Becoming Worthy of Peace
February 26, 2008
What so many of us have done in the name of peace has created more trouble than solutions. We know it, yet we continue to walk down the same path.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about getting cynical about our leaders, our government, our foreign policy and staying on that theme for years.
Don’t get me wrong. I know in my heart when I see evil, and to advance this war as this administration has done is evil. To set up secret prisons, and to advocate for torture, is evil. Torture in itself is evil, and we all know it. There’s no need for debate about that, it’s just evil and always has been.
To raise fears about our brothers and sisters coming into the US from Mexico, saying "We must secure our borders and build a wall!", getting us to look way over there at those coming into our country to work the most menial jobs, while at the same time ignoring the war-profiteering by oil companies, Halliburton and other cronies of Mr. Bush & Co., is evil.
But here is a worse evil: to let ourselves get discouraged to the point of being cynical.
Peace comes to those who make themselves and their country worthy of peace. It doesn’t come to us when we sit back and are intellecually critical, without putting our own convictions on the line. Peace doesn’t come to us when we profit in our mutual funds and 401(k)s from the war companies’ profit-making, while we complain about the latest bad news from Iraq, sipping a latte.
We have to know how powerful we are, and take that power and exercise it. We have to do what we can, in whatever form and function we see fit, in order to at least do some small step toward creating a more peaceful world.
Mahatma Gandhi said two things about this in his time:
"Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep."
"Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good."
Of course, we want things to go smoothly in our lives and in our world. Of course we want peace within our own lives. And of course we get annoyed at even being shaken gently to awaken and become worthy of peace.
I know how you feel. I get annoyed too.
But the cost of peace, as Mr. Gandhi stated so clearly, is to act like women and men, not like sheep. To think independently, to speak out when injustices happen, to defend those who can’t defend themselves.
That is our call to arms. To be a Non-Violent Army. To refuse to cooperate with evil, wherever we see it. And we’ve certainly seen it enough these last seven years under the regime in the White House. There’s no question about it, in my mind. What has been perpetrated as defending our nation by this administration is injustice, it’s evil, and it’s wrong.
Here’s what you can do, from your own conscience:
Find your path to stand up for good. Follow your heart in creating some avenue that generates peace, peaceful relations, promotes peace in your community, or asks our leaders at all levels to vote for peaceful solutions instead of war.
Take a stand, speak your mind, and remember the fifth Rule of Life:
Don’t let them scare you.
In Peace,
Don, aka "The Gandhi Guy"
Questions of Sustainability
February 25, 2008
FYI - Harvard Business Review’s green site has a featured post:
Don’t Bother with the "Green" Consumer
http://www.hbrgreen.org/2008/01/dont_bother_with_the_green_con.html
This piece has some deeper learnings we can use in the movement toward peace, IMHO.
I’m wondering if you feel as I do feel the deep unity of peace, non-violence and sustainability - in direct contradiction to the output from Bush cabal?
Questions: Can you open this site for a select few participating members now prior to launch? How many of our friends want to come along with us in this? Who among us will listen to their hearts, step up and support the good work…? Is anybody out there up for a mission, a cause, a wildfire grassroots movement …? How might we best begin to work together to unleash this unconquerable, irresistible Avatar within?
http://gandhiguy.com
"Proving the Power in Peace, Non-Violence and Sustainability
( This website’s official launch = First Day of Spring 2008 )
Celebrating Peace! ( GandhiGuy, are you kidding…? )
February 18, 2008
Is it possible to celebrate peace in the face of Mr. Bush’s never-ending occupation and destruction of Iraq?
Is it possible to celebrate peace as thousands of our courageous women and men have died, and the latest Iraqi civilian casualties are listed at 1.2 million dead?
Peace is within our grasp at any moment. The madness of King George is corporate driven, profit and oil designed, and no friend to anyone except those who profit from the funding of this horrible war.
How can I then suggest that we celebrate peace? Stay with me for just a moment, and I’ll explain.
We can celebrate peace because right now, you who are here with us at GandhiGuy.com are part of the largest movement for kindness, compassion, and love ever to evolve on this planet. You are a member of the greatest number of people, ever, to be working for justice, peace, freedom and sustainability.
You are part of the largest human movement ever, right here, right now, and as a member of GandhiGuy.com, you matter!
There are literally millions and millions of like-minded people across the world, people just like you and me, who are fed up with the war profiteers and war-mongers, fed up with being told to be afraid all the time, and fed up with killing for oil. Millions of us are working day in and day out for peace, for people to be treated fairly and justly, for you and I to be able to hold our children at night and tell them that we are doing all that we can for a better world.
You are part of that movement for peace, this inevitable surge that is growing by the millions daily, and sending out a ripple of love and goodwill, of peace and courage, a movement that is drawing a line in the sand and saying in the words of the old spiritual hymn, "We ain’t gonna plan for war no more!"
Be happy, and celebrate the inevitability of peace. It’s here now, in the form of you and me, of millions more just like us, who are working so hard for peace. It’s just a matter of time till it gets here, till this horrifying war is over, so take heart.
You matter. Never give up, never lose heart. You matter, because you won’t give up. Just like all the millions of the rest of us.
With love and humility for standing next to you,
Don, aka "Gandhi Guy"
The New Math: Love Mr. Bush, Support Our Troops, End the War in Iraq
February 4, 2008
For a nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will thus fear none, nor will others fear him.
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.
Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.
–Mahatma Gandhi–
Here’s the key: Break state, and elevate!
–Gandhi Guy–
What does love have to do with working to end the war in Iraq? How is it possible to truly extend love to those who propagate this horrible war, and at the same time work toward it’s end as soon as possible?
I’ve come to believe that Gandhi showed us the way to do this, to be able to hold both realities in our hearts, minds, and in our actions. The paradox of loving those who are acting hurtfully, sometimes called ‘turning the other cheek’ is what Gandhi turned into an art. He mastered the ability to submit himself to the brutality of his oppressors, and inspired millions of others to do the same in South Africa, India, and later in the Civil Rights movement for Blacks in the United States, the Solidarity Movement in Czechoslavakia, the break-up of the old Soviet Union, and the end of Apartheid in South Africa led by Nelson Mandela.
There are many more examples, but one thing is clear: one sure way of ending war and injustice is to place oneself in the line of that injustice, along with thousands of others, and allow the hurt to fall onto you. Eventually, those who are performing the hurt will see the pain they are causing, and will stop. And then, they will become friends.
Gandhi wasn’t content with ending the rule of the British. He wanted to remain friends with those who perpetrated such misery on his people and his own self, and in that desire Gandhi raised himself and his movement for freedom above all others in modern history. Never before had someone sought to follow the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount story: "Love your enemy, do good to those who persecute you." Gandhi took this to heart, and set a pattern that we can emulate as well.
Here’s an idea: Exxon reported this very week (2/4?2008) that they have made the highest profit for a fiscal quarter in human history, $44 Billion dollars! During regular years, one could look at that number, and the last few years’ profits which have set successive records for Exxon and other oil companies, and congratulate them. Happy shareholders, for sure!
But what we are failing to connect is the fact that these profits are being made during this grab for oil the the Bush Regime has made in Iraq, threatened to do in Iran, is working to pull off with the Trans-Afghani pipeline, and, to add more misery, these profits are being racked up with the highest prices ever seen for gasoline here in the U.S.
We used to have laws against this sort of thing, they were called War Profiteering Laws. Companies weren’t allowed to raise prices and make outrageous profits off the populace during a war-time effort.
So here’s my suggestion. Take back your own freedom regarding oil, gasoline and the control these unjust corporations are having over our daily lives. Strike a blow for freedom by choosing one day at least where you refuse to drive your car, refuse to buy gasoline, and if you have to drive that day, refuse to drive alone.
Make your life be the change you seek in the world. Pick a day, maybe Fridays like me, which I now call ‘Freedom Fridays’, and stop the war machine from making use of your hard-earned dollars.
Join me in ‘Freedom Fridays’. Make your voice heard at the gas pump this week, and every week!
In Peace,
Don
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