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Choices as clear as night and day

Submitted by DottiAnn on April 29, 2006 - 7:10am.

For years now I have repeatedly asked throughout my daily journeys to my local city leaders, government representatives, Senators, and, yes, even my President, "If we can study, research, and document the causes of illness, why is it so difficult to do the same with violence and violent behaviors?
Most of the world's ills and all of the world's wars no matter how small or large would be stopped immediately if only we knew the answer as to what makes a person choose peace over violence and/or violence over peace.
For me, the turning point came into my life at a time when I was being brutally mistreated by "persons?" that had been placed into a "position of trust" to "protect me" which of course in their acts of crueltry did almost everything except that. I vowed to both God and myself that not ever would I be found performing such acts of sheer inhumanity against another human being. Yet I have discover that some people who do claim to be most peace-seeking display an almost insatiable, insidious form of manipulative violence that when confronted creates demonic responses clearly not peace abled at all.
The differences and choices between peace and violence (war being nothing more than continuing, consistent violence) is as clear as night and day. Acts or actions taken to oppress anyone, destroy anything, or cause harm, damage, injury, or death -including terminations and annilhilations-, even inadvertently,is violence. As humans, our natural beastly nature responds to stimuli with either fight or flight. Yet, I have found another option, a different choice. To simply stand strong in U -n- I ties Human and Humane against all matter of violence. To face those who would do violence with the common heart-song of peace that pulls at the heart of all except those few who have no conscious towards others.
We must work at bypassing our natural beastly nature to find that "Fount of Living waters" that chooses life, renewal, refreshing, and building up a higher level of maturity that holds violence as only a last after-all-esle-fails resort. Give Peace a Chance. Carry it as your weapon of choice. Make the clear, peaceful difference in every circumstance that you can. Treat all others as you would want to be treated. Be kind in all ways.

Peace is Healthy for Children
and all Others Living.

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Inward Revelation(S)

Submitted by DottiAnn on May 4, 2006 - 6:09am.

It is so true. How awesome the "power of choice" to be ever and always "at peace"! You are right on, stereoman. It is the changes that occur inside one's self when a decision is made to follow the Way of Peace. I am not sure listening to others is the answer...knowing of my own experiences that all listening is good for knowledge, I do not hold "it" out as the cure-all for society's ills. My experiences (believe me when I say that chaos was not ever my choice yet was instigated all to often by others who happened to desire the "controls" over my life) is that the "song in the heart" and the "joy that is sought" brings about a calm reassurance of faith and strengthening. I have before, during, and after such dis-easing and dis-courses learn the mastery of submission - bid the time, energy, and focus - into being unobserved as a master of such "controllers" that in essence frees my soul for higher purposes, service, and Calling. "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Just As I Am", and "O' Lord My God" are such songs that sustain my heart. Turning always to seek the "ShadowPlace" beneath protective wings of Love, I strive for common sense, good reasoning, and most of all, the Faith to sustain and to choose life,...a good life not for me alone but all brothers and sisters among mankind-those already found and those who stumble lost among a thorny, tumult, and oft terrifying world. Freedom is choosing, not so much free liberty as, the liberating service that comes as we reach out to help one another along "the Way". Being able to laugh at our struggles in learning {not at the expense of each other} enables us to maintain an "even balance".
I like my friend's prespective...U n I ty(ied with the Bonds of Love for ever) and the world calls him "mentally challenged" ???[shaking head in utter disbelief]. All religions teach the basic concepts of love and service. Some people just get side-tracked onto detours into details and doctrine thereby failing to uphold the "prime purpose" that calls all of us to "love one another" as brothers and sisters. We can choose life and we can choose peace.

Serendipity!

Submitted by stereoman on May 3, 2006 - 9:32pm.

Your essay was the first thing I read tonight after returning home from the weekly "Prayer and Peacemaking" course I am currently participating in. Your theme fits so perfectly into the subject of tonight's sharing, DottiAnn. Our facilitator, Dan Snyder (the Quaker, not the hockey player!), led us in an exploration of what peacemaking means, both inwardly and outwardly. The MLK Quote for the day, (with thanks to our Pro-Peace Editors) addresses this theme eloquently:

Quote:
The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it.

MLK expresses the effect from the position of discovery, and Dan expressed the same transfomation from the position of experience:

Quote:
We are peacemkaers not because we are looking for peace in the world but because we have already found it.

Dan stressed that what we do as peacemakers is not in taking something away from the world, but in giving the world something we have. As peacemakers we offer the world a new vision that stands on its own merits, eliminating the need to prove the other paradigm wrong.

Steve

=========

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

Re: Choices as clear as night and day

Submitted by MTOLincoln on April 30, 2006 - 11:05pm.

DottiAnn wrote:
For years now I have repeatedly asked throughout my daily journeys to my local city leaders, government representatives, Senators, and, yes, even my President, "If we can study, research, and document the causes of illness, why is it so difficult to do the same with violence and violent behaviors?

See E. J. Dionne’s editorial in the Washington Post, “The Left's Big Ideas” (Tuesday, April 25, 2006; A23).
[Quote=DottiAnn]Most of the world's ills and all of the world's wars no matter how small or large would be stopped immediately if only we knew the answer as to what makes a person choose peace over violence and/or violence over peace.

As for those who choose violence, the answer is usually not hard to come by. They usually say. Just listen. Or ask, if it’s not clear.

A major problem is that we often don’t listen, don’t hear, or refuse to listen. And ignoring someone, treating that person as if he or she did not exist, or does not merit our attention or our positive regard, is often enough to make them turn to violence in self-defense to defend their own dignity and their right to exist.

In this sense, those who don’t listen, and don’t hear, are a big part, though less visible part, of the problem of violence throughout the world. They are, in a sense, the provokers, while those who turn to violence, are often the victims. When the latter become violent, they turn the tables, and merely do to their provokers in a physical sense what the latter did to them in a psychosocial sense.

To ignore someone, especially when they are clamoring for our attention, or greatly need our attention, is to treat them as if they did not exist, which is like annihilating them, that is, "making them nothing" psychologically.

And they get the message. And sometimes they respond by trying to annihilate in return those who refused to countenance them. I think this is a significant part of what instigates terrorists to become terrorists. In the same vein, one way to stop or greatly diminish acts of terrorism would be for us to stop and listen to what they are saying, or trying to say. If they found they could suitably influence us without having to resort to violence, I think they would likely choose that route first. Why? Because it’s much easier, and it works better. And it fits in with their values and religion better.

Something to think about, I hope.

Quote:
Yet I have discovered that some people who do claim to be most peace-seeking display an almost insatiable, insidious form of manipulative violence that, when confronted, creates demonic responses clearly not peaceable at all.

Excellent observation. Isn’t that the truth? Good description of the behavior pattern of narcissistic personalities, in my opinion. They look good. But, criticize them? Watch out! Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde. A major problem arises when this kind of person becomes the powerful leader of an entire country. As they too often do. They look good. They talk peace. But they kill, kill, and kill. We see it every day, don’t we?

Concerned,

MTO