Our Blog
“You Will Never Touch Me Again”
This is about a past client, but I hope that all current and future clients of domestic violence have her attitude. She was married to an active duty soldier for several years, and then he retired from the military. He did not handle his transition to...
The Violence We Give Away
The violence we give will always come home to us. A bomb dropped in Cambodia will explode in a classroom in Colorado. The bodies of Guatemalan mental patients, mangled by the experiments of American researchers, will be cremated in the fires of Ferguson, Missouri. The...
Human Nature Defaults to Conscientious Objection
The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service has been holding public hearings since February 2018 in order to gather and share information about its mandate to update the Selective Service System (and, therefore, draft and conscientious objector...
War, Artificial Intelligence, and Humanity
Artificial intelligence in war weapons rarely makes it into the news. Yet, it requires our careful attention because it is already part of international and national lawmaking. The United Nations (UN) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the Convention on Certain...
Victims are Both Hard to Recognize and Easy to Spot
You might think I made a mistake with the title of this article, as it contradicts itself, but read on, and I will explain. Many people have a preconceived notion of what a “battered woman” looks like—poor, several children, high school education or GED, submissive,...
Friends Keep Lines Open After Hurricane
When Hurricane Michael took out our internet for a few days, hotline calls were not interrupted because nearby Quakers, Heather McIver and Suzanne Lowe (pictured with Steve), opened their door and shared their working internet with us. Here we are in their living...
Coming Full Circle to Gratitude
Last week we received this email from Gary, one of the conscientious objectors we helped apply for discharge when he could no longer reconcile his Christian faith with being in the military. “One year ago I gave you a call. Today I got a call from my Company...
Desensitization and Apathy to the Realities of War
Thoughts about a war culture after reading the text of the speech given at the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act on August 13, 2018, at Fort Drum, in Jefferson, New York. The following quotes are from that speech (emphasis added by me). Words following...
In Memoriam: The Legacy of Bill Carothers and Quaker House
You could say that Quaker House underwent a kind of trial by fire in 1970, and Bill Carothers was one of the firefighters who stepped in to help. Specialist William Carothers, as he was officially known, was serving with the 612th Quartermaster Company at Fort Bragg...