Flash

FOR's Vision: We envision a world of justice, peace, and freedom. It is a revolutionary vision of a beloved community where differences are respected, conflicts are addressed nonviolently, oppressive structures are dismantled, and where people live in harmony with the earth, nurtured by diverse spiritual traditions that foster compassion, solidarity, and reconciliation.

Olympia, WA Fellowship of Reconciliation

Better and Better Off

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 15:33 Written by Glen Anderson Tuesday, 12 May 2009 19:25

Peter Maurin (1877-1949) wrote this for the Catholic Worker many decades ago. It has been reprinted widely.

Read more of Peter Maurin’s poems on various Catholic Worker websites, including at www.cjd.org/papers/essays.html

The world would be better off

if people tried to become better.

And people would become better

if they stopped trying to become better off.

For when everybody tries to become better off,

nobody is better off.

But when everybody tries to become better,

everybody is better off.

Everybody would be rich

if nobody tried to become richer.

And nobody would be poor

if everybody tried to be the poorest.

And everybody would be what he out to be,

if everybody tried to be

what he wants the other fellow to be.

What Would King Tell Obama

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 15:35 Written by Michael Honey, United for Peace Pierce County Tuesday, 12 May 2009 19:40

What would Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrated on January nineteenth, say to Barack Obama, inaugurated as President of the United States on January twentieth? ....

King thought in terms of progressive phases of history. He saw phase one of the American freedom movement as the struggle for legal integration, equal opportunity, and full voting rights. That struggle was most intense between 1955 and 1965, crowned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This is what most people think of when they think of King.

After that, King demanded a phase two, which he defined as a struggle for economic equality ... that the playing field should be leveled up somewhat for poor and working people. “Something is wrong with capitalism as it now stands in the United States,” he said. “It takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.”

May Big Picture

Written by Glen Anderson Tuesday, 12 May 2009 19:13

MAY: “Life and Debt”

Free Trade? Globalization? Shouldn’t these be welcomed by people who hold progressive beliefs?

“Life and Debt” is a highly praised documentary that reveals the full effect of economic globalization, making these complexities understandable and personal.

The film looks at the detrimental effects of free trade and foreign debt on ordinary people in Jamaica. It reveals the devastating consequences of unfettered market competition in developing countries and the role of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO in promoting policies that are costing many ordinary Jamaicans their livelihoods while driving the country deeper and deeper into debt. (86 minutes, 2001)

In case you are unable to view this documentary on TCTV, the Timberland Regional Library has a DVD copy donated by the Olympia FOR.

About "The Big Picture"

In addition to the Olympia FOR’s TV series of locally produced interview programs (see article elsewhere on this website), we also air thought-provoking documentaries that you’re not likely to see elsewhere on TV. Under the series title “The Big Picture,” Carol Burns finds interesting documentaries and arranges to show them on Thurston Community Television (TCTV channel 22) for cable subscribers in Thurston County. Thanks to Carol for continuing to inform the people! You can watch (or record) these programs at 10 p.m. every Sunday evening and 3:30 a.m. every Wednesday and Friday morning for a full month. Info: Carol 866-7645 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Raise Waves to Stimulate the Economy

Last Updated on Monday, 11 May 2009 07:47 Written by Glen Anderson Saturday, 09 May 2009 21:47

In the early 1900s Henry Ford significantly raised the wages of his workers building the Model T, so they could buy the cars they were building. This stimulated the whole economy.

From the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s, rising wages stimulated unprecedented prosperity in the US for 30 years. Real wages (in relation to inflation) peaked in 1976 and declined more sharply under Reagan. Ever since, businesses have been cutting wages, and workers have fallen into debt.