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| Is US slide into Totalarian Capitalism reversable? INSIGHTS - by Chris Hedges: "There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power." Read More |
Event Reminders: Giant Demonstration - 7th Anniversary of Iraq WarSaturday, 03/20/2010 The San Diego Veterans for Peace and SDCPJ are sponsoring an all-day event in San Diego on March 20 to mark the 7th anniversary of the Iraq War. SDVFP has set a goal of 1,000 participants for the 6,000 candlelight vigil, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. VFP will supply candles. Please mark your calendars to participate in part or all of this event. By Dave Patterson, SDVFP. Bilbray refuses to meet with Progressive Democrats Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Green Fair Police tell military Lesbian Sgt. discharged Buena Vista Creek Valley Restoration Work Session 4th Annual World Water Day Festival SD County Democratic Central Committee Meets Coastal Flora of San Elijo Lagoon NC Film Club Series Offers 'The Kite Runner' NC Film Club Series Offers Big Fish Ramona FORUM: "Innocents Abroad" March 31 30th Annual Eleanor & Franklin D. Roosevelt Dinner NC Film Club Series Offers The Visitor CA Democratic Convention, LA April 17-18 Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! Debra Bowen keynote speaker at Roosevelt Dinner NC Film Club Series Offers The Fall This 'N ThatMankind will never win lasting peace so long as men use their full resources only in tasks of war. While we are yet at peace, let us mobilize the potentialities, particularly the moral and spiritual potentialities, which we usually reserve for war.- John Foster Dulles, War or Peace 1950. To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold - brothers who know now they are truly brothers. 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. I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed there would be no more war. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. It is not your obligation to complete your work, but you are not at liberty to quit. Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely an absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. But the wisdom from above is pure, first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deals,; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what the do not want to do. It is reasonable that every one who asks justice should do justice. Nuclear war is inevitable, says the pessimists; Nuclear war is impossible, says the optimists; Nuclear war is inevitable unless we make it impossible, says the realists. The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence. If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock. The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy. 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 claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. At all the times you can, All social life is essentially practical. All mysterious which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of the practice. When asked what he would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Martin Luther said, "I would plant a tree." An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all. Violence in the voice is often only the death rattle of reason in the throat. One must care about a world one will never see. What all men fear, I too must fear - how barren and pointless a thought! Many oppressors are also oppressed. Nonviolent confrontation is the only confrontation that allows us to respond realistically to such complexity. A Rattlesnake, if Cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is -- a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is--whether its victim is human or animal--we cannot expect things to be much better in this world... We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity. War does not determine who is right - only who is left What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born. We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it. The Attainment of freedom, whether for a person, a nation or a world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of nonviolence for each. There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. 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. When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? The first thing to be disrupted by our committment to nonviolence will be not the system but our own lives. 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. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. A bad peace is even worse than war. You can no more win a war than win an earthquake. You can't lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself. Peace is a gift, Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives. When the rich make war it's the poor that die. 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. If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. The soul of our country needs to be awakened . . .When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders. We can’t become nonviolent on the basis of intellectual conviction. Commitment to nonviolence demands a very profound conversion of mind and heart. If we take the time to pray with Jesus, we too will be converted in mind and heart. It won’t work if we try to reason it out. The only way is through a change of heart, a coming into a way of being that is the way of Jesus. We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with...the other nations of the world. The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours. Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble. It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. Nobody was born nonviolent. No one was born charitable. None of us comes to these things by nature but only by conversion. The first duty of the nonviolent community is helping its members work upon themselves and come to conversion. When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse. There are three truths: my truth, your truth and the truth. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. | Articles & News: Corp. flooding $ Millions to defeat Health Care Article NY Times: The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising, led by the US Chamber of Commerce, that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama’s top domestic priority. Howard Dean: Vote NO if there is no public option! Gay marriage begins in Mexico City CIA drone operators are also 'unlawful combatants' SDG&E seizing homes for Powerlink, stirs anger Brown bag demonstrations nationwide on March 17 Gay boycott: Manchester hotel loses APA convention ACLU: Trials will be most important in history List of Democratic events in San Diego County Best and Worst letters to the editor DADT court ruling upsets military's applecart Argentina annuls marriage of gay couple Mass gay wedding set for Washington DC Goldman Sachs behind Greek economic crash Military tribunals have very poor conviction rate Print your own gay marriage iniative petition Help save California parks LATE BREAKING NEWS Police reports lesbian's gay marriage to military Wife of Justice Thomas launches Tea Party group Roseanne Barr lambasts LDS for causing suicide Limbaugh threatens to leave US if Obamacare Ok'd Palin's family sought medical care in Canada CA Democratic Convention, LA April 17-18 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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