Co-creating a culture of peace
Here are the most recent articles!
By Robert C. Koehler In the morning, thank you, thank you In the evening, thank you, thank you In the middle of the day, thank you, thank you In the deep dark night, thank you, thank you Yeah, Iâll second that. The words are from the Sara Thomsen song âRhapsody of Rest,â but more specifically, […]
By Robert C. Koehler Every bullet fired into a crowd penetrates the national soul â or so it seems to me, as I continue to grapple emotionally with the Trump-rally shooting in Butler, Pa. on July 13, which left one attendee murdered, several others wounded and the shooter himself dead. As with all such shootings, […]
By Robert C. Koehler As hard as I try, in the privacy of my own being, not to get caught up in the scathing absurdities of the moment â e.g., the presidential election, Americaâ looming fascism, our love of money and war (to name a few) â yikes, here I am, caught up in it […]
By Robert C. Koehler . . . Your soul comes out of hiding. I understand that you are blessing me.. . . I find myself â still â groping in wonder. What a coincidence this was. About a week ago my friend Mike emailed me, telling me he and his wife had been going through […]
By Robert C. Koehler After twelve years â including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London â Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasnât extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act. Instead, he took […]
By Robert C. Koehler The term is âbanal militarismâ â that is to say, violence and the preparation for violence so utterly commonplace that most people donât even notice. Banal militarism is as American as apple pie. Itâs also global in scope. As Richard Rubenstein writes: âPart of the reason for the relative immunity of […]
By Robert C. Koehler OK, the big question: Should our country â USA! USA! â return to a place of godliness? Suddenly the nationâs stewpot of controversy started boiling over, thanks to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito being secretly recorded agreeing with a fake conservative at the Supreme Court Historical Society dinner last week. The […]
By Robert C. Koehler If we can end, let us say . . . slavery â the legal âownershipâ of other human beings â canât we also end other great social wrongs? Canât we also end war? As I ask this question, I am suddenly bludgeoned by an unexpected irony, since the United States ended […]
By Robert C. Koehler The election paradox looms. Do I calm myself down, steady my hand, pull the lever for Joe, even though it feels like voting for Netanyahu? Even though it feels like Iâm loosing another bomb on Gaza? Iâve had a number of intense conversations with friends about this recently, the essence of […]
By Robert C. Koehler We will not evolve into the future with closed minds. And nothing closes the human mind â either individually or collectively â like the weapons of war . . . and the freedom to use them. Step one: Dehumanize those youâre about to kill (i.e., accuse them of being who you […]
By Robert C. Koehler Thereâs something happening here . . . Consider, for instance, the recent announcement by Union Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with Columbia University, that it is divesting from âcompanies profiting from war in Palestine/Israelâ â and, not only that, fully supports the student encampments (at Columbia and all across the country) […]
By Robert C. Koehler Mine! Mine! Mine! Praise God . . . This is perhaps the worst thing human beings do: They take their deepest values â connection, love, empathy â simplify them down to a religion, a name (Christianity, let us say, or Judaism, or whatever) and suddenly they have a flag to wave […]
By Robert C. Koehler Peaceful protest, violent response â that says it all. Human politics â from global to local â remain mixed with hatred, dominance and . . . well, dehumanization. Weâve organized ourselves across the planet around one primary principle: the existence of an enemy. The division between âusâ and âthemâ can be […]
By Robert C. Koehler Hereâs an anniversary no one wants to celebrate: The Columbine school shooting â April 20, 1999 â just passed its 25th anniversary. Fifteen dead (including the two shooters), twenty-one injured. A new era begins . . . Why, why, why bring up such a horrific event? Perhaps because it hasnât stopped. […]
By Robert C. Koehler âMr. Netanyahu faces a delicate calculation â how to respond to Iran in order not to look weak, while trying to avoid alienating the Biden administration and other allies already impatient with Israelâs prosecution of the war in Gaza.â Yeah, this is virtually nothing: a random, utterly forgettable quote pulled from […]
By Robert C. Koehler An enormous flash, a mushroom cloud, multi-thousands of human beings dead. We win! Nuclear weapons wonât go away, the cynics â the souls in despair â tell us. You canât put the genie back in the bottle. You canât, as Gen. James E. Cartwright, former head of U.S. Strategic Command, once […]
By Robert C. Koehler Even the international condemnation of the Israeli devastation of Gaza often feels tepid. Consider, for instance, the words of U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in the wake of Israelâs April 1 drone strike on a convoy of cars from World Central Kitchen, a disaster relief organization bringing food to starving Gazans. […]
By Robert C. Koehler I call it ânaked insanity,â as in: the emperor has no clothes. He has no sane and transcendent values, no wisdom â not when it comes to survival. Global governance is consumed by power. Those who have it insist on keeping it, no matter the cost. Hence: nuclear weapons . . […]
By Robert C. Koehler Probably fewer ideas are treated with more contempt in todayâs world than . . . ahem: a one-state solution for Palestine and Israel, with, good God, every resident equally valued, equally free. âSnort! No one wants this! Itâs not possible â itâs not true!â My reply to the cynics is this: […]
By Robert C. Koehler Oh Lord, kumbaya . . . As I absorb the daily news of war and global devastation, I sing these words to myself â quietly, yes, secretly, lest I ignite instant flash-bang sarcasm from the surrounding world. What next? A flower in a rifle barrel? Sarcasm spits in the face of […]
By Robert C. Koehler First you call them terrorists. Then you say youâre defending yourself. Moral problem solved! You can kill as many of them as you want. Well, maybe there will be consequences later (and maybe not), but for the moment you have overcome your own moral barriers and can start doing your job […]
By Robert C. Koehler The easiest way to cope with the news is to shrivel it into an us-vs.-them abstraction and, thus, to extract as much humanity from it as possible. Iâm thinking about the recent protest death of Aaron Bushnell, who set himself on fire â doused himself in flammable liquid, lit a match […]
By Robert C. Koehler For its victims, war is . . . yes, hell. For the rest of us â the onlooking and supportive patriots â war is an abstraction embedded in ignorance, a.k.a., public relations, served up for public consumption. At least thatâs the way itâs supposed to be. The reality of war should […]
By Robert C. Koehler âWelcome to Dearborn, Americaâs Jihad Capital . . .â No, this is not the official âyou are now entering Dearborn, Michiganâ sign, at the corner of Michigan and Wyoming avenues, or whatever. This prosperous Detroit suburb â not only the hometown of Henry Ford but my hometown as well, the place […]
By Robert C. Koehler Read the news, hup, two, three, four! âTop United States officials prodded Israel on Monday to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip . . .â Thus began a recent, and oh so typical, piece of war reportage. It was purveyed by the New York Times but itâs something […]