Quotable

"War is the greatest threat to public health." - Gino Strada, Italian war surgeon and founder of the UN-recognized Italian NGO Emergency

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Be The (CLIMATE) Change!!!

Dear Friends,

Today, Sunday, September 21st is the International Day of Peace, one day each year designated by the United Nations as an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. During the General Assembly discussion of the resolution establishing Peace Day it was suggested that:

"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace."

So it is appropriate that today the largest climate march - People's Climate March - in history takes place in New York City, headquarters of the UN. Ahead of the September 23rd UN summit on climate change over 100 world leaders have gathered in NYC, and there will be 2808 solidarity events in 166 countries.

Why a Climate March on Peace Day??? It is the very endless cycle of militarism and war making directly tied to an unsustainable means of existence that drives the war against the planet. Most of the effects over past decades were isolated, and felt by only a fraction of the Earth's inhabitants. Yet now, with Carbon Dioxide levels at dangerously high levels, we are seeing the beginnings of more far reaching effects on climate that will most definitely affect all of us.

We can no longer plunder our way to maintain an unsustainable way of life. And a key factor in stopping the plunder is accepting that we MUST change (for the sake of future generations) and make the hard choices now. Such a huge paradigm shift will be extremely difficult, and yet the stakes are also huge.


Conversion from a fossil fuel consuming, war making society to a sustainable one that utilizes resources intelligently and resolves conflict nonviolently will be a massive challenge. We (the people) have been so acculturated and indoctrinated to accept and support the very system of our planet's destruction that we are blinded to the reality of the impact of our choices on our planet (and all of its inhabitants).

Today in countless cities in the US and around the world people who have removed their blinders are rising up to say no more status quo. They are saying yes to "a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities." They are saying yes to a "just, safe, peaceful" and sustainable world.

Yet for the massive turnout for today's People's Climate March, it will take so many more of us to engage the issues that are dragging us down and to change direction. As their website says, "TO CHANGE EVERYTHING, WE NEED EVERYONE."

Mahatma Gandhi once said, we must "be the change we wish to see in the world." May we ALL be that change!!!

Peace,

Leonard
 
 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Refugee (a poem by Bruce Gagnon)

Editor's Note: I first read this poem by friend and colleague Bruce Gagnon back in July. I find myself going back and re-reading it after looking at the accompanying photo over and over. At any rate, this is certainly a poem for our time. It speaks to the madness of the Combine, the Machine, the Military-Industrial Complex, the Kleptocracy... whatever you wish to call it. It also speaks to us as citizens and asks, in a subtle way - "Will we resist the madness?"

*****************

Refugee















We all are running
from something
throughout our lineage
our people ran
from the wild
woolly
Mother Earth
our home

Now those who run
get locked inside
cages
even the babies
from south
of the border

NAFTA took them down
but we don't talk about that
we just turn on the brown people
and drive them away
keeps us distracted
from what Mr. Big is doing
to all of us

Some are paid to
divide and
incite chaos
quite a job
killing your own people
find it hard
to understand

It's Mr. Big's
favorite play
Modus operandi
MO
every criminal
has a routine

Some call it
the Strategy of Tension
worth noting
it's our future
create chaos
and militarize in response

Seeing the coming storm
some run from it
refugees
others stand and resist
as best they can
try to give hope
and strength to those
hiding in the shadows
refugees in their
own right


Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)