December 2017 – Page 2 – Engaging Peace

Winter Solstice: On this Day of the Longest Night . . .

Posted on December 21, 2017January 5, 2018 by kathiemm

By Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.

In 2017, winter in the Northern Hemisphere begins on Thursday, December 21, at 16:28 UTC. It is the shortest day of the year; it is the day of the longest night.

For thousands of years, humans sought understanding of the cosmic wonder of day and night — the endless cycle of sun and moon. What if the cycle ceased?

What is the mystery of the rising and setting of the sun and the moon? What if the sun fails to rise? What if the moon and darkness remain? Is this possible? Fated? Predictable? Perhaps!

What did ancients think of daily cosmic wonders apparent to the eye, but bewildering to the mind? The sun rises and descends; the moon rises and descends. An endless cycle! Ancients wondered is this a cosmic battle of unknown forces, a struggle between day and night, light and darkness, goodness and evil?

Ancients summoned their oldest and wisest for explanation, understanding, comfort. Tell us, sages:

“What is it? What does this cycle mean? What should we do? What must we know of these things?

Should we sacrifice? Should we light fires, demonstrating we can create light? Should we seek refuge in dark caves, and there draw creatures on stone walls? Should we build stone monuments, predicting the courses of the sun and the moon? Will homage ensure survival?

Should we sing and dance? Should we wear frightening costumes, should we shout and curse and threaten the forces bringing darkness? What should we do? The sun burns our eyes, the moon commands stares — are both good and bad?

Pacify the Unknown

Amid uncertainty, amid fear, we cried:

We must raise stone monuments to touch the heavens; we must gather stones of such weight and proportion they will stand forever, gifts for all who follow! We must position stones in circles for circles too are mystery. We ask, how can a line connect from beginning to end? This perfection, this safety for all within the circle’s limits.

We must raise monuments of stone to honor the sun and the moon. Only stone is permanent, only stone defies the ravages of time, only stone is eternal.

On this Day of the Longest Night

In reverence, ancients awaited the shining sun. Permanent night? Could this be?

“We must chant, we must pray, we sacrifice, we must . . . !”

Our wisest marked days and nights:The sun must rest; a long darkness will descend upon us.

“Fear not!” A rested sun will win the battle!

We are told, each day will be longer, bringing comfort and protection. We are told, this day of the longest night will pass. It must! We must believe! We must . . .

Can we be certain? Can we trust our wisest? We have done all we can do. Now powers decide our fate. Be not afraid!

If darkness is permanent, we will learn to sleep by fire, to plant by moon, to hunt amid shadows, aware now, more than before, of sounds, smells, touches. We must not fear!

And for People Today

And so today, our calendar is clearly marked. We need nothing more. We note the day and date: December 21, “the day of the longest night.”

So be it! We are taught about the sun’s angles on Earth’s rotation. We will turn electric lights on earlier and turn them off later, without hesitation or doubt. There are no more concerns. There is shopping to do, cookies to be made, TV programs to be watched! Saturday night lights from stadiums, Tokyo, more beautiful in night than in day.

Will we remember the event of this day as it was experienced ten thousand years ago? Sages — men, women, children — priests and priestesses — painted faces and limbs in animal skins and robes, torches, potions, drinking, dancing, chanting, begging, praying — supplicants, appeasing unknown forces, comforting uncertainty.

We continue to gather at sanctified places across the world: men, women, children, casting aside clothes in favor of animal skins and painted faces and limbs. We moan and sigh as light dims, and dark descends.

And then, as has been true across time, we shout and cheer, the experience of joy and hope captured in song by the Beatles: “Here Comes the Sun . . . And it’s all right.” Yes, yes, so let it be written, so let it be sung — forever!

Speaking of epidemics and the need for cures

Posted on December 18, 2017January 5, 2018 by kathiemm

by Kathie MM

Racialopathy and ethnicopathy are intimately related to another form of social pathology —addiction to guns — a topic regularly addressed on Engaging Peace (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017).

A must-read article by David S. Bernstein in the Atlantic argues that despite media furor over mass shootings, “Americans Don’t Really Understand Gun Violence.”

Why? Because they focus only on fatal gun violence — the tip of an enormous, bloody iceberg of untold pain and suffering for victims of nonfatal violence and their families.

Although estimates suggest over a million survivors of gun violence in the US today, “nobody really knows how often people are shot by their intimate partners, how many victims are intended targets or bystanders, how many shootings are in self-defense, how such incidents affect community investment and property values, or how much it costs taxpayers to care for victims.”

Ignorance includes assumptions that nonfatal shootings are generally confined to African American neighborhoods; however, data show that from 2001 to 2013, “nonfatal-assault victimization rates declined among African Americans and increased significantly for whites.”

The reasons we know so little about nonfatal gun violence are largely politically based. For example, in 1996, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment “which, along with accompanying budget cuts to the CDC, effectively took the federal government out of the business of funding gun research. Though it was ostensibly designed to prevent federal backing of biased anti-gun propaganda, the National Rifle Association-backed law has had a huge chilling effect.…”

If we want to reduce the epidemic of gun violence, we need more information about it. Speak out against the suppression of information and in favor of research.For motivation, see this video.

Pledging Allegiance

Posted on December 14, 2017December 23, 2017 by kathiemm

by Kathie MM

The Pledge of Allegiance is not sacrosanct. Within my lifetime, the words “Under God” were added to the Pledge because Congress and the President wanted to differentiate the US from the godless Communists.

Here is my recommendation for an updated Pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it’s the guide, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice, and equal rights for all.

Pledging allegiance to a flag is not a good idea. Flags are symbols that are too easily manipulated, used to whip up armies and compel people towards violence.

What Americans should pledge allegiance to is the Constitution—an imperfect but perfectible document created by dedicated freedom fighters desiring a more perfect union and wise enough to provide mechanisms for reforming and ripening the fruit of their labors.

Let’s replace “for which it stands” with “for which it’s the guide”; we should not stand still, mired in dirty politics, but instead move toward the more perfect union envisioned, at least vaguely, by founders of our government; there is much in our evolving Constitution to provide guidance.

“Under God”—a controversial term. Organized religion, like other self-promoting hierarchies, has fed divisiveness and violence over the centuries; however, if there is a God, and only one God, then all believers have faith in the same God, by whatever name they use and however much they want to assume God plays favorites. Plus, reverence for a Higher Power that makes all living things sacred is more life-enhancing than idolizing money and power.

“Liberty and justice for all” have too often been denied, but they, along with equal rights, must still be the goals towards which we pledge our allegiance. A more perfect union will be an indivisible multi-hued union of all living things, interdependent,valued, and mutually sustaining.

Fossil fuel or life? Polar bears today. The world’s children tomorrow?

Posted on December 10, 2017January 5, 2018 by kathiemm

A video of an emaciated polar bear on Baffin Island was recently shared on social media. Warmer temperatures have led to longer ice-free periods throughout the year in the Arctic, increasing the risk of starvation for the animals. (Photo: @mitrasites2016/Twitter)

Today’s post features excerpts from a Common Dreams staff writer, Julia Conley, who describes an award-winning video of a polar bear starving to death. Global warming results in less ice, which means less availability of polar bears’ food.

Conley’s story and the video deserve attention because, frankly, the powerful oil industry magnates and the politicians in their pockets don’t give a damn about polar bears. They care only about profits and the power that money brings.

And face it, they also don’t give a damn about you or your children or your grandchildren, and certainly not the environment that sustains — or cannot sustain — life.

Julia Conley tells us:

“A video of a starving polar bear led to calls for climate change deniers to confront the real-world effects of global warming this week. Taken by a Canadian conservationist and photographer and posted to social media, the video offered a stark visual of the drastic impacts of climate change that have already begun taking root.

“‘When scientists say bears are going extinct, I want people to realize what it looks like. Bears are going to starve to death. This is what a starving bear looks like.’ (Paul Nicklen)

“On social media, viewers of Nicklen’s video called for political leaders like President Donald Trump, who has refused to take part in global efforts to minimize the warming of the earth by reducing carbon emissions, to reconsider their climate-wrecking actions.”

We can all take part in those efforts before the earth becomes unable to sustain life at all. Remember, the oil magnates and the banking system and the military-industrial complex has tons of money and power, but you have a voice and a vote. There are millions and millions more people like you, like us, than like them.

Conley’s article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.