the propeace community - education - Comments

Take the Pledge

poetry — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:43:27 -0400

Take the Pledge

All Presidential Candidates should make pledges like those below. If they refuse, then you should refuse to vote for them.

1. No More Oil Wars.

2. Work for independence from foreign oil on day one.

3. No more wars for corporate profit.

4. No more secret deals for $4 per gallon gas.

5. No more Chicken Hawks promoting wars of choice when they themselves avoided combat.

6. Make government green--if you can't make what you have the most control over green, I don't care about your plans to make the country green.

7. No more torture.

8. No more lying about torture.

9. No more re-defining torture.

10. No more drunken hunting.

11. No more secret deals with big corporations to divide up the spoils before the war even starts.

Peace*Ground

Rainbow Brain — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:32:30 -0500

Autumniams wrote:

To find a common ground in the minds of the all in the world is the greatest challenge ahead of us.

The HE(ART) of Peace is common to all, the challenge is to share*it, with all.

BL*M

ideas and skills

Jason White — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:51:13 -0500

Susan Livingston wrote:

I ended my talk by putting "cut and run" on my right palm and "stay the course" on my left, spreading my arms wide, and asking, "Are these really the only two options we have? Ask the Department of Peace!"

That's it in a nutshell. We have, as a nation, so much more imagination and so many more skills than that. We just need the ideas and practices infused into our institutions at the highest levels of authority.

Grounded

Autumniams — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:43:00 -0500

To find a common ground in the minds of the all in the world is the greatest challenge ahead of us.

sweet!

water dragon — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:40:07 -0500

Rewards for positive thoughts, and action.... wonderful seeding of our next leaders! Bravo!

fox, no bull

Jason White — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:01:12 -0400

I don't condone the injustice of this situation. However, I can think of at least two ways to get around this.

1. http://www.the-cloak.com/anonymous-surfing-home.html

2. Internet access is commonly available in public libraries.

Please spread the word.

conjecturing about the unbelievable

stereoman — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:35:17 -0400

I love these hypothetical discussions about the nature of the Divine, especially when they are postulated by non-believers! Many thanks for your Twain-esque sense of humor, Don! Or should I say, "Clementine" sense of humor?

Quote:

In my opinion, one of many reasons for scoffing at the notion of "intelligent design" (creationism, in other words) is that behaviors that sicken and kill take far too long to manifest themselves as assaults against nature ruinous to health. If there were a Great Wizard In The Sky who created everything, including us, surely he/she/it would have done a better job of it.

An interesting condition you have set. Our friend Mr. Clemens would remind you that the Great Wizard is first of all a malignant thug (although indeed Samuel himself would deny the existence of said Wizard, and would therefore be admonishing you about the imagined characteristics of an imagined being).

Quote:

A designer with any sense at all would have made self-destructive situations much more obvious

And so you have described for us your belief in a senseless Designer. Or perhaps you are simply postulating imagined characteristics of an imagined being.

Intelligent Design differs from Creationism in that ID does not necessarily make assumptions about the motives or capabilities of the Intelligent Designer. It further differs from Creationism in that the theory is deduced from the evidence available rather than being postulated from thin air.

It's very easy to confuse or conflate the two terms. Indeed, many Creationists take delight in doing so.

Steve

=========

Our lives begin to end the moment that we become silent about things that matter. (Martin Luther King Jr.)

Re: Where Are Intelligent Designers When You Need Them?

Rainbow Brain — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:20:00 -0400

Donald B Ardell wrote:

"Man has been here 32,000 years.

well for the last 35,000 they have been and are still all around one, its just a matter of knowing their presence and even better joining in the work of this Divine*Evolution, as the beauty and grace of its wonderment abound for all who desire it, for any who wish to design it.

BL*M
The 13-Establishments of Truth

PEACE...

The Poetry Man — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:56:59 -0400

Don't burn the flag. Wash it!

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
-Samuel P. Huntington
.
.
.
O heal thy heart,
Thou white steely souls
Whose bleeding desire is to rule the world.
American knights, heal this offense.

Heal thy spirit of this dreadful lust.
Do away with itÃ¢â‚¬Â¦
There is much hunger for peace,
For love.

There is much yet to be spoken,
Much to heal of thy sickly onslaught,
Much to be gleaned of this world
And its hunger for salvation.

O! the breath of man
Need be sweetened!
Softness need envelop her,
And the wanton paws of this;

Thy dominant voyage need come to an end,
For it serves only to shackle and bloody
The supple lips of hope
Upon divinityÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s dripping mouth.

One Percent Solution

Susan Livingston — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 15:07:47 -0400

Welcome to the propeace community, Mitch. It's good to know that we have great financial minds in the movement. However, I detect a note of frustration in your post, and I want to encourage you to hang in there. The change we all seek is already happening. I hope you will check out the People's Initiative for Departments and Ministries of Peace and see that we do not, in fact, have to be as cohesive as you imagine. What we are witnessing is a case of convergent evolution. Your frustration may be born of the fact that, when you made your entry onto the scene, the world wasn't ready yet. Things hadn't gotten bad enough yet for people to say ENOUGH! Now, the time is ripe. In "do or die" situations, our species has shown a remarkable capacity for choosing the former option. Peace on!

Editor, propeace.net

an update of an old blog

mitch gold — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 12:43:52 -0400

the reason I am writing is because I am a peacemaker. You may never have heard of me, as my name is Mitch Lewis Gold. I have not been recognized by the media in my own country for a reason which I would have difficulty articulating - most likely the program for peace that I have been carrying may sometimes get confused with the other messages I carry for spiritual elders. Frankly it is a confusing job at best as it does not pay very well.

However this is not intended to be a rant - or an ongoing dialogue of my trials and tribulations over the past years since we had the Implementation Strategy for a Culture of Peace endorsed by the inaugural session of the Foundation for a culture of Peace. We had been invited to this event by Federico Mayor Zaragozzo when he first learned of our strategy for Peace.
Mr Mayor invited me to Madrid to present our ideas to 250 of the world leading peacemakers at the time. Our presentation was accepted and endorsed by the individuals at the conference including many "household names". I cannot imagine why this program has not received the funding required to test it. It is almost unimaginable I should say. Because the story of the past six years is debilitating at best.

Again I should say the reason I am writing is to ask this network to take a look at the implementation strategy designed almost 8 years ago and add it to your own - that is all that is necessary - to build an economic factor into peace that assures peace. In a way the Propeace month is reinventing our program and reinventing the program enunciated by Dr. Young Seek Choe over twenty years ago . We added one notion to Dr. Choe's initiative that you may well consider. It is expressed in a slogan by the following:
Humankind will make peace when peace makes money.

This is the thought that your organization has enunciated partially in its 1% solution (Kucinich) . Our program is deeper and broader than that. It is rooted in the shifting of the spend and control buttons at the United Nations. In concept the UN has agreed to most of the basic precepts (the MDG's and the UN Global Compact) - but one important quality is outstanding, and it is a pre-condition of the United States participating with the United Nations. Many do not talk about this. It is an unpopular topic. IMHO the US has taken the position that: If the US does not maintain control over the UN then the free world is damned. I think this is the rationale that keeps the discussion off the tables of Dialogue.

Maybe I should make the statement here. There is a law passed in the US that the day following any implementation of a "global tax" by the UN then the US is automatically resigned from the UN. This Bill was drafted I think by Jesse Helms many years ago.

It is this singular bill that keeps the International community dysfunctional. What I have constructed is a way around this law. When I presented the process to Boutros Boutros Ghali he was so encouraging that I may have found a loop-hole - a process for financing peace. He did warn me that there was a bullet with my name on it when I become a success. Well I am not dead yet - so clearly I am not a success.

What I did also present at the time was my process for not getting shot. That was to put the spend and control of the funds generated by my plan and strategy under a Wisdom Council. A council of Elders. I have done that. There are a number of Wisdom Councils coming together in Toronto in July.2006. Our program and processes will be presented to them there as we move on with our concepts and integrate new learnings and teachings over the past nine years.

It is wise for all of us in the peace movement to recognize what we have learned over the past 20 years. And shift our activities based upon these learnings. Jean Houston refers to this as Jump Time and the necessity for the emergence of the Social Artist. Hazel Henderson suggests a change in Ethics through her TV program - Ethical Markets;. and Barbara Marx Hubbard speaks of an Ascending Humanity - how to awaken to your higest self.

So these programs are easily integrated into our eight year old strategy for peace.

How do networks integrate? It is interesting that Bono (U2) has met with me, and has taken several of the ideas for his own, and unfortunately has not integrated. Yvon Choinard from Patagonia - a well meaning human being took a portion of our ideas - through his 1% for the Planet program and we have yet to integrate.

Stephen Lewis, the world's greatest speaker today and destined to be the spokesperson for the planet - if he can just get to understand his role. Right now he is almost immobilized with frustration from what he has seen as he travels the world. Proforpeace should approach Mr Lewis to add one phrase to all his presentation - the label for peace - which we have designated as homeplanet.org .

This of course could change if someone had a better name and logo. Ours has been spiritually integrated so we have a degree of attachment to it. However if change it need be then change it.

What is the next step?

As they say. Get a job. and that is what I am doing.

The job is implementing the program. The money will follow.

Our program has two complimentary programs:
One for Individuals - the cost is $100 to receive the benefits package. There is 250 000 benefits packages created. This will generate $25 M which will be spent in supporting the World Peace network that aligns its vision with our program. It should be noted that the program is almost identical with the one first enunciated in Madrid.

And the parallel program is for Corporations. This program is $120,000. It represents a combination of corporations shifting their behaviour to support new accounting practices - namely triple bottom line accounting - and promotion of the One Per Cent Solution through their companies Vendor Policy Code. Doing business with corporations that are doing business with the planet in mind.

In a nutshell, that is where we are.

The packages are commisionable for any that choose to assist with the marketing and sales - there will be job openings for people teaching peace, and developing media stories on others making peace.

What role will you choose to play?

And what are you already doing that we can support as we move through our process. Peace is not an either/ or process. One thing to remember is that TOO many initiatives disapates our energy - and that is what the corporations want - they want us to delay the process of change. Our role is to bring corporations into Jump Time - the NOW of our social activism.

If any out there have a better strategy that we should align to , please advise.

Peace

Mitch L Gold

--
Mitch Lews Gold
www.homeplanet.org
IAEWP
First Nations Indigenous Trust
Institute for Global Accountants
416-924-4449

Universal*Remote

Rainbow Brain — Wed, 31 May 2006 17:09:31 -0400

The magic and mystery of the very truth that each one is supplied with the same universal remote device of soul and spirit, and in the case of human mortality, a body, brain and heart to filter such desires of choice through, is the Divine*Reality of the process of thought and or prayer you seek to discredit so adamantly. This is very amusing and entertaining indeed, that one would attempt to discredit the very reality of existence that is the basis of their entire system of being.

L.O.V.E.

Teach one to pray or meditate and you heal he/r for a day,

Teach one to love and you heal he/r forever*

The 13-Establishments of Truth

The so-called Christians have corrupted prayer

markmulligan — Wed, 31 May 2006 08:21:41 -0400

Matthew 6-5

But when thou prayest: thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets: that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you: they have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut they door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be ye not therefore like unto them: for you Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask them.

After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father... (follows the Lord's Prayer; I heartily recommend you memorize it as your exclusive form of Prayer).

2,000 years of so-called Christian lies and deceit. We have been turned aside from God's Word by so-called Christianity. The Lord's Prayer is God's Morse Code, infinitely more powerful than begging to God in Church.

Who would dare contradict or disobey the direct instruction of Jesus Christ: so clear, categorical and easy to obey? That would be us clueless meat-puppets and our chosen fundamentalist weapon mentors; otherwise, we just don't pray at all. Our reward for this travesty? WeaponWorld instead of PeaceWorld our true birthright.

How many clickers?

stereoman — Tue, 30 May 2006 21:48:24 -0400

Donald, I appreciate your frankness and light-heartedness, and took no offense at all in your comments. I have struggled intellectually with the matter of spiritual faith for most of my life, although I am convinced spiritually of matters of faith that have not to my reckoning been adequately addressed or explained empirically.

I was amused by your unequivocal statement that prayers are "ignored by any agent or agents that might exist with the power or interest in playing the deux ex machina role." Given that you present yourself as being a reasonable person who bases his judgments on empirical evidence, I am led to ask you where is your evidence that said prayers are being "ignored" by anyone?

Empirically, I don't see how one can come to any conclusions at all about the efficacy of prayer. But your metaphor about the "clicker" presents me with an opportunity to describe what is for me a core spiritual principle. You said:

Quote:

By the way, being able to click a desired reality would be pretty neat - provided others did not have clickers, too. Alas, that's a bit of a rub with magical solutions - they're so much more magical if others can't access such wonders.

If you go just one step further with your metaphor, you may understand what I am suggesting. Of course! Everyone else DOES have a clicker. And at any given moment, teeming multitudes of people are clicking away frantically, usually without direction or uniformity.

Consider, please, just hypothetically suppose all these clickers have infinite range. Suppose they are all clicking willy-nilly as I have described. What do you think would be the result? Now suppose some highly revered figure exhorted a huge group of people with particularly potent clickers to click on the same channel, say for example the "death to the Muslims" channel.

Finally, suppose a vast number of people clicked on the "dare to make peace" channel.

Steve

=========

Our lives begin to end the moment that we become silent about things that matter. (Martin Luther King Jr.)

A deeper understanding of self

Jimmi James — Tue, 30 May 2006 12:15:01 -0400

"Deep in our genes, there seems some kind of eternal yearning for the quick fix," you say you believe.I was wondering how you had arrived at that conclusion and would welcome your indications on this apparent "axiom"
My own understanding of people who are stuck in that state of impatience is that they are invariably using other "fixes"(alcohol, drugs, sex,gambling,materialism,people-fixing, to name the most common)in order to keep them in denial about their own personal dysfunction.And I'm afraid these unfortunate people so often, unfortunately,work on the highest floor.
Facing the truth of our dysfunction is to begin the process that will deal with desires for quick fixes as we come to understand that personal growth is a process.

On a personal note I must say that I still wrestle with some addictions, yet believe( maybe genetically!)that victory over them is also simply work in progress.Do you ?