All posts by Augustus

Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club

September 27, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

The Duke realizes that this has been a very taxing week for social justice advocates. The killing of Troy Davis was filled with the hope of repreive for a few hours, and then an overwhelming mourning for the US justice. At the same time, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been giving a voice to the discontent 99% of Americans feel. Yet with all this going on, I beg of you to take a few moments to support the #AfghanistanTuesday movement for an immediate end to the war.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MidwestAntiwar/status/116508587915886592″] Continue reading Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club →

Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Power of Nonviolence Mighty Penn: Peace Book Chapter 2 of the Week 9/26/11

September 26, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

We continue with the second chapter from the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace This week we discuss the second chapter of the book which is an excerpt from a 1693 essay by William Penn entitled Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe.

This chapter is in the Pre-Twentieth Century section of the book . Last week we discussed the first chapter which contains the writings of the the Buddha, which was entitled Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love.

Even though one would expect a Duke to be conversant in dense, prosey writing, I must admit to this few page excerpt from Penn’s essay being rough going.

Penn starts off by arguing against the Latin proverb of the time that “Peace is Sought through War.” He argues instead that peace is found through justice. This quickly brings to mind Dr. King‘s response to the charge that the Montgomery Bus Boycott was disturbing the peace: Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Mighty Penn: Peace Book Chapter 2 of the Week 9/26/11 →

Nonviolence, Peace

What I did on #AfghanistanTuesday

September 20, 2011 Augustus 1 Comment

If you have been following along on this thread, then you know that #AfghanistanTuesday is a social media based weekly vigil to quickly end the costly Afghanistan War. It is primarily to protest the inaction to Congresspeople, but it also protests the inaction of US Senators and the President. It is designed to use Twitter as the forum for protest, and to spread to all peace people and budget hawks on that service, but will eventually be spread to the other social media outlets.

Last Tuesday in addition to spending the daylight hours reigning in shock doctrine capitalism, the Duke took part in the following #AfghanistanTuesday activities:

1. Tweeted a blog post entitled Will your Rep Join @BruceBraley on #AfghanistanTuesday ? which explained that Bruce Braley was the first congressperson to answer query on whether they are willing to end the Afghanistan War quickly, and asked which Congresspersons would join him: Continue reading What I did on #AfghanistanTuesday →

Nonviolence, Nonviolent Communication, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Power of Nonviolence Buddhist Anger: Peace Book Chapter 1 of the Week 9/19/11

September 19, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

We continue from last week with the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace provides us with the Peace Book Chapter of the Week. As you remember we discussed last week the introduction by Howard Zinn titled Retaliation. We now move to the first section of the book which is entitled: Pre-Twentieth Century. The first, very short chapter is written by the Buddha, and is entitled: Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love.

For hatred does not cease
by hatred at any time,
hatred ceases by love

The reading starts with a series of aphorisms about how you are bound by what you put forth. It reminds me of the saying that slavery chains both the master and the slave. Or Gandhi’s response about how he was trying to save England by freeing it from holding India in bondage. The third set of aphorisms set here as a pull quote remind me strongly of Dr. King’s August 16, 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here?” when he spoke out against poverty: Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Buddhist Anger: Peace Book Chapter 1 of the Week 9/19/11 →

Music, Royal Song of The Day, Video

Rainbow Peace Song of the Day: Friday 9/16/11

September 16, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole is the Peace song of the Day. Duchess Susanna asked me about a reggae song for today and somehow I ended up with this beautiful song. As Pete Seeger says folk music is just music of the folk. And this ukelele rendition is as much music of the Hawaiian folk as reggae is of the Jamaican folk.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DKWlrA24k] Continue reading Rainbow Peace Song of the Day: Friday 9/16/11 →

Nonviolence, Peace

Will your Rep Join @BruceBraley on #AfghanistanTuesday ?

September 13, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

Joe Scarry posts about our first #AfghanistanTuesday suceess in Scarry Thoughts: AfghanistanHour: Speak Now Or ….:

This is what it looks like when a member of Congress states his position on getting out of Afghanistan:

Bruce Braley represents Iowas 1st congressional district and this is a tweet he sent August 26 in response to our query, “Where do you stand on bringing #troops #home from #Afghanistan?”

There is now a movement for #AfghanistanHour for Tuesday at Noon to be reserved for our elected officials to tweet their question about bringing the troops home: Continue reading Will your Rep Join @BruceBraley on #AfghanistanTuesday ? →

Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Power of Nonviolence Zinn-troduction: Peace Book Chapter of the Week 9/12/11

September 12, 2011 Augustus Leave a comment

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace provides us with the Peace Book Chapter of the Week. You might have noticed this a slightly different concept. Duke Augustus is paring down the Book of the Week to just a chapter to make it more interactive. We hope that you will join in a discussion of the book as we move through it together chapter-by-chapter. Please post your thoughts, reactions, comments, corrections and additions to the comment section of each of these posts.

War is terrorism,
magnified a hundred times.

Normally, Duke Augustus would give an introduction a cursory discussion, and begin the first discussion of the book, but when the Introduction is written by the late Howard Zinn attention must be paid. Zinn is primarily know as a historian whose best selling A People’s History of the United States is an antidote to the sanitized grade school history. Duke Augustus is particularly partial to the graphic novel adaption, A People’s History of American Empire. Zinn’s Introduction to The Power of Nonviolence is even more important to discuss considering that the opening lines are so amazingly timely: Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Zinn-troduction: Peace Book Chapter of the Week 9/12/11 →