October 2017 – Page 3 – Engaging Peace

The Golden Rule: Eleven World Religions (and New Commentary)

Posted on October 11, 2017November 20, 2017 by kathiemm

By Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D

“If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself.” (Baha’i)

“One should seek for others the happiness one derives for one self.” (Buddhism)

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Christianity)

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not unto others.” (Confucianism)

“Do naught to others which if done to thee would cause pain.” (Hinduism)

“No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Islam)

“We should . . . refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.” (Jainism)

“What is hurtful to yourself, do not do to our fellow man.” (Judaism)

“As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.” (Sikkhism)

“To those who are good to me, I am also good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good. And thus all get to be good.” (Taoism)

“Do as you would be done by.” (Zoroastrianism)

It is indeed ironic, tragic in fact, that the Golden Rule is considered an essential truth of world religions, and yet is abandoned by religions in favor of self-serving social and political goals keeping people apart, separate, and disconnected. As has been said by wise voices: “There is no other.”

Apparently, the mere presence of alternative beliefs confronts people and religions with an experienced threat to their beliefs, diminishing the value of their beliefs, because there is an alternative.

“How can you say this?” they claim, “when I know fervently in my heart and mind, and, because of everything I have been told, my view is the only right view. ”

“Now I must try to inform you of your errors, even if I must use force and violence. It is for your sake I do this, so you may know the truths I know and believe. My God is more powerful than your god.”

There is no easy answer to this paradoxical behavior, rooted as it is in complex historical, cultural, political, and economic reasons. Perhaps, a first step is for an individual to say:

“Peace begins with me! I will practice non-violence, and offer healing to all in need. I will constantly ask forgiveness for the acts I committed bringing sorrow and grief to others.”

Humility is required! There is healing in apology. Individuals, groups, and nations can forgive, and can apologize, and with these acts can find “Truth” in the Golden Rule, and a new sense of identity and purpose in these acts.

As Vaclav Havel noted: “Perhaps it was always there, and our selfishness prevented us from seeing it and knowing it.”

Special appreciation to an old friend, Stephen Blessman, for his knowledge of the Golden Rule in world religions.

October, 2017

Fear, the NRA and Gun Industry’s Deadliest Weapon

Posted on October 7, 2017November 7, 2017 by kathiemm

By Roy Eidelson

School children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut. Parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina. Co-workers in San Bernardino, California. Nightclub attendees in Orlando, Florida. And now concertgoers in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Each time, the horror of yet another mass shooting leaves us stunned, grief-stricken, and desperate for answers. But always lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce, is a modern-day Cerberus. Like that three-headed hound of Greek mythology that patrolled the gates of hell, the National Rifle Association, the firearms industry, and their bankrolled politicians obstruct every step toward gun reform, ominously warning that any restrictions will make us helpless to protect ourselves.

When it comes to promoting this manipulative “we’ll all be helpless” mind game, the leading huckster is undoubtedly Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s longtime CEO. In an op-ed shortly after President Obama’s re-election in 2012, LaPierre explained, “No wonder Americans are buying guns in record numbers right now, while they still can and before their choice about which firearm is right for their family is taken away forever.” In the same piece, he described the NRA as “the indispensable shield against the destruction of our nation’s Second Amendment rights” and “the only chance gun owners have to withstand the coming siege.”

That same year, a week after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, LaPierre called for armed security guards in every U.S. school, arguing “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” And in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he listed “home invaders, drug cartels, carjackers, knockout gamers, and rapers, and haters, and campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers” among the threats that only assault-style rifles and other guns can stop.

The NRA and gun lobby aggressively push these psychologically-potent appeals because they know nothing sells guns like fear — including the fear of not having a gun. Indeed, in the aftermath of massacres, worries about gun restrictions often lead to sharp increases in handgun purchases. Sure enough, gun stocks rose on Wall Street in the days immediately following the Las Vegas attack.

The bottom line here is simple: Easy access to deadly weapons means greater profits for gun manufacturers and dealers. At the same time, let’s remember that our country’s far-too-frequent mass shootings actually account for only a small part of the bloodshed. The number of deaths from gun violence in the US this year — including homicides and suicides — is again likely to exceed 30,000. That figure is comparable to the number of Americans who are killed in automobile accidents.

To help give their “we’ll all be helpless” scare tactics the sheen of academic respectability, the gun industry has eagerly turned to the likes of economist John Lott, the high-profile promoter of the widely discredited thesis that more guns lead to less crime. Lott has argued that gun reform “will leave individuals more vulnerable and helpless” and that “instead of making places safer, disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks.” But his claims have collapsed under careful scholarly scrutiny.

The prestigious National Research Council dismissed Lott’s findings and his methodology, and researchers at Stanford and Harvard have shown that higher rates of household gun ownership are associated with higher, not lower, homicide rates, both nationally and in state-by-state comparisons.

Of course, scientific evidence regarding gun violence isn’t popular with many beholden members of Congress. For them, propaganda is just fine. In fact, thanks to NRA lobbying, Congress prohibits the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from even conducting research related to guns and public health. And let’s not forget who’s in the White House. Benefiting from millions of dollars of support from the NRA during his presidential campaign, self-proclaimed “true friend and champion” Donald Trump has opined, “You take the guns away from the good people, and the bad ones are going to have target practice.”

Making matters still worse, the NRA’s messaging machine has been winning over large segments of the public as well. For the first time in decades, recent national polls have shown there’s greater support for “gun rights” than for “gun control.” This support is especially strong among those white Americans who mistakenly believe crime rates are rising. And whereas people used to report that hunting was their primary reason for owning a gun, now they say it’s for personal safety.

A fearful country is exactly what the NRA and gun industry want. But to protect their turf and profits even more, they also want us to believe there’s yet another terrifying monster under our collective bed: the prospect of a future in which we’re all disarmed and helpless to keep our loved ones safe.

How can we resist these fearmongering ploys? By recognizing that sensible gun reform is only a phantom menace — and that the real one looks like the deadly arsenal of firearms and munitions on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

Published by royeidelson on Psychology Today October 5, 2017. Reposted by permission.

Lighting Those Candles

Posted on October 6, 2017November 20, 2017 by kathiemm

By Kathie MM

Yesterday’s post by Lewis Randa, Director of the Peace Abbey, is a model letter for Donald Trump to consider sending to Chairman of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jung-un. The post is also a beacon to all of us in these stormy, treacherous times.

In 1932, as newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt undertook to combat the greatest threat of the times—the Great Depression—he spoke those immortal words, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Nameless unreasoning fear abounds today, but much of our terror is justified—not because there are hordes of terrorists whom people in power are nevertheless eager to name, but because of the all-too-real threats to the sustainability of life on earth.

Fear—for example, of fascism, of the National Security Administration, of terrorists, of losing everything—is destructive of hearts and minds, depressing and debilitating, and demoralizing in countless ways.

One common response to de-moralizing fear is to strike out, to hurt, to punish, to destroy the target of one’s fear.

But recognize this: Hatred and murderous aggression rarely lead to sustainable fear-reducing outcomes.

On the other hand, making love instead of war may be too passive and self-focused to confront fear and make the world a better place.

So, here’s a better antidote to destructive fear and feelings of helplessness: Engaging in prosocial activism, engaging peace.

Specific prescription: Engage in letter writing campaigns of the sort recommended by Lewis Randa. Send his letter, with or without your own modifications, to Donald Trump.

Or, write your own letter to President Trump, with your own recommendations for avoiding nuclear war, for achieving peace with North Korea, for making the world a safer and more life-sustaining place for coming generations.

And even more promising: Start your own letter writing campaigns or join existing programs that seek positive solutions to problems such as gun violence, sexism and racism, world hunger and poverty, environmental destruction. Make loving efforts for peace, not war.

For further inspiration, listen to a recording of John Hall’s Power .

You can read the lyrics here.

Dear Chairman Kim Jung-un

Posted on October 5, 2017 by kathiemm

by Lewis Randa, Director, The Peace Abbey

What follows is a letter for President Donald Trump to consider sending to Chairman of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jung-un.

Please feel free to add, edit, or delete and submit your own letter to the White House.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness of war.

My “mind game” candle in the darkness is dedicated to Yoko Ono.

From The White House

Dear Chairman Kim Jung-un,

I am reaching out in an effort to de-escalate the hostility and aggression between our two governments. Our peoples, the millions of families, the loving parents and their children dream of a better life, both in North Korea and in North America, and are counting on us to be prudent as we seek solutions to what appears to be intractable distrust and animosity which could lead to war. Our histories reflect different paths of development and periods of conflict, yet our goals are not dissimilar. Both our nations want what is best for our country, our people, and the Earth.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out what you already know, and that is this: A nuclear confrontation would not only be catastrophic for both our nations, the blast damage would result in massive destruction and the death toll would be unimaginable. Most importantly, it would have an endless, negative impact on our planet’s ability to sustain the conditions for life.

Were either of us to preemptively launch a nuclear weapon or retaliate with one, the impact on the planet would be irreversible and condemn those who survive with the cancerous effects of millions of tons of radioactive pollutants in the atmosphere. The unprecedented infusion of contamination that would result from nuclear explosion would spread to form a stratospheric cloud layer that would block sunlight for years to come.

Extensive changes to the environment would affect our ability to sustain global food production and the massive damage to the ozone layer would allow dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface.

We must not allow this to happen.

To avoid a nuclear exchange, I wish to make official the new policy of the United States: The U.S. will not preemptively use a nuclear weapon against your nation or any sovereign state for any reason whatsoever. To do so would undermine millions of years of evolution of life on Earth.

And to demonstrate the sincerity of this commitment, I will order the end of all US – South Korean military exercises off the coast of North Korea. I will also end all flights over your country, realizing that such flights, while being aerial reconnaissance that our military deems necessary, only provokes additional fear and distrust toward the United States.

In addition, I will order the U.S. Treasury to transfer ten billion dollars in food commodities to the North Korean government as a gesture of goodwill.

In return, I would need assurances that your government will cease all future development of nuclear weaponry and testing and the launching of missiles over sovereign nations in the Pacific or elsewhere in the world. This would need to be verified by the United Nations Nuclear Weapons Inspectors. Henceforth, the United States will recognize the nuclear capability of North Korea.

This commitment offers a new start in circumventing a cataclysm that would leave the Earth uninhabitable.

Upon receipt of this letter, and your positive response, I will notify the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State of the above efforts to de-escalate the tension with Pyongyang.

May our next step be movement towards worldwide abolishment of nuclear weapons and the lifting of all sanctions on North Korea that are of a civilian nature.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Trump