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Robert C. Koehler

Robert C. Koehler

Common Dreams

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In the US, Violence Has Always Been the Answer

From guns to militarism, the national religion is the religion of us vs. them.

21.07.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Pesky Noose of Cynicism

I invite you to join me as I reach for a larger context in which to put this flickering moment.

12.07.2024 4

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Julian Assange's Freedom Also Belongs to Us

My emotional relief at his escape from the clutches of this government far outweighs my feelings about the broader implications of the guilty plea,...

30.06.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Eurosatory Controversy Begs the Question: Is an Ethical Arms Show Possible?

The irony of the Israeli arms ban and reinstatement is the incursion of “moral integrity” into an event about the most up-to-date ways to kill...

22.06.2024 9

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Does Samuel Alito Have a Point?

Should our country return to a place of godliness? Not if the god in question is wielding a sword, or has his finger on the nuclear button.

16.06.2024 9

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

To Abolish War, We Must Transcend Exploitative Interests

Winning isn’t really the point anymore, at least from the point of view of the moneyed interests of war; what matters is waging it—that is to say,...

09.06.2024 7

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Love From Violence and the Beloved Community

The point I’m struggling to make in this moment is that love— in the deepest possible meaning of the word—is more powerful than growling dogs...

26.05.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

This Is What Education Is, for God's Sake!

It’s not just a matter of attending lectures, taking notes, absorbing data. It means finding your voice – finding your deepest values and...

19.05.2024 50

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

War, Money, and US Universities' Response to Israel Divestment Protests

Peaceful, intensely determined protesters, demanding their institutions divest from the Israeli war machine, face violent resistance from police.

06.05.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Sword May Be Mightier, But the Pen Has the Power to Ask Deeper Questions

The mass atrocity may be over, but our meditations on such violence do not end and perhaps still we have much to learn.

27.04.2024 20

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

What If the Media Covered War Like the Profound Social Problem It Is?

The corporate media covers conflicts like Israel and Iran’s with win-lose abstraction, even when we’re on the brink of World War III.

18.04.2024 6

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

We Need an Alternative to Nuclear-Armed Nationalism

If “war made the state and the state made war,” then the state, as currently perceived, at least by those besotted with military power, is the...

14.04.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

In Gaza and Beyond, War Itself Is the Problem

Condemning “war crimes” is nothing more than a shrug; it’s war itself that must be not simply “condemned,” but transcended.

06.04.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

How Can We Transcend the Borders We’ve Created?

There are natural borders and natural differences between people, but to arm those differences and make them absolute, utterly, utterly ignores the...

30.03.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

How a One-State Solution for Israelis and Palestinians Could Heal the World

This is the language of peace. It swells the heart, it transcends the small-mindedness of global politics.

22.03.2024 8

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Is ‘Cultural Erasure’ Only Wrong When Our Enemies Do It?

While I certainly join U.S. State Department Undersecretary Uzra Zeya in condemning all state-inflicted murder and ethnocide, I also condemn her...

17.03.2024 40

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Call Them 'Terrorists' and You Can Kill as Many as You Want

We have to start claiming collective responsibility for the wrongs of our governments, which means confronting the dehumanization they use to justify...

10.03.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Kneeling With the Spirit of Aaron Bushnell

His sacrifice begins to define the size of the changes we must make in our global politics, in our relationship with power, in our relationship with...

29.02.2024 4

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Resisting Giveuptitude: I Can’t Do It Alone

The following words are a contemplation of the great unknown, whose presence becomes increasingly more visible as the aging process obfuscates more...

25.02.2024 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Grotesque PR That Justifies Israeli Slaughter of Palestinian Children

How do the people claiming this is what "self-defense" looks like sleep at night?

16.02.2024 6

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Neck-Deep Again in the Big Muddy, But Any Reason for Hope?

Perhaps staring into the abyss created by the horrors and suffering of war will help us turn away from our violent path.

04.02.2024 30

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

How Dare You Shrug at the Doomsday Clock?

The very essence of evolution is the expansion of our thinking to embrace ever-larger realities of cooperation, connection, and understanding.

28.01.2024 40

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The US Is Still Not Beyond Getting 'Beyond Vietnam'

“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit," Martin Luther King Jr. famously said.

20.01.2024 9

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Cry of the Wounded and the Dead: End the War! End the War!

It’s time to break the cycle. That means living our values, not defying them.

13.01.2024 8

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Pondering the Madness and Vulgarity of War

Rather than sending more bombs and weaponry to Netanyahu, the United States—if it had the courage—could send him the opposite, the words of Martin...

07.01.2024 8

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

A Reflection on Moments of Becoming

I am continually confronted with the abstract statistics of war dead—in particular, children, each of whom was in the process of becoming himself or...

31.12.2023 10

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Blood We Bleed: Poetry Before Politics

Poetry is one of humanity’s windows into the raw unknown — which happens to be both beyond our wildest dreams and deep within our inner being.

25.12.2023 40

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

Pulling the Masks of the Hideous 'Terrorists'—Us

How can humanity be so blatantly flippant about its own suicide? Why are we so divided from ourselves?

16.12.2023 7

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

The Endless Dropping of Bombs Is Sabotaging Humanity's Ability to Evolve

Will we be able to overcome the wreckage we are inflicting on ourselves?

09.12.2023 20

Common Dreams

Robert C. Koehler

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