18 Comments so far

1. Justin Kidd February 25th, 2007 4:09 pm

   My take: Born in 1941 when our Navy was fully engaged in WW II before Pearl Harbor, I’m just curious as to what it would be like to live in a United States that was NOT either shooting at somebody, getting ready to shoot at somebody, or insisting that the Bad Guys were all around us as we had better be ready to shoot at somebody. My grandparents grew up and got married in such a country; so did my Mom and Dad. But not me, not my kids, not my students. No peacetime–not really–for me, and pretty clearly no justice.

   Just for a few years before I kick the oxygen habit cold turkey, I’d like to experience the peacetime that I’ve only read about. Seems like a smallish request, but there you are.

2. Jaded Prole February 25th, 2007 4:18 pm

   The culture foisted upon us daily through the various media is one of gratuitous voilence, vengeance and rugged individualism. It is a false culture which only serves the needs of those who manufacture it. Our pre-corporate culture was one of community. We act out of our culture. It forms our attitudes, our language, and inevitably our behavior. Christianson is right, we have to take our culture back and rehumanize it. We need to re-instill community because the reality is that we are mutually dependent. The Blue Collar Review is one small front in that effort but we need many more. The small press and the internet are important media in that they are accessible, lets all take responsibility and participate. Don’t let corporate thugs define us.

3. Rebel Farmer February 25th, 2007 5:04 pm

   I think what we have here is the “nut” of the problem that we find ourselves in today. I’ve really been wanting to get back to the notion of the “commons” and community. There is one major obtacle…where we are right now! You can get anywhere from here. The only way to move forward to a U.S. of peace not war is to stop the war we’re in and demonstrate to the powers that be in DC that waging war is going to have a VERY stiff price to THEM. Impeachment and prison time for ALL the folks that have brought on the current war in Iraq is one place to start. And because we should be pretty good at multitasking at this point, Congress had better figure out a way to get us out of Iraq and at the same time keep this administration from getting us into another war with Iran.

   I think it’s great to have a goal as outlined in Christianson’s article. It’s good to know what you are for as opposed to what you are against. At the same time, we have to work towards creating the conditions that make our goals possible. So, let’s get to it!

4. Poet February 25th, 2007 7:40 pm

   Reading Christianson’s final question: “How do we–you and I–as individuals create peace?” reminds me of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in ‘67 in opposition to the Vietnam war:

   “A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

   A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

   A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   You can find the entire transcript at:

   http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

   It is well worth reading and contemplation.

5. ezeflyer February 25th, 2007 11:43 pm

   Justin Kidd:

   You said it all my friend.

6. NotOneMore.US February 26th, 2007 2:59 am

   There will be peace two ways- if it is economical desireable (which it never will be cause we all know war is so profitable that even C+ students can be in charge of a country committed to war and oppression).

   Or if enough people rise up, don’t get defeated by the ridicule, overcome their self doubt, have a plan, become examples without any expectation of favor, become educated in the conversation of peaceful resolution, participate in peaceful community efforts, and maybe a few more other things. I don’t think I have mastered even one of those, so I’m not holding my breath.

   The time to work for peace is in times of peace. When there is war it is already too late.

   However, if we ever get a Department of Peace, that would be a fine first step.

   peace
   http://www.NotOneMore.US Vote for Peace

7. Shane February 26th, 2007 6:22 am

   Amen.

8. hal hurst March 5th, 2007 4:38 pm

   A good place to start on this is Glen Stassen’s excellent book, “Just Peacemaking” which makes this point among many other useful observations: The more ties between nations, economic, social, and cultural, the more likely it is that there will be peace. You just don’t bomb the factory that makes your noodles, or the town that your second-cousin lives in.

   There is no time like the present for starting the making of these ties, as small as they may be.

   In the words of Mother Teresa, “Even the smallest act of kindness is an act of peace.”

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