Dear Friends,

We’re going bullet-point style this week, starting with:

PEACE AND JUSTICE AWARD
For my Iowa audience, the Bishop Dingman Award Celebration is this Saturday, March 7, at 6:00 p.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 2926 Beaver Ave in Des Moines. This year’s award goes to Humanitarian Operations and Public Education Foundation, a non-profit focused on human rights and providing aid to Gaza. Suggested ticket price is $50. Contact catholicpeaceministry@gmail.com for details.

(RELATED: Check out my conversations with DMACC poli-sci prof Jeffrey Weiss about Iran and building a new peace movement.

THE SEAGULL
Again, if you’re in central Iowa, the Iowa Stage Theater’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull runs from March 13 – 22. Director Alex Wendel and I discuss the play’s edgy political commentary when it was first released in Russia in the late 1800s, and its relevance for the mess we find ourselves in today. Details and tickets here.

DESPICABLE PETE
I don’t know what else to call Pete Hegseth given what he said about bombing Iran, where 1,200 have been killed, including over 150 schoolgirls: “B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long. … Four days in, we have only just begun to fight. America fights to win, and in Operation Epic Fury, we are. May God’s providence cover and protect our troops always.”

KILLING IRANIANS FOR CHRIST
Speaking of God, under Hegseth’s leadership, the worst of the worst are gaining dominance in the US military. Over a hundred complaints have been filed against one commander who, “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

PROTEST IS NOT ENOUGH
As Jeffrey and I discuss, America needs the kind of peace movement that accomplished so much in the 1970s and 1980s. Yes, No Kings Day rallies are important. But they’re entry-level activism. We need systemic change. We need a counter-cultural revolution. I’ll be talking a lot about that going forward. For now, I’ll share this video by Tad Stoermer, a historian, teacher, and author.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S ENTIRE PODCAST AND RADIO SHOW