“ – Engaging Peace

Remembering JFK: Voices from a Smoldering Grave

Posted on November 22, 2017November 29, 2017 by kathiemm

MEMORIAL PROSE POEM

by Anthony J. Marsella

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), President of the United States of America

I.

I cannot rest, My spirit rages; Incomplete truths, lies — remain. My grave smolders!

I seek escape, From casket, eternal flame, defamation, Contrived by scrupulous minds, Penned by stained hands.

Conspiracy! Protection for villains, Safety from condemnation. I was assassinated!

A grievous, immoral, illegal act! Complicit forces: Government, military, corporations, criminals! No remorse, forced tears, false sympathies; “Your Daddy was a great man, Caroline!”

Fear of contention: End wars, reduce military, Prosecute criminals, Restore national identity!

Accept faults, Confess errors, Compensate victims, On your knees, America!

Democracy disguised! Secret State, Shadow State, Deep State, No State; Cabals, factions, sects, cliques, clans, tribes, Parties! Plots, plans, intrigue – cowards –conspiracy!

II.

In death, I remain: Timeless beacon, Truth image, of truth, Hope symbol!

Evil continues! Relishing roles, Celebrating deceit, Valorizing schemes.

Know this: From each grain of earthydust, I will continue to speak, Silence impossible!

III.

What madness possesses you? What fury grips your mind? What passions drive you, Justified betrayal!

You kill your own, Oblivious to consequence, Hardened to suffering, Grinning demon in morning mirror!

Patriot Act, DHS, NSA, FBI, CIA, DEA . . . Acronyms cover vile purpose. You crave dominion; My God, you are evil!

My assassination insufficient? Family deaths: Brother? Son? Lovers? Each death whetting appetites, Pleasuring for more?.

Plausible deniability! Cover: National Security! No fear! No constraint. No limit to menace.

IV.

Eisenhower saw, warned, escaped. Shocked by knowledge and participation, His image now safe! Kansas!

Johnson burdened by graves he dug! Carter repentant for Christian compromise . . . Reagan, smiling, failing, vomiting. Nixon, mad with paranoia.

Clinton caught by semen splashes, 1. H. W. Bush enamored with elites, oligarchy, Skull & Bones; 2. W. Bush, “You are with us, or against us.” He is both! Obama, election promises, lived lies!

These our leaders! Cry America! Shout enough! They please: War machines, coffin makers, gold collectors!

Libraries, shrines, sacred places to preserve names. Marble slabs inscribed words, images, reputations. Keep alive presidential cults, designed to mollify, Penance for sin! Atonement for lies!

I claim no special sanction, Beyond my mapped death! Dismiss me if you will, Flee, if you wish, from hypocrisy!

Know I walked corridors of power, Know I stood amid whispered gatherings, Know I tolerated secrecy; For this, I suffer in death!

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa. “Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you . . . “ I learned, too late, lessons of betrayal, I learned, too late, trials of victimhood.

No longer! I speak now for those killed, Home and abroad, young and old, Across time and place. Memories cannot be bought!

V.

Fascism thrives! Who won? Homeland, Fatherland, Empire, Kingdom, Amerika! Uber Alles! Deaths in vain! Surveillance, archives, fusion centers!

Drones, robots, androids! You defile warriors! You dishonor soldiers. You glorify war, dismiss death!

I am cold in bone and body, Shriveled from age and decay, Scattered dust on coffin floor, Guarded by impervious flames.

Like John’s Brown body, I smolder in my grave, When will it end? We are fodder!

Words rise from flames: You command, kill, destroy for naught; Ask John Brown’s Body! “. . . Truth goes marching on!”

Anthony J. Marsella

November 22, 2017

Where was Engaging Peace Saturday January 21?: The Boston Women’s March, of course!

Posted on January 23, 2017 by kathiemm

by Dot Walsh, with photos by Andy Celley

Attendance at Saturday’s historic Boston Women’s March for America was estimated by The Boston Herald at “more than 150,000.”

Rebecca Solnit reminds us, “It’s important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be fine. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and tremendous destruction. The hope I’m interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. It’s also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse narrative. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings.”

Carl Sagan considers how we can bridge conviction and compassion in dealing with those who disagree with and even attack our beliefs. Although he addresses the particular problems of pseudoscience and superstition, his elegant and empathetic argument applies to any form of ignorance and bigotry.

Sagan explores how we can remain sure-footed and rooted in truth and reason when confronted with such dangerous ideologies, but also have a humane and compassionate intention to understand the deeper fears and anxieties out of which such unreasonable beliefs arise in those who hold them.

Sagan says, “In the way that skepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.”

But kindness, Sagan cautions, doesn’t mean assent — there are instances, like when we are faced with bigotry and hate speech, in which we absolutely must confront and critique these harmful beliefs, for “every silent assent will encourage [the person] next time, and every vigorous dissent will cause him next time to think twice.

“If we offer too much silent assent about [ignorance] — even when it seems to be doing a little good — we abet a general climate in which skepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom.”

Silent assent may be equally destructive in relation to those who vote for a racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, climate-change-denying political leader.

Sagan’s central point is that we humans — all of us — are greatly perturbed by fear, anxiety, and uncertainty, and in seeking to becalm ourselves, we sometimes anchor ourselves to irrational and ignorant ideologies that offer certitude and stability, however illusory. In understanding those who succumb to such false refuges, Sagan calls for “compassion for kindred spirits in a common quest.”

Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, “If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.”

Conscience and Consciousness

Posted on September 25, 2016September 25, 2016 by kathiemm

Blessed are the Peacemakers by George Bellows. Anti-war cartoon depicting Jesus with a halo in prison stripes alongside a list of his seditious crimes. First published in The Masses in 1917. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less.

by Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., September 25, 2016

“Call to Conscience”

The “Call to Conscience” is a noble call, sanctified and consecrated by the sacrifices of peacemakers.

With uncommon courage and conviction, notable peacemakers, including Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Helen Caldicott, Glenn Paige, Bell Hooks, Mairead McGuire, Antonio DeRosa, Dalai Lama, Daisaku Ikeda, and scores of others, modeled “conscience” as a way-of-life, accepting the quest for peace must be nurtured and sustained with the totality of one’s being . . . each breath an affirmation of commitment.

When Jesus of Nazareth, in his “Sermon on the Mount,” stated: “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth,” Jesus invited all to assume the role of peacemakers. Those accepting his anointing have refused to be silenced in the face of oppression. From Jesus to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., peacemakers have endured criticism, condemnation, and persecution from those with wealth, power, and position, those benefitting from the outcomes of war.

To the wealthy, powerful, positioned, and war-hawks content with distance from human suffering, indifferent to the pains and sorrows of victims of violence, war, and prejudice, oblivious to the consequences of self-indulgence, I say you risk eternal damnation as your children behold with contempt your lack of conscience, your failure to model peace.

The “Call to Conscience” requires courage amidst abuse. There is, however, no lamentation among peacemakers. This is the paradox! For peacemakers, the rewards of advocacy ensure their legacy will endure because it affirms human dignity. For peacemakers, mockeries of justice, inequalities of opportunity, denials of hope, distortions of truth, and corruptions of law, compel advocacy!

Peacemakers are not idealists; Peacemakers are realists! Peacemakers awaken humanity to “consciousness!” This fact is testimony to the promise: “Peacemakers will inherit the earth.”

Consciousness

“Conscience” cannot be separated from “consciousness,” nor can “consciousness” from “conscience.” What do I mean?

The very act of seeking and making peace releases us from normal states of human existence. The release sanctions a state of “transcendence,” a state of “consciousness,” a new level of being. It is a release from an isolated self pre-occupation to an awareness of connection to each other and to the cosmos in which we live.

“Consciousness” compels exercising responsibilities, duties, and obligations to speak and to act for peace; implicit within “consciousness,” is a moral impulse to advance and benefit the human condition. Inherent within this recognition, is the awareness “life is sacred!”

The splendor and majesty of “consciousness” is the liberation of our being. “Consciousness” brings a new way-of-knowing (i.e., epistemology), and new way of behaving (i.e., praxiology). It unleashes new ways of understanding human nature (i.e., ontology).

Can anything more be asked? “Conscience” and “consciousness” are the keys to awakening the human spirit, too long subdued and contained by comforts of convention. Peacemaking is the path! Discover its virtues! Join the icons of peace, finding in them, and with them, a transcendent vision and experience of the grandeur of life. Accept the “Call to Conscience.”

Author: Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822. He is the author and editor of twenty books, and more than 300 publications noted for challenging the ethnocentricity and biases of Western psychology and psychiatry, and for advocating peace and social justice.

Seeking War No More

Posted on June 16, 2016March 11, 2021 by kathiemm

By Edward Agro

Given that an antiwar movement in the U.S., where rampant militarism is the norm, must cast its nets impossibly wide, it’s no wonder that the nonviolent struggle to build a world without war draws proponents from every class and predisposition of American Life. But what glues together all of us who resist? Is there a tradition which can give us strength?

Professor Lawrence Rosenwald’s ambitious book ”War No More” helps us find that tradition. It’s not your standard history, focused on well-recognized heroes – usually military – who purportedly single-handedly “make peace” – usually by military means. Instead it’s a picaresque ramble through three centuries of efforts by individuals, in many cases unknown to history, to celebrate in writing, song, and graphics and often putting their peace and quiet, if not more, on the line to defeat The Juggernaut of militarism that affects and stains all that is good in the American experiment. Reading these stories will be a great encouragement to modern day activists in the antiwar cause. And, somewhat like Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States,” it will encourage citizens just awakening to their need to resist.

But if the cause is ponderous, the book is not; I found these 800-plus pages a joy to read. The thing is so rich that gulping it down all at once is not the only way to extract its treasures. Rosenwald’s prefatory notes to the selections are a great read in themselves; they give a good deal of the historical contexts, and though the author refrains from haranguing the reader, they give a sense of his own passionate conviction.

The selections themselves bring many surprises. Reading the selection “Wailing Shall Be in All Streets” shows the early attempt that finally after many years gave birth to “Slaughterhouse-Five.” There are a number of such discoveries; I’ll let the reader of “War No More” have the pleasure of discovering others.

Even the unknown indexer of this book deserves credit: one can profitably read the index to get another overview of the history of antiwar and nonviolent action.

Of course, no one volume can encompass the totality of the antiwar tradition of America – there’s just too much, and it comes from too many directions, conservative as well as liberal, radically passionate as well as logically argued.

Which brings up the question “War No More” begs us to answer: there has been so much effort and attention given to the struggle against militarism throughout American history, yet where is a generally recognized tradition within which we can find our home? Perhaps reading “War No More” will be one of the ways conscientious citizens can find or build such a tradition; maybe the tradition will come to be what we celebrate the 4th of July. One can only hope, and work.

The foregoing is a condensation of a longer review of “War No More,” which appears on Amazon.com