If, like me, you are sick of our country’s involvement in endless wars, but you think there is nothing anyone can do to stop the murder, an article I recently published in Truthout can change your mind. The piece is an excerpt from my book, ENDING U.S. WARS by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace.
“The old cliché about a fish not knowing it’s in water has survived for a reason. Our cultural currents can drive us toward normalizing or, worse, glorifying what we might otherwise find objectionable….
The U.S. honors its military and reinforces warrior behaviors with holidays, ceremonies, parades, Hollywood movies, TV shows, and memorials to soldiers, wars, and wartime presidents. Individual military members/veterans enjoy medals, promotions, vanity license plates, tax exemptions, free admissions, reserved parking spaces, airline boarding preferences, veteran discounts, and other privileges. These honors and privileges reinforce militarism in the U.S.; no other group of citizens is as revered.
Joe Biden ended his inauguration address, presidential victory speech, and his Democratic National Convention nomination acceptance speech with the words “And may God protect our troops.” Donald Trump usually ended his speeches with “God bless our great military.” Patriotic ceremonies and public recognitions of the military are so commonplace that few Americans even think about, much less question, them.”
To enjoy a rich discussion of the steps countless Americans have taken to resist and overcome the normalization of war, you can read the whole book, available at major bookstores.
After six months of enduring this tragic but
preventable COVID-19 pandemic, there is still no national leadership. More than
200,000 Americans will die, and hundreds of thousands will suffer through the
disease process, and then continue to have debilitating symptoms long after.
Compare the response to how quickly our nation mobilized for war after less
than 3000 died on 9/11; war that we continue to fight in the Middle East and
Africa.
The inadequacies of our healthcare and public
health systems and the persistent shortages of equipment, supplies, hospital
beds and timely testing underscore the fact that military-related activities
are the highest priority of the U.S. government. Its 2020 military budget is
$738 billion. That’s over $84 million an hour for war. That’s where our tax
dollars go and that’s where the resources are—spread around the world to
intimidate and do harm, rather than good.
The President’s recent extravagant patriotic
speeches and ceremonies ignore the pandemic and instead, extol the virtues of
“law and order” and the largest military budget ever. Flyovers of fighter jets,
used as a way of showing appreciation to healthcare workers treating COVID-19,
demonstrates an effort to tie all aspects of our life, even this most desperate
public health situation, into the U.S. war culture. Obviously, the cost of
these nationwide military tributes and ceremonies, which is significant, could
have provided medicine, testing, facemasks, and other items that are still
desperately needed to help stem the spread of this disease. Perhaps these
expensive public relations stunts were an effort to distract us from the
government’s continuing failed leadership in handling the COVID-19 crisis.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if war was deemed a
non-essential activity, and our country focused instead on eliminating
healthcare disparities, systemic racism, aggressive policing, poverty, and
this heartbreaking pandemic. These are the things that are terrorizing
Americans.
World Peace Gong National Gandhi Museum. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
by Andre Sheldon, Director of Global Strategy of Nonviolence
Question:
After Covid-19, in a world divided and fraught with global crises, will people
find a way to work together to create a “new normal” characterized by peace and
justice for all?
Answer:
Yes, with new leadership that speaks truth to power, enlists the people,
and—most importantly–embraces nonviolence, a new normal can be created that
provides a better world….for the children.
Jesus, Buddha, Muhammed, Krishna, Moses, all the
sages through the ages, and Gandhi, King, and Mandela in the past 100 years, lived
and died to teach us that nonviolence is the answer. Are there leaders today who have the ability
to influence the world’s people and all their governments to “commit to
nonviolence?” Yes, there are!
The ideal leader is a person who can see that the
first thing we must do to achieve a more peaceful and just world is unite under
one umbrella. The response to Covid-19 of
countless people confirms that people everywhere see the value of solidarity
and unity. The opportunity is here for
leaders to create a new global peace movement to promote kindness, compassion,
trust, respect, and stopping war!
Leaders and Movements Must Come Together
Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben have highlighted the
dangers and causes of catastrophic climate change, as well as remedies and
strategies to rescue the planet. Klein
and McKibben know we have to unite and think big. Klein wrote,“… strengthening the threads tying together our
various issues and movements – is, I would argue, the most pressing task of
anyone concerned with social and economic justice.” Klein
also wrote: “Sensible people are always telling us that change needs to come in
small increments. Well, we rejected all of that.”
Recognizing the strength of the Golden Rule, religious
scholar Karen Armstrong formed the Charter for Compassion
10 years ago to bring together leaders of all religions. According to the
Charter, “The principle of compassion lies at
the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always
to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.”
Other organizations promoting unity include Global
Citizen, We,
the People, founded by Rick
Ulfick, and ONE,
founded by Bono, is dedicated to
eradicating extreme poverty. World
Humanists , together
with World Without War
(WWW), recently sponsored the second World March for Peace and
Nonviolence to promote the strength of unity for stopping
war. The founder of WWW, Rafael de la Rubia, visualizes
nonviolence as the tool to change the world.
Covid-19 prompted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to issue a call for a Global Cease-Fire— a critical recognition of the fact
that stopping wars affects all issues and that
we need peace to devote significant efforts to the other crises As Guterres noted,
“It is time to put armed
conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.”
There are brilliant people leading their
organizations and promoting new ideas that should be in the mainsteam: David
Swanson from World
Beyond War, Margaret
Flowers and Kevin Zeese from Popular
Resistance, Marianne Williamson
and Dennis Kucinich in politics,
and economist Jeffrey Sachs from
Columbia University who has his finger
on the pulse of the world.
Madeleine
Rees,
the Secretary-General of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK,
in 2015 highlighted their initiative’s slogans at the Geneva II Peace talks to
stop the war in Syria. WILPF’s slogan is
“WOMEN’S POWER to STOP WAR.” CODEPINK’s
slogan is “WOMEN SAY NO TO WAR.” These
slogans highlight the direction to take to sustain and perpetuate the
cease-fire and to create a nonviolent new normal.
Moving Forward
I believe the two individuals who most convincingly
speak truth to power, and show the potential to unite all movements, all religions,
all governors, mayors and community leaders, and all the “people” in every
village, town, and city in every country under one umbrella – nonviolence, are Medea Benjamin and Naomi Klein.
Medea Benjamin can connect all the women’s
organizations and initiatives that have already begun and have practiced mobilizing
— the Women’s
March on Washington, Women
that marched in Jerusalem, Women
that Crossed the DMZ in Korea, Women
in India,
and the #MeToo movement-into
one powerful force. It is time to “harness the energy and power” of women and
nonviolence to create
trust and respect between nations and people!
Naomi Klein can connect all the leaders mentioned above
to join together, to take THE LEAP, to promote
both the climate movement and the peace movement in unison. We need both urgently!
Benjamin and Klein have the knowledge and ability to
create a “CHAIN REACTION” of leaders coming together around the world to begin and
promote a new global peace movement in September 2020! A list of leaders for the chain reaction is
compiled and available for review.
Introducing a Global Movement of Nonviolence, For
the Children
In
2002, the summer after the attacks on 9/11, I began my efforts to stop war
because I believed the United States could have addressed the attack without
using the military. I found that
grassroots initiatives for peace and humanitarian efforts were everywhere, all
trying to unite. Research supported my
theory that women had an advantage for
creating peace
by promoting nonviolence (take away the threat of violence), especially if it
was about protecting the children.
It
is my honor to announce a comprehensive plan for a Global Movement of
Nonviolence (GMofNV), For the Children, led by women. A GMofNV is not just for women, it is
for everyone, as the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was for everyone, not
just African Americans. The children are the motivation for everyone
to unite!
The plan is for a GMofNV to be implemented by an
initiative called a CALL to WOMEN, a
World-Wide Unity Campaign.
Non-governmental women leaders will ask women to be the first to rise-up
and unite as the peacemakers. I have
presented a GMofNV to U.N. Secretary-General Guterres for review! A GMofNV includes the largest marketing plan
the world has ever seen.
We
need something different and special because the obstacles to create a nonviolent
new normal are enormous. A GMofNV is designed
to be outside the box but it has tentacles reaching into every part of
society. Historian and activist, Howard Zinn was my
confidante. He wrote to me, “Your ‘Call to Women’ is excellent. Well
written, clear, strong. No doubt women represent nonviolence best.”
A new nonviolent normal will not be easy to attain
and will have risks. We need to create a
new power to change the old; therefore there will be contention. Professor
Marshall Ganz, on NOW,
stated that we need contention. Therefore, we need a peace movement!
We need elections, but we also need a peace movement
because we are in an emergency situation. Mary Robinson, Ban Ki Moon, and Jerry Brown, at the Doomsday Clock Update (see video and Fast Forward to 25:30) highlighted
the world’s crises and asked for action in 2020 because the global crises are so extreme. Also,
experts
are predicting that economic difficulties and potential chaos will
be larger than the world has ever previously experienced. Ban Ki Moon, in a
recent Post by
the Elders, called for a people movement. People movements work, as illustrated by Bill Moyers in his compilation of
different episodes
of NOW.
There will be no life-sustaining new normal if we do
not commit to nonviolence, do not support a cease fire, and do not have a unified
peace movement. Without such a commitment, military spending will take away our
ability to achieve sustainable solutions to problems. Without a peace movement, the climate
movement will fail, which means we failed.
It is time for non-governmental leadership to guide
the people to work together for peace and humanity! All the mechanisms are in place. The opportunity is here now! A GMofNV is one step away from beginning –
enlist peace, social justice, and environmental leaders to promote a GMofNV and
a CALL to WOMEN. The world must promote
clean energy and change to a green economy to provide the basic needs of the
people if peace is to be enduring.
The women leaders cited in this paper can create a unified
peace movement. All the leaders
together, promoting one voice for peace, can move the world along that path,
building on the incredible ideas that exist for a new nonviolent
normal.
Mary Robinson,
the former President of Ireland, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights, current Chairperson of the Elders, and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation is a leading
voice in calling for action and unity in 2020.
Robinson stated,“We are faced by a gathering storm
of extinction-level consequences, and time is running out. We cannot continue with business as
usual.”
Every time I promote a GMofNV, it makes me feel
good. We need visionary leaders. The time is now and the plan is ready.
Peace and Love!
Contact: Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org
Andre Sheldon began working for peace in 2002 to find solutions other than military action in response to the attacks on September 11, 2001. Andre is a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), National Organization of Women (NOW), follows CODEPINK, and is an Honorary Co-founder of the Library of Peace in Atlanta, GA. He is founder and director of the Global Strategy of Nonviolence, which was formed to promote a new narrative of committing to nonviolence and committing to helping others. He has tirelessly networked with non-governmental women leaders from around the world to set in motion a new global peace movement.
The peacemaker’s path is a rhythm, a balance, a dialectic. Faced with the horrors of the postmodern world, it is necessary to refresh oneself daily with what Kierkegaard calls “infinite inwardness.” In Asian terms – Buddhism is a way of staying sane in a world gone mad, and a way of healing the madness. Detachment and a passion for compassion go together like Yin and Yang.
It’s not a question of cultivating apathy, in any degree. It’s a question of letting go, having faith,
taking the time to put the world on hold to sink into the bliss-wisdom-grace of
one’s own enlightened heart, there to be nourished, strengthened, and refreshed,
so as to return to the world with a passionate but equanimitous dedication to
peace and justice.
Total freedom from suffering is a nirvanic ideal, and if
we’re lucky, we occasionally get a fleeting glimpse of it; but striving for it
is like a monkey trying to grasp the moon’s reflection in a pond. Buddha was a pragmatist. His path to equanimity – balancing compassion
and detachment – is a Middle Way. For
us, it’s a razor’s edge. And Socratic
refreshment of the soul – Kierkegaard’s boundless faith in what Plato calls the
Good, the True, and the Beautiful – can benefit from meditation, but just as
easily be found in a walk in the park, a walk in the forest, a walk along the
beach, baking bread, or pruning a garden.
You and I and so many others … we’re just Pilgrims on The
Path, and it’s OK to feel, really feel, sorrow, even anger, so long as we
attempt to respond to those emotions with some degree of enlightenment. For us, a broken heart is an Opening Heart. Crucifixion leading to Resurrection. Not merely once or twice in a lifetime. Rather, the more informed one is, the more
haunted life becomes by the tragic and absurd – all the unnecessary and
ceaseless suffering humans cause other humans – and the
crucifixion-resurrection rhythm becomes a part of every day, for decades.
Daily faced with the Chinese holocaust in Tibet, going on
sixty years now, perhaps there is no more broken-hearted person in the world
than the Dalai Lama, and yet, from the depths of that abyss he daily rises to
teach peace and work for peace, with a smile and a sense of irony and humor,
because in that same abyss he finds a measure of peace, where the finite is
kissed by the infinite.
