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Joe Parko is a retired college professor who taught for 28 years in the School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and serves on the steering committee of Cumberland Countians(Tennessee)for Peace and Justice.In 2005, he was the Quaker delegate on a peace mission to Israel and Palestine.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, June 22, 2012 The Psychology of Conservatism
Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 2, 2011 The Pentagon Budget Requires Real Cuts
If we are serious about reducing the deficit, we have to put the Pentagon budget on the table. The size of the Pentagon budget has grown to mammoth proportions. Military spending has doubled in the last 10 years, and it accounts for half of the discretionary spending that Congress allocates in appropriations bills every year. The U.S. spends almost as much as all the rest of the world's nations combined on our military.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 7, 2011 Cut the Corporate Tax Breaks
The Republican refusal to consider ending tax breaks for rich corporations as part of the deficit reduction plan is not just bad public policy. It is fundamentally unfair to 99% of the American taxpayers who are currently subsidizing the use of America's vast public infrastructure by these wealthy corporations and their owners.
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 15, 2011 Strange Bedfellows: Ayn Rand and the Tea Party Christians
There is no better example of the saying that politics makes for strange bedfellows than this weird mixture of Rand's extremist ideas combined with Christianity.
SHARE Saturday, December 19, 2009 O Little Dying Town of Bethlehem
During this Christmas season many of us have been singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" but few of us may know that Bethlehem is a dying town that is being strangled by the huge concrete wall that Israel has built around it. Few people know that some 20,000 Palestinian Christians live under a harsh military occupation in Bethlehem and are facing extreme hardship because of the wall that encircles them.
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, November 30, 2009 Divided We Fall
If we want American democracy to survive, we need to grow up. We need to stop projecting our fears onto other people. We need to stop yelling at each other and learn to start listening to each other. We need to accept the reality of change and begin working together to find productive ways of dealing with a world that is constantly changing.
SHARE Sunday, April 26, 2009 Paying Our Dues for Club America
Taxes are the dues we pay for the privileges of membership in Club America. Patriotism is more than just waving our flag. It's about paying our dues.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 19, 2009 The Battle For Change Has Begun
The grass roots movement that drove the Obama campaign is more vital than ever to fight Republican determination to wage war against working people.
(8 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Israel's Nuclear Weapons
If we truly want to stop the nuclear arms race in the Middle East, we must require that Israel open its secret nuclear weapons program to inspection and international control.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 5, 2009 Blind Support For Israel Is Bad Theology
The blind support for Israel among some U.S. Christians is based upon a serious misreading of the Bible.
(43 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 28, 2008 Israel is illegally using U.S. weapons in its attack on Gaza
Israel is using weapons supplied by the United States to harm Palestinian civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act and the Geneva Conventions.
SHARE Friday, November 14, 2008 United We Stand
We the people have spoken and America has elected a new president. Regardless of how we voted, we all need to unite behind the President-elect because our common destiny is tied to his success or failure.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, October 10, 2008 The Real Cause of the Financial Crisis
The real cause of the current financial crisis is our massive debt which is largely due to out-of-control military spending. Massive borrowing by the U.S. government to fund wars and weapons has sucked the liquidity out of the credit markets and fear of a collapsing dollar is sending shock waves throughout world markets.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 14, 2008 What is Community Organizing?
The term "community organizing" has become part of the political discussion because of Barack Obama's past experience as an organizer. The author, who has taught a course in community organizing at Georgia State University, seeks to shed some light on this topic.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Understanding the Reality in Palestine
The Quaker representative on a fact-finding delegation to Israel and Palestine reports on his observations there.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 10, 2008 McCain Unjustly Calls the Iraq War Just
This article tests John McCain's claim that the Iraq war is just against the principles of the Christian just war theory.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 5, 2008 Rev. Jeremiah Wright: A Prophetic Voice of Warning for America
Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaks with the same prophetic voice used by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. He warns that America will suffer the wrath of God unless it turns away from war, racism and greed. Those who condemn Rev. Wright worship America as an idol
that must never be criticized.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 10, 2008 The Truth About Terrorism
The U.S. is losing ground against terrorism because of its reliance on military power. The truth is that if we want real security, we must work to stop our government from relying so heavily on military force that ends up creating even more terrorists. If the U.S. became the biggest supplier of hope in the world instead of the world's biggest arms supplier, the wellsprings of terrorism would soon dry up and disappear.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, February 29, 2008 Class Warfare in America: The Upper Class is Winning
There are those who contend that in America we should never talk about class because it is dangerous and divisive. The fact is that the upper class has been waging a very successful war on our middle and lower classes since they put Bush into office.
(19 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Churches of Peace: as Jesus lived and taught
America's churches could turn the world toward peace if every church lived and taught as Jesus lived and taught. As Christians we must ask ourselves--Are we really following in the footsteps of Jesus? Are we working for peace or are we promoting war?