Tag: California

FROM DARKNESS AT NOON TO THE GLOW OF HOPE, Part 2

Posted on by kathiemm

 

Aztec dancers perform at the “End the Wars at Home and Abroad” Spring Action 2018 in Oakland, California. April 15, 2018. File licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Pax Ahimsa Gethen.

by Stefan Schindler

 

The Tragic Triumph of the Reagan Counter-Revolution

Against The Spirit of the Sixties, Now Counterbalanced by

the Rekindling of Candles in the Wind

What is to be done about the country in times that seem increasingly dark? Well, all is not lost. The seeds of peace sown in The Sixties continue to sprout across the land. If despair is blowin’ in the wind, so is hope, and the reinvigorating of protest against the status quo. If more and more people are sleepwalking through history, it is also true that more and more people are waking up.

Yes, the sophists, dogmatists and fanatics are better funded and better organized; but there is also an ongoing energizing of national and global enlightenment. A reawakening of the enlightened protest that was the signature glow of The Spirit of The Sixties.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one: Imagine: a world living in peace. More and more people are doing that, and committed to acting in such a way as to bring it about. For example, the Dalai Lama is one of the most admired people in the world. He is a living archetype of peacemaking, calling for egalitarian economics, ecological sanity, and a common religion of kindness.

Meanwhile, forums for enlightened discourse proliferate daily. Engaging Peace, Political Animal, and The Peace Abbey Foundation are three such forums.

Let us, then, as we said in The Sixties, “Keep the faith,” “Keep on truckin’,” commit to lives of voluntary simplicity, love our neighbors in the global village, sing our songs, do our dance, and stay committed to giving peace a chance.

We have a duty: the greater good to serve. And thus bequeath to our children: the world of peace and beauty they deserve.

 Imagine it here and now.

 

Saying no to the drone rain of terror

Posted on by kathiemm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOnOmSGvXBY

Suddenly, Big Brother is everywhere, killing as well as spying, and the arms industry boldly advertises military drones on the Internet.

Manufacturers of drones (euphemistically known as unmanned aerial vehicles) are committed to a future of perpetual profits from perpetual wars; just consider their rhetoric.

President Obama recently promised the world that military drone use would be carefully monitored and ethical. If drones can show up on public beaches, what else can go wrong?

Among the things that can go wrong are the killing of innocent civilians.

Fortunately, voices against the U.S. use of military drones are being heard around the world. Moreover, 2013 has seen many anti-drone protests within the United States– in, for example,

The basic messages of these protests include:

  •  In its drone-conducted extrajudicial targeted killings, the U.S. executive branch is acting as judge, jury, and executioner in violation of domestic and international law.
  • While the use of killer drones may seem to promote U.S. goals abroad without endangering Americans, there will be negative repercussions for all.
  • Military drone use is immoral.
  • Innocent men, women, and children are being killed and maimed by drones.
  • Drone warfare is terrorism.
  • Drone warfare creates enemies, even among our allies.

What can be done to address these concerns? What are your views?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology