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Event Reminders: 2010 Annual Letters to Editor awards event Jan 30Saturday, 01/30/2010 The 13th Annual Letters to the Editor Awards Night will be held on Saturday evening, January 30, 2010 in Vista. More details to follow. Over 200 people expected to attend so make your reservations now. Help feed homeless children in Vista Homeless Population Count in Escondido Ugandan Orphans Choir - Performance Democratic Candidates forum in Carlsbad FORUM: PDA presents candidates for US 50th Experts present "Torture Conference" in San Diego Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! Save Our Schools Week Action Day & March Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! This 'N ThatYou can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.- Malcolm X There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace. Peace is a gift, In the path of our happiness shall we find the learning for which we have chosen this lifetime. Young people say, What is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at at time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action in the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. Every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. If you want peace, work for justice. While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself. War does not determine who is right - only who is left I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. They make a desert and call it peace. I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: "Mother, what was war?" It belongs to the very substance of nonviolence never to destroy or damage another person's feeling of self worth, even an opponent's. We all need, constantly, an advance of trust and affirmation. The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger. Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it's the only thing that ever has. Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak...Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win. For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having. People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security. The pacifist's task today is to find a method of helping and healing which provides a revolutionary constructive substitute for war. A good end sanctify evil means; not must we ever do evil, that good might come of it. We are ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by love and information . . . Force may subdue, but love gains. And one that forgives first wins the laurel. If peace . . . only had the music and pageantry of war, there'd be no wars. Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others. Angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly. When asked what he would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Martin Luther said, "I would plant a tree." Talk less, say more, No one is so foolish as to prefer to peace, war, in which, instead of sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Dust turned to hope. I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce. The first thing to be disrupted by our committment to nonviolence will be not the system but our own lives. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life. The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways: the point is to change it. If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. One must care about a world one will never see. What is man? In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people? The bomb that fell on Hiroshima fell on America, too. I don't do great things. I do small things with great love. Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God. Do you want long life and happiness? Strive for peace with all your heart. To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. That's all nonviolence is - organized love. Peace begins when the hungry are fed. Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Since we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, how can we then fight our enemies with the sword? ... Spears and swords of iron we leave to those who, alas, consider human blood and swine's blood of well-nigh equal value ... Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace. As long as ever you can. Accurst be he that first invented war. I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. Abba Poeman said about Abba Prior that every single day he made a fresh beginning. Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence. We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart. There never was a war that was not inward; I must fight till I have conquered in myself what causes war. If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would still say "No" to war. For one does not create human society on mounds of corpses. When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God. I believe we are on the edge of a quantum leap into a whole new way of organizing and living as a human family. A solid rock is not disturbed by the wind; even so, a wise person is not agitated by praise or blame. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. The first question which the priest and the Levite asked [on the Jericho Road] was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?' I'm not disturbing the peace. I'm disturbing the war. Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms. Fear less, hope more, At some ideas you stand perplexed, especially at the sight of human sins, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by human love. Always decide, "I will combat it with human love." If you make up your mind about that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force; it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it. Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do. If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. The story of the human race is characterized by efforts to get along much more than by violent disputes, although it's the latter that make the history books. Violence is actually exceptional. The human race has survived because of cooperation, not aggression. What all men fear, I too must fear - how barren and pointless a thought! At all the times you can, A great many people think they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices. It is clear that the way to heal society of its violence . . . and lack of love is to replace the pyramid of domination with the circle of equality and respect. Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live, & as if you were to die tomorrow. Compromise does not mean cowardice. Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives. The miracle of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. War would end if the dead could return. Bless your persecutors; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same attitude toward all. Put away ambitious thoughts and associate with those who are lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never repay injury with injury. See that your conduct is honorable in the eyes of all. If possible, live peacefully with everyone. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves; leave that to God's wrath, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," says the Lord. But "If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; by doing this you will heap burning coals upon their heads." Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good. By doing service, heart and mind are purified -- be convinced of this! To engage in service is a very powerful sadhana (spiritual discipline); do not become impatient. Rather serve your people with the utmost calm and have a kind word for everyone. | Articles & News: How best to get medical help to Haitians News Give to Doctors Without Borders "Medicins Sans Frontieres". Doctors Without Borders operates one of the very few free trauma centers in Port-au-Prince as well as an emergency hospital in the capital for pregnant women, new mothers, and newborn children. All three of its primary medical centers have collapsed, but DWB/MSF has already set up temporary shelters and is offering emergency care on the ground. To make a donation CLICK HEREBREAKING NEWS: Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to Doctors without Borders. Late Night Jokes for Democrats (and a few Repubs) It'sTime to Break Up With Your Big Bank Stop new California death penalty rules Why Obama Must Take On Wall Street The 11 Best Foods you aren't Eating Why you should never visit Israel US slides deeper into depression-Wall St. revels This candidate gets America's message on health When Christianity goes terribly wrong God holds press conference about Pat Robertson Limbaugh: Obama Taking Advantage of Earthquake
In the face of utter devastation across Haiti following a huge earthquake, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to blast President Obama for his response to the crisis. The disaster enables Mr. Obama to highlight his "compassionate" and "humanitarian" credentials and to "boost his credibility with the black community," Limbaugh said derisively. FBI broke law in phone searches Print your own gay marriage iniative petition Quick overview: How great Prop 8 trial came to be
Step by step in 2009, the great wheel of justice was set in motion in California leading up the the historic trial now underway in the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco. The two high profile attorneys seeking to overturn Prop 8 and restore marriage equality speak out: David Boises and Ted Olson. "The Constitution has fundamental rights that are not subject to a vote." Dick Eiden on Letters Night "The Last Man" by Roy Zimmerman
In The Last Man, Roy Zimmerman brings a sobering message about the troup surge in Afghanistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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