Marianne on Substack
Today is Women’s Equality Day! It’s hard to believe we’re still arguing over women’s rights, but here we are… Yesterday I spoke at a National Organization for Women event in Atlanta, where there was a lot of focus on the topic of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. American women today...
- August 17, 2023
- Originally Published on Substack
Years ago I visited the home of Hawaii’s last queen, Liliuokalani. She become Queen in 1891, a couple of years later to be deposed in a coup staged by the Dole Pineapple Company with the tacit approval of the U.S government. Dole’s actions on behalf of U.S. business interests ended...
Dear Friends, Tomorrow I go home to DC for a few days after having been on the road for a month. From New Hampshire to Boston to Chicago to Detroit to New York to Los Angeles to South Carolina to numerous podcasts and media appearances, I’ve spoken to thousands of...
I just read a message on my instagram in response to the video above: “My mother is rationing her insulin. The fear I have for her is immense. No 18-year-old should have to worry about this.” I stared at her message, filled with heartbreak and fury. How absolutely disgusting that...
Having had a long career articulating universal spiritual principles in my writing and lecturing, I have seen the transformational power of knowing that no matter what happens, love will always get the final say. From Israelites arriving at the Promised Land to the resurrection of Jesus, religious traditions carry the...
The Declaration of Independence was officially signed on July 4, 1776. I often wonder whether our Founders had any sense that what they were doing would so change the world. While Thomas Paine was not one of the signers, he was definitely someone who helped inspire its content. And he...
Years ago I was told by a doctor that cultivating my health was more important than fighting off sickness. I remember at the time how his reframing of the relationship between sickness and health sort of jolted me into a different orientation to my body. “Health isn’t the absence of...
I write this as I’m flying back from London, having spent a month there after the birth of my new (and first!) grandchild, Elizabeth. My daughter’s mother-in-law aptly called my main activity while there, Granny Gazing. I was rapt and smitten simply staring at the miracle of this newborn child....
Making the anniversary of an event a federal holiday is important, and not just for symbolic reasons. It means that on this one day we stop to think about something, recognizing its significance in the life of our country. Juneteenth marks the end of slavery, an institution of unspeakable evil...
Some traditional labor unions have already endorsed the president, making me wonder about the state of organized labor today. I remember a time when the relationship between organized labor and the Democratic party was a much more equal partnership; the Democrats got votes, and Labor got…..something! Given that establishment Democrats...
This week’s Firelight Chat will be an interesting one. Throughout my career I’ve counseled couples, and rarely have I seen a troubled relationship – or been in one – in which one party was 100 percent correct and the other 100 percent wrong. In working with couples it is not...
- June 10, 2023
- Originally Published on Substack
The fundamental economic problem in the United States has less to do with how much money we spend, and everything to do with what we spend it on. We spend huge amounts on things that reduce the life force of the nation: tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate subsidies, and...
Having spent forty years traveling the country, and having run for president in the 2020 campaign season, I’ve seen an interesting trajectory. American consciousness seems to me like a sleeping giant now waking up. For decades our government has been giving our democracy like a gift to unfettered corporate forces....
When Donald Trump was indicted for giving hush money to a porn star, I admit I pretty much rolled my eyes. Today’s indictment of the former President on charges related to the Espionage Act is an entirely different kind of development. A 31 count indictment is very serious, and all...
In 2016, there were two candidates telling people their pain was legitimate and their rage was valid – that the system indeed had been rigged against them. They were Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Only one of them, however, wanted to do something about it. The other mainly sought to...
A few months ago I received an email from an event organizer at East Tennessee University. He was asking if I’d consider speaking at a protest rally being staged the night before a draconian anti-drag show law was going into effect in that state. I went gladly, of course. I...
My grandmother’s brother died in WW1, and my father fought in WW2 but came home safely to his family. He once told me about the death of one his buddies in the war and said, “We should never forget those guys.” On Memorial Day, we make sure we don’t forget...
- May 27, 2023
- Originally Published on Substack
For those of us who have spent years opposing the influence of the military industrial complex on U.S. foreign policy, the war in Ukraine poses a peculiar challenge. It’s possible to believe the undue influence of the U.S. war machine is very real, and at the same time believe the...
Dear God, May the lives that were lost in Uvalde be held safely in heaven. May those who grieve be comforted and their broken hearts be healed. May a wave of peace come over our hearts and show us another way to be. Amen.
... The United States has seen a pattern of deeply disturbing tragedies over the last month. On January 18th, a young man named Manuel Teran, called Tortuguita, was killed in Atlanta during a police raid on a group of environmental activists. The group was protesting the city’s razing of the 300...
0:00 / 0:00 The War in Afghanistan One of America’s weaknesses is a tendency to move off a topic as soon as it becomes uncomfortable. We’re not known as a nation for deep reflection, often failing to learn the deeper lessons an experience affords and thus dooming ourselves to repeat...
Shortly after the United States began its evacuation from Afghanistan I read an article online called Afghanistan Meant Nothing, written by a veteran of two tours of duty in Afghanistan named Laura Jedeed. Her personal experiences and reflections on the war took my breath away. I myself had had a...
Note: This is the same post I sent out September 18th, 2021 but with the unbroken video link. Attention deficit is not just a brain issue; at this point it’s a cultural dysfunction. How often we move from topic to topic but without the mental cohesion with which to make sense...
- September 12, 2021
- Originally Published on Substack
“We spent about 2.3 trillion dollars on this war. Two trillion of it went directly to US contractors. So while this was a horrible war for many people, some people got very rich off of this war. The contractors’ stocks went through the roof. There was a 1,500 percent return...
The phrase “You live and you learn” doesn’t always apply, as sometimes people live through things and seem to learn nothing at all. Such was the case with America’s war in Vietnam. Obviously we learned basically nothing, given that decades later we enacted pretty much the same debacle in Afghanistan:...
Now that the last American soldier has left Afghanistan and the evacuation is complete, the news media is dropping its focus on Afghanistan. But we ourselves must not look away. We must learn everything we can about what happened – and why. We must learn what we need to know...
In the words of John F. Kennedy, “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” Just as the United Nations IPCC Climate Report says humanity is on Code Red regarding climate, we’re on Code Red regarding perpetual war as well. Pulling our troops...
We waged war in Afghanistan – twenty years of war, thousands of American lives lost, tens of thousands of Afghan lives lost, over 2 trillion dollars spent – but we did not wage peace. We went, we fought, we supported a corrupt Afghan government almost as abusive to the people...
