Tag archives: war
What’s remarkable about human conflicts – even very nasty ones – is that they usually do get settled, one way or another. Here are some ways this can happen: By overwhelming force (war).By negotiation and compromise.By some kind of payment or reparations.By legal process, i.e., “going to court.”By persuasion.By agreed-upon arbitration.By intervention on the part […]
The Chabad of Montecito led by Rabbi Chaim presented a talk with disaster management specialist Gavriel “Gavy” Friedson on Sunday, February 25 at the private home of Ben and Cheryl Trosky. The event program commenced with a welcome by Rabbi Chaim. He shared, “One of the most famous words in Hebrew is l’chaim – which […]
Although I have officially been a Doctor of Philosophy in American History for many years, it was only recently that I got interested in reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This came about through reading another book, Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking People, which makes a big point about how important the Uncle Tom book […]
More than a year ago, in “sleepy” Santa Barbara, long before Hamas ever slaughtered 1,400 innocents at a peace festival or Israel retaliated, a special group of Central Coast locals were incubating a project that could just very well help with this mess. Maybe a lot of messes. Ironically, we may owe a debt of […]
Growing up in D.C. in the ‘60s and ‘70s, my parents took me with them to marches, rallies, and demonstrations against the U.S. War in Vietnam. Note that I do not call it the “Vietnam War.” For my parents, I think they saw it as an extension of the lessons of the Holocaust: that we […]
What ever happened to the League of Nations? You know, the global organization founded on January 10, 1920, by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War? It was created in order to get all willing nations to band together in an attempt to prevent all future wars. The U.S. never joined, and […]
While Ukraine can seem very far away and hard to help from here, these are some stories of local organizations and people that are helping Ukrainians both close by and afar. ShelterBox USA For years ShelterBox USA has been helping communities in crisis around the world, even being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in […]
The Russian military strategy for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has been to unleash a campaign of genocide, defined as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation (or ethnic group) with the aim of destroying that nation (or group).” A deliberate attempt to maximize civilian casualties using targeted cruise […]
The war in Ukraine is leveling cities and devastating lives, including friends and family of the Westmont community. Igor Rozhko, Westmont’s network manager since 2005, has shared the desperate need from his sister-in-law, Vera, in Kyiv, where she and her husband are missionaries with Ukraine Christian Radio and Video and where they attend the large […]
This is the story of three Vlads. Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Volodymyr Palahniuk, whom you knew by his stage name: Jack Palance. I did not know until recently that Jack Palance died here in Montecito at the home of his daughter Holly. Nor did I know until fairly recently how much Holly Palance has […]
One of the best tests of a civilization, is how disputes are settled. You can’t prevent them from arising. There are just too many different ways people can come into conflict with each other, particularly over territory, property, or sexual relations. Methods of settlement can range from pure force to peaceful adjudication. Of course, both […]
A great many things about the Russian invasion of Ukraine bother us, as well they should: the genocide, the war crimes, the images of starving children intermingled with dead bodies and urban wreckage that hasn’t been seen in Europe since the bombing of Dresden. Through it all, we in the U.S. have imagined ourselves tucked […]
With Putin’s attack on Ukraine, many of us wrote to President Biden to ask him to cut off Russian oil imports, even if it meant a rise in prices and/or rationing. In my message I called on him to speak to the American people to sacrifice for a greater good. I talked of how my […]
Remember the 2018 devastating debris flow that changed Montecito forever? Those of us who lived here at the time do. Like it happened yesterday, with all the pain and loss and destruction it brought. But for those who made Montecito their home post-debris flow (or PDF as I like to call it), the knowledge of […]
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has captivated, as well it should, our general news coverage, our hearts, our minds, and our ability to clearly see the greater peril which is momentarily being obscured by the war. That is understandable on many levels when we see our fellow human beings, average Ukrainian civilians, targeted as victims of […]
Combating climate change and the effects of air traffic are dichotomous and irreconcilable. In spite of this threat, private/corporate and commercial jets are increasingly congesting our local skies. To make matters worse, Santa Barbara’s City Council approved the airport expansion that is expected to bring a 50% increase in aircraft traffic in 10 years. While […]
Robert Muller, the deceased Santa Barbara resident and globally known United Nations official who many of us admired, famously observed: “Use every letter you write, Every conversation you have, Every meeting you attend,To express your fundamental beliefs and dreams…”. I was reminded of this wisdom as I pored over the numerous letters we received from our last […]
At the time of World War I, I hadn’t even been born yet, and in World War II, I was still only a child. But those two catastrophes have shaped all our lives. Between the official end of the First, and the outbreak of the Second, was only 20 years. But it was enough time […]
Our discussion of Normal People by Sally Rooney last Saturday had no shortage of topics to unpack. Attendee Chris noted how well the book “exemplified the complexities of relationships between young adults” and Pat Musarra noted that it was a good study of “the growth of the two main characters and how they matured” over […]
Seventy-seven years ago, after a Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the United States declared war on Japan. That war resulted in the death of millions of humans and was the only conflict in history in which weapons ranging from swords to Atomic bombs were used. The U.S. prevailed, and the two countries signed […]
