| Author |
Message |
    
Ingrid
| | Posted on Sunday, September 23, 2001 - 09:07 pm: | |
Please use this area to discuss measures you feel will promote peace. |
Victoria
| | Posted on Sunday, September 23, 2001 - 11:07 pm: | |
A great deal of love has been released. Let us not waste this precious energy, released through great sacrifice. Let the love released be used to nurture a vibration of peace.
We can create a peaceful energy, each of us, by holding a point of peace and love within. Let us create a great web of light surrounding our planet, light which will assist in moving us toward a future we wish to imagine.
Hold a point of love and peace for 5 minutes each day. Over time, this will create a cocoon of light, wrapping the planet, to assist in our spiritual evolution and to counter the negative forces that storm the surfaces right now.
If we do this each morning at 8 AM, (or at the beginning of any hour) we will sense each other, and the force of our creative energy. Over time, it will grow, assisting in the stabilization of each of us - and the world situation.
If you wonder whether you can find a point of peace and light within, here are some ideas:
If you feel comfortable with it, ask for assistance from higher powers.
Get in a quiet comfortable place, light a candle, and repeat a sentence over and over, that brings you like a wave, into a peaceful spot. Breath in and out between sentences. An example might be: "I easily hold a point of love and peace now..."
Imagine the candles people lit all over the world, imagine that with your meditation you are one of those candles. See all the candles lighting all over the world, see the lines of light connecting them. See the earth protected by light.
Please add your ideas, blessing, or what works for you.
Sending light, love, peace and blessings to you and to the earth. |
Ingrid
| | Posted on Monday, September 24, 2001 - 12:33 am: | |
Ammachi had proposed 8:00 pm. I feel that we can instruct our unconscious energies to hold these vibrations regardless of how caught up we become in trying to keep our day-to-day activities on an even keel.
I feel that the most helpful exercise any of us can perform is to observe ourselves for any thoughts or feelings that set us apart from others. For instance, right now, it takes a lot of strength to process the tremendously precarious plight of those of us who live on and who love this Planet. It seems to be much easier to recognize that we pray to the same God. I personally am deeply touched by listening to many people praying, each in his or her own way, and knowing that we are one in our piety, one in our humility, one in our compassion, and one in our common humanity. I easily feel the merger with each and every heart.
When it comes to political actions and the reasons for those actions, it is much harder for me to feel this kinship, especially if someone close to me holds radically different opinions about what should be the course of action.
I am seeing this as an opportunity to process all that divides. I am listening, not necessarily changing my views but exploring the points where there is concurrence and sympathy and hoping that we can respect each other and explore peaceful alternatives.
I totally believe that anything we set into motion will create an action and then a reaction. If we want to eliminate karma, we have to find harmony and sometimes this may involve more than wishful thinking. It may entail offering more to the peace process than anyone has heretofore imagined. |
Tara
| | Posted on Monday, September 24, 2001 - 05:24 am: | |
I received this today and would like to share this beautiful and inspirational message.
In the Light of a New Dawn.
Tara
=======================
A message from the Dalai Lama
Dear friends around the world,
The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again. The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are.
There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear. If we come from fear we may panic and do things - as individuals and as
nations - that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others.
This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and
minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come. We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment.
Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause. Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.
To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the most basic human lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human truths. We have not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we have not been listening to God, and because we have not, we watch ourselves do ungodly things.
The message we hear from all sources of truth is clear: We are all one. That is a message the human race has largely ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to remember is simple: Love, this and every moment. If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome?
These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all.
If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become spiritual activists right here, right now, and cause that to happen. We must choose to be at cause in the matter.
So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for counsel and advice, for insight and for strength and for inner peace and for deep wisdom. Ask God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a way that will cause the world itself to change.
And join all those people around the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light that dispells all fear. That is the challenge that is placed before every thinking person
today.
Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred-and the disparity that inevitably causes it -
in that part of the world which I touch? Please seek to answer that question today, with all the
magnificence that is You. What can you do TODAY...this very moment?
A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to experience, provide for another. Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that. If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.
Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for love.
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
Dalai Lama |
Gerry
| | Posted on Monday, September 24, 2001 - 01:19 pm: | |
I am writing to propose that we invite, support and provide resources for a new American Muslim Peace Corps for Muslim Nations. Until there is infrastructure -- health, education, industry and welfare (a fair standard of living) in these countries, there can be no peace. As American Christians, we are suspect. So I propose that we help establish a long-term solution. WE can certainly help formulate this foundation and help fund it, support it with expertise, but it seems to me that it is the Muslims of America that must oversee, staff and carry out this ministry. |
Ingrid
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 01:09 am: | |
Truly excellent idea. I feel we should be helping Pakistan to build hospitals and housing on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border. It is outrageous to cause an exodus of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of refugees, and not to have food, shelter, and health care available when the refugees arrive.
Moreover, I completely concur that such gestures of concern and compassion should be offered in such a way as to provide immediate employment to those who are on the scene with minimal coordination by others.
I wrote the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, but their e-mail is bulging so I keep getting messages that delivery in delayed, this for days now. Suggestions for how to initiate and energize this are most welcome. Please, let's us show that our hearts are open, as one human being to another, let us show we care. At this time, I would literally give the shirt off my back to someone less fortunate . . . but I want to make sure the shirt arrives! Maybe one of the airlines that is underbooked could carry cargo? |
admin
| | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 07:32 pm: | |
WAGING PEACE - sent by Dr. Lyn Ferguson
Let us deploy our troops.
Let our diplomats seek broad international agreement.
Let our soldiers advance first, to clear the field of violence.
Then let us unleash our most powerful weapons!
Let us lay down roads where none has ever been.
Let us dig wells of clean water where people can safely drink.
Let our armies build hospitals and schools.
Let our warriors teach hygiene and mathematics.
Let our doctors inoculate against disease, and our soldiers battle malnutrition.
Let us scour the Earth clean of terrorism through the merciless application of knowledge, compassion, hope, and tolerance.
Terrorism is the weapon of the desperate and hopeless, the brutally blinded, and the deliberately blind.
And we can defeat terrorism.
We, America, have the power to do so if we are not ourselves blinded by vengeance, anger, and fear.
We hold the light of Liberty.
So let us unleash our weapons of mass construction, even as we deploy our gunships and missiles to defend our endeavors.
Let us carry the battle into the tent cities of the Palestinians and the arid crags of Afghanistan, the doctor and the engineer shoulder to shoulder with the U.N. peacekeeper and the U.S. soldier.
Let us hurl homes at homelessness, unleash law upon lawlessness, and let justice roll down like a mighty river and wash away the unjust.
We have an opportunity, now laid so grievously before us, to start and win a war with our most powerful and uniquely American weapons: love,
opportunity, education, and hope.
England and Israel teach us that the battle against terrorism takes decades.
Let the next generation all over the world say to the terrorist recruiters,
"Why would we want to harm America, who inoculates our children, houses our poor, champions justice and feeds our hungry?"
Only then shall we have defeated terrorism.
So let us arm our soldiers and mourn our dead, and take up both the pen as well as the gun.
Let us fix a steel-eyed gaze on the true costs and the real efforts involved.
Let us gird ourselves against our inevitable losses and unavoidable setbacks.
Let us join with all people in all nations who worship in truth and love, and let us set forth on this, the true, final World War.
Let us incessantly, relentlessly wage Peace. |
admin
| | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 08:17 pm: | |
Mitakuye (my relative), I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation, would like to ask for this time for you to understand an Indigenous perspective in reflection of what has happened in America, what we call "Turtle Island".
For the past six years, my work has concentrated on an effort on uniting the Global community, through a message from our sacred ceremonies in recognizing a day of World Peace and Prayer on June 21st as a time to unite spiritually, each in our own ways of beliefs in the Creator.
We have been warned from the messages passed down from Ancient Prophecies of these times we live in today, but also a very important message of a solution to turn these terrible times around. To assist you in understanding the depth of this message involves the recognition in the importance of Sacred Sites. It is important that you realize the whole interconnectedness of what is happening today, in reflection of the continued massacres that are occurring on other lands and our own Americas. I have been learning about these important issues of Sacred Sites since the age of 12, upon receiving the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle and it's teachings.
Our people have strived to protect Sacred Sites from the beginning of time. There needs to be an understanding in the concern of the protection of Sacred Sites that goes deeper than just the issue of Shrines built by humans.
Our people have built similar objects and Shrines to identify and to remind the significance in the power of the Sacred Site. We have also witnessed them being destroyed for many decades, but we also realize it is what is underneath them that is important. These places have been violated for centuries and have brought us to this predicament that we are in concerning the unstable Global Level thus far.
Look around you, our Mother Earth is very ill from these violations and we are at a brink of destroying a healthy and nurturing survival for generations to come, our children's children.
Our ancestors have been trying to protect our Sacred Site from the continued violations called the Sacred Black Hills in SD, "Heart of Everything that is". Our ancestors had never seen this site from a Satellite view, but now that those pictures are available with modern technology, we see that it is in the shape of a heart and when fast forwarded it looks like a heart pumping.
The Dine have been protecting Big Mountain, calling it the liver and now that the coal is depleting, we are suffering and going to suffer more from the extraction of the coal and poison processes used in doing so.
The Aborigines has warned of the contaminating effects on the Corral Reefs from Global Warming, which they see as Mother Earth's blood purifier, our sacred water is being polluted.
The Indigenous people of the Rain Forest relay that the Rain Forest are the lungs and need protection and now we see the Brazilian Government approved the depletion of 50% of this Sacred Site.
The Gwich'in Nation has an issue of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, also known to the Gwich'in as 'Where the life begins!'
The coastal plain is also the birthplace of many other life forms of Animal Nations. The death of these Animal Nations will destroy Indigenous Nations in this territory. As these destructive developments continue all over the world, we will witness many more extinct Animal, Plant and Human Nations, because of the misuse of power that mankind has made and their lack of understanding the "balance of life".
The Indigenous people warn that these destructive developments will cause havoc globally.
There are many, many more Indigenous awareness's and knowledge of Mother Earth's Sacred Sites, connections (Mother Earth's Chakras) to our spirit that will surely affect our future generations. These people are still suffering from this contamination and their livelihood is being destroyed as I write this to you. There needs to be a fast move toward other forms of energy that are safe for all Nations upon Mother Earth. We need to understand the whole picture in the type of minds that are continuing to destroy the spirit of our whole Global Community.
Unless we do this, the powers of destruction will overwhelm us. Our Ancestors foretold that water would someday be for sale. Back then this was hard to believe, since the water was so plentiful, so pure, and so full of energy, nutrition and spirit. Today we have to buy pure water, and even then the nutritional minerals have been taken out; it's just empty liquid. Someday water will be like gold, too expensive to afford. Not everyone will have the right to drink safe water. We fail to appreciate and honor our Sacred Sites, ripping out the minerals and gifts that lay underneath them, as if Mother Earth were simply a resource, instead of the Source of Life itself.
Attacking Nations and having to utilize more resources to carry out the destruction in the name of Peace and elimination is not the answer! We need to understand how all these decisions affects the Global Nation, we will not be immune to its repercussions. To allow continual contamination of our food and land, is now affecting the way we think. A "disease of the mind" has set in World Leaders and many members of our Global Community, with their understanding that a solution of retaliation and destruction of peoples will bring Peace.
In our Prophecies it is told that we are now at the Crossroads, either unite Spiritually as a Global Nation, or be faced with chaos, disasters, diseases and tears from our relatives eyes. In times of disasters it is sad to say that it is the only time that we unite spiritually, but we must not taint it with anger and retaliation.
We are the only species that is destroying the Source of life, meaning Mother Earth, in the name of power, mineral resources and ownership of land, using methods of chemicals and warfare that is becoming irreversible, as Mother Earth is becoming tired and can not sustain any more impacts of war. I ask you to join me on this endeavor.
Our vision is for the Peoples of all continents, regardless of their beliefs in the Creator, to come together as one at their Sacred Sites at that sacred moment of what is known as the Summer Solstice of June 21st, to pray and meditate and commune with one another, thus promoting an energy shift to heal our Mother Earth and achieve a universal consciousness toward attaining Peace. As each day passes bringing us to this day of concentration together, I ask the Global Nations to begin a Global effort, in knowing that each and every one of us are making a daily effort in waking to a gratitude of another day, that is gifted to us and begin to remember to give thanks for the Sacred Food that has been also gifted to us by our Mother Earth, so the nutritional energy of medicine can be guided to heal our minds and spirits.
This new millennium will usher in an age of harmony or it will bring the end of life as we know it. Starvation, war and toxic waste have been the hallmark of the Great Myth of Progress and Development that ruled the last millennium. To us, as caretakers of the heart of Mother Earth, falls the responsibility of turning back the powers of destruction.
We have come to a time and place of great urgency. The fate of future generations rests in our hands. We must understand the two ways we are free to follow, as we choose-the positive way or the negative way, the spiritual way or the material way. It's our own choice--each of ours and all of ours. You yourself are the one who must decide. You alone-and only you--can make this crucial choice. Whatever you decide is what you'll be, to walk in honor or to dishonor your relatives. You can't escape the consequences of your own decision. On your decision depends the fate of the entire World. You must decide. You can't avoid it. Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this World. Believe that! Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this World. Did you think you were put here for something less? In a Sacred Hoop of Life, where there is no beginning and no ending!
Mitakuye Oyasin, Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe. |
admin
| | Posted on Sunday, September 30, 2001 - 02:08 am: | |
From Nelson Mandela:
The terrorist attacks in the United States of America last week shook all of humanity. It starkly reminded us again of the depth to which we can sink in our inhumanity towards one another.
It was a source of encouragement to note that almost the entire world responded with utter revulsion to such cowardly acts that cruelly and horrendously took the lives of so many innocent people merely going about their ordinary daily lives. Amidst the indescribable tragedy the overwhelming decency of human beings the world over found expression in the unreserved condemnation of those terrible deeds of cruelty.
To that we wish to add our collective voice of condemnation of those acts and to express our deep felt sympathy to the American government, people and particularly those who lost family and friends. We share in their sense of loss and can only trust that they will take some sustenance from the knowledge that so many people all over the world mourn with them.
The events of last week are also a renewed call to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism. Those acts emphasised that we are all vulnerable to terrorism. We hope that the culprits will be identified, apprehended and severely punished.
This is a time that the world should stand together in pursuit of those objectives. Terrorism seeks to put itself above and outside of the law. Our steps against terrorism should studiously be within international law and the charter of our world body.
We need wise leadership and statesmanship in this period of looming crisis. The actions taken should not deepen tensions and further divide the world for it is in those circumstances of strife and division that terrorism finds fertile ground.
The recent history of our own country has taught that negotiation is the surest means of finding lasting solutions to even the most seemingly intractable political problems.
In combating and seeking to eliminate terrorism we must address the root causes of problems around the world and find just solutions to them. In the Middle East, particularly, efforts at arriving at a just and peaceful settlement should be redoubled.
If out of the tragic events of last week the world can find a renewed will to co-operate in finding just solutions to the problems that threaten the safety, security and well-being of us all, the highest tribute would have been paid to those who lost their lives.
Signed:
Nobel Peace Laureates
Nelson R Mandela
F W de Klerk
D M Tutu
South Africa
19 September 2001 |
Ingrid
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 04:42 am: | |
I have just finished meditation with a friend and been shown some visions that I have been permitted to share.
First, the issues that are clouding the field of global politics have nothing to do with those who are truly committed to peace. A great deal can be done to mitigate the effects of antagonistic forces by resolving your own issues with peace. It was proposed that each person reach out to one person in the family or household or intimate circle and resolve old stuff by mutual recognition that no purpose is served by hanging onto opinions about who did what and why. If a clear space can be created in which each person can speak his or her truth without fear of rejection or reprisal (in the form of confrontations and beratement), a great deal of baggage can be lifted off personal relationships and thereby facilitate the way for important harmony.
Second, integrity in work in very important and it was suggested that some of this be a little overt. For example, a clerk who tells a customer, "This is a discontinued item and may not meet your present needs as well as this other item," would be contributing towards economic integrity and by making the statement audibly would be shifting the basis of exchange on the planet. Much exchange has been based on misrepresentation, greed, and exploitation. If every day, one made a point of saying, "I am doing my best because the world needs my best at this time," the effects would be quite amazing within a very short time.
Third, every day take the time to appreciate one item in your range of vision or possession that is imported and send a happy thought to persons from the country where the medicine or food or clothing or appliance was made. Thank them for making your life more comfortable or aesthetic and include the vision of that country and its peoples in your radiance.
Four, take the time to thank Nature for her boundless generosity and beauty. Like any woman, She appreciates acknowledgment and it gives Her assurance that someone will care for Her instead of inflicting more wounds on Her Being. Also, like the feminine within each person, Her way of showing her discomfort is to produce images that reflect Her condition. Thus to treat Her with love and respect is to elicit love in return. So, stop now and then to tell the flowers they are gorgeous and to acknowledge the majesty of the mountains and beneficence of the fields and waters . . . and take the time each day to contribute a bit to the healing of the ecological problems on the Planet. Try to recycle, reuse, and reduce waste. Compost. Conserve without hoarding. Most of all, feel blessed and willing to bless in return.
Five, take time each day to say to at least one person that you think all problems can be solved without harming others. Do not engage in argument. Make your statement sound more like a prayer that you hope is shared by others.
If you do this and you ask everyone else to try the same, the multiplier effect will soon touch millions and maybe billions of people. We know how e-mail can travel. Try this.
Despite many prophecies, this is not the end of the world. It is the end of polarization caused by beings who seek power at the expense of cooperation and harmony. This is Paradise and Paradise is being restored.
God bless,
Ingrid |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2001 - 04:04 am: | |
Author James Twyman will travel to Afghanistan to focus a world-wide prayer vigil for peace. The trip will take place in either November or December and will be sponsored by a spiritual organization in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.
James will carry with him a printed compilation of one million peace prayers contributed from around the world. These prayers, called the Million Prayer March, were originally intended to be delivered by a political emissary.
In order to meet the goal of one million prayers we need your help. Simply go to http://www.PrayersofPeace.com and add yours today, then pass this message to everyone on your own email list so word will spread around the world. You will then be added (only if you choose) to a list of hundreds of thousands of people who will be alerted no more than two days before the vigil takes place. (The short timing is for the security and safety of Mr. Twyman.) The goal is to have the ability to mobilize millions of people almost instantaneously to use the power of prayer to bring peace. Please join us in this initiative by adding your prayer today.
James Twyman is the author of five books on peace and has traveled to countries like Iraq, Northern Ireland, Israel, Kosovo, Serbia and many others at times of war. For more information go to JamesTwyman.com. |
Barbara
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2001 - 02:55 am: | |
ONE WORLD – ONE PEOPLE
Armed with my homemade sign, I approached the corner where daily 5:00 p.m. peace protests are held at the (local) Federal Building. To my surprise the first sign that I saw had a drawing of the American flag with a caption underneath that read: SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. Looking every bit out of place at a peace protest, the owner of the sign, a man clad in a blue plaid hunting jacket, stood out in front of the others, on the corner of 7th and Pearl. Sprinkled on either side of the lone pro-war activist, further back and less visible, were a handful of individuals, standing silently, holding their signs, deploring war and begging for peace. In the background a man was strumming on a guitar while quietly singing songs about peace.
I took a quick look around to get a feel for where I wanted to stand my ground, deciding to take my place right next to the pro-war demonstrator, standing out front with him, sharing his corner. I wanted to be every bit as visible as he, with my sign that had a picture of the planet on it with the caption: ONE WORLD – ONE PEOPLE.
The shining sun and blue sky, that had broke through the gray clouds that were showering the city with rain just an hour earlier, rendered the October chill bearable. I was glad for that. My resolve for being a visible sign for peace is strong, but I didn’t know if it was stronger than the cold rain and it’s effect on me. Yet, with the U.S. military retaliation against Afghanistan now in full swing, I felt my message was an important one that needed public attention.
Initially, I stood as a sign, not looking at the passerby’s; I was just a voice for peace. As I began interacting with our captive audience, rush hour traffic on a busy thoroughfare, I witnessed a curious mixture of responses.
Many of them stared straight ahead, nearly apathetic, not wanting to be any part of the demonstration.
A large number gave the thumbs up sign to my pro-war neighbor, their flags waving wildly as they drove by us. One man went further than the thumbs up, stopping traffic to sputter “how dare you” at a man holding a sign in one hand and a flag in the other. His sign read: Corporations R Terrorists 2, and his “American” flag had corporate icons instead of stars, icons of the giants that exploit, expunge and expel. The kind that value ‘Profits over People’.
Then there were those who honked for peace, bestowing us with the peace sign and a smile. I noticed that those who were for peace smiled while those who were in support of war scowled.
A few policemen drove by. One of them said “Hi Folks”. He smiled back at my smile, and then drove on once he saw that everything was peaceful.
A gray bearded man of about 50 drove up on a motorcycle, pulling off onto the side of the street where I stood. He first looked at my sign and then at the sign with the flag and pro-war message. He then looked at me and then at the man in protest of supporting military action. He sat silently, then looked at me again and slowly said, “I agree with your message” and then sped away.
My message ‘ONE WORLD – ONE PEOPLE’ is simple, straightforward and obvious. If we remove the territorial borders, move beyond skin color, religion and culture, if we realize that our actions affect every living being - our children, our parents, our siblings, our lovers, ourselves, our neighbors (both near and far) - then perhaps we could stand still long enough to comprehend the madness of retaliation, the horrors of inflicting more harm on innocent people, and the ignorance of fueling the fire for more anger, more hatred, more division. If we could open our eyes and see that we are all one world, then we would understand that loss, destruction and acts of terrorism, including military acts, affect all of us, Afghanis and Americans alike.
At 6:00 p.m. the protestors disassembled. I stood strong, next to the man with the sign with the American flag, for a while longer. I felt that my message needed to be there to counter his. Strangely, though I initially felt some discomfort standing next to this person who was promoting war, I did not feel that his message was necessarily the enemy of peace. While I am sure that he believed his intentions to be of a genuine nature, his thinking, along with the thinking of many enraged individuals right now, is quite skewed. I did not after all, want anyone dying for my “freedom”.
Here we were, him with his picture of the flag and me with mine of the planet, standing side by side, sharing the same street corner, silent and peaceful. When it was time for me to go, I turned and said, “Good-bye”. He hesitatingly and without looking at me said, “See ya”.
Though he and I are clearly harbingers of different messages, if my message is true, then he and I are one people, he as much a part of me as I am a part of him. As I walked away I realized the need to dig deep into my psyche to find that hidden part of him that resides in me, hoping that he could do the same.
Until we can begin to reconcile the differences within ourselves, reconcile the differences that we have with one another, right here in our own country, on our own soil, then we cannot begin to embrace and accept the differences with our neighbors from other nations. And we will continue to nurture this fertile ground of hatred with the blood of our fellow human beings. |
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