Author Archives: June Edvenson

Borlaug was born on a Norwegian farm in Iowa. His family encouraged education and he went into the field of Plant pathology. This was at a time when there were Extensive food security problems for populations, unfed. In Mexico, India and Pakistan, especially for the poor His ground-breaking scientific research and applied methods Made allContinue reading “1970 – Norman Ernest Borlaug”

Under the foundation of the ILO in Geneva Is a document that says, “If you desire peace,  Seek justice.” Of course, this international labor mantra Has been repeated from wars to trade unions and congresses: Since Versailles, the tripartite strength of workers and employers, With States, has brought rights and protections across national borders, WorkContinue reading “1969 – The International Labor Organization (ILO)”

He said, “The war put its indelible and unmistakable stump On me [and] my contemporaries. But it wasn’t So much the spectacular horror of the battlefields Or the suffering in the hospitals that marked us, as It was the agonized perception of the lasting and wasteful Consequences of the war:  the disabled soldiers  . .Continue reading “1968 – Rene Cassin – 2”

Cassin was born in southern France and survived World War I, severely wounded but alive. He was a professor of law for many years and fled To London with de Gaulle when Hitler led His troops to overrun their land. His positions Included work with the League of Nations and war veterans, Whom he feltContinue reading “1968 – Rene Cassin”

The Children’s Fund began after WWII as UNICEF At the insistence of President Hoover, among others. Many demanded the world respond to address The desperate needs of post-war children and mothers: Six million in Europe alone were thus fed One meal every day through the winter of ’47. The ‘begging bowl’ grew, by its firstContinue reading “1965 – The U.N. Children’s Fund”

King accepted the prize in the name of “those devotees Of nonviolence” climbing the “ramparts of racial injustice.” He’d come to believe in using Gandhi’s non-violent Resistance. So they walked and they marched – and they sat. They were shot, bombed, arrested, beaten, jailed and spat at, And the eyes of the nation began toContinue reading “1964 – Martin Luther King, Jr. – 2”

All know of King’s work for U.S. racial equality, His dream, five score years after Lincoln stated, slaves “Shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” King experienced the reality, and gave Of his boundless spirit and energy to save The dream of real freedom for blacks in America. They were forced to give way toContinue reading “1964 – Martin Luther King, Jr.”

These two international organizations had long worked in tandem. The Committee, a Swiss organization, stated the sole reason Its members are admitted into “the territory of belligerents”? Their impartiality is complete and inspires confidence. “They know . . . in a world where selfish and ideological interests  Are in conflict,” the Red Cross alone, “withoutContinue reading “1963 – The International Committee of the Red Cross and The League of Red Cross Societies”

Pauling’s anti-war activity spanned the period When the U.S. and Russia were being asked to confront The exceptional danger of nuclear weapons and myriad Repercussions of nuclear testing. He worked to shunt Nuclear proliferation – with treaties and entreaties. He joined Einstein after the war and crafted a treaty To ban that testing, which heContinue reading “1962 – Linus Carl Pauling – 2”

Linus Pauling, Professor Extraordinaire, lived “On the frontiers of science,” earning the Nobel Prize In Chemistry (in ’54) and Peace. His research articles Gave structure to the bonds that hold atomic particles Together. But the bomb dropped on Hiroshima appalled Him and he turned to devote himself to the clarion call Of stopping nuclear armsContinue reading “1962 – Linus Carl Pauling”