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Global day of listening: An opportunity to listen and learn

Posted on March 17, 2011July 6, 2011 by kathiemm

March 20, 2011, is “GLOBAL DAY of LISTENING to ‘live without wars.’” Inspired by Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, Afghans For Peace, and the Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project, the organizers of the latest Global Day of Listening event are providing opportunities for everyone to talk with ordinary people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries around the world.

Follow the instructions and you will be able to hear the stories of people who have firsthand experience with war, occupation, terror, and the death of innocent civilians, and you will be able to ask questions of these people, who are choosing peace rather than revenge as a result of their experiences.

Most Americans get their “news” from the “popular media” that are controlled by the same rich and powerful interests that exercise enormous influence over governmental policy and that gain much of their wealth through the country’s involvement in wars. Don’t believe their propaganda; do not let them convince you that “the only good X (insert name of one of the current popular ‘enemies’) is a dead X” or that you have to “kill or be killed.” Throughout history millions of people have pursued and achieved peace.

Even if you do not take advantage of this opportunity to talk to someone in Baghdad, Kabul, and elsewhere over the weekend, do take some time to click on the links provided above to learn more about these organizations and their fight for peace and/or view some brief videos in which survivors of the invasions in their countries make their pleas for peace.

After you participate in the listening, please share your reactions by commenting here on Engaging Peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

To die for one’s country

Posted on November 11, 2010November 8, 2010 by kathiemm

[Editor’s note: In honor of Veterans Day today, we share a famous poem by Wilfred Owen, published in 1920. “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” means “How sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country.”]

Dulce et Decorum Est

WWI stretcher bearers carry dead and wounded. (Photo from U.K. Imperial War Museum, in public domain; from Wikimedia Commons)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Reprinted through the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

Why vote?

Posted on October 25, 2010July 6, 2011 by kathiemm

All registered voters in the U.S. can vote without being subjected to torture and death—a fact that is largely taken for granted. This freedom, although not perfect, compares well with what is happening in many other nations.

To name just a few of the countries where elections in 2010 were preceded by torture of anti-government protesters:

In Rwanda, the ruling regime ordered arrest and torture of opposition candidates.
In Zimbabwe, torture camps reappeared to insure that Mugabe retained power.
In the Philippines, torture is a frequent tool of the Arroyo regime, conducted under the guise of support for the U.S. “war on terrorism.”
In Iran, three anti-government protesters were tortured to death in prison.

Although in many countries people risk their lives to gain the right to vote in democratic elections, in the U.S., where that right is well-established, the majority of the population often fails to vote. For example, only about 37% of the voting age population vote in mid-term elections, which can determine the well-being of not just Americans but people around the world for years to come.

Accept your responsibility as a citizen of a democracy. Get out and vote, and get out the vote. Exercising your democratic right to vote is a way to demonstrate proactive moral agency (see Engaging Peace post on October 14).

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is….make peace not war a campaign issue.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation has some suggestions about how to do this:

Contact candidates running for Congress and ask their views on issues such as nuclear disarmament, global warming, auditing the Pentagon, and ending the war in Afghanistan
Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or online news site, responding to its coverage of the election.

We have additional suggestions:

Educate yourself. Have facts ready to support your arguments.
Find out who the anti-war candidates are.
Join together with others in the anti-war, pro-peace movement. Make your voices heard.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology