Presidential Peace Politics

Will we get a lasting peace?

Is that possible at all, ever?

I’ve come to believe after my short years on this planet that holding peace might not yet be possible for the human race.

There seem to be just too many people alive at this point who are still steeped in the old ways of war, killing, and in the case of the large corporations that make up the War Machine, profitting from war itself.

So I’ve come to think that longing for, and hoping for, and counting on a lasting world-wide peace just isn’t in the cards right now. There are too many Aces, Kings and Queens stacked in this crooked, murderous deck we call Civilization.

There is too much greed. Too much hatred. Too many people fanning the flames of bigotry, racism and sexism to count on peace happening across the world in the blink of an eye.

We are too comfortable, we in this Western world and here in the U.S., to get out of our complacency to the extent needed to lead the world in peace-making.

So I’ve had to ask myself, "So what DO I do toward the kind of world I wish to create? Where can I make a difference, and what kind of difference CAN I make in my lifetime?"

And what I land on over and over again is that if perhaps we can’t hold a world-wide peace, we can surely hold onto a ‘Process of Peace’.

What is a Process of Peace? It is the action steps needed to get folks to stop fighting, and start cooperating. It’s the courage to step into the fray of competing interests, and create Win-Win-Win situations that ripple out in our families, into our communities, in our school boards and town councils, and on up the ladder into our State, National and International negotiations.

A Process of Peace is what I’ve been writing about in a different form, in my articles on "The Way of We". Except that this Process of Peace is looking at the same philosophical stance but on a larger context.

Here are a few examples:

    *We each take time every day, making it part of our own personal spiritual path, to contribute somehow to peace in our world.

    *We look at what we want the world to look like–peace-filled, open-hearted, generous–and BE that change we wish to see in the world.

    *We take a look at the folks in our communities who are struggling, can’t eat or don’t have shelter, and we help them out in some way, shape or form.

Now, about the title of this article: Presidential Peace Politics. Can any of these ideas apply to the current race here in the U.S. for the Presidency, the contest between Barack Obama and John McCain? Is it at all possible to influence either one of these men, or both, to consider peace as a path that the United States could follow, rather than the aggressive war-mongering that the BushCo war crinimals have followed these past eight years?

The United States has had a history of warring, in some ways second to none in history. There is a case that can be made for saying that every war this country has been in since its inception falls into the category of Acts of Aggression toward other peoples and nations, rather than defensive acts or acts to promote freedom, as our U.S. mythology would have us believe.

Can we influence these two men running for President of the United States to consider peace as our national security plan, rather than pre-emptive warring as the best way to protect our ‘national interests’?

Perhaps not. Unfortunately. But perhaps with enough anger turned toward action, enough outrage turned into love, and enough of our own tendency to demonize our leaders changed into compassionate action, we can make a difference that will eventually ripple into the hightest office in the land.

We can hope, as Mr. Obama asks us to do. We can hope for peace, and plan for peace, and act for peace.

We can actually experience ourselves in peace in all of our relationships:within our Selves, with our loved ones, across our communities, across the world, and not wait for our elected leaders to forge the path toward peace for us.

We can never doubt that we are enough. You are enough, now, and always, to make a difference in this world.

Perhaps, when more and more of us create peace in our lives and between us and others, then our leaders will get in line with us, and we will lead.

Go for the experience of peace yourself. That’s a Process of Peace that goes beyond simply hoping.

It is real.

I am the Spirit of a Peaceful World . . .

"I am the Spirit of a Peaceful World.

I sing a song of peace to all my sisters and brothers, all who desire and strive and yearn and cry out for peace between all peoples.

I invite you, and welcome you, and cherish you and hold you in my heart of hearts as we are truly one People, all the World as One.

All myths that separate us I ignore. All creeds that would divide us I smile at as at a naughty child. All greedy preachers who would turn us, one against the other, I invite to examine their souls, their spirits, their integrity, and let go of their fear and greed and hatred.

Any declarations that invoke fear in you are based in the greed of the speaker, always. Instead, let us seek what is always here inside each one of us.

I am with you, All-Ways, in the Spirit of Peace.

There is never a time when we are separate. There is no Deity that is above or disconnected from any part of Creation, at any time. How could there ever be?

If the Universe is One Complete Whole, and you are in it to be reading this, then you are part of this One Complete Whole. That makes you an intricate part of All-That-Is, never separate, never sinning, never making a mistake. All you do, think, feel, and are being is part of this wonderful Universe, and all of it is good.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

I am the Spirit-That-Moves-Through-All-Things.

I am Mahatma Gandhi, the Spirit inherent in the stories of Jesus the Christ, I am Mohammed and Buddha, Lao Tsu, Mother Theresa, Yogananda, Krishna, all the Saints and holy women and men of all time.

I am the Spirit of a Peaceful World, that you desire so greatly in your life.

There is no need to fear, no worries too great that coming together as a people will not lessen.

I am the Spirit of a Peaceful World, and I invite you to join Me in your own path that pulls you toward the largest version of Love that you can possibly imagine—then, imagine it even bigger!

And then, be THAT Change you wish to see in the world, in your own heart, your own integrity, in all your relationships and words and thoughts and deeds.

Let it all go, let it be, let it become a path you walk on–if you do, you’ll see!

I am the Spirit of a Peaceful World, and I love you in all that you are now, have ever been, and will be in the future.

Come, right now, and join Me in Peace."

The Process of Peace

From Gandhi: "Non-violence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and the bravest"

So many visionaries, Gandhi included, spent considerable energy working to bring about a world, or at least their country, as a place of sustaining peace. They worked forever it seems, untold hours, many lost everything they held dear, reaching for that unreachable star of peace and tranquility as a people.

I’m not sure such a peace can hold. I’m not sure there are enough peace-loving folks in the world who would actually be able to stand for peace, in a way that would stop those who corrupt our governments and manipulate our people from foisting yet another of their insane wars on us.

Maybe that can’t ever happen, I don’t know. In some ways, it’s discouraging.

But I find another possiblity inspiring. And it’s a possibility, a potential that takes far less to accomplish, and far more results that can be predictable, workable, and measurable.

I’ve come to believe that we can create a process of peace, if not absolute peace itself.

What is a process of peace? It is a way to engage those who are engaged in war, or attacks, or manipulations toward war, into working with each other to find a way to live together. It is a trust-building process that offers the path of getting to peace as a way to create lasting relationship. And, it is a process that honors and protects the interests of all sides, and sees all of the people involved as the same, with the same human desires for living a fulfilling life free of strife.

The Process of Peace holds these above tenets sacred. It is a process with a foundation that all people are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. With these principles as touchstones to this process, fears, worries, wants and needs can all be addressed with equality, respect and understanding.

And in such an atmosphere, even friendship can blossom among former enemies.

All people are created equal. What we see with the corruptors here in America is that they haven’t even offered any path toward peace with the people fighting against our occupation of Iraq. Their intent clearly seems to be to hold Iraq, through killing and fighting only, and to protect the oil fields until their multi-national corporations can secure them for themselves. They seem to have accomplished this aim this past week, in their immoral negotiations with Iraq.

The United States must feel ashamed of this empire-building and colonization of Iraq. We have been in many ways a good and just people. We have also been the most aggressive warring country on Earth, with never-ending wars to secure resources across the globe. This ‘process of war’ is all too familiar, and it’s end must come, and come soon.

We can engage in a process of peace. We can find a way to reach the hearts and minds of those we are fighting, and to offer our own capacity for toleration, understanding, and yes, even our ability for friendship to blossom.

We must find the process of peace. And we can begin with our own lives, and find such a peace-making process within our own relationships, family, friendships, workplaces and communities.

Let’s dedicate ourselves to this process of peace, and do so starting now, today.

After all, it’s our Process of Peace. It’s way too precious to leave to war-mongers and war-profiteers, such as the corruptors who are running our U.S. government today.

A Beautiful Prayer for Peace

My friend, Norma Tarango of Tesuque,  New Mexico, sent me this prayer when she received our invitation to our 3rd-Saturday Meditation for Peace coming up on March 15th (2-3:30pm at the Santa Fe UU Church).

I found this prayer very sweet, and moving, and grounded in reality. Make it be your prayer for this week.

With Love,

Don, aka "Gandhi Guy"

Prayer for Peace

Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bodhi tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.
Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.

If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas–

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

from The Human Line, by Ellen Bass
 

 

Becoming Worthy of Peace

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"

Celebrating Peace! ( GandhiGuy, are you kidding…? )

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"

Can you hear me now?

"I look upon an increase of the power of the State with the greatest fear, because although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress.

We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor." - Mahatma Gandhi -

"What comes from more power in the US government, the kinds of ‘power grabs’we’ve seen the Bush administration exercise? 1. Corruption that is unprecedented in it’s range and scope; 2. Ideologies of hate, fear and segregation of groups, one against the other; 3. Attempts to cast corporations as the guiding force in our country and in the world beyond; and 4. Immoral and unethical, as well as illegal and unconstitutional, wars and acts of aggression toward individuals, groups and even soveriegn nations.

"There is no heart within such government, only the quest for expansion of power for the few, over the many. This is not conservativism, it is fascism, the heart-less take-over of the United States by companies and men who are unjust in their actions. Let no one be mistaken, for the common good, the conversion of these mens’ hearts and minds is at the heart of GandhiGuy.com, ." - Don, GandhiGuy

What we’ve learned from the great leaders of peace in our history as a people is that the hearts and minds of men seeking power must be changed, converted to compassion and caring rather than power and personal benefit. Such a conversion rivals the evangelist’s efforts to bring others to his religion, only with one profound difference: we seek a conversion of the heart of the men who are praciticing such dominance and corruption as the current U.S. administration, so that the whole country may enjoy the benefits of liberty and justice.

We are not working here at GandhiGuy.com to make religious clones of anyone. We simply are seeking a form of trusteeship within the government that places sustainable practices ahead of personal greed or gain of power.

I would propose to you that Gandhi’s purpose was to free his people, both in South Africa as well as in India, from the abuse of power that the British governments in both countries exercised over the Indian populace. In that quest, Gandhi saw the effects of the British oppression most strongly in the lives of the poor and impoverished citizens of his country. In his efforts for justice and freedom for his people, he often described such poverty, which was promagated as British policy, as the ultimate form of violence.

We agree.

Unfortunately, we in America have come to this current time seeing poverty as something distant from us. Our mutual funds have been raided by corrupt business people, our mortgages have been increased by unscrupulous banking policies, and our children’s financial futures have been taken from them while we slept. 

Can any country survive when it ignores the sovereignty of other countries, provokes war, takes over resources within those countries, and permeates a culture of fear, torture and aggression across the world with it’s war machines, while ignoring the needs of it’s own people?

The answer must be no, and we must wake up from our long night’s sleep. We are the solution that we are seeking, the world is asking it of us, and nothing can stop us once we see the path for justice, equity and liberty for all people, not just the rich elite that our present administration represents and calls it’s ‘Base’.

In future posts we’ll explore these ideas further, including concrete steps we can all take toward working for such a campaign of peace and justice. Be assured, there are millions across this country and around the world who are standing next to you and us, shoulder to shoulder, working for a just world. You are not alone.

And you are so appreciated here at GandhiGuy.com!

Let’s make a world, and a country, that we can be proud to call our own.

In Peace,

Don

Peace is Powerful!

I was talking with my InnerPeace Coach, Clay Cotton, today. We landed on a couple of truths (as we see ‘em): There is strength in numbers, and peace is powerful.

Always remember that you make a difference. The actions that you take for peace ripple out to those around you who see you being courageous, who then get inspired by you and want to be brave too, and then peace gets passed on one to another, and then peace really happens.

That’s how a movement like Mr. Gandhi’s came into being, and freed 350 million people from the repressive regime of the British. It started with Gandhi’s dream, spread to a few of his close friends, who got inspired, who then took action, and inspired more, until the ‘Gandhi Group’ became a force that changed India and Great Britain, and then changed the world!

And that’s how powerful your steps for peace can be!

Always remember—you make the difference!

I promise to keep reminding you of that, as we grow together here at GandhiGuy.com.

There’s a lot of work to do in our joyful journey toward a country whose major export is peace and friendship, instead of what we see today.

Come join us in our campaign, together!

In Peace,

Don, aka "The Gandhi Guy"

PS: Go see the new documentary, "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song". It’s absolutely inspiring - We can love Pete Seeger and his message all over again!