the oppressed as they are left between two options: either a perpetual fight for justice or unending humiliation and servitude.