Perspectives on Social Issues
(May 2008)

Massive Interfaith Effort Needed to Press for Nuclear Disarmament
"The magnitude of the nuclear weapons problem now calls for a massive, interfaith effort to unequivocally condemn the possession of nuclear weapons by any state. It must be communicated in crystal-clear terms to political leaders everywhere that nuclear weapons can no longer be tolerated.... [Religion] must learn to work with secularists toward the common goal of disarmament. Religious leaders must find a way to show that morality is not something added on to daily affairs; rather, it must be a first principle in any discussion of nuclear weapons, since morality speaks to the continuation of life.... Religious and secular leaders must make the compelling case that it is inhuman to rely for security on a culture of massive violence, and that nuclear weapons are unacceptable instruments for maintaining peace in the world. It is not a question of nuclear weapons being tolerable for some, who consider themselves entitled to hold these weapons for security, but intolerable for others not deemed worthy of trust. Nuclear weapons are inherently evil. Nuclear weapons and human security cannot co-exist on the planet."

“Sleepwalking in a Nuclear Minefield" by Douglas Roche, Sojourners Magazine, March 2008.

U.S. Legislation Needed to Help End Violence Against Women
"Violence against women has reached crisis proportions. The U.N. Development Fund for Women estimates that at least one in three women will be beaten, raped or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Seeking to address the issue, a bipartisan coalition in Congress is working for passage of the International Violence Against Women Act, which would authorize $1 billion over five years. Aimed not only at preventing violence, but also at supporting health care, survivors' services and changing negative social attitudes toward women, the legislation is especially needed now, when rape is used as a weapon of war by both government and rebel forces in developing countries....

The legislation deals with all forms of gender-based violence, not only rape but also domestic violence, honor killings, and genital mutilation. It creates the first State Department office working explicitly on this issue. Moreover, it aims to decrease the risk of sexual exploitation by military personnel, humanitarian workers, and police involved in foreign peacekeeping operations by creating training programs for them and mechanisms for reporting abuse."

“Violence Against Women" by the Editors, Current Comment, America, Dec 10, 2007

Hard-working U.S. Families Losing Ground Financially
"The U.S. economy has been growing in recent decades, but the benefits have not been shared equally. Workers at the bottom end of the wage scale have actually been losing ground. Low-wage work is worth less today (after inflation) than in the late 1970s. Presently, two-thirds of children in poverty have one or more parents who work, and one-third have a parent who works full-time, year-round....

'If a mother with a new baby starts working at $6 an hour and receives 5 percent real (after inflation) wage increases each year,' explains a recent report by the Center for Law and Social Policy, 'that baby will be in junior high school before the annual wage increases are enough for the mother to no longer be earning poverty-level wages.' Bread for the World Institute's 2008 Hunger Report, Working Harder for Working Families, focuses on what can be done to help families that are struggling to get by in low-wage jobs. The report recommends the following:

1. Set a national goal to end hunger and poverty
2. Make every job a good job
3. Strengthen work-support programs
4. Create incentives for low-income families to save and build assets."

“Working Harder for Working Families" by Todd Post, Background Paper, Bread for the World Institute, Dec 2007.

Australian Prime Minister Apologizes to "Stolen Generations"
"With the first item of business in the first post-election session of Parliament, Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd completed an item of old business left undone for more than a decade. Rudd apologized to the Stolen Generations. The Stolen Generations are Australian Aboriginal people who were removed from their families by government edict from the late 19th century to the end of the 1970s. An estimated 10 percent to 30 percent of Aboriginal children -- perhaps as many as 100,000 -- became wards of the state with the aim of 'civilizing' them with European culture. Fulfilling a campaign promise, Rudd delivered what his predecessor, John Howard, had refused: a bipartisan, unequivocal apology.

• 'For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
• To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
• And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
• We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.'"

“Australia's Rudd Apologizes to Stolen Generations on 'Graced Day'" by Penny Edman, NCR, Mar 7, 2008.

Special Responsibility of Journalists
"[Amy Goodman reflecting:] We have a special responsibility as [U.S.] journalists. We live in the most powerful country on Earth. Yet there is probably a level of ignorance about our effect in the rest of the world because the media doesn't bring it to us. It's much more difficult for people at the target end to forget, to be oblivious, because they are right there living it every day. We have a responsibility here to understand what it feels like, because we are the ones who are creating that situation, whether we like it or not.

We're constantly hearing from the small circle of pundits in Washington who know so little about so much, explaining the world to us, and getting it so wrong. Every network is the same. Unfortunately, sometimes public broadcasting sounds the same way. The United States has the potential to have tremendous power for good. Right now, it just doesn't have that position. But there are many, many people who make up a pro-democracy movement in this country, just like in other countries, people who really do deeply care. If we want to be safer here, we have to extend those voices to the rest of the world."

"Amy Goodman Interview" by Elizabeth DiNovella, The Progressive, Feb 2008.