Bryan Farrell is a New York based journalist and activist. His work is focused on nonviolent peacemaking and environmentalism.

Yesterday was the annual Good Friday Way of the Cross march through midtown Manhattan, sponsored by Pax Christi–a leading group in the Catholic peace movement. The several hundred who participated–including myself–walked from 47th and 2nd to Times Square, stopping at fifteen symbolically-significant places along the way to reflect on the suffering and injustices going on [...]

Yesterday’s entry received quite a response over at the Huffington Post–which happened to pick it up. By and large the consensus seemed to be: “You have a point about Obama’s shortcomings, but now is not the time to bring them up.” Some thought I put too much emphasis on the little bit that was wrong [...]

March 19, 2008 | Published by Huffington Post

Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech appears to have raised Obamania to new heights with its so-called frank discussion of race relations and politics in America. Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic could barely contain his excitement, calling it “searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian,” as well as, “a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation.” I guess I’ve been waiting for something a little different then because [...]

A Massachusetts middle school has embarked on a project that will land them in the Guinness Book of World Records by making a book of their own–the largest book, in fact, to ever be created. But what topic could possibly fill the pages of a book measuring 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide and [...]

Facebook recently found itself in some hot water when Jewish settlers in the West Bank noticed that they were being listed as residents of “Palestine.” After receiving accusations of having “a political agenda” from the settlers, Facebook cowed to pressure and now allows users to choose between being listed as residents of Israel or [...]

It took me a while to appreciate the political undertones of The Wire because the writers throw so much at you that metaphors and allusions take a back seat to basic story comprehension. But after viewing the final episode and reading some of Wire creator David Simon’s recent comments, I have come to realize that [...]

Another 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli raids and bomb strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, bringing the death count to 115 (a third of which were children) in just four days. On the Israeli side one civilian and two soldiers were killed. Nevertheless, a senior Israeli official warned that Palestinians firing rockets from [...]

We need more vocal critics of war. But, more importantly, we need more vocal critics of every war: past, present, and future. Far too often anti-war activists stop short of fully embracing their title by revealing themselves to only be “anti certain wars.”
David Michael Green, a professor of political science at Hofstra University, did just [...]

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that “California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job because she inserted the word ‘nonviolently’ in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form.”
Because the state requires public employees to sign this oath to the Constitution, you might be thinking that this is just [...]

If you’ve ever wondered why it costs so much more to eat a salad than a burger from McDonalds–even though more resources go into producing the McDonalds meal–this graph on government subsidies makes the answer quite clear.

A blog called Celcias gives more of a detailed analysis, should you be interested.