By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the present Presidential campaign, suddenly the question has arisen whether Martin Luther King or Lyndon Baines Johnson was more responsible for passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.

I was there, folks: working on Capitol Hill and then in the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive research/action center. And the answer is – both MLK and LBJ were responsible – AND one might add with some exaggeration, NEITHER. .

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 3/23/2005

Forty years ago, in March 1965, the students and faculty of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) held the first Teach-in against the Vietnam War — an all-night study session involving thousands of students and dozens of faculty that began about 6 p.m. and lasted till 6 a.m.

I was one of the speakers.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 2/11/2005

Dear Friends,

It started this way: I was invited to bring a religious voice to Ted Koppel's Town Meeting show on January 27 to address the Iraq war. It was held in the same place, St. John's Church across from the White House, as his Town Meeting had been held in March 2003, two weeks before the invasion of Iraq.

But at the show itself, the producers asked for a written card summarizing the comments I intended to make. They had invited me knowing in general what my views were. So with honesty but perhaps a whiff of naivete I wrote that I intended to speak about a power-addicted Presidency that is bringing down plagues upon our heads, reminiscent of the archetypal power-addicted Pharaoh whose downfall is at the heart of our tradition.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/26/2005

Dear Friends,

Objections to a swift decision on Alberto Gonzalez, stemming especially from Sen. Kennedy's concerns about his responses to questions about torture, have delayed the vote on whether to confirm him as Attorney General.

This gives us a momentary window in time to slow down or even halt the confirmation, and to make the record of the truth about the Administration's use of torture. SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO USE THIS MOMENT.

Philadelphia Area Interfaith Peace Network 12/27/2004

Dear Friends,

This coming January, Martin Luther King Birthday weekend, the Re-Inauguration of our War President, and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, marking Abrahams near-sacrifice of his son Ishmael — all come during the period from Friday January 14 to Sunday January 23.