http://echenoweth.faculty.wesleyan.edu/wcrw/

Chenoweth studies international conflicts, and writes that prior to 2006 she believed that nonviolent resistance “was weak and generally ineffective;” but after studying civil resistance movements in depth, she has come to believe that nonviolent campaigns for change “were more than twice as effective as violent ones.” (I cannot link to the article itself, yet — UD has not put it online.  They do put the alumni magazine online eventually, but not this issue yet.)

Perhaps this book can be taught . . . at UD!!  A guy can hope.  Anyway, well done, UD alumni magazine; terrific article.

Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Maverick missile:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/agm-65.htm

The Maverick is a weapon.  (Did you know that people still wonder, apparently, whether or not UD works on weapons?  Despite everything I’ve written about the Minuteman III nuclear missile, these Mavericks, etc.?  I can tell from the search engine terms they use to get to this blog.  It’s amazing.)

Anyway, the site GovernmentContractsWon.com:

http://www.governmentcontractswon.com/department/defense/university_of_dayton_073134025.asp?yr=10

- mentions that UD has done contracting for the Maverick worth $1.2 million since 2007.  (You can get that figure only if you pay the twenty bucks for the full data download, which I did.)

And that’s only the contracts that have information in the “weapons system” column; most of the contracts at UD (and probably everywhere else doing this stuff, I assume) say “not discernable” or “classified” in that column.  So all of UD’s “classified” contracts could be . . . who knows.  My guess is that a lot of them are for robot-nanomissiles, or perhaps nano-robotmissiles.

Meanwhile, the University of Toledo makes headlines for its research on solar power:

“The company has a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing operation on the campus of the University of Toledo, which provided venture-capital funding to Nextronex and has an incubator offering business services to alternative-energy startups.”

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/solar_manufacturers_find_a_home_in_the_glass_city_26163.aspx?SectionID=1

Cutting back on our drone bombings around the world does not seem to be a priority for anyone, nor something that many people want to discuss. I was glad to see Paul D. Miller, who was National Security Council director for Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, write an op-ed titled “When will the U.S. drone war end?” in the Washington Post on November 17:

“But bombing by drone is also an act of war that kills people. And wars are supposed to end. They have to have an end. Endless war is unacceptable and dangerous. The U.S. government simply cannot arrogate the right to wage an endless, global war against anyone it deems a threat to national security. The prospect of such a war should trouble anyone who has the least acquaintance with history or political philosophy.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-will-the-us-drone-war-end/2011/11/15/gIQAZ677VN_story.html

It’s good someone with his mainstream credibility is saying this.  I would be more critical of the drone bombings than he is (surprise); for example, Miller says:

“It is clear that drones need to be in the skies for some years yet.”

“Some years” in these matters can mean 50 years, 60 years  –  much longer than he may be thinking. Really. I mean it. We’ve had troops in Germany for 66 years now, after WWII, right?  And when we took over the Philippines in 1898, we stayed as a ruling occupying force for 48 years (the nation was granted independence in 1946). Americans do not like to learn from history, but there it is. If we nod along as Miller says “some more years” for drone bombings, that can be decades. Occupations — in this case, an occupation of airspace — take on an inertia and do not end easily.

Also, Miller does not point out specifically that in wars, people die on both sides; and that means that, in this drone war, Americans may die. The people we are bombing may retaliate, somehow.  Miller writes that drone bombings have become “almost . . . risk free;” and I’m afraid we are forgetting that there will be blowback (just as Chalmers Johnson predicted, correctly, about our occupations abroad).

The people we are drone-bombing are going to kick us in the teeth someday! And unless people who have qualms about the drone war work to stop it, its inertia will allow it to continue for the rest of our lives!

There you are, America.  You needed to hear that.

My day job is in affordable housing, so I pay attention to this.  Many veterans really are homeless.  Here is a group that advocates for them:

 http://www.nchv.org/index.cfm

And here are a few stories of actual homeless veterans:

 http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/coming-home-homeless-homeless-veterans/story?id=12478952

There’s a children’s story of a veteran who was lucky enough not to be homeless — my grandfather — on the Peace Stories for Children page.

These contracts are listed on a web site, www.governmentcontractswon.com, which compiles public information.  I say “contracts” because it lists several dozen of them for UD under the Minuteman III Propulsion Replacement Program (PRP).  However, some of the amounts of these contracts are small, or even $0, so perhaps they are smaller pieces of that $30 million total.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, the PRP –

“will extend the life of the Minuteman III operational force by replacing the solid propellant propulsion subsystems.”

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/budget/fy2001/dot-e/airforce/01minuteman.html

In Sept. 2010, the most recent contract for UD’s nuclear missile work listed on the Government Contracts Won site was from 10/15/2008.  Government Contracts Won now lists 25 PRP contracts at UD from 2009 and 2010, which total just over $3.2 million.  (There are hundreds of government contracts listed, for UD, and the vast majority do not mention a specific weapons system; rather, they just say “not discernable” or “not discernable or classified” in the “weapons system” column.  Many of these could also be related to the PRP, of course.)

(This time I paid the twenty bucks for the data download . . . that download lists more amounts than the basic information on their site does.)

Again, folks, the Minuteman III force is The Big One; 450 missiles in silos ready to launch at a moment’s notice and kill a billion people . . . riding atop propellant systems brought to you by the University of Dayton—in the Marianist tradition.

See also:

http://peacegarret.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/my-alma-mater-can-wipe-your-alma-mater-off-the-map/

This organization sells jewelry made from materials recycled from weapons systems . . . awesome.

From War To Peace pendant

Joseph in the cistern, from Seven Lambs

This is from the story on Joseph in Seven Lambs: Stories of Peace from the Old Testament.

Link to listing:

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Lambs-Stories-Peace-Testament/dp/1466243244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317259141&sr=8-1

(Why is this picture part of a children’s story of peace? Because Joseph forgave his brothers who did this to him. Forgiveness has something to do with peace.)

A pdf of this book is posted on the “Peace Stories for Children” page of this blog.

Click  above for a look at Seven Lambs: Stories of Peace from the Old Testament.  This is the whole book.  If you’d like to buy a copy, a link is below.  If you just want to use a story or two from the pdf version, that’s great too.

The book is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Lambs-Stories-Peace-Testament/dp/1466243244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317042418&sr=8-1

The book is five Old Testament stories of peace, for children.  Abraham’s treaty with Abimelech; Joseph and his brothers; Ruth and Boaz; Jonah (and the half of a verse which we sometimes forget); and the vision of peace from Micah.  Ages 4 or 5 to 8.

Illustrations include scenes from classic oil paintings and Bible engravings, one blueprint, and a bunch of sheep. The book is made in the USA.

‘He said Catholic teaching has always emphasized the need to make the world safe from nuclear weapons, “not to make the world safer through the threat of nuclear weapons.” ‘  – as reported in the Catholic Chronicle of the Diocese of Toledo.

Link:

https://www.catholicchronicle.org/index.php/World-and-Nation/archbishop-calls-for-political-will-to-end-scourge-of-nuclear-weapons.html

The University of Dayton, a Catholic university, has worked on at least three contracts over the past several years, worth at least $30 million, to maintain the Minuteman III nuclear missile system.  There is more information about this in previous posts here on this blog.

I attended UD and I do not think it is appropriate for my alma mater to maintain nuclear weapons.  If the Catholic Church wants less emphasis on nuclear weapons, it could start by having its universities abstain from working on them.  I like to post items like these quotes from Archbishop Chullikatt to demonstrate that this is a genuine and current issue for many, as I like to call them, Important People in the Church.

Cover of Six Crows by Leo Lionni

I get many visitors to this blog who have searched for “peace stories for children” or something similar.  (WordPress tells me which searches visitors use.)  These searchers get sent to my “Peace Stories for Children” page. 

I think that page is nifty.  It has two books, and one story from another book, which are perfect for reading aloud to children.  There are links to them.  It has information about the dove as a symbol of peace, another topic for which I get specific searches (“why is dove symbol peace” etc.).  The page also has a story about a veteran in my family, which readers are welcome to either use themselves (not likely) or take as inspiration to think about vets in their own families.

So I get traffic, but I’m struck that so few people click the links, or look around elsewhere on this blog, or leave a comment.  The people who have commented are both friends of mine; I hope I’m not chasing anyone else off??

Maybe people don’t like the way I poke fun at George W. Bush in the bit about my grandfather?  Or maybe the folks searching for stories on peace are Michelle Bachmann supporters . . . “I’ll read the kids a peace story in church, fine, but I don’t want to have to get the idea from some PEACE ACTIVIST,” they say to themselves, perhaps.

Well, if you’re here for the children’s peace stories, welcome.  I’m always glad to see comments.  You can find my email address under “About” if you want to email me directly.  And by the way, you are not alone.  There are many people searching for stories about peace for children.