There’s an odd couple =).
A couple stories that caught my eye this week which were kind of hopeful.
Jessica Wilbanks of Faithful Security wrote this week about the hope of a world free of nuclear weapons, including a plan put forward by a group which includes, of all people, Henry Kissinger.
And Rose Marie Berger writes about George W. Bush undergoing the tutelage of the brilliant peacemaker Elias Chacour, whose book, Blood Brothers, was a real eye opener for me in terms of perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Both of these stories were from the God’s Politics Blog. You can sign up for their regular email newsletter at www.sojo.net
Posted in Peace | 4 Comments »Tonya recently commented on this thread:
I am currently involved in a project in Congo called “Swords into Plowshares” in which weapons can be exchanged (by the general public or by the myriad of roaming militias) for bicycles or tin roofing (both highly prized items in Congo). The weapons are then sent to a foundry to be melted down and reformed into agricultural tools which are then reinvested into the communities. It is a beautiful act of peace-building!
That is just about the kewlest thing I’ve heard of in a very long time.
Anybody else have any stories approaching that level of kewlness?
Tonya–I’d love to hear more about that. How did you get involved?
Posted in Peace | No Comments »Dear Jesus,
I guess you’ve been deluged with birthday prayers. If you’ve had time to open them all you’ve got to be worried. I am, hence the email. There was some talk of a return visit last time you were here. Got to tell you, now would be good. Now would be excellent. So I would like to invite you, in your capacity of the Prince of Peace, to visit Australia as part of a second world trip this year. Read the rest of this news item »
Words from the Wikipedia article on veterans day: heroes. honor. service. tribute. grateful nation. homage. solemnly remember. sacrifices. fought valiantly. preserve heritage of freedom. an enduring peace.
Words from George Bush’s speech today, on veterans day: good. noble. just. promise. sacrifice. honor. blessed. brave. service. valiantly. free. home. magnificent. proud. victory. safely.
why all these words? These words are being used to create/propogate a myth. By “myth” I mean “a traditional or sacred story that attempts to iterate, explain, or justify the thoughts and actions of a people”.
Read the rest of this news item »
In honor of the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Benjamin and I wanted to tell about a recent experience that our two families have shared. Earlier this year, my daughter Anna and her 5th grade classmates read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Anna was deeply moved by the story and learned that children worldwide express their hope for peace by sending paper cranes to be placed on a statue of Sadako. We learned that there was a Sadako statue in Seattle Peace Park, so Anna folded 100 cranes and we mailed them to Benjamin and Megan. This picture is of their lovely daughters Eowyn (left) and Coco hanging the cranes. I will let Anna share more about the story of Sadako and about her wish for peace…
Sadako Sasaki was an ordinary 11 year old Japenese girl, that had survived the Hiroshima bombing when she was 2 years old. Nine years later, she had a dizzy spell on the playground at school. She was brought to the school nurse and she told Sadako’s family that they should have her checked out at a hospital. So they did and sure enough Sadako had luekemia, “the atom bomb disease”. She was shipped to a hospital for people with diseases, mostly luekemia, and while she was in the hospital, her friend visited her and gave her a crane she had folded. There is a Japanese tale that if a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes, the gods will make them better. Her friend taught her how to fold them and she got started. For a long time she stayed in the hospital, folding cranes. She got over 600 folded, but she died before she was done. Her classmates folded the rest and buried them with her.
In Hiroshima, Japan there was an enormous statue made of her, and a smaller one in Seatle, Washington. To this day, children all over the world show their wish for peace by making paper cranes and hanging them on the statues. I decided to make cranes and send them to the Adys in Seatle. Folding cranes was extremely hard at first, but my hands got used to the motions and it was really easy after I made a bunch! My mom had this cool idea to use junk mail and magazine pages for the cranes and I did. It was cool, and a good use of junk mail! The cranes I folded stand for a wish for peace and justice in the world. I did this for Sadako, and because it was fun! :-) Also, thank you Eowyn and Coco for hanging the cranes!
Posted in Activism, Peace | 5 Comments »Mark is the leader of the Safe Space community. This is a small missional and new-monastic community in the Anglican tradition in Telford, a post-industrial town in central England.
Safe Space love to tell stories and one of their great stories is about how they became involved in their town soccer club. Working from Luke 10, Safe Space seek to find ways to bring peace to the community around them. Mark describes it as being yeast - but unlike most churches which appear to expect the flour to come to the bowl and create a homogenous inedible pile of yeast, they seek to permeate the flour to produce bread.
They went to the soccer club and asked the CEO what it would mean for the Safe Space community to be peace there, underlining their understanding of Luke 10 and pointing out that they were not interested in preaching at people or arranging carol services. The community is now involved in cleaning the stadium after games and serving on the governing body of the club.
Mark blogs here . I think this approach is very challenging - seeking to find out what would be ‘peace’ to people around us rather than what we would seek to give them.
Posted in Peace | 7 Comments »The following is excerpted from “War & Peace: It’s Time to Live What We Preach” by Ron Sider, published in the September/October 2006 issue of Prism magazine.
Christian Peacemaker Teams have been a presence [in Hebron in the West Bank] for 10 years, seeking to nonviolently to befriend both sides, reduce violence, and promote understanding and peace. They accompany children threatened by vigilantes, seek to prevent the illegal demolition of Palestinian houses, and befriend young people and frightened Israeli soldiers…
Christian leaders (both just war and pacifist) from all traditions should together issue a call for something that has never happened in our history: the training and deployment of 10,000 to 25,000 CPT-type peacemakers who are committed to using the nonviolent teachings of Gandhi and King in unjust violent settings around the world. It would only take a few tens of millions of dollars. (Annual income of Christians is over 15 trillion dollars, so money is not the problem!)
Posted in Peace, War | 5 Comments »
Read the rest of this news item »
A metric for peace?
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
Recently I ran across The Global Peace Index from Vision of Humanity (H/T to Byron). They are studying “peace” from an academic perspective, and they have some fascinating ideas and conclusions. One big question the are trying to approach is “What exactly *is* peace, anyway?”
In their peace rankings for 121 countries , they are looking at 24 indicators under 3 broad categories: 1. Measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict, 2. Measures of safety and security in countries, and 3. Measures of militarization.
Here’s the top 10, and then a couple others of interest by rank.
1. Norway
Posted in Peace | 13 Comments »
2. New Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Ireland
5. Japan
6. Finland
7. Sweden
Read the rest of this news item »
Quote for the Day
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007“Violence loves the lie. Its operations are best done in secret and, where unavoidably visible, cloaked in justification and glorification.”
- excerpted from Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, edited by Glen Stassen
Posted in Peace, Quote for the Day, War | No Comments »
What does it mean to “die for your country”?
Monday, May 28th, 2007My dad served 2 tours of duty in the Vietnam war. At age 18 he tore up his draft notice for the U.S. Army and went down to talk to the Air Force recruiter. He’s definitely a man with a high practical intelligence, and he was, I believe, considering attrition rate comparisons between the services. He went on to work for the U.S. air force for twenty years, retiring in 1987. After a big argument this past mother’s day, he called and left a message on my cell phone in which he said in a tone of great sorrow and sincere regret “Son, I’m sorry that you are ashamed of me because of my service in the U.S. military.”
That was wrenching to hear. The last thing I want to communicate to my dad is that I’m ashamed of him. He’s a great guy, and from my current 32 year old frame of reference, I can see that he did worse than some but better than most in his role as a father.
The memorial day holiday has really set me to thinking this year. In years past, I’ve pretty much ingnored the holiday. I asked a barista yesterday while she was preparing my (fair trade) coffee “What is Memorial Day about anyway?”. She replied “ummm, I dunno–something about the military?” The two older people behind me in line looked chagrined and charged “Aha–a product of Seattle Public Schools!”. My friend Julie, who preached yesterday about Pentecost, said that older members of her church wished she had mentioned or preached on memorial day. Is it a generational thing?
Posted in Non Violence, Peace | 19 Comments »Read the rest of this news item »