BS: We can promote a peaceful world

Subject: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 05:28 PM

I didn't want this to get lost in the gun thread, so I am posting a link here to the US Peace Government. I KNOW some of you will poo-poo it and I think it may have been mentioned here, before. At least someone is trying to make an appreciable difference to counteract what we have in the regular government right now.

Here is just one of the things they are doing to help our schools and their students towards peace:Click.

HERE'S a list of other conferences they have held.

Here's something about the scientists who are part of the same efforts.

Read what individuals have to say about how they are working for peace at 43 things.

Read about making peace in an editorial in the Christian Science Monitor, part of which says Peace is what happens when a community - whose citizens sense a permanent vulnerability to dangers among them - successfully absorbs and transcends attacks of fear and division. Peace-building is the work of fostering durable comity in the same place our ancient ancestors found it - around our local community hearths.

If you are religious, take a look at Religions for Peace. How refreshing when all we hear about is religious division!

Take a look at what Peace Action has been doing for over 50 years.

I would like to gather more resources of peace-growing orgs. and activities. If you know of any, please post them here. We cannot expect the world to change unless we work from within on ourselves, first.

katgivingthanksforpeaceprofound

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 06:10 PM

No, no, NO, Kat! Promoting a peaceful world is bad for business and bad for Halliburton! You're acting like those hippie commies in the '60s or worse, like the followers of that weirdo who said, "Put up your sword, for those who take up the sword will perish by it." Peace is bad business, bad business.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 06:22 PM

See also a lot of nice essays and such at Peace is Active. Thanks, Kat! Brightened up me day!


A

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 06:31 PM

LOL, ya think, Rap? Ya mean I can finally call myself a pinko commie hippie freak?:-)

Tks for the link, Amos.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 06:51 PM

Yes, like the posters said, "War is good business!"

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: GUEST,Kilt.
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 07:08 PM

People never fail to see the carnage, the pain and the hurt. Yet they seem to forget it quickly and never seem to learn from it.
As the great Alistair McCloud, our Scottish hero once said "People value human life to the same extent of their kitchen utensils. Change the décor and if the colour and appearance doesn't fit dump them".
Each day we hear of crimes on our doorstep and the shock and horror last a day and no one attempts to learn from it.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Stringsinger
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 11:58 PM

Kat, I think that a US Dept. of Peace is a wonderful idea, one being promoted by Dennis Kucinich. I have a problem with Christian Science, though, (the Monitor) because that religion kills children.

Kat, if Peace is predicated on religion, it'll never work. It has to be fostered by religious and non-religious alike for it to work. The healing can come about if people respect each other's point-of-view and that viewpoint doesn't harm others or infringe on their rights to believe or disbelieve.

Peace is the most important aspect of society. Conflict resolution is more important than all the weaponry, belief systems and hysteria in the world. Peace is the only true security.

If humans become extinct, (which we might) it will be brought about sooner through the acceptance and acquiesence to War.

Smedley Butler put it succinctly, "War is a racket".

Anything that has to do with waging peace is more important than nationalism, ethnic alliances, self-survival at the expense of others, acquiring power, or anything that I can think of.

If this sounds like preaching, sorry, but what you have to say is so important and if only the people in all countries and places would hear this message, humans might have a chance at survival.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Alice
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 12:09 AM

NPR did an interesting story on a city council that wanted to support the idea of a department of Peace.
The wackos came out of the woodwork speaking against it and the council voted no.
It is amazing how FEAR drives people to be anti-peace. Less fear, more peace. Teach your children well.
Here is the NPR report. Peace Department Proposal Rattles Small Town

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Alice
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 12:13 AM

The NPR report included these facts about the history of a Peace office for the US.
'Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, wrote a famous and controversial essay, "A Plan for a Peace Office for the United States."
Rush, who was widely viewed as a gadfly, argued that a secretary of peace would help balance the impulses of the War Office (renamed the Department of Defense in 1949).'

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 12:48 AM

Thanks for that info, Alice. Pretty incredible this was an idea that long ago.

Frank, I agree with you, wholeheartedly. I am not advocating any religion's involvement or saying it has to be through any certain belief system. I just provided those links as some of the random hits I got when I entered "work for peace" in a google search. I was pleased, though, to see the org. of religions working FOR peace and not division.

Remember the old bumper sticker, "You can't hug a child with nuclear arms?"

And how about Einstein's saying, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." He also said "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." Wonder if the shrub has ever considered that in his quest to "bring peace to the Middle East."

The whole idea that violence, killing and maiming can bring about any kind of "lasting peace" is so unreal.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: The Shambles
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 03:36 AM

Nothing is stopping any of us from making a start.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 May 07 - 12:09 AM

Anyone care to join me?

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: mg
Date: 04 May 07 - 12:33 AM

I had an idea today looking at the Hershey's kiss stamp which is quite nice...what if all sorts of countries had a stamp that said something along the lines of Ghana wishes you peace, or Denmark wishes you peace, or Ukraine etc. It could literally spread around the world. mg

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Peace
Date: 04 May 07 - 12:48 AM

What if all countries stopped buying chocolate that was produced by slave labour?

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jul 07 - 11:14 PM

The Elders peace gathering

STEPHANIE NOLEN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

July 18, 2007 at 9:50 PM EDT

JOHANNESBURG — The official order of business Wednesday was the introduction of The Elders: convened at the request of Nelson Mandela, a collection of former leaders that has begun to work together to advance the causes of peace and global justice.

Five Nobel Laureates and a handful of other eminences gathered on the stage in Johannesburg as Mr. Mandela announced that they would seek to fulfill the traditional role of elders in a village, providing wisdom and leadership and attempting to resolve conflicts, taking on everything from climate change to the fighting in Darfur.

A symbolic empty chair was left on stage for Aung San Suu Kyi, the activist who will join the group when she is free of government-imposed house arrest in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). But as the Elders sat in a row and spoke about their very serious work, a current – of irreverence, of resilience, of what looked very much like joy – kept bubbling up through the formality. And Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs this elders' council, voiced the true theme of the gathering: "Goodness will prevail."

Wednesday was Mr. Mandela's 89th birthday. And so what was slated to be a routine press conference was almost immediately hijacked when the sprightly and elfin archbishop commanded that everyone join in singing Happy Birthday as Mr. Mandela was helped slowly to his seat by a bodyguard and his elegant wife, Graca Machel.

And in that moment came the transformation that seems to happen whenever Mr. Mandela is in a room: Everyone, from the flinty CNN crew to the guy who ran the metal detector in the doorway, got a bit gooey. People broke out in huge smiles, lifted their hands to their faces, turned and nudged one another. "Madiba Magic," South Africans call it, using the tribal name by which Mr. Mandela is universally known here. No one, it seems, is impervious.

Beaming at Mr. Mandela, the archbishop then told the crowd, "Finally he listened to me about something – I told him they should get married." Mr. Mandela laughed, and clutched Ms. Machel's hand: Wednesday was also their ninth wedding anniversary.

At that point, Archbishop Tutu turned a gently reproving glance to Kofi Annan, and the former United Nations Secretary-General leapt up and into action, bustling across the stage to present a huge bouquet of flowers to Ms. Machel in honour of the occasion.

The Elders, it emerged, is the brainchild of the English tycoon Sir Richard Branson – who was himself in the audience with his elderly parents. Back in 2001, he and his friend, the British musician and anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Gabriel, sought out Mr. Mandela and asked if he would try to convene a group of world leaders to take on conflicts such as that in Israel and the Palestinian territories – to use their moral influence where others with political agendas had failed.

"The structures we have to deal with these problems are often tied by political, economic and geographical constraints," Mr. Mandela said Wednesday. "As institutions of government grapple with the challenges they face, the efforts of a small, dedicated group of leaders working objectively and without any vested personal interest in the outcome can help to resolve what often seem like intractable problems."

The Elders have no formal role – nor, Mr. Mandela stressed, will they seek to replace or compete with any official or elected body. None of the group was willing to commit specifically to which issues they will take on, although former Irish president Mary Robinson said they are already at work. Darfur was mentioned repeatedly and a source who sat in on one of their meetings told The Globe that they have also made overtures to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, seeking to negotiate a way to have him leave office.

But former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said it would be fine with him if no one outside their council ever knew what issues they worked on. "The Elders neither want, nor will we ever have, any kind of authority except that that comes from common moral values," he said. "We will be able to risk failure and we will not need to claim successes."

The group's work is being funded with an initial infusion of $18-million (U.S.) by wealthy friends of Sir Richard.

Introducing him and Mr. Gabriel, the archbishop remarked that he should ask Mr. Gabriel to sing Biko – his iconic hymn about the murder of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko 30 years ago. Sir Richard's head snapped up at that, and he shouldered his way back to the microphone, saying, "If you won't ask him, I will!" Moments later an abashed-looking Mr. Gabriel found himself in front of the crowd, clearing his throat.

It was a fitting place to sing this song: the gathering was held on the grounds of South Africa's Constitutional Court, which was once an apartheid prison. As the archbishop said, "This was a place of tears, of suffering, of humiliation. People were detained without trial here, people were tortured here. But they didn't buckle."

So Mr. Gabriel squared his shoulders and sang Biko, every haunting word, and the audience – journalists and dignitaries and a row of South Africa's Constitutional Court justices – joined him with a low and rhythmic hum.

Tumultuous applause erupted as he finished, but then just as quickly died away, as people noticed the archbishop: He was hunched over, hands clutched in fists, weeping inconsolably.

"We stand on the shoulders of incredible people," he choked out, taking off his glasses and wiping the tears. "We owe our freedom to incredible people."

Mr. Mandela said, with what sounded like a note of genuine regret, that "I am trying to take my retirement seriously" and so would not participate in the hands-on work of his group of Elders. But he will, as Mr. Branson said, pick up the phone when he needs to, using his unique level of moral suasion to get others involved.

In the end, Mr. Mandela left the gathering to celebrate his birthday with his children and grandchildren, and the other Elders went to work. Archbishop Tutu, dancing a little jig, sent everyone into the world with a final observation: "We have been through incredible times and God has helped us to see that the evil doesn't have the last word. It's ultimately goodness and laughter and joy," he said. "Those are what are going to prevail in the end."

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Jul 07 - 10:29 AM

People never fail to see the carnage, the pain and the hurt. Yet they seem to forget it quickly and never seem to learn from it. Sounds like childbirth!

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Jul 07 - 01:12 PM

kat, that's a wonderful story. A few more things like that around the world and there will ensue a profound difference.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jul 07 - 01:44 PM

I'd like to think so, Ebbie, thanks. I DO believe that positive things like that are much more powerful in a metaphysical sense than negative and so, even if the numbers seem small, the work itself is incredibly significant.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 Jul 07 - 05:51 AM

I've just finished reading Niall Ferguson's book, 'The War of the World' (Penguin, 2006). This volume is about the 100 year war that was the 20th Century. The main thesis of the book is that the main drivers for that appalling century of conflict were: The collapse of empires, economic instability and the growth of crackpot (but murderous) racial theories.

At the end of the book Ferguson reminds us that these factors are all still operating somewhere in the world to this day - and it could all happen again.

Subject: RE: BS: We can promote a peaceful world
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jul 07 - 07:51 AM

Remember that bumper sticker from the Viet Nam era that said: KILLING FOR PEACE IS LIKE BALLING FOR CHASTITY. ?

As long as mankind is ruled by fear, there will be war.