Unity on the River with Dennis Kucinich
Amesbury, MA - March 13, 2005

Nature can inform the world in which we live. We can become, in effect, tuned by nature. Today we are here in a mission of sacred service speaking "not of what the world can do for us but of what we can do for the world."

The unseen world always brings blessings to us as long as we're open to it. Faith is what we have that gives us the ability to visualize the unseen. We can actually call forth from the seen world another world that is unseen. When that happens, people say a miracle has occurred, but the truth is that it's been there all the time just waiting for us to evoke it. Our human nature gives us the opportunity to transform our lives as we call forth the unseen world. As we call forth its beauty, we call forth its power, we call forth its light - we bring forth a new world. We can do that any and every moment. Each one of us has that opportunity.

Unity's purpose as a community is to help elevate human consciousness so that we are aware of the workings of the spirit of the world in us and through us. Those principles of understanding help to elevate the purpose of our lives. Our lives do not belong only to ourselves. Each life belongs to the world. This is a time when there is such a call for human unity - when we realize that the plea of all for one and one for all needs to be elevated to an understanding that all IS one and one IS all. We come together with the intention of creating abundance, beauty, and joy - our hearts' desire. We can be the architects of a new world.

I want to talk to you about what's going on in America and in the world right now, and what we can do about it, but first, since I am in his District, I will tell you that your Congressman Tierney is a man of great courage in challenging the administration's plan for missiles in space. He has shown a willingness to take a stand when others would not.

Legislation to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace was first introduced on July 11, 2001, two months before 9/11. America was somewhat different then. The kind of fear that has permeated society was not present. The DoP was brought forward in an environment where we knew that America had a practice of overreaching on its international affairs. The DoP would have our country involved in creating scenarios for non-violent intervention - looking at the elements that cause clashes, looking at conflict as it percolates, not looking at the terminus of conflict and saying, "Now we must do something."

It wasn't a new idea. It was an iteration of an idea that's been around for a couple of hundred years. But what was new about this proposal is that it has as a feature developing a culture of peace within our nation by focusing on those symptomatologies that indicate that our society doesn't have a grip on itself. By teaching our children peacegiving, peacesharing, mutuality, and looking at the other person as an aspect of oneself, we begin to recreate the culture and recast the spirit of our times.

We are reintroducing the legislation in September of 2005 as close to 9/11 as possible because it's time that we started a shift of the metaphor in our society which 9/11 has become. 9/11 represents fear. Fear has become a matrix which suggests a society that is walking very slowly and carefully through a minefield of possibilities - all of which are ominous.

The whole event of 9/11 was distorted by some of our political leaders with the cooperation of the media. Instead of it being a moment when we could have seen the imperative of reconciling with the world, it became the moment when we separated and withdrew from the world and became "garrisoned America." That fear has concretized in the American psyche. It has paralyzed so many Americans and made it impossible for some people to stand up in defense of their OWN basic rights and interests. 9/11 has become a touchstone for something dark and murky in the American experience. But we don't need to leave it there.

We have an imperative to recast this event of 9/11 so that we can make it the basis for a new beginning in America - in the words of Lincoln's second inaugural, "with malice towards none; with charity for all." Lincoln understood the need to heal the nation. The healing of a nation must take place on many different levels. One is a healing of a spiritual sort. We will begin to heal spiritually when we challenge and then set aside the dichotomized thinking of "us versus them." We need to create wholeness - oneness spiritually - and then the physical world will see its manifestation. The Department of Peace is about beginning that process of healing the nation.

There was no legitimate reason for the United States to wage war against Iraq. We were honed for the deception that took place because we think in terms of "us versus them." Dichotomous thinking separates us, and when those divisions exist in a society, they are easily exploited by people who find capital in such exploitation. The Department of Peace begins an exploration of and discussion about who we are and what it is we aspire to. It sets us on the path of evolving and becoming more than we are and better than we are.

It's time for us to challenge the fundamental assumptions upon which our country is operating. We need to reject the type of thinking that says that war is inevitable. There is a type of group-think which lets people stand by passively as the health care resources of this country are stripped, as the retirement resources of this country are threatened, as wealth accelerates to the top. We need to remember that each one of us is choosing the destiny of the nation and the world.

If you go into a situation - even one where everything you believe is being challenged - and you approach it with a certain equanimity, and you don't approach it with malice, and you don't attack anyone, you can help to create a different kind of atmosphere. You can change other people's behavior by changing your own.

I work in a place where disparagement is the verbal coin of the realm. If you say something derogatory about a person, such talk is destructive in and of itself. Our words can have material effect. They can move people. Not engaging in derogatory talk as a practice has a lot of power because you don't get pulled into the kind of lower level of consciousness or lower level of response to people. That has the power to conjure up realities within you. It creates a kind of intrapsychic condition which you then project, and it may just project into areas that are not even related to that other person. It's not easy to do. But if you catch yourself and stop yourself in the moment when someone wants to engage you in talk about so-and-so, and just redirect the conversation gently, see what happens.

I have the opportunity in my job to practice every day. Do I always meet the test? Maybe not. Am I always consciously aware that I need to be careful of the implications of my thinking, my words, my deeds? You bet! But so is true with each of us. Each person, in thought, word, and deed, is affecting the world right now.

Question and Answer

[Regarding media support for the DoP legislation, and the profitability of war versus peace"¦.]

It is axiomatic that when a government goes to war, the media is right there cheering it on. Until recently, the performance of the media in this country has been absolutely disgusting when it comes to Iraq and Abu Graib, and in the corporate media, there's less and less accountability. Each one of us is a medium. We are the ones that have to carry a different message. We need to find peaceful activities in the community and use local radio and TV and newspapers to inform others that these are taking place - and we must insist on that. The Federal Communications Act of 1934 mandated that the electronic media serve in the public interest, convenience, and necessity. It doesn't do that any more, but part of the reason is that we don't demand it. The national media is remote, but local media are generally more responsive. Invite them to your meetings, and if they don't show, then insist that they come to the next meeting.

There is no question that there are some people who make profit off of war, but the general public does not profit from war. War is the most wasteful invention ever created. [See Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition chart for details on the cost of Tools of War and Tools of Peace.] The idea of a Department of Peace is to help us take a new look at the thinking that takes us into war, to help us take a new look at the practice of war. We have the capacity to end war. For those who want to justify war, we need to probe them a little bit more. I believe that people have the right to defend themselves, but no one in the world is going to confuse the attack on Iraq with self defense. It was a pure act of aggression - a violation of the Geneva Convention, the U.N. Charter, and the U.S. Constitution.

[Regarding the corruptibility of government departments"¦.]

We ARE the government. We can be as presidents of our own lives moving forward to create self government in the truest sense by integrating into our lives these principles of peace. The transformation that came about in America through the civil rights movement had to first happen in the hearts of the American people who understood that racial discrimination was absolutely inhuman. The transformation that led to women getting the right to vote had to first come about through people recognizing that this is the right thing to do for democracy - that it was fundamental basic human rights. As the recognition is there in our nation, then the government has to follow. There are still people who are going to be in office who may not respect the higher avocation of a Department of Peace. I don't think it's bad for peace to be politicized. We need to have those who would hold office at any level know that we will call them to an accounting based on their ability to hold the conduct of government to a higher standard. You can annihilate any structure that was put up with the best of intentions. But it's also true that those in whose hands we place the custody of our dreams have a responsibility to hold fast to these dreams as we would have them do, so whenever they fail to live up to that responsibility, then they are held to an accounting. That's what the process is all about.

[Regarding election fraud"¦.]

I voted against certifying the election results at the Electoral College. The Secretary of State in Ohio conducted his office in a way that deliberately frustrated people's exercise of their franchise. Do I believe that the election in Ohio was stolen? No, I don't. The Republicans were very skilled in creating increased turnout in areas where they didn't get it before. It's a matter of organization. There have been irregularities in other elections in the past. It's legend that John Kennedy won Cook County with the help of the spirit world. It's said that Lyndon Johnson won a seat in the United States Senate with the help of a polling station in Allen, Texas, where the people voted in alphabetical order. We need to be ever mindful of what technologies can be used to cheat. I have some concerns about electronic voting. I need to know that the person I voted for got a fair shake. People have to have confidence in the ballot box. I'm going to introduce a Bill that requires paper ballots in federal elections. Some people may not buy that because it would slow down the election. What's the hurry? But we have to resist the cynicism and the hopelessness which would tell us, "Oh, they're just going to steal it again - I'm not going to vote!" because that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where you steal the election from yourself. Eyes open! Ears listening! Be engaged! Look at what's happening when votes are being cast. Participate in that process. Be a witness or a challenger or whatever your state election laws allow you to be. On the federal level, we need to look at those laws to make it possible to make sure that elections are protected. If we abandon this process, the self-fulfilling prophesy of destruction of democracy absolutely takes over.

[Regarding a gift of documentation of his "Inner Department of Peace" by an out-of-state supporter"¦.]

It is very easy to advocate peace on earth. This is an important moment to focus on inner peace, and when we do that, we help to create more peace in the world.

[Regarding getting Congressman Tierney to cosponsor the DoP legislation"¦.]

There is this underlying unity that binds us in a common citizenship. When I return to Washington, I'm always struck by the shift in energy from a feeling of hope and expectation - even joy in some places - while in Washington, the vibration is an admixture of fear greed, and lust for power. My first day on the job, I could feel the white heat - like stepping into a blast furnace. It's tough! But there is an underlying desire on the part of people to find a way to come to a different relationship within the community and with the world. There is a hunger for that. It may be that even the people we admire the most in Washington may not want to move that quickly on this, but we need to give them some encouragement. When they hear from enough of us, they'll get the message because they have a sense of this as well. But you've got to realize that it's a toxic environment, and if you don't really guard yourself spiritually, you're subject to getting pulled into this morass at any moment.

[Kudos to Dennis for his courage.][Regarding the process of getting one's Congressperson to cosponsor"¦.]

"Courage" is a French word. The root of it is "coeur," which is "heart." Those who choose to serve in public life may or may not at any particular moment be stout of heart. They're much like us. That's what representative government really is about. People represent us in all of our contradictions, in all of our potentials, in all of our failings. There's another dimension of courage, and that's ENcourage. Where we come from determines the extent to which we are successful in providing encouragement to people. If we come from a place of judgment, with people who happen to hold office, their heart will close, their ears will close, their eyes will close. Condemnation - the same. But if we come with an open heart, we have the potential to change their way of thinking. It would be antithetical to try to pass the DoP legislation any other way. There has to be integrity from the beginning of our efforts to the final vote. I know there are many more people out there who are ready to be co-sponsors. They just have to be encouraged. Mutually contradictory conditions are always existing simultaneously, and because of that, people may surprise you. Always keep open to being pleasantly surprised.

[Regarding an exit strategy for Iraq, and the state of American consciousness by the 2008 elections"¦.]

In the Democratic Caucus, the leaders of the Democratic Party, in discussing this $82 billion which is going to be appropriated for continuing the war, get up and give speeches that sound like we are right back to 2002 just after the war started. There is a real possibility that we could be in Iraq for 10 or 20 years. We need to create a peace movement in this country that is so broad and so powerful that no one in Washington will mistake it for anything but a desire on the part of the people of this country to have a government going in a direction away from empire, away from trying to control another nation, away from trying to steal its resources, away from trying to play some geopolitical game.

It's true that if the international community came together under different circumstances, they could have a way of creating a transition, but what we have to do as a nation is to call forth this mass movement where people are in the streets as a physical demonstration of the desire we have for America to take a different direction. If we do not do this, we are looking at an attack on Iran. Two years ago, the administration passed legislation that opened the door for an attack on Syria. As soon as you approach a government which uses military power as an instrument of so-called diplomacy, you're on a collision course with fate, and with death.

There's no easy way out. We've got to change the whole direction this country is taking with its international policy which is based on this compartmentalized thinking, this divided image of our world, this war-like thinking and talking and action that locks us in. We have to be the ones who find the way to galvanize a new movement in this country for peace. But it has to be profound. It isn't just for one thing - it isn't just about Iraq, or tomorrow, Iran. It's about a shift. And people all over the world are ready for this. Many parts of the world are ahead of us on this.

There is a disconnect between the government in Washington and what the great mass of American people want - to set aside our fears and move towards our hopes and our desires for a new unity. This is a moment in our history that we have to seize to create peace. What it looks like is Town Hall meetings, and gathering together with other people, and starting to show each other physically coming together - where we keep marching and marching and demanding a change.

[Regarding the reason for this disconnect and its relationship to the assassinations of the ‘60s"¦.]

We can either vote our fears or we can vote our hopes. If we get obsessed with losing the physical person, it's easy just to follow that path towards annihilation of one's own self. But if we understand that their spirit lives in each of us and that we are who they are, there's a part of them that's reborn in us spiritually. Each of us is the sum of everyone we've ever met or everyone we've ever heard of. It's really a question of whether we believe in ourselves. And that's why we can't quit!

[Regarding the need to stay competitive in order to win"¦.]

There are many good men and women in the House of Representatives. They get to work and go straight to their national committee headquarters and start dialing for dollars. This system of privately financed elections is dooming our nation. It's not the people - it's the system that forces them to do things out of fear to hold their office. They may not sell their vote, but they rent it for a day! Public financing - public control of government. Private financing - private control of government.

[Regarding partisans at the polling places in the Ohio election"¦.]

We have to change the agenda. This is a call for active citizenship. What better place to start than in New England? The spirit of the American Revolution can become the spirit of the American Evolution if we are ready to push.

[Regarding the organization of the MA DoP Campaign"¦.]

The Democratic Party in 12 different states in the union passed a resolution in support of the Department of Peace in convention. This is so important because it demonstrates that we do have the capacity within the political process to affect change. And one of the states was Texas! Even though the people of Texas had worked for months to get this on the agenda, SOMEHOW the DoP was left off the agenda at the state convention, and the only way they could get it back on the agenda was to get about 2000 signatures of delegates in 24 hours. And they did it! At the convention! They got it on the agenda and it passed. In Texas! All across the country, there is a shift in consciousness that's already occurred. We just need to give it form.

[Regarding how the DoP would address Roe vs Wade and the Marriage Act"¦.]

It's certainly going to be about education, human relations, co-equality of men and women, addressing those issues in our society which cast people as an outgroup - the danger of that - and about the deeper issues of human unity.

[Regarding polls in Iraq showing that the Iraqis think we should stay vs our desire to get out"¦.]

Any exit strategy from Iraq has to be structured to let the people of Iraq handle their own affairs, and that's going to be tough. We've created so many complications that any exit is not going to be without a great deal of pain for the Iraqi people. No one has ever advocated that we just get up and leave. It's impossible to do that. But what we CAN do is talk about the circumstance under which the United States MUST leave.

I don't think there's any question about where the attacks are coming from. They're coming from people who are motivated by trying to get the United States out of their country and who are objecting to any hand the United States has had in choosing their government. But we can't act like now that we've bombed their country and taken it over and installed a government, that's going to be okay because it's not. The longer we're there, the deeper we're going to get into it. That's the real tragedy.

We really need to reunite with the world community, but the administration pulled out of a criminal justice court agreement based on their opposition to anyone who wants to strike down the death penalty. We need to plan an exit and withdraw our troops. People will say, "But there'll be a civil war in Iraq." The minute we went in there, we were setting off a chain of events. We have to take responsibility for that. We chased out Saddam and in his place is going to come not a secular leader. I didn't like Saddam, but I also didn't feel that the United States had any right to blow him out of office. The path out of Iraq is going to be very uncertain and treacherous, but one thing for sure - we have to insist that the United States put in place a withdrawal strategy and take steps toward getting out. We will be there 10 or 20 years if we don't insist on this.

Two hundred years ago, our fathers were warning us against foreign entanglements. The day that the United States went into Iraq, I stood on the floor of the house and said, "Get out!" The longer we're there, the more things we mess up. It's not going to happen overnight. There are no easy fixes. But we have to have the intention of getting out. Right now, there is NO intention.

[Regarding the Viet Nam parallel and the fact that it took domestic violence to end that conflict"¦.]

I don't think we need to go to riots, but I do think we need to be active. We need to start to get together as a community. I stood on a stage in New York City and looked down over half a million people just on 1st Avenue. People came together all over the world with this insistence on peace. Despite the foreboding that was cast out when the millennium changed, people came out in celebration of their own humanity across the world. It's only our fears that will keep us from rallying by the millions in support of peace. The forces of reaction are always present. It doesn't take any courage on the part of the government to be reactive. When the people demonstrate their courage, that's when governments change.

[Proposal for a Good News Day once a week.][Regarding the "us versus them" mentality in religion"¦.]

When we come to the realization that the oneness of the universe and the world contains all religions, that there doesn't need to be opposition within religions, that we're all looking at aspects of the same Source, it is possible that we can unite people of all faiths - and non-believers as well. But we have to come at it from an open heart. Whenever there's this separateness that is preached from some pulpits, when we get that alienation, then we set ourselves up for disaster. The root word of "disaster" is Spanish. Loosely translated, it means "torn asunder from the stars." We need to keep our eyes on that starry path of human unity, one aspect of which is the unity of all faiths and the unity of all different possibilities, so that everyone can expand his or her own capacity. When religion fails to do that by shutting off progress to a broader understanding, that's when it fails. When it opens up to an understanding that the whole world is one, then it's possible for religion to be a vehicle for transcendence.