Who Dies and who profits from war?

A great link about who is really behind the war and who is being most effected by it.

Reading for Peace

Is the first step towards peace, one of education? Can reading about peace, bring peace about?

I don't think anyone stopped writing about peace, nor burned all previous books about peace, prior to the current state of the wars surrounding America. It didn't mean that peace prevailed, unless this is a serious "wag the dog" type of operation, America does not have the most peaceful existence on earth.

In a discussion with a Christian friend recently, he mentioned being more involved in peaceful activities in, around and through Church. That somehow despite not "signing up" for activities, he has a 15 month old son so he is plenty busy, he has been doing a lot around church. But he didn't think about it much, it just was. He enjoys it, seemed to enjoy talking about it, and seems to feel good about himself surrounding it.

His task is done, at least in the short term anyway. He has contributed in what he has believed to be a good cause, gives himself credit for it, probably makes his son and wifes happier because he is happier, etc...

This is one way, healthy happiness is meant to impact our lives. Just one simple act, self-recognition of the act, passing along the good feelings, makes our lives more peaceful and full.

Note to self, one act of happiness, each day, keeps the doldrums away :)

It's a Small World

It's a Small World
Originally uploaded by bubba trout

War will terrorize the world until peace is global.

Ramifications of not living in Peace

On a darker note, my community of Portland OR could have sent 27,000 students to public university on a four year scholarship, for the locally subsumed debt of just one of our current wars. This is more than the number of students that attend the university full time. How can we afford to sacrifice this much education, indefinitely as the politicians are discussing. I am not talking about the national cost of war categorized at a local level, I am talking about the local impact of the war. Our community made a choice to pay for war, and sacrifice the free college education of 27,000 students, or 9,500 public school teachers, or to not provide health insurance to over 300,000 children.

Never in my lifetime have I ever even used the phrase, "just one of our current wars", until now.

As I see it we have sacrificed the education or health of our own youth, all for the privilege of killing hundreds of thousands, injuring millions, displacing millions from their homes, leaving tens of millions without the basic necessities of adequate food, clean water, electricity, and sanitation. Theoretically, based on one of the excuses for the war, we did this so we could save the lives of thousands who might have died at the hands of a dictator, who shortly before the war was one of our top 5 best weapons customers.

What a wonderful world

"I see trees of green, red roses too...And I think to myself what a wonderful world."

"My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn," Louis Armstrong told a doctor a few months before he died in 1971. No, he wouldn't cancel an upcoming date at the Waldorf-Astoria. "The people are waiting for me," he said. "I got to do it, Doc, I got to do it."

"He left an undying testimony to the human condition in the America of his time"

-- Wynton Marsalis

You have to see it for yourself, it is beyond adequate description:

Imagine a world where we spent more time creating, than making bombs or prosecuting war. How would the people feel?

Today's advice to myself, "As I am"

Note to self:

As I accept, so can I be..............................lest I die;
As I am whole, so can I give.......................else I take;
As I hurt, so can I heal, be healed.................else I suffer;
As I teach so I learn..........................................or I stagnate;
As I am light hearted, so can I laugh......................lest I cry;

Mission: Go forth to be, give, heal, learn and laugh all that I can;

The rest will happen, as I am but a humble human.

Actions towards Peace and Prosperity

For some time now, I have been musing about how my inner strength can contribute to perpetual peace in this world. Like a growing number of others I would sacrifice much to foster peace and prosperity for more of the world's citizens.

My homeland in recent decades has had a far too superficial look of peace. Most recently there have been many lies about how we are seeking peace, but behind the cameras, pens, and microphones we are "in reality" not so peaceful. Elective wars, secret private militias, increasing incarceration for crimes against the government, increasing pardons for government officials convicted of crimes, increasing wealth of those who are not in need, and decreasing resources to those that are. Progress some might say, those who benefit from this progress I suppose, I am one, but I do not call it progress, but rather regression towards surprisingly barbaric times. Times not of peace.

I ask myself, how far I would go to effect peace? What would I give up to get a lasting peace across our land?

• Would I give up my possessions? Or to create more debt than wealth. A debt on the plague of our time which is the illusion of material wealth. A debt to starve those holding the carrot of success and all too willing to starve those pursuing it in order to gorge themselves. Working towards the peace of moderation and equal opportunity and prosperity of all the worlds inhabitants.
• Would I give up the security of my abode? To live as a vagabond, a nomad, if the land I traveled had the hope of existing in true peace upon my doing so.
• Would I give up my acquaintances, friends, family and commit myself to a life pursuing true peace? To leave behind a legacy of doing what is right, and expecting those who love us to understand our calling.
• Would I give up the ease of my existance based on a glutenny of quickly and in relevant luxury transporting myself to a myriad of destinations of pleasure, with no real benefit those in dire need in this world.
  
• Would I give up my life, if in my death there was a chance at true peace and prosperity (such as Ghandi's hunger strike)? And in the process not take another's life or not wasting my own precious life in a selfish act of martyrdom without a reasonable chance that peace would ensue afterwards.
  

Who would have this kind of influence? Who's death today, would make the soldiers throw down their guns, the politician's bring home the troops, the rest of us welcome and work to keep peace as a way of life?

If ordinary Americans started to give their own life to make a difference in the lives of future citizens, would their stories be heard? Would you call them crackpot or hero? A soldier puts their life on the line to save the homeland everyday they are on an active battlefield. If they die is it a reasonable expenditure of life to protect the homeland, suicide because like hara-kiri or jumping off a bridge, they knew the risk of death. What is it, when they are there, in harms way, under false pretenses? What is it when a soldier returns home to mother, father and family in a coffin, when the reason they put themselves in harms way was only a lie? What is it when our elected congress authorized the military response that put the soldier there, kept them their, but made such a decision based on lies? What if such an "authorized" war is more costly to the average citizen than the war was meant to revenge, or more costly than a thousand such future acts it was meant to prevent, what if such a war guaranteed future acts of revenge against us and others seen as our allies?

Did that soldier ask to be there? In some cases maybe yes. In these cases, would it be suicide? If they did not ask to be there, but were sent their against their will, on the strength of some contract with the government, would it be justified, or if those contracts were fraudulent...? If the politicians and military leaders that asked them to be there did so in bad faith (lied, benefited financially from that soldier being in harms way, etc...), would it be just a bad decision, or a decision worthy of re-election? What if those same politicians who's decision was to perpetrate war, also controlled how the war was portrayed in the media or described in the history books?

I have heard many people complain about the war, as I was one of the early ones. I am very empathetic to their plight. When I look at how strongly I feel, I would give anything to change the destiny of this world for my kids, granddaughter and their children. To allow them to know a world full of diversity of life, a world that feeds them, heals them, supports their happiness, and a world free of the strife of many at the benefit of a few.

"A relationship of light has no need to be shrouded in the darkness of secrecy or decete."

Not sure if this is an original quote or not, but it was not copied from any specific source.

Opening Ceremony

All hail to the power of expression, creativity, compassion and understanding.

I don't have a clue whether or not I will keep blogging, but the concept appeals to me. Life sometimes moves so fast, it is hard to keep in mind what is important. I found a friends blog and I have to say I was inspired.

The purpose of this blog? To record those moments in time that define an individual, record their legacy, communicate their inherent value to future generations, inspire others with wit or wisdom, sarcasm or spontaneity.

I have already started using too big of words. I would like to communicate, really communicate, what is inside me at any given moment I am drawn to blog. I would like the words to not impose a barrier to those reading or commenting upon my musings. There are those not unfortunate enough to encounter the more esoteric words of our impossibly arcane language, and those fortunate enough to speak other languages as a tradition or choice. I would like it to be easy for such souls to understand. Please feel free to comment on any regression, which there will most likely be on a frequent basis. I am human after all, this is not an agent of the electronic ether, I am a product of the universal laws of physics, manifest destiny, and the creator's intention all at the same time. In the moments I am drawn into blogging, look for significance of what triggered the effort. If I haven't posted in a while, well then, rather than lose interest, stay tuned to see what compels me the next time.

While some of us can change the world in small or large ways through active efforts to do so, I prefer the humans of this world choose, at their option, to change after considering me. As for the rest of the world and the change I undoubtedly effect, I will tread lightly (hybrid, biodiesel, carbon offsets, composting, recycling, low rate of consumption, compassion for all living things, natural order of life, etc...).