Author Archives: Ed Fallon

Public execution seeks to normalize violence

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I have strong feelings about the death penalty. It’s always appalled me that a government which claims to be compassionate and rational can justify a practice that is neither.

As a state lawmaker in 1995, and again in 1997, I helped lead successful efforts to stop Governor Branstad from reinstating the death penalty. My contributions included speaking on the floor of the House, staging a week-long fast, and participating in rallies and vigils.

Last week, as Pete Hegseth announced his intention to live-stream a public execution, I thought about our successful campaigns to stop the death penalty in Iowa.

Just as in 1995 and 1997, when our anti-death-penalty coalition found unexpected allies among conservative Republican legislators, Americans opposed to capital punishment again found an unexpected ally.

President Donald Trump. It doesn’t happen often, but Trump’s decision to cancel the live-stream execution of Nidal Malik Hasan was welcomed, and surprising. The President’s reasoning was that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die.” Continue Reading →

Iowans oughta vote “No” on Amendment 1

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This election, Iowa voters will find Amendment 1 on the ballot. I can’t say this on my FCC-regulated radio program, but I’ll say it here: VOTE NO!

If the amendment passes, any income tax increase would need a super majority of the state legislature to pass. As my guest, Ed Tibbetts (check out Ed’s regular column, Along the Mississippi), points out, Amendment 1 “would let just 17 state senators, or 11.3% of the 150 lawmakers in Des Moines, reject the will of the majority.”

How’s that for democracy?

Independent, non-partisan research shows that recent changes to Iowa’s tax laws have shifted more of the burden to low- and middle-income people, disproportionally benefiting Iowa’s upper crust.

Amendment 1 would make income disparity even worse. If you want to do your small part to stop Iowa’s widening income-equality gap, vote “NO” on Amendment 1. Continue Reading →

Tom Harkin and the Vietnam War’s horrific “tiger cages”

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If you’ve never heard former US Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) recount how he exposed torture in Vietnam, this week’s Fallon Forum is a must-listen.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon assured the press and the public that the Vietnam War was going well. Troops were being withdrawn. There was real progress toward peace.

It’s probably no surprise that Nixon was lying. In April of 1970, he actually expanded the war into neighboring Cambodia. 

(Imagine that. A US president lying about a war. Who ever heard of such a thing?)

Also in 1970, Tom Harkin worked as an aide to Congressman Neal Smith (D-Iowa). That summer, Tom joined a bi-partisan House delegation on a fact-finding mission to Vietnam.

At one point, Tom managed to break away from the official, sanitized tour to chase a rumor about “tiger cages,” where he’d heard that prisoners were being tortured.

What Tom discovered was truly horrific. Continue Reading →

Can a serious talk show start with weed and wrap up with beer?

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Sure, it’s a rhetorical question: “Can a serious talk show start with weed and wrap up with beer?”

WEED. The answer is “yes.” This week Colin Hogan with Iowa Stage Theater Company discusses the Company’s production of Reefer Madness.

We also discuss how public opinion and marijuana laws have evolved over the years.

Charles shares concern about the dramatically increased strength of marijuana and how that’s leading to addiction and a wide range of health problems.

ELECTION. I’m feeling increasingly confident that the November 3 election will remain fair and secure. It’s still a crap shoot, what with the many tactics being employed by the Trump administration to corrupt the results. But my phone call last week with Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald convinced me that election officials across the country are well prepared to address all types of corruptive influences. Continue Reading →

Defending our right to vote

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A whole lot of political observers and journalists, including me, have been regaling you with warnings about how President Trump is trying to steal the November election. All of it’s true, and of grave concern.

But we have reasons to be hopeful. Certainly, the recent US Supreme Court ruling on absentee ballots is a huge blow to Trump’s effort to corrupt mail-in voting.

My phone call with Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald yesterday was also very encouraging. Like county auditors and local officials across the country, Jamie and his staff have been tracking every potential threat to election integrity, and making plans to respond.

I asked Fitzgerald what the local response would be if the Trump administration sends ICE agents to polling sites in Polk County. He said he’s been working with the county attorney and county sheriff to make sure that section 49.104 of the Iowa Code is upheld.

That code section lists the specific people allowed inside and near polling places during an election. Federal agents are not on that list. Continue Reading →

Good madman, bad madman

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I once met a very nice madman, at a monastery in Ireland. I was 21 and living on my uncle’s farm. I needed a break, so I left for a week-long retreat at a Trappist monastery in County Tipperary.

There, I met Jerry, also on retreat. Jerry was an intense but harmless madman. His madness stemmed from a believe that he’d been ordained by God to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Fair enough. A noble goal. Harmless enough — even after Jerry’s behavior turned bizarre.

Quite bizarre, actually. One evening, we went to a nearby pub. In walked a man wearing a trench coat, handing out copies of the IRA newspaper. Jerry lost it, yelled at the man, called him an infidel, and dragged him to the door intending to throw him out.

The attempt failed. Instead, Jerry and I were grabbed, picked up, and tossed out of the pub. That was how I discovered both flight and the unforgiving firmness of pavement.

Next morning, Jerry amped up his madness. He interrupted the monks’ prayer by donning a robe and prostrating himself at the altar. That convinced the Abbot to ask Jerry if he’d voluntarily commit himself to a psyche ward in Dublin. Jerry agreed, and I was commissioned to escort him there.

That’s the abridged story of my friend, Jerry. A madman, yes. But a benign, well-intentioned madman.

Alas, not all madmen are warm and fuzzy. Given enough power, a madman can be incredibly dangerous — existentially dangerous, as history has shown too many times.

I won’t recount the Who’s Who of history’s most deadly madmen, because you know where this is going.

Donald Trump. If he wasn’t a madman during his first term, he is clearly now off the rails. Continue Reading →

Opposition to AI data centers goes global

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Our August 24 program focuses on a conversation with Kirthi Jayakumar. Kirthi lives in Chennai, India, and holds a degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She has also earned a masters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Security.

A lot of Kirthi’s work is focused on helping survivors of gender-based violence, including authoring Frankly Speaking, a play that channels the voices of eight young women from conflict zones in different parts of the world, interspersed with passages from The Diary of Anne Frank.

Kirthi and I discuss the impact that climate change has had on India this year.

We also discuss how the ascendant Cockroach Party is impacting the entrenched government of Narendra Modi, and how the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolence plays into the conflict.

Finally, we discuss how opposition to AI data centers is becoming a mass movement not just in the US but across India and much of the rest of the world. Continue Reading →

The bipartisan Flock rebellion

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It’s happening more and more: Americans across the political spectrum are finding common ground on data centers, water quality, ultra-processed foods, eminent domain, and even cancer.

And  FLOCK surveillance cameras.

Earlier this year, not many people had heard of FLOCK Safety and its vast network of surveillance cameras totaling around 100,000 coast-to-coast. I first learned of FLOCK when its technology was featured in an Amazon “Ring” commercial during the Super Bowl.

That warm and fuzzy find-the-lost-pet ad backfired on FLOCK — and things have only gotten worse for the company. Continue Reading →

How I made the nightmares stop

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I want to focus on a topic not covered in this week’s program: the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Every year since the late 1970s, a coalition of Iowa peace groups has commemorated the bombings with song, speeches, and ringing the Japanese Bell of Peace and Friendship at the Iowa State Capitol.

That bronze bell weighs 2,000 pounds and was gifted to Iowa in 1962 by our sister state, Yamanashi Prefecture, in response to Iowans providing humanitarian aid following two devastating typhoons.

Every year, the commemoration reminds us of the horror of nuclear war. That horror has haunted me for over sixty years. In 2018, I wrote about it in my memoir, Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim:

War terrified me from an early age. I first learned about Vietnam when I was six. I’d lie in bed paralyzed by fear at the roar of jet engines being tested at General Electric two miles away. I thought the Vietnamese were coming to kill us.

Mom tried to reassure me that there was nothing to worry about. The noise came from the factory where she and my dad used to work, where they’d met in fact. It was a good place, nothing to be scared of.

She made no mention of the napalm being dropped that night on sleeping Vietnamese children by planes powered by those very engines. Like most Americans in the early 1960s, Mom dutifully swallowed the anti-communist propaganda, ignoring the occasional images of truth and horror that slipped through the pro-war ideologues’ shield of deceit.

For many years, I had nuclear nightmares. In one recurring dream, I would stand in a city devastated by a nuclear attack, handing out water and food to scarred and burned victims.

The nightmares ended when I became a peace activist, at first in Ireland in 1984, then with deeper commitment in Iowa in 1985. By 1986, I was full-time engaged with peace work — coordinating the Iowa stretch of the Great Peace March and later founding Des Moines Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Continue Reading →

India’s inspiring “cockroach” movement

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Last week, a story in Waging Nonviolence about India’s “cockroach” movement gave me hope that American democracy is not yet lost.

On May 15, the Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court compared young activists to “cockroaches” and “parasites.” The next day, a student responded on X, “What if the cockroaches marched?”

So march they did. Protests of over 50,000 people! Social media platforms totaling 25 million followers! It launched a movement called the “Cockroach Junta Party.” Activists have done a heckuva job combining humor with astute political messaging, along with a list of specific demands.

The nationwide protests have shaken the authoritarian government of Narendra Modi. Already, one key government official has resigned.

From the Waging Nonviolence story: Over 100 protesters have since been arrested, despite assurances from the government that demonstrators would not be punished. 

When Delhi last saw a mass youth mobilization in 2020, the state answered by naming the organizers in a conspiracy chargesheet: Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have now been held for more than five years under India’s 1967 anti-terror law and were refused bail again on July 4, 16 days before the cockroaches marched on Parliament.

This sounds eerily familiar. Like Modi, President Trump demonizes his perceived enemies, calling us “scum” and “vermin.” Continue Reading →