Democracy Now!
by Ken Butigan. Ten years ago today the world witnessed the single largest mobilization for peace in history. In the run-up to the war in Iraq, an unprecedented number of people — estimates range from eight to 30 million — rallied worldwide on Feb. 15, 2003 to demand the U.S. give peace a chance. On
by Ken Butigan. In what is being billed as “the largest climate rally in history,” thousands of people are expected to gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Feb. 17 to call for a definitive shift in the nation’s energy policy. The “Forward on Climate Rally” will urge President Obama to once
by Ken Butigan. Today is Thomas Merton’s 98th birthday. The American monk and prolific author died in 1968, but for some of us his spirit lingers, if only because the discoveries he was making in the last decade of his life still have traction. In the 1960s Merton found himself methodically dissolving the walls that
by Ken Butigan. Stories are central to our existential job description: making sense of both the world and ourselves. From creation myths to scientific explanations, from political ideologies to the quirky narratives that knead our own amorphous lives into some kind of distinctive shape, stories are essential — not only because they nudge the disconnected
by Ken Butigan. On January 17, 1960, Dwight Eisenhower famously called out the “military-industrial complex” in his last presidential speech to the nation. Though it apparently provoked little serious comment at the time, this 15-minute broadcast has steadily grown in stature over the past half-century, with its clear warning that “the potential for the disastrous
by Ken Butigan. On Monday President Obama nominated his counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Though some civil liberties groups and other critics have raised questions about Brennan’s involvement in the CIA’s practice of torture during the Bush administration, relatively less has been said about his primarily responsibility during President
by Ken Butigan. The December 14 rampage that claimed the lives of 28 people, including 20 children, in Newtown, Conn., has prompted a vigorous new debate on gun violence in the United States and the emergence of a spate of legislative proposals that the president and Congress may broach sometime this year. While policies designed
by Ken Butigan. Typically this is a strange week, between Christmas and New Year’s, when most of us face the rigors of winter, the chronic stop-and-go commotion that passes for merrymaking, and the nagging remorse for all the things we earnestly committed ourselves to do this year — which, by now, we’ve sheepishly decided to carry
by Ken Butigan. The uneasy vigil that the teachers and children of Sandy Hook Elementary School held stealthily in their classrooms last Friday as gunman Adam Lanza rampaged through the building is one of many chilling images that have emerged from the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting. In a zone that should be inviolable — and
by Ken Butigan. The December 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. that left 28 people dead — including 20 children — has sent shock waves through our society. It penetrated the elaborate defenses that we as individuals and as a culture have erected to live with the internal contradictions of the bargain
