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sum greater than the parts

Submitted by Jason White on February 3, 2007 - 7:28pm.
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As some 60 state coordinators finished up their pre-conference meeting on Friday, waves of peace-makers began filling up the lobby. These early arrivals filled the ballroom to capacity to watch the theatrical production The Gift of Peace by playwright Stacey Martino. The play was a poignant dramatization of the conversation and emotions evoked by the Department of Peace campaign and underlying issues.

Marianne Williamson, Dot Maver, Aaron Voldman, Lynn McMullen and a host of community and campus activists took the stage on Saturday, inspiring us with their synthesis of spirituality, political activism, youth and adult energy, outreach, and community building. Frequent eruptions of applause and cheers washed over an exuberant crowd of 700 people from 45 states. Standing ovations honored the courage, heroism, and enormous success and progress of Department of Peace campaign. This is a celebration and a triumph. But this is also a refocusing on and recommitment to the work ahead.

The conference kicked off this morning with a talk by the inspirational leader of this movement to marry spirituality and politics, Marianne Williamson. She brilliantly illustrated how the underpinnings of our movement are our deep moral respect for life itself and our compassion for people who are suffering in despair. If we wish to reduce the scourge of violence in the world, then our first best bet is to help those who are desperate before they lash out.

After Marianne spoke, Lynn McMullen introduced activists from across the country. They spoke about and celebrated their local accomplishments. Activists spoke about getting city counsel resolutions in Atlanta, Chicago, and in Fairmont, MN, where the resolution was rescinded after sparking national press attention and discussion. Activists spoke about Mother's Day Peace of the Pie actions, Father's Day postcard campaigns, peace walks, commemorations of the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's nonviolent movement, and the rise of the Student Peace Alliance.

Marianne took the stage again and talked about "messaging". We learned about focusing our messaging and keeping it consistent and on-topic. The Q&A with the audience addressed many specific questions that people are getting when taking our message into the community and to members of congress.

This is an incredible moment in history. As the new congress begins, elected by a "sober electorate", as the traditional tools of addressing conflict prove painfully less effective and more costly than ever, we are a people looking for the missing component. We are looking for what can complement the military, law enforcement and criminal justice. We seek the olive branch clutched in the left talons of the Eagle.

The campaign for a Department of Peace is entering a new maturity. Our nonpartisan message is sharp and widely appealing. Our supporters are diverse, spanning ethnic, gender, ideological, and socioeconomic divides. In our midst is a palpable feeling of possibility and hope. We see smiles of openness, joy and newness, spirits uplifted. We see a sum that is so much greater than the parts. We know that for each person here there are perhaps a dozen supporters and hard-working Department of Peace activists who could not be here. The Department of Peace campaign has turned the corner. The culture of peace is here; we are now a movement.

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Itelligent*Doubt

Submitted by Rainbow Brain on February 7, 2007 - 3:31pm.

sarah wrote:
Darwin is a good representative for pro-peace, and I liked to hear more about the "The intelligent are full of doubt."
thankyou

hey Sarah,

Well that's a small request which holds a very complex answer ;)

i*am sure its been debated for decades.

i*think (part) of what Bertrand Russell is stating by "the intelligent are full of doubt" is that most who are considered intelligent are very specialized in their knowledge and thinking, thus they may have a grasp of world situations, yet be unable to form a concrete position, solution or starting point to effect change.

Perhaps what is lacking is a very broad knowledge of both human and natural experience and perhaps even thought. So as is often seen in the development of change in society, it is a person who is exposed to a compassionate and wide variety of human experience and tolerance that is most likely to effect change.

Reading a bit of his work would perhaps give you a better sense of where that statement was coming from.

One may be very intelligent, yet lack certainty in their views, and how to share those view with others. Just as one may be very stupid and thus use certainty as a tool to cover the pain and fear of their ignorance. All in all it is the use or lack of certainty that creates the wall in both, each standing on their opposite sides, trying to find the door, rather than the middle ground between the two.

It most certainly is a subject one could pontificate on at length ;) and well worth some exploration by everyone.

BL*M

Intelligent are full dought, a guestion for Rainbow

Submitted by sarah on February 7, 2007 - 2:02am.

Sally(sarah)Mathews
Dear Rainbow Brain,
Darwin is a good representative for pro-peace, and I liked to her more about the "The intelligent are full of dought."
thankyou

parts making the sum

Submitted by water dragon on February 6, 2007 - 1:28pm.

Thank you so much for the window in to this momentious event!!! Each speaker bringing thier focus, research and activity, strengthens the sum. Each attendee who spends time talking with others creates a fullness for which to move forward. This become a template for the tolerance of diversity and the meeting of needs that help to relax and blend communities!
Thank you Jason!!

Strong humans, are nurturing.

Submitted by sarah on February 5, 2007 - 12:12am.

Sally(sarah)Mathews
To be strong, is nurture, to be strong, is
to stand and fall, while the weak are the small, they dress tall with violence, and malicious, actions, weapons in the halls of institutions, dropping bombs, on humans for a cause, of humanity, a pretense, for oil, thats all. Men/Woman; Woman/Men peaceful fall but eventually they nurture, themselves back up stronger for peace, with more knowledge of the human vulnerability in the presence of violence and war. To search for a cure, in non-violence, we must stop and gaze more, because, the best intentions, and best heart are not cure, and I would like to encourage, propeace humans, to take a minute, and imagine, peace, and practice the cure, in little ways in each day, It is easy to fine all kinds of violence, in a day, just stop and gaze, and experiment, What would happen if I did this, would this change, what I have just gazed upon, It does not have to big, I stopped a toddler from screaming, a stranger, in the check out line by smiling. For people like me, who are not the Buddist, the enlightened, start with a step, of what would happen, if I-.

Greater*Sum

Submitted by Rainbow Brain on February 4, 2007 - 4:04am.

and so they does the tell each and every night to the children of peace, of how in the long way past, man and beast lived apart without sharing their strength, without knowing their unity, without thinking of peaceful change, and of how the voices of peace came to the silent place of truth to gain the way of our future, the way of our being, the way of our now, the way of peace, to share with each and every entity of all The*World’s.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change." ~ Charles
Darwin

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid
are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." ~ Bertrand Russell

"If you wish to astonish the whole world, tell the simple truth." ~ Rahel

and so we continue ;)

The Last*War

The Beauty Of Sharing

Submitted by silent lotus on February 4, 2007 - 12:50am.

Dear Jason

Thank you for your kindness to create the time to share
with an immediate message from the conference. Your
light will be an inspiration to many.

a warm smile of friendship

silent lotus

" May your voice be loving enough to silence your own fears." ..... silent lotus
www.silentlotus.net