It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social change is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the silence of the so-called good people."--Martin Luther King. Jr
Bring on the Season for Nonviolence, Port Huron, to start Jan. 30th, in all possible practical and spiritual manifestations!
Bring on the Season for Nonviolence, Port Huron, to start Jan. 30th, in all possible practical and spiritual manifestations!
At http://bluewatersnv.com/20090924/opening-ceremony/
This letter to the editor call to action of one year ago has yet to be answered positively by our President. It would make a great state of the nation proclamation. We continue to hope for a strong, skilled, nonviolent national service program. With it in place, we could be sending 1000 creole speaking relief workers to Haiti to help give well-directed aid in this time of terrible disaster. Peace Corps members fluent in the local language--capable listeners, and other technicians, could later assist in a comprehensive [as per The End of Poverty by J. Sachs], grass roots redevelopment of Haitian society, replacing the U.S. military occupation solutions that have failed the people miserably, so many times in the past.
January 14, 2009
Dear Editor,
I urge President Obama to come to the University of Michigan, soon after inauguration, and challenge the American people to a new level of service—a renewed expanded Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. At U of M, where President Kennedy began something, let’s finish the job. Recruit us to a new informed, competent nonviolent national service that includes but goes way beyond the Peace Corp’s 9000 volunteers and AmeriCorp’s 75,000.
It would be a call to young and old, for one or two years of service, to help solve international conflicts and meet local needs. The learning of a foreign language would be one of the main weapons of the resurgent Peace Corps, aided by cooperation between university language departments and State Department Foreign Service school resources. The military would be invited to share in this development of language and cultural competency. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country and the world. The investment in a national nonviolent service project should rival the amount spent for the armed services. Let’s get serious about peacemaking.
Kwame Kilpatrick and Elliot Spitzer and others may have fallen by the wayside hamstrung by the weight of power and their own transgressions. But watch out Wall Street, Washington politicos, and swift boaters all. Move on over Karl Rove and Charlie Black, Charlie Wilson, Blackwater, and Company. Its Martin Luther King’s spirit that got out the vote for Barak Obama! MLK’s spirit is a movin’ in our land. And its time America cast off the shackles of its prejudices, and listen to its multiracial heartbeat. Embrace the politics of hope, and reject the politics of fear. It’s time to stop cowering behind the wall of Homeland Security enforced by a Military Industrial Petroleum Complex. Instead, let’s boldly go out into the world with diplomacy and understanding and faith in God as our shield, our inspiration.
We need to be on the deep and true offensive, and go beyond the limits of the Marine Corps, to bring real resolution of conflict with a fully equipped Peace Corps. We need to invest our billions to meet the Millennium Challenge, to eliminate poverty in the world and stimulate its creative industry. Where our treasure is our heart will be. We need to stop producing the world’s most advanced expensive weaponry--to repent of these evil means and beat these swords into plowshares. It’s our destiny as the most powerful and diverse, to lead the nations towards the promised land of disarmament, security provided by social - not military - investment. Continuing on the treacherous path--robbing the poor by rewarding the rich with massive defense contracts--will kill us all body and soul in the end.
The peaceable kingdom does exist here on earth if we will all begin to put away the sword. There are enough bread and fish to feed the multitudes. Martin Luther King and his Lord and Savior lead the way, if we will just become our birthright—beloved communities—standing tall for truth, justice and a spiritually expansive American way.
The spirit of King is with us, and the forces of negativity cannot stop the idea, the hope-filled belief in the goodness of humanity, whose time has finally come in the USA.
This letter to the editor call to action of one year ago has yet to be answered positively by our President. It would make a great state of the nation proclamation. We continue to hope for a strong, skilled, nonviolent national service program. With it in place, we could be sending 1000 creole speaking relief workers to Haiti to help give well-directed aid in this time of terrible disaster. Peace Corps members fluent in the local language--capable listeners, and other technicians, could later assist in a comprehensive [as per The End of Poverty by J. Sachs], grass roots redevelopment of Haitian society, replacing the U.S. military occupation solutions that have failed the people miserably, so many times in the past.
January 14, 2009
Dear Editor,
I urge President Obama to come to the University of Michigan, soon after inauguration, and challenge the American people to a new level of service—a renewed expanded Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. At U of M, where President Kennedy began something, let’s finish the job. Recruit us to a new informed, competent nonviolent national service that includes but goes way beyond the Peace Corp’s 9000 volunteers and AmeriCorp’s 75,000.
It would be a call to young and old, for one or two years of service, to help solve international conflicts and meet local needs. The learning of a foreign language would be one of the main weapons of the resurgent Peace Corps, aided by cooperation between university language departments and State Department Foreign Service school resources. The military would be invited to share in this development of language and cultural competency. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country and the world. The investment in a national nonviolent service project should rival the amount spent for the armed services. Let’s get serious about peacemaking.
Kwame Kilpatrick and Elliot Spitzer and others may have fallen by the wayside hamstrung by the weight of power and their own transgressions. But watch out Wall Street, Washington politicos, and swift boaters all. Move on over Karl Rove and Charlie Black, Charlie Wilson, Blackwater, and Company. Its Martin Luther King’s spirit that got out the vote for Barak Obama! MLK’s spirit is a movin’ in our land. And its time America cast off the shackles of its prejudices, and listen to its multiracial heartbeat. Embrace the politics of hope, and reject the politics of fear. It’s time to stop cowering behind the wall of Homeland Security enforced by a Military Industrial Petroleum Complex. Instead, let’s boldly go out into the world with diplomacy and understanding and faith in God as our shield, our inspiration.
We need to be on the deep and true offensive, and go beyond the limits of the Marine Corps, to bring real resolution of conflict with a fully equipped Peace Corps. We need to invest our billions to meet the Millennium Challenge, to eliminate poverty in the world and stimulate its creative industry. Where our treasure is our heart will be. We need to stop producing the world’s most advanced expensive weaponry--to repent of these evil means and beat these swords into plowshares. It’s our destiny as the most powerful and diverse, to lead the nations towards the promised land of disarmament, security provided by social - not military - investment. Continuing on the treacherous path--robbing the poor by rewarding the rich with massive defense contracts--will kill us all body and soul in the end.
The peaceable kingdom does exist here on earth if we will all begin to put away the sword. There are enough bread and fish to feed the multitudes. Martin Luther King and his Lord and Savior lead the way, if we will just become our birthright—beloved communities—standing tall for truth, justice and a spiritually expansive American way.
The spirit of King is with us, and the forces of negativity cannot stop the idea, the hope-filled belief in the goodness of humanity, whose time has finally come in the USA.
The celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday January 15th, coincides with the annual celebration of Nuestro Senor de Tila, an ebony black Christ crucified, in the Mayan mountain communities of Chiapas, Mexico. The Chol people of that area are successfully struggling against the violence of the Mexican military. Since our Michigan Peace Teams have connected with the area, they know that they have this special relationship in time with MLK, apostle of nonviolence.
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