All posts by Augustus

#AfghanistanTuesday says #OWS = #Antiwar

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oval Office
Image via Wikipedia

It’s all connected.The wars in the Middle East are just another method to transfer out tax dollars to the 1% — the war profiteers.  Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex still needs to be heeded 50 years later.

I had previously quoted the words of Eisenhower-– the Republican, five-star general.  The words of his 1953 speech The Chance for Peace speech are worth repeating:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. … Is there no other way the world may live?

Throughout the #AfghanstanTuesday campaign, I have been quoting the blog Scarry Thoughts.  He comes through again on the effect of war on our economy.

The fact that Occupy Wall Street bloomed into a global phenomenon in little more than a week, and that it all happened at the beginning of October, 2011 — coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War — has given tremendous hope to everyone who has been working to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan. People are in the streets, talking to each other, and that is how we’re going to find answers.

Especially important is the fact that the Occupy movement understands the systemic nature of the problems our country is mired in. And they have a determination to go to the root of those systemic problems. That’s essential to the antiwar movement. We don’t just have a war problem … we have a war economy problem!

Related articles

First US Woman to Win the Nobel Peace Prize 10/17/11

The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe fifth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace brings us into the 20th Century with a section from Jane Addams 1907 book Newer Ideals of Peace.  She is the first woman’s voice we hear in The Power of Nonviolence.  Her approach to peace work is informed by her work battling poverty, furthering feminism and engaging in  electoral politics.

Addams paid a dear price for her pacifism.  She was attacked by the newspapers of her day, including the New York Times, for her opposition to entering World War I.  Dr. King was similarly attacked the leading newspapers, including the Times, for his opposition to the Vietnam War.  Despite this she worked for peace internationally and became  founding president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Some believe her opposition to participation in World War I, was the reason he Nobel Peace prize was delayed until 1931.

The first paragraph from the selection from Newer Ideals of Peace subtly brings forward her belief that women are needed in politics to bring forward peace to create a “change in men’s attitude toward war”.  This became the focus of her argument for women’s suffrage. Continue reading First US Woman to Win the Nobel Peace Prize 10/17/11

#AfghanistanTuesday Protests. Discuss.

A typical digital 12-hour alarm clock indicati...
Image via Wikipedia

Ok tweeps, between the planet-wide protests of the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War, and the flowering of the planet-wide Occupy movement, there is much to discuss.   Scarry Thoughts in his post  #AfghanistanTuesday World Report – October 11, 2011 gives a suggested schedule for this twitter discussion.

The schedule is geared to the peak hours we have been experiencing to date for #AfghanistanTuesday conversation, approx 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern U.S. time.  Continue reading #AfghanistanTuesday Protests. Discuss.

Power of Nonviolence Thoreau CD: Peace Book Chapter 4 10/10/11

The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe fourth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace brings us to Henry David Thoreau‘s seminal 1849 essay on Civil Disobedience.  This is the essay that turned words into action.  It turned the future into right now.  This essay educated two of the most powerful leaders of the 20th century, Gandhi and King.  It provided the foundations for their nonviolent movements.

Like many of his fellow transcendentalists, Thoreau was an abolitionist. He reacted strongly to President Polk’s incitement of the Mexican War in 1846. The war was intended to annex territory for slavery. Congressman Abraham Lincoln’s outspoken opposition to the war essentially ended his political career for 8 years.

An animation showing when United States territ...
Image via Wikipedia

Thoreau took it a step further.  He saw that living in a the the free state of Massachusetts and speaking out against slavery did not absolve him of involvement in the war, and in furthering slavery.  Thoreau saw that his support of the government — his payment of taxes — made him complicit.  Despite having coined the phrase in the beginning of this essay that teeters between libertarian and anarchist:  Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Thoreau CD: Peace Book Chapter 4 10/10/11

Occupy #AfghanistanTuesday

October 6, 2011 are the protests on the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.  In the blog post The hour is approaching: Make a commitment!, we are asked to focus this week’s tweets on organizing for that day:

Tuesday October 4#AfghanistanTuesday! We have wide-ranging conversations every week on #AfghanistanTuesday, but I #AfghanistanTuesday tweetswant to suggest that this week we need to give special attention to the protests themselves. With protests just days away, now is the time we must: Get people to find their local action! When people join up with others near them, protesting the war ceases to be solely theoretical and begins to become a reality. There is a list of many actions nationwide (and worldwide) on the website for the Chicago protest; I predict that as the hours pass, the number of local protests will grow too fast for this list to keep up with!

________________________

Power of Nonviolence Emerson War: Peace Book Chapter 3 10/3/11

The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceWe continue with the third chapter from the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace This week we discuss the third chapter of the book which is an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s essay entitled War. This chapter is in the Pre-Twentieth Century section of the book . Last week we discussed an excerpt from a 1693 essay by William Penn entitled Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe.

Shall it be war, or shall it be peace?

The discussion in this chapter is, unfortunately, as modern as the Duke’s recent Facebook discussion with childhood schoolmates. The other participants in the discussion brought up every possible reason why the war they opposed is an acceptable course of action.  The lesser evil. The corruption of money in politics. The current state of affairs.  The Duke kept returning the discussion to the phrase that ends the selection from Emerson’s essay, and serves as this paragraph’s pull quote.  Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Emerson War: Peace Book Chapter 3 10/3/11

Stand Beside Us: Peace Song for 10/1/2011

Rhymes and Reasons” by John Denver is the Royal Peace Song of the Day for Saturday, October 1, 2011.  You can find the lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook on page 31. Duchess Susanna requested I post this song today.  I cannot think of lyrics that could be more timely.  There is an overbearing “sadness” from the constant and senseless killing the US perpetrates.  One must be continually reminded not to turn away from love and turn to the culture of ‘fear” created by the corporate media.  We must constantly battle our emotional climate as we try “clear a cloudy day.”  I worry about the overnight vigillers as the season turns cold with ‘the coming of winter.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPpRyjTP0a0] Continue reading Stand Beside Us: Peace Song for 10/1/2011