#595 - Peace & Life: RIP Jim Forest / Day of Horror & Hope - January 21, 2022
Rest in Peace, Jim Forest
Jim Forest was one of our earliest enthusiastic endorsers.
Working in the U.S. Navy as a meteorologist, Jim converted to Catholicism and was dismissed for conscientious objection. For years he was on staff with the Catholic Worker community in Manhattan, working closely with Dorothy Day, and for a time was editing manager of The Catholic Worker. He later converted to Orthodoxy and was active with the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, a CLN member group.
He died January 13, 2022, age 80. See the website of him and his wife Nancy with books, essays, lectures etc. at the Site of Jim and Nancy Forest.
CLN sent Jim Forest’s book At Play in the Lion’s Den, a biography of Daniel Berrigan, to 250 member groups in December of 2017, the year it was published.
Nukes: Bare Minimum is Done
While those that actually have nuclear weapons aren’t ratifying the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a statement has been issued: China, US, UK, France and Russia pledge to avoid nuclear war. Mere statements don’t get us very far, especially ones that don’t actually get that much publicity, but at least saying the right things is better than asserting the wrong things.
March for Life, January 21 – Today!
Washington D.C.
Our member group Rehumanize International has set up a rally and meeting spot for a consistent-life contingent: 11 AM at the corner of Constitution and 12th (exact location: 38°53'31.3"N 77°01'41.9"W). Look for the large “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance” banner
Rochester NY
Our member group Feminists Choosing Life of New York will have a contingent in the Rochester march. It’s from 9:45 to 11 am on Friday, January 21, at 114 University Avenue. FCLNY will be providing signs.
Our Latest Blog Post
We share some thoughts about the connection of abortion and nuclear weapons, and how they’ve become even more connected with a double anniversary this year, in January 22, Day of Horror & Hope: Reflections 2022. Rachel MacNair, John Whitehead, and Thad Crouch offer some insights:
∞ the history behind the day and connecting the two issues as a whole;
∞ why strategy will need to broaden on both issues;
∞ making progress outside the usual political channels;
∞ how both issues involve propaganda, polarizing; and
∞ that having more people understand how horrific the current killing is, and the potential for more, gives us hope for change.
Quotation of the Week
Terrisa Bukovinac and Xavier Bisits (Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising)
Newsweek, January 20, 2022
Big Abortion [is] a $3 billion industry. This industry stands to lose a lot if the demands of progressive pro-lifers—paid parental leave, free health care, an increased focus on preventing unwanted pregnancy and, critically, ending legal elective abortion by targeting abortionists—are met. As younger Americans grow skeptical of the excesses of capitalism, they increasingly understand the conflicted motives behind the movement to expand access to abortion...
Because we cannot outspend the industry, our quest for justice as a movement relies on our ability to mobilize enough people power for non-violent resistance. That is what the March for Life is all about.
This year, we hope, Roe v. Wade will fall under the weight of a pro-life revolution. We look forward to the day abortion is a distant memory of a late-capitalist past when profit mattered more than human lives.
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