News & Articles

Alfred Nobel is rotating in his grave

The Nobel Peace Prize was once awarded to war criminal Henry Kissinger. Now, Alfred Nobel may once again be turning in his grave as the prize is awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has supported a military invasion of her country as well as the U.S.’s punishing sanctions. She has promised to reward U.S. energy companies with Venezuelan oil and gas, and endorsed the extra-judicial killings in the Caribbean, and the genocide in Gaza. No wonder the Norwegian Peace Council, representing 17 pacifist organizations, boycotted the Nobel ceremony for Machado.

One group that does support Machado is the Human Rights Foundation, which sponsors the Oslo Freedom Forum. The forum is mostly funded by right-wingers, including tech oligarch (and J.D. Vance sugar daddy) Peter Thiel, who has been quoted as saying, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Maria Corina Machado played a role in the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela alongside Leopoldo Lopez, whose first cousin is Thor Halvorssen, scion of Venezuelan oligarchs and (wait for it) the founder of the Human Rights Foundation and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Speakers at O.F.F. conventions have included supporters of a coup against the democratically elected president of Honduras, and supporters of the torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Halvorssen’s father, according to the Associated Press, was a CIA asset who helped funnel money to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. US News and World Report has also noted his “unusual ties to and knowledge of drug traffickers.”

The Nobel Prize committee has once again gone off the rails, whitewashing U.S. imperialism and a coup supporter, and leaving poor Alfred turning in his grave.

David A Sorensen
Duluth, Minnesota

Stones, eyes and logs

A friend of mine pointed out that I was trying to use reason to change the minds of people who don’t understand reason. Unfortunately he’s probably right – especially when it comes to individuals who cherish foundational family principles. It seems they must expect me, someone raised by dairy farmers, who loved the many people in my community, and who still does not consider Miley Cyrus concerts a form of art, as just a “Radical left liberal?”

However, I too have strong beliefs in foundational family principles – like being fair, being compassionate, not needing to be wealthy to succeed. And, understanding why, in the movie,The Wolf of Wall Street,when an average guy was asked if he wanted to invest his savings of $30,000 dollars, into the care of one of the sharpest investment planners on Wall Street (who told him he could make him 10 times that much overnight), the talented artisan said no thanks — because he was happier making beautiful custom furniture and didn’t need to seek wealth. But his response made all of the other successful Wall Street traders break out in loud and uncontrollable laughter! You see, they didn’t know what it really takes to be happy and cherish foundational family values – being raised with solid middle class values, by loving parents who valued having empathy for others and who don’t think we must strive to be wealthy just to succeed. So being the king of Wall Street and landing only the most lucrative job just doesn’t matter very much.

It also doesn’t hurt to be raised in a community full of middle class Democrats who all know each other, and are all friends. And I was also blessed with a father who was willing to shovel coal in hundred degree heat, into the belly of a Great Lakes ore boat— many hours a day in order to take care of his family.

So don’t you Trump Republicans dare lecture us about family values! –something we have cherished for decades – especially during The Great Depression, when emergency legislation slowly gave young men jobs, where they earned enough in to send part of their earnings to their economically floundering families back home—helping us all escape the hole where wealthy investors and right wing Wall Street crooks wanted us to stay. And for Christ’s sake! (pun intended), Jesus supported himself as a carpenter until it was time for him to begin his ministry — teachings us not to try and remove the speck from our brothers eyes without first removing the log in our own — and yes, we too can’t claim to perfect, or fail to admit that – sometimes we also have large logs that we must remove from our eyes as well.

About myself – none of the insults my critics have thrown at me are true! And damn right, it makes me feel angry to be lied about and harassed, by apparently the same hate filled commenters who know absolutely nothing about me or my politics, observed that in one of my letters I complained about being slandered by a harassing individual who kept sending me letters full of nasty accusations against me! None of which were factual!

When religious fanatics insult me, they seem to think they have an absolute right to judge me, without committing the grave sin of “bearing false witness?”--but Instead, some also act like I approve when being attacked after simply disagreeing them? However, people like them apparently haven’t heard that, the first Amendment does not forcefully require anyone to believe what others believe, (or not)! However, it does allow us to wonder why Trumpers continually treat others unfairly — just because the First Amendment encourage us to create a legal wall between church and state!

What good will free elections be if only propaganda is presented as truth?
Please let me close with a few words from a poem my mother loved, which emphasizes the beauty of compassion and kindness:
“The quality of mercy is not strained, if falleth from the heavens like the gentle rain.”
William Shakespeare,
The Merchant of Venice!
Don’t let the power of greedy leaders destroy mercy in a world that has far too little of it!

Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin