Good read...
Click on pic to read online book,
Why I am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq:
Posted on 09/04/2002 9:58:09 AM PDT by SJackson
"We ask for your help to make the Sept. 11 anniversary a time to reflect on peace and healing, not a time to call for more war and violence."
These are the words of Kelly Campbell, who lost a brother-in-law to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. She is a founding member and co-director of Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization started by Sept. 11 families who advocate peace, not war. I heard her speak in New York at the national conference of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in June. The theme of the conference was "The Power of Nonviolence: Exploring Alternatives."
I had felt drawn to the conference because I wanted to explore questions that I wasn't hearing addressed in the mainstream media. I believe the issue is not the horror of the terrorist acts, but how we can honor the innocent people who died. How can we make sure that anger, fear, hatred and violence are not the last words?
I, along with so many others, was filled with grief at the horrible images on television. But I was also inspired by the love I saw. After the devastating attacks, the world responded with an outpouring of support. People donated blood, flowers, time and money. Individuals came together to mourn and to light candles. Governments around the world expressed their solidarity against terrorism.
Then, on Oct. 7, the United States started bombing Afghanistan. Violence was met with violence, and the cycle continues.
Many people, including me, believe there is another way. People say, "Well, we can't just do nothing." I believe there is a third way, a way between "doing nothing" and bombing, and that is the path of active nonviolence.
At the conference, I met many people who are involved in this third way. I met a young Israeli refusenik, a woman who is refusing to serve in the military actions against the Palestinians. I heard Palestinians speak of the importance of nonviolent solutions.
I ended up sitting next to the sister of a man President Bush had praised in one of his post 9-11 speeches. Her brother had stayed behind to help a man in a wheelchair. She told me that the only way to honor her brother's life is to work for peace. I spoke with another woman who had been fighting nuclear weapons for over 50 years. Her most recent action had been at Project ELF, in northern Wisconsin.
One of the people I met was David Hartsough, co-director of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. The goal of his group is to create a trained international civilian nonviolent peace force. Their brochure states, "The Peaceforce will be sent to conflict areas to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, making space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue, and seek a peaceful resolution."
This effort continues the work of Mahatma Gandhi, who was building a "peace troop" at the time of his assassination in 1948. The Peaceforce has compiled an impressive body of research showing the effectiveness of nonviolence (available on their Web site, www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org). They estimate that the first year of training and deployment will cost about $3.5 million, "or about the same amount the world's militaries spend in three minutes."
The Nonviolent Peaceforce is inviting people to use Sept. 11 as a "Day for Remembrance and Renewal." It is encouraging people to work a day for peace and donate their wages from that day to the Nonviolent Peaceforce. Tax-deductible donations may be made to Peaceworkers, 801 Front Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103. By doing this, people can transform their everyday work into a meaningful commemoration of last year's tragedy and a concrete step toward a more nonviolent world. Our labor becomes the outward manifestation of our hope for a better future.
It is true that a nonviolent peace force may not have been able to prevent the terrorist attacks last year. It is also true that supporting them could be one of many possible nonviolent actions we can take.
We can become informed about world news, U.S. foreign and domestic policy decisions and perspectives from other countries.
We can contact elected representatives in support of human rights, a healthy environment, education, health care and respect for international law as the way to promote security.
We can engage in life-sustaining and creative activities such as music, art and writing.
I also believe that it is important to work on the inner level as well: Prayer, meditation and study can be sustaining and vital counterbalances to outer actions.
Each one of us has a choice about how to create meaning from this day. Both as individual people and as a nation, we can choose to isolate in fear or build community in hope. We can choose to perpetuate the cycle of violence or to boldly act in another way. We must choose as individuals and collectively as a democratic society.
I believe the most patriotic thing we can do is to actively choose and to make our voices heard. However you choose to observe the Sept. 11 anniversary, I wish you peace.
Jean McElhaney lives in Lone Rock and is planning to participate in work a day for peace.
Published: 5:33 AM 9/04/02
Good read...
Click on pic to read online book,
Why I am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq:
1993 - WTC one. Our response? Nonviolence. Result = 1995 Khobar towers.
1995 Khobar. Our response? Nonviolence. Result = 1998 Embassy bombings.
1998 Embassy bombings. Our response? Nonviolence. Result - 1999 USS Cole.
1999 - USS Cole. Our response? Nonviolence. The result? 9/11/01.
9/11/01 - Our response? Goodbye Taliban, goodbye Osama, and eviction notice soon to be delivered to Saddam....result?
Lasting Peace AND Security
Two, preferably, as long as the coordinates for those spots in the desert are identical to that 21N/39.5E and 25N/39.5E ...
Seems to me that would go a long way towards "keeping the peace."
For the here and now, while we strive for peace, we must do so through strength and talking siftly but carrying a big stick. The futility of not having the stick or of determining not to use it is best summed up in this one sentence from the article IMHO:
This effort continues the work of Mahatma Gandhi, who was building a "peace troop" at the time of his assassination in 1948.
Another way of saying it, is the principles set forth by Thomas Paine regarding the use of firearms and the implements of war ...
"The supposed quietude of a good mans allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside...Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them..."
These folks are either being played for the fool and "useful idiots" for those who would garner absolute power to themselves, or they are a part of the same.
"Yeah, but there won't be any of them at the medal ceremony."
No, that's true ... but ...
(sigh) ...
... so many targets, so little time.
I do want to convert them to something else ...
... preferably nuclear waste material.
And get in plenty of easy target practice before returning to the war already in progress...
Many people believe in Astrology too, but that doesn't mean the world works that way.
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