#649 - Peace & Life: RIP Randall / Superbowl / Racism Kills - February 17, 2023
Rest in Peace, Robert Randall
Long-time peace activist Robert Randall died on December 15, 2022, from pancreatic cancer. We know him especially from a blog post in which we republished a poem he wrote:
The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee published an obituary.
Positive about Pregnancy
Our member group Democrats for Life offers the following comment on Rihanna announcing her pregnancy while performing to wide acclaim at the half-time show for the Superbowl.
Racism in Health Care Kills
The New York Times, in Childbirth is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They’re Rich, reports on a November 2022 study, Maternal and Infant Health Inequality: New Evidence from Linked Administrative Data.
We’ve long known that Black women and children have poorer outcomes, and also that individuals in poverty have poorer outcomes, but this study took various records to look at both race and poverty together. California data show that, for every 100,000 births, the babies that die before their first birthday are:
173 babies born to the richest White mothers
350 babies born to the poorest White mothers
437 babies born to the richest Black mothers
653 babies born to the poorest Black mothers
From the article: “There is clear evidence that Black patients experience racism in health care settings. In childbirth, mothers are treated differently and given different access to interventions. Black infants are more likely to survive if their doctors are Black. The experience of the tennis star Serena Williams — she had a pulmonary embolism after giving birth, yet said health care professionals did not address it at first — drew attention to how not even the most famous and wealthy Black women escape this pattern.”
Peace Builders Survey
Professors are seeking peacebuilders (including conflict resolution and dialogue practitioners, individuals working in the peacebuilding field, civil society activists, and all who identify as peacebuilders) to complete a survey as part of their study, Mapping Networked Peacebuilding. The study seeks to develop insights into professional networks that exist among peacebuilders; motivations for work in the peacebuilding field; and potential links between professional networks/motivations and (possible) prior participation in peace- and conflict-related international education programs. Participants are eligible to be entered into a drawing for a $100 incentive. To participate, click here.
Our Latest Blog Post
Thad Crouch offers his personal journey from the military to the peace and life movements in What Just Happened!?! Becoming Consistent Life Despite Myself, Part 2.
Quotation of the Week
Shane Claiborne
Rethinking Life: Embracing the Sacredness of Every Person
(Zondervan, 2023, page 5).
For some, a consistent ethic of life is nothing new. Catholics have used the language of a “seamless garment” woven of all the issues. For centuries, Anabaptist Christians have maintained a commitment to life and a passion for nonviolence. The early Christians, as we will see, had a consistent ethic of life. They were a force to be reckoned with. They spoke against war, domestic violence, capital punishment, and they spoke against abortion. They even spoke out against gladiator games, a popular form of entertainment in the Roman Empire and one of the particular ways our human infatuation with violence expressed itself in their culture.
Christianity’s first three centuries were strikingly and wonderfully pro-life in the best and most encompassing sense of the word. And today, this idea of a consistent life ethic is resonating with a whole new generation that has grown tired of death in all of its ugly manifestation.