718 - Peace & Life: Referendums //Debunking - October 25, 2024
U.S. Elections November 5
The major parties aren’t running consistent-life candidates for President, Senate, or House, so anyone wishing to vote for a consistent-life candidate will need to vote third party, independent, or do a write-in. A blog comment on the presidential race: Oh My, How the Election Conundrum Has Changed.
Our big focus is on 22 referendums. We plan to report the results on our project website on November 6, and encourage you to check it out in advance:
Nobel Peace Prize: Nihon Hidankyo
This year the prize went to a fine group. Nihon Hidankyo works to let people know the stories of the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Across all our issues, the stories of surviving victims are among the most effective ways to show how intolerable violence is. It’s also good to have a world-wide reminder of the dangers of nuclear weapons.
Debunking
Since supporting violence commonly requires inaccuracies, we find many in politics now. Here we focus on ones made by Tim Walz in the vice-presidential debate.
“Let's keep in mind where this started. October 7th, Hamas terrorists massacred over 1400 Israelis and took prisoners.”
These cycles of violence have been happening for a long time. The horrific Hamas massacre was inexcusable, but it wasn’t the start. It was part of an escalation that’s still inflicting massive damage.
“But the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute, fundamental necessity for the United States . . . “
Did he really mean Israel should expand? That means war, with no pretense of defense. Let’s hope this was just sloppy wording.
“We have seen maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas . . . “
He implies this is due to pro-life laws, but the skyrocketing was before those passed. It’s easy to figure out why: the Covid crisis. It’s been going down since then.
“There's a young woman named Amber Thurmond. She happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state . . . Amber Thurman died in that journey back and forth.”
Amber died because after taking the abortion pill she needed a D&C from a hospital notorious for not giving good care.
More Good News from Delaware
We reported recently Delaware’s governor John Carney vetoed an assisted suicide bill. He also signed legislation ending the death penalty in Delaware! Though the courts had already found it unconstitutional, legislation nails it down. As of September 26, 2024, Delaware is death penalty-free.
The bad news is that there’s been a spike of executions lately. The PBS NewsHour has a segment on why.
CLN Peace Vigil in Washington, D.C.
November 9th
Our next peace vigil to protest nuclear weapons:
Saturday, November 9th, 10 am -12 pm ET.
We’ll be on the roadway in front of the Old Executive Office Building, close to the White House. We’ll meet in Lafayette Park before starting.
The American Solidarity Party of Maryland and DC , Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, and Rehumanize International co-sponsor. Everyone welcome! For more information: John Whitehead.
Our Latest Blog Posts
by Julia Smucker
by Jim Hewes
Quotation of the Week
Henry David Thoreau
Slavery in Massachusetts, 1854
The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls,— the worst [person] is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of a [person] you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.
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