Peace Action

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Ancient Words of Wisdom

"We should study philosophy until we see in generals nothing but donkey-drivers."

--Crates of Thebes (c. 368-283, BCE).

Annals of Non-Violence: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Read about him at PeacePower.

WMD's

Remember them? Yes? No? Does it matter anymore? It's time to start chanting:

DWM!

Dismantle the War Machine!

Try it for Memorial Day. I understand that the war criminal Colin Powell will be participating in televised Memorial Day celebrations. How special!

The revolution will not be televised.

Once Upon A Time, Even Marvel Comics Had a Conscience

In my youth, I was a reader of Marvel Comics. Among my regular reads was Captain America and the Falcon. During the years of the Watergate scandal, the Captain America character became so ashamed of the Nixon Administration that he swore off being Captain America and re-invented himself as The Nomad--a superhero without a country. At the time (I was what is called a "pre-teen"), I was both shocked and inspired by this plot twist in the on-going saga of my favorite super-hero. Looking back, I see that it presumed a certain level of political engagement on the part of America's youth--an assumption that, I fear, would be presumptuous today. In any event, there was an issue (#181 to be exact), which opened with the former Cap paying a visit to the Lincoln Memorial. He is dressed in his new Nomad togs and reading the words of Lincoln inscribed on the walls:

"I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea-coasts, our army and our navy, these are not our reliance against tyranny. All of those may be turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle."

"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors."

"Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."

IS THIS PROPHECY?

Nixon's crimes were child's play next to the Bush Administration's. How is it that Bush and his co-conspirators are not behind bars? Where, as old Bob Dole used to ask, WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

Why is it that there is not a general repudiation of the mass murderers in Washington? Perhaps it is as the inscrutable Bob Dylan sings (quoting Dr. Johnson):

They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king.

I just glanced at today's NYT. A headline reads: Democrats Drop Withdrawal Dates from Iraq Bill.

DON'T YOU FEEL BETRAYED?

I feel like the Nomad.

A Moral Voice

The Moral Obligation to Lose the War by Robert Shetterly. Is something happening here?

Guess What? It's Sack-Cloth and Ashes Time in the U S of A

Many of our politicians have recently discovered that the Iraq war is unpopular. Some have even made the decision (a political calculation) to oppose the war. To cover themselves--especially if they were in Congress in 2002-2003 and supported the invasion--those who have turned to the side of the angels now claim that they were "misled" by the Bush Administration's "evidence" against the government of Saddam Hussein.

No one who actually looked at that evidence--at least what was made publicly available at the time--and was sober, could have found it in the least bit compelling. And there is no reason to believe that the Bush Administration saved the "really good" evidence for private Congressional consumption.

The anti-war movement is also sounding and repeating the "We were lied to" theme. In other words, we are VICTIMS.

The truth is, we are not victims of the Bush Administration's crafty malevolent ways. Which is not to say that the ways of the Bush Administration are free from craft and malevolence--far from it. Craft and malevolence is the Bush Administration's stock-in-trade. My question is: Who didn't know that?

Here's the deep, dark, ugly truth. On the eve of the Bush Administration's illegal, unjust, and immoral invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, American public opinion supported the war. Indeed, according to pollsters at the Pew Research Center, in March 2003, 71% of the Americans sampled believed that to invade Iraq was the "right decision." 22% believed it was the "wrong decision." 7% were undecided.

The truth is: deep down inside, 71% of Americans in March 2003 thrilled at the proposition of sending the world's most lethal military force to wreak havoc in an Arab and predominately Muslim country. The truth is: until 78% of the American public owns up to its culpability ("undecided" does not cut it with me) for the invasion of Iraq, there will be no peace, no justice, no chance to right the wrongs that we have done to the Iraqi people and to our own country, to ourselves, and to much of the world.

The Myth of American Exceptionalism is the enemy that needs defeating. Let's change our way of thinking, make ourselves a different set of rules.

We Will Never Get The Government We Deserve

Until we find within ourselves the moral courage to change the government we currently have. A non-violent People's Revolution; the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of the criminals presently in power; and a call for a Constitutional convention to create a multi-party parliamentary democracy is a place to start...The Hobson's choice of Republicrat or Democan is no longer acceptable for a free people.

The State of U. S. Politics Today

Democratic Donkey: "You have no shame!"

Republican Elephant: "True, but you have no courage."

American Electorate Gorilla (waving the white flag of surrender): "So many choices, so little time. How to decide?"

DEAR FRIENDS: IF VOTING IS THE EXTENT OF YOUR POLITICAL ACTIVITY, YOU HAVE ABANDONED DEMOCRACY. TO VOTE IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY IS MERELY TO RATIFY THE STATUS QUO ESTABLISHED BY THE POWER ELITE. If you're OK with that, roll over and go back to sleep. Big Brother will wake you when it's time to go.

One of My Favorite John Lennon Compositions

A topical song that has sadly stayed relevant:

Just Gimme Some Truth


Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope

Im sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mamas little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Its money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth


--John Winston Lennon

For Those Who, Like Me, Cannot Sew...

I recommend purchasing something like this....

$10 to show solidarity; what's more, it might inspire some research into Mauritania as a vacation (or perhaps voluntary exile) destination. I hear they could use the business.

Fort Dix Six: Yet Another High Tech Lynching of Muslims By the Federal Government

Joe Lieberman, the Senator who seems to represent the State of Israel, the Bush Administration, and the Insurance Industry exclusively, is grand-standing NOW, before the facts are in. This is because, obviously, if he waited for the trial on the evidence--even a show trial as these "terrorism" prosecutions tend to be--the facts would undermine his rhetoric. For a sound analysis of this latest Injustice Department fiasco-star-chamber-outrage, go here.

In the early 20th century, we had Sacco and Vanzetti. By mid-century, we had produced the Rosenbergs. In the early 21st, with neo-Fascism making its most ferocious bid for the rudder of the American republic, we set up immigrant Muslims.

It is time to start sowing yellow crescents into our clothing in solidarity.

Thank you, NPR, for disseminating Administration propaganda as journalism. I was beginning to think you had lost your post-9/11 urge to pander.

And thanks to you, too, Mr. Justice Thomas (or thanks to your cynical right-wing handlers) for the "high-tech lynching" meme. Perhaps it can finally be put to an honest use.

Nationalist Propaganda Radio

Since 9/11, I have found NPR very difficult to listen to. What passes for "enlightened" journalism in this country escapes me. Indeed, these days, I rarely listen to NPR for more than the local weather, Car Talk, and Prairie Home Companion. OK, The Splendid Table and that news quiz (whatever it's called)...

In any event, occasionally, while waiting for the weather, I catch a fleeting glimpse (or sound) of pre-9/11 NPR. This morning was such an occasion.

Julie McCarthy did a piece on the Pope's visit to Brazil. The real story was not the Pope, but the South of the Border theological praxis that is alleged to be working its way through the minds and hearts of the Brazilian populace. Two items leaped out at me, both statements attributed to Leonardo Boff, Brazil's leading liberation theologian:

(1) "The opposite of poverty is not wealth – it is justice. And the objective of liberation theology is to create a more just society, not necessarily a wealthier one. And the great question is, how do we do this?" and

(2) "1 million 'Bible circles' in the world's largest Catholic country regularly meet to discuss the Scriptures from the vantage point of liberation theology."

I hold the first statement to be true by definition and the "great question" he identified to be truly the GREAT QUESTION. I hope and pray that the second statement is no exaggeration.

While all the Washington, D.C. criminals in their coats and their ties continue to get away with murder, Brazil's Catholics may be putting themselves in a position (what one author has termed a "mental matrix") to decide a better fate for the world...

A Call To Heed the Better Angels

I was recently asked by the editor of a German on-line Journal to contribute a response to an interview of the exiled Egyptian scholar Nasr Abu Zayd. After visiting the Journal's site and reading the interview, I contacted the editor and asked him what, exactly, he was looking for from me. His response gave me pause. Abu Zayd had talked about Islam in the way that he understands it: as a broadly tolerant faith tradition that is currently passing through a phase of inner turmoil as Muslims in various parts of the world come to terms with the post-colonial global order. I have no quarrel with such a characterization; indeed, I endorse it. The editor's comments to me suggested that he was not altogether satisfied with Abu Zayd's position. He suggested an approach that I could take, but I pursued my own Ghaffar Khanian path.

This did not go over well with the editor at all. He complained that the response that I sent him distorted the situation in Europe. He then characterized that situation as follows:

"The main thing is however that the top-muslims in our muslim organizations deceive us. They are talking of tolerance but do the exact opposite and this in such a cunning way that it is difficult to convict them. The majority of the muslims by the way is not taking part in any way in these organizations. But how cooperate with the normal muslim without cooperating with the organzations?"

After reading these statements, I substituted the words "Jews" and "Jewish" for "Muslims" and "Muslim" where appropriate and suddenly found myself transported to Germany in the 1930's:

The main thing is however that the top-Jews in our Jewish organizations deceive us. They are talking of tolerance but do the exact opposite and this in such a cunning way that it is difficult to convict them. The majority of the Jews by the way is not taking part in any way in these organizations. But how cooperate with the normal Jew without cooperating with the organzations?

This is how it begins. Decent, intelligent, well-meaning individuals uncritically--and without the benefit of historical comparison--adopt a discourse in which the "other" is portrayed as "deceptive" and "cunning." Before you know it, the Jews that the German government found so difficult to deal with in the early decades of the 20th century have been replaced by the Muslims of the 21st.

In reply, I suggested that the editor read an article recently published in the international edition of Der Spiegel. I don't know whether he read it or not as he never commented on the article in our subsequent correspondence. He did, however, translate my response into German and publish it on his site--for which I give him much credit.

We must never despair of others but call them always to the better angels of their nature.

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

My 6 year old son and I were discussing the Beatles the other day when the conversation came around to the murder of John Lennon. After considering the matter briefly he asked, "Why do some people kill other people when they are people too?"

Pacifism ain't rocket-science; it only looks that way because so many people resist the obvious. The source of this resistence is not intellectual but moral. I say this as one who resisted pacifism "on principle" for many years.