On May 2, 2026 I was asked to speak at the 50th annual March for Peace, Justice and the Environment in Kamloops. Here is what I said:

Sixty years ago, I became an activist in Sproul Hall Plaza at the University of California in Berkeley, when as a twenty-year-old student I heard speeches by Mario Savio, Jerry Rubin and others about the need for free speech and evils of the Vietnam War.  The following year on Monday, October 16, 1967, I helped bring protestors to blockade the Induction Centre in Oakland, where I narrowly avoided getting beaten and arrested like many others.

Undeterred, the protesters returned to Sproul Hall Plaza on Tuesday to strategize collectively on the next steps. I gave a speech that day to organize a peaceful picket for the Wednesday. On Friday, there were 10,000 of us in the streets where we managed to prevent the buses bringing in the inductees until the National Guard arrived to remove our blockades.

After graduating university, I lost my student deferment despite being enrolled in graduate school. In 1969, I was thrown out of my own pre-induction physical at the same Induction Centre where we had protested after defacing my papers with the mantra, “Get out of Vietnam,” Two weeks later I left the U.S. for Canada to become a “back-to-the-lander” at Lee Creek, above Shuswap Lake.

Over the 57 ensuring years I have spent in the Shuswap, many have been spent opposing another war, the war against our planetary support system. For the next decades, those efforts would result in many confrontations with loggers, foresters, developers, fossil fuel promoters and most recently, the B.C. Wildfire Service after it burned down our community with their irresponsible backburn. There were also many successes, including the protection of over 25,000 hectares of new parks in the Shuswap.

Back in 1966, we did not think it could get worse than the unjust and immoral Vietnam war, but since then the world situation has only gone downhill with far more lives lost in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Serbia, the Ukraine, Gaza and now Lebanon and Iran. With the orange psychopath and his cabal of greedy billionaires busily destroying the once United States to the south and now the entire world, plus global overheating intensifying, our marches and demonstrations seem futile.

The military-industrial complex remains very much in control. Having nothing to do with protecting our freedoms, their never-ending wars continue unabated. The real victors are the war profiteers, as military actions only result in the need for more weapons, thus further enriching the already wealthy.

Meanwhile, our smoke-filled summers are just a reminder of that other war that continues unabated, the war destroying the environment for monetary gain. Sure, we can march, protest, sign petitions and vote green, but in the end, greed prevails and all but the very rich suffer the consequences.

So, what is the best road ahead for those of us who yearn for peace and environmental sanity? Our best choice for action is to concentrate on making a difference where we live. Bioregionalism is the preferred option, as everyone’s home place is where their voices will be best heard and their actions most likely to succeed. Whether one’s focus is on tackling poverty, growing food, supporting arts and culture, improving recreational opportunities, improving the sustainable economy or helping educate young people; the best place to get results is where one lives.

In conclusion, although world peace will likely never happen and climate chaos will only get worse, we can have successes locally and help make our communities more resilient in the face of impending calamities. When the crunch comes our first line of defense will be how well we can cooperate as neighbours and friends to cope with the impacts.