Nathan Andover

I studied World War Two in high school and college. It is one reason why I am a peace activist. It was a terrible war.

Last night, I found myself watching hours of a program about WWII. It showed battles in the Pacific and in Europe along with a section about the Holocaust. I was sickened, sadened, and motivated once again.

Humans have the ability to live in peace. We have the ability to solve our conflicts through non-violent means.

Sometimes, we need to stand up to bullies and that is unfor… Continue

Howard Zinn died this week at the age of 87. He was a historian, writer, peace activists, etc...

He had a huge influence on my life as I read his books and listened to him speak often.

The New York Times had a nice editorial about Howard Zinn. Here are a few quotes:

"Mr. Zinn was chagrined by the present state of affairs, but undaunted. “If there is going to be change, real change,” he said, “it will have t… Continue

The Supreme Court ruled today that limits on corporate money in campaigns is illegal. This means that corporations can now spend lot sof their money to influence elections mainly by purchasing campaign commercials.

The commercials won't be obvious corporate sponsorship of candidates. For example, if Goldman Sachs doesn't like the new limits President Obama is putting on the banks, they will probably support the Republican candidate in the next election. They will make up some sort of fake name… Continue

While watching some news programs today, I saw a few different Republicans calling for President Obama to quickly accept the recommendation for more troops in Aghanistan.

The problem with Republicans is that they always think more troops and more violence is the answer. They also think that we should just automatically do watever the generals want us to do.

This is why Republicans are bad for our national security. We have a civilian government that allows us to consider decisions from many di… Continue

We're not at war...
...oh, yeah, I guess we are.

Soldiers are still serving.
People are still dying.
Parents are still worried.
Children are still lonely.

We don't have to think about war.
It's not in the headlines
Our homes are not in the crossfire.
We're not asked to sacrifice

Support the troops,
but don't raise taxes.
Our children will pay for it.

I wanted to write something about how the internet is showing its power in the Iranian protests over the disputed election.

No need to write something that has already been written very well so I will just link to the story called High Definition Democracy.

Here's a few quotes:

"The concept of citizen-selected leadership itself is ancient, but we are witnessing today the latest chapter in how technolo… Continue

The United States should not engage in torture.

It doesn't matter if torture works.

Threatening to kill someone's family members might work to get information, but we shouldn't do it.

Hanging someone upside down from a helicopter 1,000 feet in the air might work to get information, but we shouldn't do it.

Waterboarding someone might work to get information, but we shouldn't do it.

The main reason we shouldn't do these things is because we lose more than we gain. We lose our ethical and mora… Continue

I'm glad the Obama Administration is finally sending a message to Israel that they need to stop their West Bank settlement construction.

I have never understood why Israel has been allowed to create and expand settlements in Palestinian land. The conflict there is not just about how Israel was created by removing many Palestinians from their homes decades ago. It also is about how Israel is still taking land from the Palestinians today.

I have never heard a good reason for the settlement const… Continue

This is why I can't stand war.

I mean, it is enough to be a stupid way to resolve our differences, but the reality is that most people who die in wars are not soldiers, it is innocent civilians.

Here's the latest quote I saw about the fighting in Somalia:

"Fierce fighting swept across Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens, mostly civilians."

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The pictures from the fighting show a bunch of teenagers with huge guns running around t… Continue

The Republicans released a new ad today asking if we, as Americans, feel safer under the Obama Administration.

The video they released has very ominus and panic inducing music with images of terrorists blowing things up.

This reminds me how shallow the Republican Party is. They have very few issues to run on so they try to remind us about how scared we should be in order to support their militaristic solutions.

The problem is that most Americans are not falling for it anymore. Right after 9/1… Continue

It has been sickening to see so many Republicans trying to justify torture.

Republicans have been on political programs and websites lately saying we didn't torture anyone and the things we did were justified.

The only reasons Republicans are saying we didn't torture anyone is because they have redefined the word torture to allow the things that happened. I'm not sure how Repupublicans have the ability to say that waterboarding someone 100 times is not torture.

Taking a cue from Donald Rumsfe… Continue

I've often wondered how to make a difference in this world.

What I am starting to understand is that being an activist is important (in order to spread information and ideas), but the most important way to make a difference in this world is to win elections and get the power to put our ideas into action.

My main interest is getting people to live in peace. I don't want anyone to enter the stupid situation where people throw hot lead and chemicals at each other while killing many innocent civil… Continue

If we want peace on Earth, we need to be the ones who are pushing for it. We can't rely on our leaders to push for peace because they have a lot of people, interests, and factors that shape the decisions they make.

A political leader might have a hard time pushing for peace even if the leader really wants to push for peace. The polls might tell the leader that doing the right thing might lead to a lot of people getting mad and turning against the leader.

For example, even if President Obama wa… Continue

I would like to think that peace is winning.

In most areas of the world, people live in peace.

However, I know that militarism is still with us. There are still areas of the world where power is determined - and decisions are made - according to who has the most weapons.

The race against militarism has not yet been won. We have had some enormous successes over the past generation, but we still have more work to do.

On the one hand, militarism is becoming less likely because people are more c… Continue

We all know that peace is active rather than passive.

If we want peace, we need to actively seek it out and make conditions right for peace to happen.

I think too many times, peace activists are reactive instead of proactive.

A reactive peace activist looks at the wars and conflicts going on and tries do to something about it. This is not a bad thing, but the idea is to stop the wars and conflicts before they happen. This is why we need to be proactive peace activists.

One easy example is fo… Continue

I'm a big fan of democracy. I don't want our local, national, and global decisions being made by a dictator or by a king. Especially big decisions such as going to war.

However, democracy has some flaws that threaten the quality of the decisions being made.

First, democratic leaders tend to make short term decisions with the goal of being re-elected. It is difficult to take on the big and unpopular challenges our nation faces when you need everyone to like you.

Second, our elections are usual… Continue

Who gets what?

On a local, national, and global level, this is what war and peace are all about.

If you want something you can buy it, steal it, trade for it, or kill whoever has it and take it.

This is true on the individual level and also on the national level.

We have reduced the amount of killing and stealing on the individual level by having laws. I can't just kill my neighbor and take his car because I will be thrown into jail.

Global laws are new and not enforced very well. We might… Continue

President Obama says he doesn't oppose all wars, just dumb wars.

As President Obama considers what to do in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I wonder if the fight over there is a dumb war.

First, foreign powers have a very poor track record in Afghanistan. Empires throughout history have tried to conquer the Pashtun tribal areas and have almost always left in defeat. Do we really want to try to do something most empires have not been able to do?

Second, what is our goal in the Afghan/Pak region? Are… Continue

White Phosphorus is a weapon that is being used by the United States, Israel, Russia, and potentially other countries.

It is a weapon that burns very quickly and creates a large amount of smoke.

It is often used for creating a smoke screen, but also can be used to burn and kill people.

Current treaties do not ban the use of white phosphorus, but treaties do ban the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas.

The problem with any weapon is that there always is an excuse to use it and there alw… Continue

I'm so proud of America.

I'm really excited about the inauguration of President Obama.

A lot of people never thought Obama could be elected president, but America proved the strength of democracy.

We are leading by example as we enter this new age.

We used the internet to communicate with each other and raise money as we mobilized a huge effort to change the direction of this country.

The Obama team is already changing things. Instead of a top down leadership style, they are actively callin… Continue