Demand Peace

Demand Peace

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Medea Benjamin and Gayle Brandeis ask a good question for today’s holiday in a new piece for The Nation online: “On Veteran’s Day, when we honor all of those who have served our country through the military, it’s helpful to take a closer look at three words that have become so familiar: What does it mean to truly support our troops?”

The best way, of course, to support the troops is to bring them home. After that, making sure they come back to viable jobs, legit educational opportunities and proper healthcare and counseling are all high on the list.

Benjamin and Brandeis also offer a series of concrete suggestions, including sending care packages to Iraq with books, food and other everyday items difficult to find in a war zone; donating to organizations, like the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, that provide help for returning soldiers struggling to put their lives together and supporting groups like United for Peace and Justice, CodePink, Gold Star Families for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War, who are out there in the trenches of the antiwar movement.

It also never hurts–particularly as polls increasingly show that opposing the war will be a winning electoral issue–to click here and implore your elected reps to support a quick withdrawal strategy today. For arguments why this is so critical, check out The Nation mag’s new lead editorial.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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