http://www.worldprayers.org/index.html
QuietSpaces.com: Resources for Inner and Outer Peace
Code Pink Women's Pre-Emptive Strike for Peace
Creators of Peace "Rather than pointing the finger of blame, COP reverses the process to suggest that change and peacemaking start with oneself and one's own people."
Grandmothers For Peace International “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
Imagine Peace Network: "The mission of the Imagine Peace Network is to recognize, facilitate, and network the activities of individuals and peace-building organizations around the world. Our goal is to create a worldwide culture of peace and non-violence based on absolute respect for human life and the environment."
FCNL: Friends Committee on National Legislation. Quaker lobby in the public interest.
M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence:"We must be the change we want to see." M. K. Gandhi
"The only
way on earth to have no conflict with other people is to have no conflict
within one's self."
M. K. Gandhi
Pax Christi USA National Catholic Peace Site.
Peace Matters: "The pursuit of peace in the modern world is too complex an activity to be comprised within the old pacifist slogan, 'wars will cease when men refuse to fight'."
Peace
Pilgrim Website: "We who work for peace must not falter.
We must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace in whatever way
we can, we must continue to speak for peace and to live the way of peace;
to inspire others, we must continue to think of peace and to know that
peace is possible."
Peace Pilgrim
Poets4Peace "This site is dedicated to peace... peace on earth... peace in the country... peace in the city.. peace at home... peace in life ... this site has no other purpose but to foster peace... let's work together to counterbalance the amount of hate and destruction in this world with our poetry... we can make a difference."
Open
Heart:
Only Love Prevails:
You are invited to participate in a worldwide experiment to create a peaceful
planet.
United for Peace & Justice Many links to other resources.
Waging Peace.Org. Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Women
Building Peace : "To
many people war is seen as something masculine and peace as feminine.
In fact both men and women need to work together to build genuine peace...
I wish your efforts every success."
Dalai Lama
Women's History Research Guide: Peace Movments
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
"It
is useless to try to adjudicate a long-standing animosity by asking who
started it or who is the most wrong. The only sufficient answer is to
give up the animosity and try forgiveness, to try to love our enemies
and to talk to them and (if we pray) to pray for them. If we can't do
any of that, then we must begin again by trying to imagine our enemies'
children who, like our children, are in mortal danger because of enmity
that they did not cause.
We can no longer afford to confuse peaceability with passivity. Authentic peace
is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discipline and intelligence
and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims.
If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously,
continuously, carefully, and bravely as we now prepare for war."
- Wendell Berry
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM--Sept. 3, 2004
SPEAK OUT
And a vast paranoia
sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists
in Washington
Are shipping out the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And they are rousting
out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are
shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they
come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the
young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the
time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dream
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you!
--Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, 2004
Wage Peace
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.
wage peace - judyth hill - september 12, 2001
Sojourner Kincaid Rolle 3/02/03
In Silence, In Peace
In silence
I settled down to write
what urgings I felt
the need to speak from this high place
some heretofore unspoken word
to find an ultimate uplifting thought
a tender clarity for the troubled mind
a soothing hope for the saddened heart
In peace
I found that nameless something
smouldering like ash-baked embers
rising to fill the all of me
and overflow profusely
to openly flame
burning through all barriers
through to every other soul
To heal the breach
To seal the bondSojourner Kincaid Rolle
Dear Friends,
The fear and anxiety caused by the possibility of war are the biggest health challenges we face right now. As a physician, I know full well that emotions such as fear and anger impede the healing process and, if held long enough, actually lock us into a vicious cycle that produces more pain, more fear, and more anxiety. This can wreak havoc on our minds, bodies, and spirits. But this doesn't have to be the case.
There are very specific things each of us can do right now to help prevent war and at the same time create peace in our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Use your thoughts wisely. Understand their power. Thoughts have a tendency to become their physical equivalent. This is one of the fundamental laws of the universe.Another one is the law of attraction, which states that "like attracts like." Because it is consciousness that creates reality, the kind of consciousness you hold (your vibration) actually creates the kind of life you're living.
It's impossible to create peace and harmony if you're pushing up against a war. It's impossible to create peace and harmony if you're condemning George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, etc. You don't have to agree with them, but realize that you'll be contributing to the energy that creates war if you assume an "embattled" mentality concerning them.
The split in our nation right now about war is actually creating more of the energy of war. It's not possible to "fight" for peace without creating war.
To create peace, you have to be peaceful.
The only way to stop war is to start from within yourself.
You must do personal disarmament.
The only way to get and stay peaceful is to concentrate on what brings you peace and resist the downward spiral of negative emotions that blames others for your lack of peace.
Remember, that to which you give your attention expands.
Although there is no denying that we're in a perilous and frightening position right now, that doesn't mean we are powerless to change it.
But the only way to do so is by changing your thoughts and emotions from those of anger, hatred, and fear to those associated with compassion and peace.
Daily Exercise for Creating Peace:Spend 30 seconds several times a day creating a "virtual" reality of what peace would look and feel like.
Imagine that it's a year from now and the economy is flourishing.
George Bush is radiantly healthy; the governments of the free world are all cooperating to ensure global harmony and peace.
And Saddam and Bin Laden and their influence have
disappeared from the planet.
Imagine all our soldiers back home and reunited with their families.
Imagine a global village in which all of us can travel freely and joyously and with understanding and acceptance of each other's cultures.
When thinking about Iraq or North Korea, imagine the women and children.
Send your energy and compassion to them. Don't try to change the men of these countries. In fact, don't even give them any thought lest you energize them.
Withdraw your energy from them so that you will no longer be "feeding" them.
Dozens of studies have documented the fact that our thoughts can and do affect others in profound and measurable ways.Another Tip for Creating Peace:
Avoid watching the news and reading the newspapers. Headlines are designed to keep you afraid and disempowered so that you will buy more papers or watch more television.
Then you get "hooked" on the news because you're waiting
for some official "guidance" that will keep you safe and secure.
This simply can't happen, because it's not the way the media is set up.
The media is designed to get you riled up, so that you remain tuned in to the "chain of pain."
The only lasting safety and security come from the peace that you create within yourself. What's safe for one person will be dangerous for another.
Remember all the hundreds of stories from September 11, about the people who were supposed to be at the World Trade Center but, for hundreds of different reasons, simply weren't there that day.
Tune in to how you are feeling when you've severed the influence of the mass media. This will give you the guidance you're seeking.
Finally, know that when you are tuned into your heart, your Inner Wisdom, and God, then your energy lightens up and your vibration literally changes.
You become a beacon of light and peace. You become an uplifter and a peacemaker.
There's an old saying, "The rising tide lifts all boats. But it won't raise a stone."
Stop looking at and thinking about the stones. Join me in raising the tide.
And remember the words of the great M. K. Gandhi, "When in despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won; there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall."Warmly,
Christiane Northrup, M.D.
"If we want peace, although we may disagree totally with peoples' policies, we do not denigrate the individual who advocates that policy. Our goal is to greater harmony, not division, and respect is essential to that process."
Barbara Marx Hubbard
Just War - or a Just War?
March 9, 2003
By JIMMY CARTER ATLANTA - Profound changes have been taking place in
American foreign policy, reversing consistent bipartisan
commitments that for more than two centuries have earned
our nation greatness. These commitments have been
predicated on basic religious principles, respect for
international law, and alliances that resulted in wise
decisions and mutual restraint. Our apparent determination
to launch a war against Iraq, without international
support, is a violation of these premises.
As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked
by international crises, I became thoroughly familiar with
the principles of a just war, and it is clear that a
substantially unilateral attack on Iraq does not meet these
standards. This is an almost universal conviction of
religious leaders, with the most notable exception of a few
spokesmen of the Southern Baptist Convention who are
greatly influenced by their commitment to Israel based on
eschatological, or final days, theology.
For a war to be just, it must meet several clearly defined
criteria.
The war can be waged only as a last resort, with all
nonviolent options exhausted. In the case of Iraq, it is
obvious that clear alternatives to war exist. These options
- previously proposed by our own leaders and approved by
the United Nations - were outlined again by the Security
Council on Friday. But now, with our own national security
not directly threatened and despite the overwhelming
opposition of most people and governments in the world, the
United States seems determined to carry out military and
diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the
history of civilized nations. The first stage of our widely
publicized war plan is to launch 3,000 bombs and missiles
on a relatively defenseless Iraqi population within the
first few hours of an invasion, with the purpose of so
damaging and demoralizing the people that they will change
their obnoxious leader, who will most likely be hidden and
safe during the bombardment.
The war's weapons must discriminate between combatants and
noncombatants. Extensive aerial bombardment, even with
precise accuracy, inevitably results in "collateral
damage." Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander of American forces
in the Persian Gulf, has expressed concern about many of
the military targets being near hospitals, schools, mosques
and private homes.
Its violence must be proportional to the injury we have
suffered. Despite Saddam Hussein's other serious crimes,
American efforts to tie Iraq to the 9/11 terrorist attacks
have been unconvincing.
The attackers must have legitimate authority sanctioned by
the society they profess to represent. The unanimous vote
of approval in the Security Council to eliminate Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction can still be honored, but our
announced goals are now to achieve regime change and to
establish a Pax Americana in the region, perhaps occupying
the ethnically divided country for as long as a decade. For
these objectives, we do not have international authority.
Other members of the Security Council have so far resisted
the enormous economic and political influence that is being
exerted from Washington, and we are faced with the
possibility of either a failure to get the necessary votes
or else a veto from Russia, France and China. Although
Turkey may still be enticed into helping us by enormous
financial rewards and partial future control of the Kurds
and oil in northern Iraq, its democratic Parliament has at
least added its voice to the worldwide expressions of
concern.
The peace it establishes must be a clear improvement over
what exists. Although there are visions of peace and
democracy in Iraq, it is quite possible that the aftermath
of a military invasion will destabilize the region and
prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at
home. Also, by defying overwhelming world opposition, the
United States will undermine the United Nations as a viable
institution for world peace.
What about America's world standing if we don't go to war
after such a great deployment of military forces in the
region? The heartfelt sympathy and friendship offered to
America after the 9/11 attacks, even from formerly
antagonistic regimes, has been largely dissipated;
increasingly unilateral and domineering policies have
brought international trust in our country to its lowest
level in memory. American stature will surely decline
further if we launch a war in clear defiance of the United
Nations. But to use the presence and threat of our military
power to force Iraq's compliance with all United Nations
resolutions - with war as a final option - will enhance our
status as a champion of peace and justice.
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, is
chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta and winner of the
2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
A POSITIVE WAY OF SEEING IT
Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica was one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked in support of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in San Francisco to be honored for his service to the world through the U.N. and through his writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty, Dr. Muller surprised, even stunned, many in the audience that day with his most positive assessment of where the world stands now regarding war and peace.
I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by his remarks. What he said turned my head around and offered me a new way to see what is going on in the world. My synopsis of his remarks is below:
"I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so honored to be alive at such a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in our world today."
( I was shocked. I thought -- Where has he been? What has he been reading? Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What is he talking about?)
Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war."
The whole world is in now having this critical and historic dialogue--listening to all kinds of points of view and positions about going to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation the world is asking-"Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant an attack? What will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a war? How will this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful alternatives? What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real intentions for declaring war?"
All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of the United Nations Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for exactly this purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than fifty years to realize that function, the real function of the U.N. And at this moment in history-- the United Nations is at the center of the stage. It is the place where these conversations are happening, and it has become in these last months and weeks, the most powerful governing body on earth, the most powerful container for the world's effort to wage peace rather than war. Dr. Muller was almost in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of this dream.
"We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world community, are WAGING peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must not let up. It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense proportions. It has never happened before-never in human history-and it is happening now-every day every hour-waging peace through a global conversation. He pointed out that the conversation questioning the validity of going to war has gone on for hours, days, weeks, months and now more than a year, and it may go on and on. "We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes, troops are being moved. Yes, warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor is angry and upset and spending a billion dollars a day preparing to attack. But not one shot has been fired. Not one life has been lost. There is no war. It's all a conversation."
It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in the most significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in the history of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever before-not before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new and it is a stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and responsibility.
In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being formed. Russia and China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented outcome. France and Germany working together to wake up the world to a new way of seeing the situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history of the world are taking place--and we are not at war! Most peace demonstrations in recent history took place when a war was already waging, sometimes for years, as in the case of Vietnam.
"So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what 'waging peace' looks like."
No matter what happens, history will record that this is a new era, and that the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a global dialogue looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global community at the legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate to go to war.
Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of that nation are being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink, and allowing all nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision to go to war or not.
Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York Times article that pointed out that up until now there has been just one superpower-the United States, and that that has created a kind of blindness in the vision of the U.S. But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are two superpowers: the United States and the merging, surging voice of the people of the world.
All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert Muller, one of the great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing short of a miracle and it is working.Peace, blessings & love,
Sky
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