Pondering

This picture is from a 1967 anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon. Peaceworks Director, Mark Haim, was at the Pentagon and he shares these thoughts on war.

Pondering

During the Vietnam War I pondered.
How could so many deny reality?
Deny reality,
Deny the crimes our nation was engaged in.

Crimes during that war and so many more,
Ever since.
So many more.
Ever since.

Nixon won 49 of the 50 states.
McGovern was for peace,
That must mean that he was weak.

Hard, not soft.
That's Nixon, Dick Nixon.

Who can chronicle the wars,
When there are so many?
So many wars,
More than we can count.

Hot wars.
Cold wars.
Major wars,
Low-intensity wars,
Covert wars,
Proxy wars,
Civil wars,
Uncivil wars.

Most all wars are uncivil.
How can anyone be civil as they blow to bits fellow human beings?

Watching the genocide go down is a hard pill to swallow.
Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Burma
The beat goes on,
The beat goes on.

I accidentally typed the "beast goes on.
"Accidentally?" Hmm

The beat goes on and some beasts keep making ever more sophisticated devices of death and destruction.
Devices of death and destruction.
More sophisticated devices
Expensive devices,
In every sense of the word.
Expensive devices,
Devices capable of wholesale slaughter.
Blinders on,
See no evil.
Hear no evil,
Speak no evil.

Deny, while merchants of mass death laugh,
Laugh all the way to the bank.

It's more than 50 years now, and still I ponder.
Ponder what allows such deadly denial.
Ponder what it will take to wake the sleeping,
Ponder why the beat goes on.
Ponder why the bombs keep falling,
Ponder why we pay hundreds of billions for new nukes.
Nuclear warheads, new and improved.
New missiles too,

Can we hit within ten feet of our targets?
Can we make the rubble bounce?
Can we continue to avert our gaze?
Can we deny?
Can we deflect?

Can we do nothing while children are murdered?
Wholesale murder,
Murder day and night.
Murder in the refugee camps.
Murder on the hospital grounds.
Murder in the school yards.
Murder here,
Murder there,
Murder, it seems, everywhere.

I still ponder perspective.
From childhood war, and those who make war, are glorified.
Glorified war, glorified warriors, we celebrate them.

We glorify
Our heroes,
The bravest and the best,
Selfless servants of the common good,
Protectors of our nation.

Those celebrating, those celebrated,
Do they ask questions?
They must, right?
Why were these lives lost?
What has endless war brought us?
What has it cost us?

How much longer will their flag-pledging persist?
How much longer will tens of millions of us believe the lies?
Embrace nationalism.

How much longer before we know that "us verses them" is a scam?
Nationalism is a con.
Shouldn't we all know this?
Shouldn't we not be afraid to say "scam?"

Isn't self-censorship just a bite?
Many 'fraid of losing their jobs?
Millions are in denial.
Millions more take the course of least resistance.
Don't make waves.
Keep your head down.

There's a death count nearly every morning on Democracy Now!

Can we live with this?

Will we get up and do something to end the genocide?

Are we looking the other way?
Perhaps, our inner voice, recognizes the injustice.
Speak out inner voice!

In our heart of hearts we all know that the death and destruction must stop.
The death and destruction must stop.
Must stop!

How can we even begin to know the deep, abiding pain that accompanies war.
The deep, abiding pain that accompanies war
Deep, abiding pain.
So very much pain,
Yet many hide from its reality.

I ponder some more.
I ponder a flower,
A flower amid the death and destruction.
It grows misshapen and stunted,
Amid the rubble of war.

Can you please bring me a flower?
Thank you, but I need one flower for each,
For each life cut short,
So many gone, washed away,
In the flower of their youth.

So many blown away,
So many lost, so soon.
How many flowers will it take?
I ponder this.
I ponder.

Countdown to Election Day

 

For the past several months we have been working to promote a "Vote for the Climate." Now, with early voting in progress and election day less than a week away, we'd like to share some relevant voting info; hopefully news you can use.

1) Confirm that you are registered at your current address. Boone County residents can do this if they CLICK HERE. Others can check with their county clerks. If you're not registered at all, it's too late to register for this election. Perhaps you can encourage any friends who are eligible, but weren't planning to vote, to change their minds and turn out after all.

2) If you're a Missouri voter who's moved since you registered, but still live in Missouri, it's not too late to change your address and vote at the correct polling location for where you currently live. If you live in Boone County you can do this at any time on-line just CLICK HERE. 

If you live in a different county, please check with your county clerk's office.

3) Make a plan to vote, including where and when. Depending on your situation, this could include arranging childcare, time off from work, caring for others, etc.

Decide if you want to vote early, at one of the early voting sites or if you want to wait and vote on election day (Tuesday, November 5), either at your designated polling place or one of the four central polling places (see below).

For Boone voters the early sites and times for no excuse early voting are:

Everyday through November 4 (except Sunday), 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Boone Government Center, 801 E. Walnut, Columbia

October 28-October 31, 10am-6pm: Memorial Union, Second Floor

November 1, 10am-1pm: Memorial Union, Second Floor

November 2, 10am-5pm: Southern Boone Middle School Cafeteria in Ashland & Impact Support Services in Centralia (formerly the East Annex Building on Switzler)

Voting on election day, Tuesday, November 5, is from 6 a.m to 7 p.m., either at your assigned polling place or at one of the four central polling places:

Boone County Government Center, 801 E. Walnut, Columbia
Memorial Union, Second Floor North, 518 Hitt St, Columbia
Friendship Baptist Church, 1707 Smiley Ln, Columbia
Woodcrest Chapel, 2201 W. Nifong Blvd, Columbia

Your assigned polling place can be accessed on-line, just CLICK HERE 

4) Do your research. You likely know who you're voting for, at least for some of the contested races on your ballot, but you might want to know more about others. The time to do this is not while you're filling out your ballot. Check out candidates' websites, do Google searches to see what they might have said or done that's not on their sites. For an unbiased source, check out Ballotpedia.

Also, be sure to check out the ballot issues. There are some that seem to have had their ballot titles written to confuse voters, so check these out in advance for sure.

5) If you find information you feel is important to share, use social media to get the word out, but be sure the sources are legit. As you might have heard, not everything you see on the internet is true.

6) Encourage family, friends, neighbors etc. who are registered to get out to vote. Offer them rides to the polls, kid care, etc.

7) There is much riding on this year's election. Engage if you can. And, by the way, both candidate and ballot issue campaigns are still looking for volunteers. Plug in if you feel so moved.

Where do They Stand on the Climate Crisis?

 

 

Recognizing the Climate change is an existential threat, Peaceworks is continuing to educate the public and the candidates as to what’s at stake. While we don’t endorse, support or oppose candidates, we encourage our fellow citizens to Vote for the Climate and we encourage candidates to learn more and to campaign in support of prompt and effective climate action.

We are in a Climate Emergency! Business as usual, with some minimal lip service paid, no longer cuts it. In fact, it never did.

Part of our effort is focused on surveying the candidates, as to their positions on critical climate issues and then sharing what we’ve learned with our members, supporters and the public.

We recently concluded collecting and compiling surveys of legislative candidates—Missouri State Reps and Senators, as well as U.S. Congressional Candidate; Reps and Senators. Including all running from districts in the mid-Missouri area. If you’d like to get right to it, you can access the report HERE.

Important Details:

We sent surveys to 54 candidates. Unfortunately, only 17 candidates were willing to share their views on these critical issues. We e-mailed them. We sent letters by postal mail. We sent reminders. We’ve also spent some time visiting candidate websites. Sadly, very few even mention climate change, in spite of the urgency of addressing this critical constellation of concerns.

We take this as a measure of the work that we must do. It’s time to redouble our efforts. We welcome and encourage all of you who share our concerns to get active now.

Again, we invite you to read through our collection of survey responses and see what you can learn. You will find this HERE.

What You can Do:

For starters, see whether or not those who’d like to get your vote have responded to the survey. If they did, read what they have to say and give them your feedback. If they didn’t you could contact them, let them know of your concerns and ask them to please share their thoughts on the need for climate action.

If they make public appearances in your community, turn out, if you can, and ask these questions in public. Write letters to the editor regarding climate and the upcoming election. Share your concerns with friends, family, co-workers, fellow parishioners, neighbors and others.

As we see it, there are many important issues facing our communities, our state, our nation and our planet, but none are more important than the climate, given the existential threat climate change poses. It seems to us that legislators and would-be legislators really need to hear from us.

Finally, Peaceworks will, over the next three months, be organizing to encourage voters to Vote for the Climate. We’d welcome you volunteering some time, as you can, to move forward on this critical constellation of concerns.

 

In Support of the People of Gaza

As part of our "Peace, Not Famine" rolling hunger strike, nearly three dozen of us gathered on April 5 outside CoMo City Hall to rally in support of adequate food and other necessities being provided to the desperate people of Gaza. We also called for a lasting ceasefire, the release of hostages and political prisoners, and a halt to U.S. military exports to Israel. 

We had three speakers at the rally. The first was Palestinian-American activist, humanitarian aid worker and adjunct professor, Rasha Abousalem. The text of her talk at the Rally for Gaza, May All be Fed peace gathering has already been posted here.

Today, we are posting the text of the comments of the Rev. Larry Brown. We will also be posting soon the texts of the remaining  speaker, Rachel English.

Please note that all are invited to join in our daily peace vigils which are held from 12:15-12:45 p.m. by the Keyhole sculpture outside City Hall. We vigil for peace seven days a week.

More then 33,000 dead, mostly women and children, in just the last six months; AND at least a million more at risk of starvation, disease, and further displacement. Gaza, and some places in the West Bank and Southern Lebanon have been blasted into rubble with an intensity of explosives the world has not seen in decades. Gone are villages, neighborhoods, homes, schools, hospitals, religious facilities, orchards, museums, parks, businesses, infrastructure, refugee tents, graveyards, and safe passage relief workers, and now we are leaving behind a toxic wasteland. These are real people in a living nightmare who have become the tragic consequence of failed policies of power, resource acquisition, revenge, and ethnic cleansing.

And despite much of the world’s condemnation of this atrocity, it continues. We gather here today to say, “No more! Stop the killing! Step back and find the way out of this worsening disaster.” Must a million more die to make a point of revenge? Cannot we as citizens of countries around the world be better than our governmental policies, at least to stop the killing of civilians and aid workers, at least pause the war long enough to insure safety, food, and health for innocent victims? As Bob Dylan sang, “How many deaths will it take ‘til we know that too many people have died?”

My cynicism leads me to say, “I doubt we can do better,” primarily because my cynicism is deeply rooted in our American experience. After all, this country was founded on the practice of colonial settlement where Europeans, specifically Christian Europeans, invaded and declared possession of a continent (indeed a hemisphere) occupied by indigenous cultures; then ethnically cleansed, slaughtered, removed, forced them into concentration camps. And when they violently resisted in desperation we justified further violence against them, destroying their homes, livelihood, land, and ecology. And we replaced indigenous people with enslaved people from other continents. We Americans know how this works, justifying our behavior with religious perceptions of superiority, and dehumanizing those we want removed. Centuries later we still struggle to remember that history and are attempting to repair the damage.

What is going on in Palestine and Gaza today is in one sense the continuation of the same processes of colonial settlement, and for the past seventy-five years the specific continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians: the Nakba of 1947-48 (that killed thousands, destroyed hundreds of villages, and forced at least 700,000 Palestinians out of their country), and the 1960s and 70s internationally illegal possession of the so-called “Occupied Territories,” the annexation of land and resources, the imprisonment into refugee camps, tightly controlled movement, and the continued forced diaspora over the years, and now the forced relocation of 2 million. Have we forgotten this history, as we forget our own history? I must add that remembering is a spiritual discipline.

But I want to be optimistic. I want to declare and support the concept of food as a universal right, not conditioned upon who one is or what identity one claims. And, as a practicing follower of the teachings of Jesus, I want to stand on a spiritual, moral foundation by which I can support the not just the general cause of freedom, but specifically support the Israeli conscientious objectors to the war, and Christians for a Free Palestine, for example; and support all the movements, voices, and actions that are working for a just and equitable peace. As John Prine sung, “Jesus don’t like killing, no matter what the reason’s for.” I want us to find all the reasons to stop the killing. Could we dare consider turning the other cheek, forgive one another, and/or love (even enemies)?

I realize that there are many, many passages in the Hebrew texts from Deuteronomy to the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos) that clearly condemn nations who oppress others, who deprive the rights of the needy, who do not care for the refugee and stranger, who sell out the innocent for self-satisfaction, power, resources, who spill the blood of the innocent. In all those passages is stated the consequences of such behavior—doom and destruction. An eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth was a radical departure from the disproportionate revenge of wiping out a whole village to avenge one criminal act. Even then, as Gandhi said, such proportionate revenge leaves everyone blind and toothless. Could we dare NOT seek revenge?

What if we rediscovered the places in the texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religious traditions that call for the compassionate, forgiving, merciful, reconciling, if not sacrificial behavior that makes for peace? We have the moral foundation to act to stop the bombs, feed the people, and negotiate for peaceful coexistence. But this will only happen when we remove the perceived profitability of war, ethnic cleansing, and power over others. The world cannot survive any more greedy, authoritarian, supremacist, racist leaders, organizations, and countries. Let us do the things that make for peace.