The way to justice and peace. End endless, perpetual war.
Showing posts with label Peace One Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peace One Day. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2016
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, October 15, 2012
Quote of the day
"A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."
--President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Saturday, October 13, 2012
FDR and his "2nd Bill of Rights"
A "2nd Bill of Rights":
President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1944, for pity's sake, proposed an economic bill of rights just before he died. It was a list of rights proposed during his State of the Union Address of that year. In it, he "suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second 'bill of rights.' Roosevelt's argument was that the 'political rights' guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights had 'proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.' Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:
-Employment, with a living wage
-Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
-Housing
-Medical care
-Education
-Social security
And the thing is, I think we all agree that we are--or were--the wealthiest nation on the planet. That seems self-evident. And I think we could have done this, I think we could have given ourselves the above but instead of taking care of the nation and of ourselves, we've plowed far, far too much money and materiel into war and defense, even when it wasn't necessary.
For anyone and everyone that thinks that what he or anyone else means by proposing this is that we have "big government" and a nanny state I say stop. That is not what we're talking about at all.
If we took our nation's wealth and ability--and more nations did the same--and plowed it into the people's well-being and yes, infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewage and sewer systems, schools, transportation, etc.), instead of, again, defense and weapons of war, all people and nations of the world would benefit. There would be rising standards of living instead of falling. People would be fed, clothed, housed and have health care and so on.
Think about it.
If we had all been on this path long ago, the former Soviet Union wouldn't have collapsed and wouldn't have had to. They'd have been taking care of their people instead of squandering the nation's wealth on bombs and aircraft to carry them. All nations of the world could have spent less on war and weapons of war.
Unfortunately, the US has, since the Cold War, at least, has continued spending outrageously high sums on defense, even to this day. And it's incredibly high spending both in terms of our own Gross National Product (GDP) and that of all the other nation's spending on defense.
It's crazy. It's unfounded. It's unnecessary. It's obscene.
And it's all those things especially when you know there is so much poverty in our nation and so many go with little food and/or little or no schooling and millions go without good health care, etc.
It won't happen. At least, it won't happen anytime soon but we need to cut defense spending deeply and across the board. We--and the world--need to transfer over to a world of taking care of one another, instead of worrying about some big, ugly "bogeyman" that doesn't exist, by the way, and that may "take us over."
We, the people, need to push for this. We all need to get educated on why and how this should happen. And then we need to make it happen as soon as possible.
Here's hoping.
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights
President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1944, for pity's sake, proposed an economic bill of rights just before he died. It was a list of rights proposed during his State of the Union Address of that year. In it, he "suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second 'bill of rights.' Roosevelt's argument was that the 'political rights' guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights had 'proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.' Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:
-Employment, with a living wage
-Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
-Housing
-Medical care
-Education
-Social security
And the thing is, I think we all agree that we are--or were--the wealthiest nation on the planet. That seems self-evident. And I think we could have done this, I think we could have given ourselves the above but instead of taking care of the nation and of ourselves, we've plowed far, far too much money and materiel into war and defense, even when it wasn't necessary.
For anyone and everyone that thinks that what he or anyone else means by proposing this is that we have "big government" and a nanny state I say stop. That is not what we're talking about at all.
If we took our nation's wealth and ability--and more nations did the same--and plowed it into the people's well-being and yes, infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewage and sewer systems, schools, transportation, etc.), instead of, again, defense and weapons of war, all people and nations of the world would benefit. There would be rising standards of living instead of falling. People would be fed, clothed, housed and have health care and so on.
Think about it.
If we had all been on this path long ago, the former Soviet Union wouldn't have collapsed and wouldn't have had to. They'd have been taking care of their people instead of squandering the nation's wealth on bombs and aircraft to carry them. All nations of the world could have spent less on war and weapons of war.
Unfortunately, the US has, since the Cold War, at least, has continued spending outrageously high sums on defense, even to this day. And it's incredibly high spending both in terms of our own Gross National Product (GDP) and that of all the other nation's spending on defense.
It's crazy. It's unfounded. It's unnecessary. It's obscene.
And it's all those things especially when you know there is so much poverty in our nation and so many go with little food and/or little or no schooling and millions go without good health care, etc.
It won't happen. At least, it won't happen anytime soon but we need to cut defense spending deeply and across the board. We--and the world--need to transfer over to a world of taking care of one another, instead of worrying about some big, ugly "bogeyman" that doesn't exist, by the way, and that may "take us over."
We, the people, need to push for this. We all need to get educated on why and how this should happen. And then we need to make it happen as soon as possible.
Here's hoping.
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Got hope?
I was talking to a friend last evening and we both agreed that kids today, lots of them, are about enough to give you hope for them, for us and for the planet and our collective future. I'm sure it's not all of them, no, but there are a great deal of them out there who are far less racist, far less fearful, far less homophobic and just, overall, far less judgemental and ugly and hateful than previous generations. I think it stems from the fact that it's basically not allowed at most schools and taught by the teachers in each grade that they have to be tolerant and open-minded and not judgemental or ugly. I'm not being all pollyanna about this, either, don't get me wrong. I just run into more kids who express this tolerance and acceptance and open-mindedness. I also talk with plenty of friends and even strangers who see the same things and feel the same way. So here's to hope and the future. Between this and the fact that technology is bringing more effective and less expensive solar energy about quicker than we thought, it really is enough to give one hope. Now, we adults just have to make sure we don't kill each other with some bombs, first.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Brief primer on Iraq and Iran
If someone showed you these pictures singularly, would you think any of them from Iraq or Iran? We so love to demonize our "enemies" and not think of them as humans or their countries, for that matter, as habitable. We humans still have a long way to go, don't we?
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Quote of the day--on war--and peace
"Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?" --Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Did you recognize what yesterday was?
It was called "Peace One Day."
It's an attempt to organize all of us on the planet to go one day with peace--and without war and killing.
It's pretty idealistic, sure, but frankly I think we need some hopeful idealism.
You can see things about it if you do an internet search on it in general or if you search for it on You Tube.
Naturally, if you know anything of me at all, you know this would get me thinking.
Think about this.
The idea that we've always had wars and so, always will, starts to look as though it's really not true after all.
Let's look, briefly, at the largest wars of the last 100 years. Fortunately, it won't take long.
World War I began when a lunatic/anarchist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.
If there had been more information and even education, it could, possibly, have been avoidable, some historians believe.
WWII?
Again, I think historians, politicians and even the average "man on the street" believe that another lunatic started that war, too, in the person of Adolf Hitler.
Then there was the Korean War which I think the general consensus is that that was either a mistake or unnecessary or both, too, one way or another.
Vietnam War? We know the architects of that war itself--Robert McNamara, in specific--declared that a debacle and huge mistake.
Then there's the Iraq War, which I believe strongly that historians are going to prove was for protection of our own oil supply, at least, and again, unnecessary and completely avoidable.
So there you are--100 years of the biggest skirmishes of the 20th Century and they were, I think it's proven here, however lightly, that were avoidable.
I'm convinced that we are completely capable of wisely working our way out of wars one day.
And this Peace One Day and the International Day of Peace (Sept. 14) and universities that have been set up to study war--and peace--can go a long way to getting us there one day.
And the sooner the better, of course.
Link: http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sp0QGCYmnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLH1NTEgEvM
http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/welcome
It's an attempt to organize all of us on the planet to go one day with peace--and without war and killing.
It's pretty idealistic, sure, but frankly I think we need some hopeful idealism.
You can see things about it if you do an internet search on it in general or if you search for it on You Tube.
Naturally, if you know anything of me at all, you know this would get me thinking.
Think about this.
The idea that we've always had wars and so, always will, starts to look as though it's really not true after all.
Let's look, briefly, at the largest wars of the last 100 years. Fortunately, it won't take long.
World War I began when a lunatic/anarchist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.
If there had been more information and even education, it could, possibly, have been avoidable, some historians believe.
WWII?
Again, I think historians, politicians and even the average "man on the street" believe that another lunatic started that war, too, in the person of Adolf Hitler.
Then there was the Korean War which I think the general consensus is that that was either a mistake or unnecessary or both, too, one way or another.
Vietnam War? We know the architects of that war itself--Robert McNamara, in specific--declared that a debacle and huge mistake.
Then there's the Iraq War, which I believe strongly that historians are going to prove was for protection of our own oil supply, at least, and again, unnecessary and completely avoidable.
So there you are--100 years of the biggest skirmishes of the 20th Century and they were, I think it's proven here, however lightly, that were avoidable.
I'm convinced that we are completely capable of wisely working our way out of wars one day.
And this Peace One Day and the International Day of Peace (Sept. 14) and universities that have been set up to study war--and peace--can go a long way to getting us there one day.
And the sooner the better, of course.
Link: http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sp0QGCYmnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLH1NTEgEvM
http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/welcome
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