Category: Abolition

The Dangerous Game of Retaliation

It’s said, no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. However, this understanding does not apply when the two things are in total opposition and yet both are equally true.

It’s possible to hold the awareness that the Hamas brutal attacks on Israeli settlers and the indiscriminate and unrelenting bombing of Palestinians by the Israeli military are equally barbaric. 

Both are true.  

This dangerous game of retaliation that has claimed the lives of over 6500 Palestinians including 2700 children does not exist in a vacuum. Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient aid to reach those in need is not going unnoticed. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is correctly calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

The reality is that this has happened far too many times in our collective history. This over powering of captive people, this theft of land, and this total inability to seek peaceful resolution has all been done before. And there are countless peoples throughout the world who reckon with the generational traumas of inhuman colonizing.  

What we all know is this: Violence begets violence and defiance and resistance are the outcome of reckless power and inhumanity. It’s a cycle that we can no longer afford to give way to. 

There are those speaking up for a new approach. Polls indicate two-thirds of United States voters are calling for a ceasefire and thirteen members of Congress introduced a resolution calling for ceasefire “to save Palestinian and Israeli lives”. 

More voices are needed. Yes, two horrible things can both be true. But more powerful than these two truths is the greater reality that all human beings want peace. It’s time we work for it. 

Let Hearts Lead

Let your heart lead. This is not a time to choose sides. This is the time to choose being human. Hamas, or whoever ignited this fuse, acted outside of their humanity when they brutally attacked Israeli civilians. What the Israeli government and military are doing is also acting outside of their humanity. 

Today we listen to the blame and denials of who caused hundreds of children to be killed by a rocket blast to a hospital. More time is spent on the blame game than on the rescue. That is outside of our humanity. 

President Biden’s calculated error was to whole-heartedly support Israel without noting the consequences from such an unequivocal stand. Seeing the inhuman disregard for life by the Israeli government, the administration has attempted to interrupt the mistake, with little success. Mainstream media is happy to fuel the fire with slanted journalism and our citizenry is complicit in ignorance. But we can change this.

The families of those held hostage are wondering why ceasefire and negotiations are not front and center to recover their loved ones. 

We have too quickly pledged our allegiance. The allegiance should be to our humanity, not to a side.  The consequences will continue to spiral, until we once and for all end the disregard of human life. And we can do this.

Our government is playing a very dangerous game. Whether politics, or greed, religious dogma or sheer ignorance are driving the bus, we are heading for another horrible nightmare. 

Have we not learned from the lies that led us into the Iraq war? Have we not witnessed the folly of avenging violence with more violence? 

There is only one side to take. It’s the human side. Help end the madness. Not prolong it.

I am not sure the source of this photo. but if you cannot appreciate the innocence in it, please reconsider what matters most in Life. We are here but for such a short time and we leave this bit of heaven to those who come after us. Think. And act with Love. The choice is always ours.

One Day. Take a listen.

Our Choice

Innocents are dying and humanity keeps revealing the horrific side of our nature. We shake our heads and mutter silent prayers for the killing to end, while others of us pray that the other side may be annihilated. 

It is an old and bitter story that repeats again and again. Humanity boasts of great accomplishments and colonizers race to conquer space yet human kind has not found a way to live and let live.

What is it in our nature that finds it easy to take sides? What kind of ignorance do we harbor? What kind of hatred feeds us?

Why is the voice of peace, that so many cherish, compliant to the voices of war? Are the distractions so great that we cannot take a moment from our busy and entertaining lives to declare an end to the inhumanity? 

You see it is true; whatever happens to one happens to all. We may not feel it; we may be able to ignore it, but the disregard for life eats away at us. Our inability to stand firmly in the river of peace that surely is available to all of us continues to allow ignorance to win.

Many will say, “War is inevitable”. But I say, “What is inevitable is our capitulation, not war”. War can be stopped if we find the passion to do so. War will be stopped when we unify behind passion for living and when we understand the precious gift that every life holds, that every breath promises.

No, we are in the thick of it now. Endless wars and the acceptance of genocide are about as low as we can go.

People say, “God save us”. And God responds, “Save yourselves. You’ve been given everything you need.”

And the choice, as always, is ours.

Stories We Refuse To Hear

It’s August and commemorations of the bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and of Nagasaki three days later honor the lives lost. We’re reminded of the gruesome destruction and the inhumanity released on the world through the atomic bomb.

Podcasts and radio raise the voices of survivors and the unanswered debate lingers: Wasn’t the carnage of Hiroshima enough? Why did the US bomb Nagasaki?

As a youth I was taught the United States won the war and saved lives through the use of nuclear weapons. I don’t recall learning much about horrific annihilation. And I can assure you I never learned about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bayard Russell and W. E. B. Du Bois speaking up for nuclear disarmament or ending nuclear testing. Nor was I aware of the racial connections they drew as they warned against the use of the bomb in Vietnam and Korea.*

While we all knew the first atomic bomb test happened in New Mexico, we’re only now learning that generations of families living near the test site are still haunted by cancers linked to that initial explosion. We were not taught that the government did not take the time to warn residents about what was coming, nor did they ever document the after effects. We can thank concerned citizens and family members for that research. 

The lasting legacy of the first atomic bomb

I ask myself, what will it take for people to end this nightmare of nuclear war? We fear it. Yet we continue to glorify war and refuse to find peaceful solutions. We teach our histories of omission and refuse to take responsibility for guiding our government to a new direction. Abolition of violence, in our selves and in our world, still waits for us.

This is the map of the first atomic test site in New Mexico known as Trinity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)

*https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/web-dubois-coretta-scott-king-ban-the-bomb/

W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb

W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb
W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb

Teach Forbearance

“To live and let live” is a proverb worthy of remembrance. As our homogenized society moves further from acceptance and more towards fear, it’s not lost on me that it took four white guys to write a song about violence now dominating the charts. “Try That in a Small Town” is the latest assault on human dignity. With worn and tired lyrics it boasts about guns and small town boys sticking together.

But one of the giant omissions of this mess of a song – and there are many – is that it champions a dying breed.

When we are told “the west was won”, it’s with this kind of swagger. The bravado is used to hide the truth that the west was stolen at the cost of indigenous lives and ways of being. These whitewashed storylines creep into our discourses today with the latest out of Florida introducing a curriculum espousing that human beings benefitted from being enslaved.* 

Really? What sickness is this that continues to dominate the airwaves and receives so much support? 

I haven’t watched the video of the song. I read the lyrics and that was enough.

Sing and make some money fellows. The tide is turning and your chest thumping proves it. You’re not striking fear; you’re inviting resistance. And how will that resistance look? Like the colors of the rainbow we will rise and envelope you. We will plant gardens where you poisoned the soil; we will restore the waters until they are pristine again.

Most importantly we will teach love and forbearance and if you are fortunate, we will forgive you.

**********

And if you want a deeper dive into Florida’s latest controversy: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/24/kamala-harris/do-Florida-school-standards-say-enslaved-people/

How Far Are We Willing To Go?

How far are we willing to go to kill? The United States has made the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of another 800 million dollar military package.

Cluster Bombs were developed in WWII. They carry canisters of explosives that are designed to detonate on tanks and hard surfaces, but they do not always detonate on contact. There are fragments of cluster bombs used in Vietnam that are still killing and harming people decades after they were used. 

More than 120 countries have banned them. The US, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey did not sign on to ban them and they have been widely used during the war in Ukraine by both sides. 

Most allies are balking at the decision. Canada, New Zealand and Spain have doubled down on their support of the ban. Others support the US decision yet choose for their own countries to honor the ban. We are becoming the world’s henchmen.  (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66144153)

As this proxy war continues and Ukraine is dismantled, the question becomes how many of the millions of displaced people and refugees will be willing to return at the war’s end? An estimated 17.6 million people living in Ukraine will need humanitarian assistance this year as the war carries on. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61778433)

Our citizenry needs to decide where we stand.

How far are we willing to go to support death and destruction?

Are we too weak to demand a peaceful resolution? 

Or are we too cynical to believe it is possible?

Our collective inability to redirect our government from war to diplomacy, and our refusal to halt shipments of weapons weighs heavily upon us.

How far are we willing to go?

Let your elected officials know where you stand, sign here: https://afsc.org/action/tell-congress-dont-send-cluster-munitions-ukraine

For more:

A B-1B Lancer drops cluster munitions. The B-1B uses radar and inertial navigation equipment enabling aircrews to globally navigate, update mission profiles and target coordinates in-flight, and precision bomb without the need for ground-based navigation aids. (U.S. Air Force photo – Public Domain)

Top photo: March 1991 unexploded cluster bomblet in a tarmac in Kuwait, photo: Johnny Saunderson compliments of creative commons licensing

Citizens of the Earth

Another Fourth of July has come and gone. Animals and Veterans can rest a bit easier now that the firework hullabaloo is over. I was grateful not to hear fire trucks as sparks flew on parched land. And I wonder how many of those flags were actually made in the good ole USA? There comes a point when learned behavior becomes monotonous. I’ve reached that point with celebrating the Fourth.

I’m much happier acknowledging Juneteenth. And I am all for giving thanks, but please keep the Pilgrim myths out of it. The truth is I’m bored with anything that doesn’t touch my humanity.

I heard the phrase Citizen of the Earth a long time ago and made it my business to understand what that meant. It doesn’t mean you cannot love your country, but it does mean you cannot love it to the exclusion and degradation of others. It doesn’t mean that you cannot take pride in achievements, but when those achievements come on the backs of Black, Brown and Indigenous people historical and contemporary acknowledgments should be given.

Being a Citizen of the Earth means that you take into account your relationship with all of Life. It means you have a right and a duty to question activities that do harm to your life and the lives of all around you. It does not imply that you can impose your will on anyone or anything.

In his Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence speech, Martin Luther King referred to our government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” That “today” continues unchecked. And the sixteen mass shootings over the holiday should tell us the chickens have come home to roost.

We need to become purveyors of peace.

Lead the Way

Researchers of carbon emissions are calculating the environmental costs of our propensity for war. The Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, the burning of forests, croplands and oil reserves are only a fraction of the consideration. There’s also rebuilding once wars conclude, and that is loaded with carbon emissions.

And then there is the destruction of farmland, with landmines and contaminants, forcing human migration. Or, as in the case of the ended war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, farmers are cutting trees, including fruit trees, for fuel in an area once known for its reforestation efforts.

It is speculated that ending war games, ballistic testing and other non -defensive military operations would significantly reduce our carbon emissions. Surely we can agree to this and while we’re at it, why not agree to end all war?

I heard it said once that pigs would be constipated if it knew their dung would be used to make firepower. One has to believe that those who still mass-produce war have no sense of the preciousness of life, nor of the interconnectedness we share with the earth and all living.

So this is when I tell you hold onto your compassionate heart. Find people that support your dreams of coexistence and peace. Never doubt that the power of light can triumph over darkness. And if all you can do is wish for war to end, then wish away. Your wishing and hoping, prayers and actions can lead the way.

So at this time of Summer Solstice, when the light is the greatest and the days the longest, celebrate. Welcome in the light, bask in it and know the possibility for peace is still available to us. 

Giving credit where it is due, the constipated pig comment was another of the gems of Prem Rawat.

The photo is of our newly gifted black lamb making friends with a great great grandma of our farm. We are thrilled to have this curious, brave lamb. Her mother had 4 lambs but has only one utter, so we are bottle feeding this little one and grateful to our friend for sharing her with us.

Valuable, Capable and Loved

“People need to feel valuable, capable and loved”*. Those were words I heard in a conference decades ago and they’ve never left me.

Sounds right, doesn’t it? This very simple recognition of something so very basic to human life – but how is it achieved? It can’t be a mantra that we run around and say to one another, because it has to be felt. There are lots of words we know are true, yet we’ve not taken the time to unearth their deeper meaning by feeling them.

And what if each individual could feel their value and could comprehend their preciousness? How would it look in the world that we live in today? For one, when we understand our uniqueness and can celebrate the gift life affords us, it must be nearly impossible to harm or judge another human being for the color of their skin or because who they choose to love.

This simple act of respecting another would have massive implications. It may even create a tidal wave of love and kindness that would upend the cruelty we are faced with daily. Regardless of life choices or life’s circumstances each of us can come to this recognition. But we must take time to feel it. 

And what of those who transgress upon us? Should they feel valuable, capable and loved? Or is there some dividing line of right and wrong that makes that impossible?

This is where it gets a bit tough. This is when one begins to realize that our punitive systems and our judgmental natures are out of control. This is when you know its time for change.     

One sunrise, one heartbeat, one breathe at a time… discover you are loved.

*My recollection from a conference with Prem Rawat in the late 80’s.

Beat Swords Into Plowshares

Shot for going to the wrong home.

Killed for turning around in the driveway.

Shot for opening the wrong car door in a parking lot.

I keep hearing, “It’s not the guns. It’s unconsciousness. It’s the lack of respect for human dignity and life. It’s mental illness. Therefore laws on gun ownership won’t matter. Let us keep our guns; find another solution.” 

And while I understand the logic, I cannot divorce the gun from the power it bestows. I cannot separate the gun from the one who pulls the trigger or the ones who manufacture and sell these tools of destruction. I won’t separate the gun from the ignorance of humankind and those who insist on hating. And I will never hold the protection of property as sacred, as I do of human life. 

And while I am certain gun laws can be repealed, fought against and ignored, as they have been in the past, it is incumbent upon those of us who are weary of violence to climb out of this trap of self-annihilation that we have allowed. 

Therefore let us return to the wisdom of Isaiah 2:4 and ask that “the swords be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.” And as was observed in that book, that we should be taught the ways of peace and walk its path and study war no more. This is the only solution that I can dare dream. 

It will never happen you say. And I say it is only your doubt that stops it. If we could find the courage to speak up against violence instead of cushioning ourselves in doubt, we could soon see the possibility of peace.

If we could find the conviction to end the cycles of dominance that utilize every means to maintain power, we could make weaponry obsolete. 

We have yet to make the prophecy of Isaiah a reality. We have yet to study the ways of peace. 

Study War No More – Pete Seeger