Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Posting For Peace

Glenda has called on her readers to post for peace today. It's the 4th of July--Independence Day--after all, and there are more of us than you might think who don't instantaneously connect the making of war with the making of greatness. I am regularly made heartsick by what I see going on in our nation and in our world, as you know. Some of you seem to get a little bummed out from time to time about my critical concerns related to race. But I am not critical because I got out of bed on the wrong side on a given day. I am not critical because I am afraid of power. I am not critical because I have issues or I want to be on top. I am critical because I love life--in all its forms. I love babies (even when they smell funny). I love birds and trees and butterflies. I love fresh-faced, eager students. I love drill teams with drums. I love stand up comics and spoken word artists. I love big city web designers and folks growing watermelons in patches of rural Florida. I love people willing to memorize lines and get up on a stage, risking possible humiliation, to entertain or to teach or just to connect with the rest of the human race. I love life. Even when it doesn't look like me. Even when it doesn't speak my language. Even when it has a different way of talking to God/dess.

See, the fact is that I'm alive. And the life in me calls out to the rest of life on the planet. Despite the way I may be seen from time to time, I do not think it's all about me. I think it's all about Me. That is to say, I think, you and I and the butterflies and the drill team members and the babies and the people in Iraq and Iran and Darfur and Palestine are me. I'm not somehow "up here" while you or him or her or it is somehow "down there." And once that idea gets up in your head, you can't say "ho-hum, they're bombing (again)." You feel the bomb hit and you scream in your soul and agonize over the Grand Ignorance of it all.

A couple of days ago, I came across a reference to "the hundredth monkey effect," a phenomenon first observed by Lyall Walson in the 1950's on an island where he and some other scientists were studying macaques (a type of monkey) and later popularized by Ken Keyes, Jr., in a book on the topic. Apparently, the scientists were dropping sweet potatoes on the beach for the macaques to eat. The macaques liked the sweet potatoes, but didn't like the taste of the sand. So, over time, a few of them learned and taught each other to wash the potatoes in a stream before eating. Eventually, however, (the process took over a decade) when the hundredth monkey learned the technique, the entire macaque population took to using it and almost immediately macaques on other islands--even distant islands--took to using it, as well, with no way to imagine how the information had been communicated. Thus, the term "critical mass" was coined.

So, I'm posting for peace today. Maybe I'm not the 100th monkey. Maybe only the forty-second or the eighty-sixth or the third, comparatively speaking. But I doubt that the macaques were counting. I doubt that they were shooting for an ultimate result. The ones who carried their potatoes to the stream were probably not blogging about it at the time or even trying to drag their friends down to the water. They were probably just washing their food and enjoying how much tastier it was without the sand.

And all those macaques grinding their teeth on that gritty sand--not realizing that it could be otherwise--just thought that's what they had to do to survive. Until critical mass was achieved and then they made the shift as if they couldn't have done it before.

Glenda called for posting for peace. In the interest of peace (world and otherwise), I'm calling for:

* an end to the war in Iraq, bringing the troops home now;

* immediate release of all political prisoners currently held anywhere in the world (including Guantanamo Bay and the U.S.) as a result of the decision-making of any branch of the U.S. government;

* an end to U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and any other lands that have not requested it (which, to my knowledge, includes everywhere we have perched a military base); and

* immediate economic and philosophical commitment to: fair trade practices world-wide; cessation of all violence against women and children; safety, opportunity, and respect for all people of color; and a massive re-organization of the U.S. "justice" system (including all prisons and jails) with the expected result of mass immediate releases of non-violent prisoners and the placing of drug addicts into appropriate facilities.

That oughta get us started. We don't need to eat sand. There's a better, more excellent way to live. Come on down. The water's fine.

16 comments:

  1. I am totally willing to swing in the trees and pick nits off of my friends IF we can stop the wars. Love the story. Well done and thanks.

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  2. Thanks for dropping by, ladies. Your graphics jazz up the place. :-D Our Posting for Peace project was the closest I came to a parade today. It was a pleasure.

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  3. Oh! This Peace Train is rolling on down!
    Rolling down the line!

    Nice post my friend. Roll on!

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  4. Anonymous1:40 PM

    A great and interesting post, I will change the link on my blog to connect with you here. Thanks for being part of the Peace Team!

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  5. Anonymous8:53 PM

    Changeseeker.

    Thank you. As always you know just the right thing to say.

    Happy 4TH of July to you!

    Thanks for having a great blog site!

    (As a matter of fact, I am going to go around wishing a Happy 4Th to all the blogs I post on.)

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  6. This gave me hope..that its going to come around and its our time to bring this administrations grip on our country to an end.

    I applied to your Peace Train.

    Peace,
    dusty

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  7. Nice Job, and the 100th monkey reference was a great touch.

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  8. Yes, yes. Loved this post. You made your point beautifully. Thanks.

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  9. changeseek,

    GRATE post. I was thinging about Nanny Pelosi or Cindy Sheehan for hillary VP. Now, I am start to thing of you.

    Interrist?

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  10. No, thank you, H4P. But I appreciate the vote of confidence. Glad you liked the post. How ya' been? Haven't seen you around lately.

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  11. Anonymous2:47 AM

    Lovely post. Not very word inspired on the whole but somehow found my way here. Very glad I did.

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  12. Thank you, one and all, for the warm thoughts and kind words. It's always lovely to feel appreciated, not to mention connected. Yay, us!

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  13. Anonymous1:58 AM

    While the torture and abuse at Guatanamo Bay is disgusting, not all of the prisoners there should be released. Some of the prisoners are no doubt Islamist fascists, who have been involved mass murder themselves. It's absurd that to call for their release when they will immediately be involved again in killing Christian, Jews, Hindus, and other "apostate" Muslims.

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  14. And you know this *how*, Drydock...? The factual reports (as opposed to the "official governmental" ones) are telling us that they have known virtually since the beginning that many, if not most, of those being held without charges are not even possibly implicated as having anything to do with politics at all. Their arrests were just part of the dog and pony show to sell a war to a bunch of folks who bought the hype because they wanted to. What part of "what goes around, comes around" don't you believe?

    The U.S. government (and the U.S. population who continues to allow it to run amuck internationally on our nickel) has now convinced the rest of the world that we are dangerous asshats who deserve whatever horrible outcome is ultimately delivered to us. Doesn't seem like a good foreign policy to me. And definitely not in the best interests of our security--national or otherwise.

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  15. Anonymous9:31 PM

    You seem pretty unconcerned about justice for the victims of the Taliban and other Islamists, which is probably why you support release of all the prisoners at Guatanamo. I'll be glad to read any of the reports you mention but don't cite that show that 100% of the prisoners are innocent.

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  16. Drydock: Only ten of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been formally charged with anything. Further, according to the military's own documents (as investigated for a Seton Hall University study), 55% of the the prisoners are not alleged to have committed any hostile acts against the U.S., and 40% are not accused of affiliation with al-Qa'ida. More importantly, only 8% of them are even accused of fighting for any terrorist group and 86% (nearly nine out of ten of the prisoners) were captured by the Northern Alliance or Pakistani authorities at a time when the U.S. was offering large bounties for the capture of suspected "terrorists." Specious? At best.

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