A POST FOR PEACE
Peace isn't for wussies. It takes a lot of guts, courage, cojones to be an advocate for peace in America nowadays in the face of people who may tell us (or who are being told to tell us) we should not pursue peace. It takes being able to step back and examine one's beliefs, to honor one's own sensibilities, and to apply one's personal convictions in everyday life with a view toward making our world better for all living things.
So then, what is peace? Peace is free. Peace is freedom, freedom from war, from killing, from all forms of strife. Peace is quiet. Peace is patient, and it is love.
I don't consider myself a Christian, nor do I believe the Bible is inerrant, but there are some basic principles in about half of the Ten Commandments that might help provide a guide toward peace:
5. Honour thy father and thy mother
6. Thou shalt not kill
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's
(The first four commandments have to do with God, and to my way of thinking this has led to many situations in our world which have been far from peaceful.)
I am sure many of our country's politicians follow the fifth commandment as best they can. However, it doesn't seem like they want to follow numbers six through ten... heh...
I don't believe peace on Earth can be achieved through war or military might, through weapons of mass destruction, through imposing the religious beliefs or the governmental style of one people on another, or through lying and betraying a people's trust. It can't be achieved by using nations as stepping stones, or through attempting to build empires.
That's all good and fine. So how do we start? Again, I don't consider myself a Christian or a particularly religious person. The mention of God in the following lyrics? I guess if a person can believe that the world's major religions represent a variety of ways to reach the same God, the following song can be highly applicable:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father, brothers all are we,
Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now,
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow,
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!
A happy Fourth of July to you all! When I watch the fireworks tonight after our band is through playing at the local stadium, I'll be thinking of what a great country this is... and of the potential it has to be even greater! Our greatness will be achieved not by continuing on our current course, but through a national awakening in which millions of us realize there is a better way, a more humane way, a peaceful way.
Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with... US! Let's get busy, America!
So then, what is peace? Peace is free. Peace is freedom, freedom from war, from killing, from all forms of strife. Peace is quiet. Peace is patient, and it is love.
I don't consider myself a Christian, nor do I believe the Bible is inerrant, but there are some basic principles in about half of the Ten Commandments that might help provide a guide toward peace:
5. Honour thy father and thy mother
6. Thou shalt not kill
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's
(The first four commandments have to do with God, and to my way of thinking this has led to many situations in our world which have been far from peaceful.)
I am sure many of our country's politicians follow the fifth commandment as best they can. However, it doesn't seem like they want to follow numbers six through ten... heh...
I don't believe peace on Earth can be achieved through war or military might, through weapons of mass destruction, through imposing the religious beliefs or the governmental style of one people on another, or through lying and betraying a people's trust. It can't be achieved by using nations as stepping stones, or through attempting to build empires.
That's all good and fine. So how do we start? Again, I don't consider myself a Christian or a particularly religious person. The mention of God in the following lyrics? I guess if a person can believe that the world's major religions represent a variety of ways to reach the same God, the following song can be highly applicable:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father, brothers all are we,
Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now,
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow,
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!
A happy Fourth of July to you all! When I watch the fireworks tonight after our band is through playing at the local stadium, I'll be thinking of what a great country this is... and of the potential it has to be even greater! Our greatness will be achieved not by continuing on our current course, but through a national awakening in which millions of us realize there is a better way, a more humane way, a peaceful way.
Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with... US! Let's get busy, America!
8 Comments:
Good post, Snave. Those lyrics remind me of "Change Myself" by Todd Rundgren.
It took alot of nads to protest for Peace during the Nixon era..I learned well..
And I marvel at the fact that we didn't learn anything from the last disgusting war.
Beautiful post, Snave.
Peace begins w/us and war is not the answer...
Right on. Peace
Agreed Snave. Peace begins with, or more to the point, in each of us.
Great post.
Sorry long comment...
My friend Snave, you cannot be more close to truth than that, that's impossible, and those words instead of naive or ingenuous or utopic or even soft ones are indeed mathematical and wisdom and real and hard ones that are needed to say (and must have the guts to say it).
Paradoxically, in this current days (2006 A.C. ) peace words are connoted with some kind of ingenuity that doesn't correspond to the real facts.
The facts show us that all those religions rules are based on ancient observations of the human and his bad tendencies. Humans must understand, if everybody steals, after a short period of time no one can steal anything anymore 'cause there isn't to, or if they kill, obviously. Human behaviour is more conditioned that we use to thought and Psychology appears when the question "where humans behaviour is innate or is acquired". (mostly important until the age of five or six years, if you have time, see some episodes of any child wolf -children raised by wolfs, or other animals, child example: Cau Cau. They do that in war tactics)
-Peace to achieve stability and to trade flow without rush and to unnecessary speculation to get back those ancient flows of economy with proper rhythms and ethic rules in order that civilisations evolve (raw materials to start work with, like civilised conduct and more free information access). With that, we can achieve solutions to the big problems, common to all countries? (pollution, famine, violent disorders, corruption, etc) and partaging knowledge, from workshops and colloquiums to experiments and science joint ventures across some important vectors as acceptation of other cultures and ideologies and get from those what really its common between all of them and not to always look to their differences as they were barrels or walls, (an example of that should be ancient medicinal plants that today's medicine confirm that chemical substances are out there free in the Nature).
Great Snave, without being megaloman, the world admires you.
My opinion, you have granted the title of Post Man ;o)
I think the important one about peace is "thou shall not steal." Maneuvering in Iraq was all about oil.
Excellent post Snave. Coming out for peace definitely takes more courage than shouting out "let's get in there and fight!" or "We're gonna win, we're number one!"
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