Congress: Support and Fund Unarmed Civilian Protection

Mar 12, 2019 | FORusa Feature, Human Rights, International, Nonviolence, Peacebuilding

Testimony of Mel Duncan before the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs of the United States Congress (March 12, 2019). Madame Chair Lowey, Ranking Member Rogers, and Distinguished Members of the Committee,...

An American Casualty of U.S. Economic Sanctions on Iran

Mar 11, 2019 | FORusa Feature, International

I went to Iran in late February with a peace delegation of 28 Americans organized by CODEPINK, a women-led peace activist group. The first day in Iran we had a very fruitful hour-and-half conversation with Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister of Iran. He listened to our...

Bayard Rustin believed in affirmative action and systemic political change

Mar 5, 2019 | Civil Rights, FORusa Feature, Racial, Reparations, Uncategorized

No one is perfect. That includes civil rights icon Bayard Rustin. That’s the message columnist Coleman Hughes and video producer Taige Jensen tried to send in a multimedia New York Times opinion piece titled “The Gay, Black Civil Rights Hero Opposed to Affirmative...

Following the Methodist Decision: Breathe in Suffering, Breathe out Peace

Mar 1, 2019 | Beloved Community, FORusa Feature, Human Rights, LGBTQ+, Social Justice

The United Methodist general conference is over and a new day has begun. People are still suffering, struggling with addiction of all sort, striving to stay in recovery, and being stopped, vilified and incarcerated at our borders. Queer folks, people of color, women...

Restoring Voting Rights for People with Felony Convictions Is Essential to Reparations

Feb 28, 2019 | Civil Rights, FORusa Chapter, FORusa Feature, Reparations

The most critical reparation issue is certainly financial, but I have been working this legislative session on the restoration of voting rights for those with felony convictions here in Washington state. Although we decided not to explicitly include restoration...

Redlining and the Many Effects of Slavery: Are You Willing to Act to Heal This Moral Injury?

Feb 26, 2019 | Black Lives Matter, FORusa Feature, FORusa Publications, Racial, Reparations

Recent headlines reinforce how little progress has been made in terms of economic justice for African Americans. An exhaustive report by the Center for Investigative Journalism examined current redlining practices that fuel gentrification. Combing through over 31...