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Events for February 25, 2021

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Nuclear Weapons Nowadays: What You Can Know and Do

February 23 @ 8:00 pm - February 27 @ 3:00 pm

This FREE 4-session course is informative and fascinating!

Sign up now to take it during February and March beginning TUE, February 23 thru March 16th or SAT, the 27th thru March 20thth (your choice). We use Zoom video, so people everywhere take our course.

Please share this opportunity with your friends.

The Cold War ended three decades ago, but nuclear weapons remain a threat to the world. Many recent and current actions by the U.S. government have sharply increased the danger of nuclear war in the “new cold war,” so now the “Doomsday Clock” is the closest to midnight it has ever been, since it was devised in 1953. Also, the U.S. is spending more on nuclear weapons than ever before – even more than at the peak of the Cold War!

However, most Americans do not want to think about nuclear weapons. This course provides necessary information for people who are new to the issue – and people whose knowledge is out-of-date. Much has changed recently, and dangers are increasing in several ways, but politicians and mainstream news media are failing to inform the public about what people need to know.

This 4-session course presents the serious information in a supportive environment and also lifts up some positive ways people can solve the problems. We go far beyond “doom and gloom” to actually empower people to support the solutions.

Four well informed people designed this course and trade off during the sessions so you’ll enjoy a mix of voices and areas of expertise. We designed this course of four two-hour sessions to help people regardless of how much they have known about nuclear weapons. This course is being offered with the support of Antioch University.

Topics include:

the evolution of science that led to nuclear weapons
how nuclear weapons – and the policies for using them – have changed over the years
new dangers since the 2016 election
impacts of nuclear weapons testing on innocent people
decades of grassroots organizing to stop the arms race and abolish nuclear weapons
international efforts to make nuclear weapons illegal, including the very exciting treaty which will soon come into force
our own feelings and values related to nuclear weapons
the power of nonviolent resistance
Nuclear weapons are frightening, but ordinary people can learn what they need to know and can take smart actions to reduce the dangers. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by hard, scary realities, this course helps people learn and also empower themselves to support the positive efforts that are happening at the global, national and local levels.

The course is presented by four well-informed persons from the Olympia WA area:

Glen Anderson is chair of the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (OCANW)
Mark Fleming is the secretary of the Rachel Corrie Chapter #109 of the Veterans for Peace in Olympia
James Manista is a peace activist who recently faced federal charges for resisting the Trident nuclear submarine
Joanne Dufour has experience with disarmament issues including nuclear weapons, international humanitarian law, et. al.
We are volunteers who offer this course for FREE.

Here is how to sign up:

The presenters are offering the same course twice a week during January 2021, so you may choose whichever one is better for you. If you have a scheduling conflict in any week, you may catch that session on that week’s other day.

Choose either:

Tuesdays: Eastern Time 8:00 (sharp) to 10:00 pm February 23 thru March 16th . (If you’re in another time zone, please adjust for your local time.)
Saturdays: Eastern Time 1:00 (sharp) to 3:00 p.m. February 27th thru March 20th. (If you’re in another time zone, please adjust for your local time.)

Send Joanne Dufour an e-mail to jdufourhc@msn.com with this subject line: OCANW course on Nuclear Weapons. Or you may phone Joanne at (206) 550-1841.

Please provide your name, email address, home mailing address, and phone number. Specify whether you want Tuesdays or Saturdays.

She will e-mail you the access for the Zoom video link so you can join our course.

Also, we will e-mail each participant a number of readings and videosr We that flesh out the topics of each of the four class sessions. These are not mandatory (like school assignments were), but we do encourage participants to read at least some of the readings and watch at least some of the videos, because they do provide important information and insights.

We hope you will join us!

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12:00 pm

Fear and resistance in Belarus and Tunisia: Talk by Dr. Craig Brown

February 25 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Dr. Craig Brown is an RSI and Sociology departmental affiliate at UMass Amherst. He is an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies and board member of the European Peace Research Association. His PhD assessed the methods of resistance during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. Abstract: The resistance actions in the wake of Belarus’ 2020 presidential election have now […]

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7:00 pm

The Peoples’ Poor Public Health

February 25 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Join us on February 25th at 7pm for a webinar to take a deep dive into the public health infrastructure in the U.S. and in Massachusetts. The global viral pandemic has highlighted the shortcomings in our public health system, and the importance of a robust, well-funded public health system is more evident now than ever. Join our webinar to learn about our public health system, its strengths and weaknesses, and what changes can and should be made to protect us from the current pandemic and those in the future. We will also look at some international public health systems for comparison. Register now!

Our panel of speakers includes Dr. Natalia Linos and State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Louise Parker.

Dr. Natalia Linos is an epidemiologist and Executive Director at the Harvard University FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Prior to that, Dr Linos worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and thus has a deep understanding about both U.S. and global public health.

Representative Lindsay Sabadosa represents the 1st Hampshire district which includes Northampton, Southampton, and more. She is the first woman to represent this district. Rep. Sabadosa is a lifelong activist and organizer, and a champion for health care in the State House. She introduced the Massachusetts Improved Medicare-for-All bill, long before the current pandemic.

Dr. Louise Parker has been a health policy and services researcher, educator, and activist for over forty years. She has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and has taught at Stanford, the Fredrick S. Pardee Rand Graduate School of Public Policy and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Dr. Parker has also been a long-time consultant with the US Veterans Health Administration..

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