Some Peace Resources
On The Web

Gathered by Stone Riley
with his comments (C) 2013 & 2017

Question:

A new era of imperialism began on March 19, 2003, an era of exceptional brutality, driven by astonishing ambition.

On that date the United States invaded Iraq with no provocation whatsoever, after a worldwide propaganda of enormous utter lies, in pursuit of the decision by the U. S. rulers to dominate the world, a policy choice of which those evil men were openly boasting to allies and supporters.  No crime of that size and kind had been committed since the days of Hitler and his ilk.

Of course the fantastical invasion at once released an inundation of evil, an avalanche of ghastly cruelty to break your heart and senseless blood and endless lies and failure after failure.  And still today, many years later, the lessons seem to be unlearned by our new gang of rulers and the same war goes on in a different form in the same and different places.

So what hope is there for peace today?

Hope For Peace #1:

Just before the invasion of Iraq, in the preceding Saturday and Sunday, many millions of people all across the world, in scores of cities as the clock of daylight ticked around the earth, took to the streets in enormous mass demonstrations for peace, unlike anything ever seen before in human history.  Those demonstrations were led by activists in countless different social and political movements.  Undoubtedly, a new understanding has taken hold across the world that if we are working for justice then we must make peace.

Hope For Peace #2:

Peacemaking has become a kind of science.  We have had Gandhi and he is followed by a growing worldwide company of other leaders.  You could pursue a Peace Studies university degree, including lectures by Nobel laureates with actual experience in quelling warlike struggles.  Or you might start as a landless peasant, attend a few of the peace movement's international conferences, and with that education help to free your country from its particular variety of violent injustice.  Peacemaking isn't easy, certainly, but we now know how to do it if we finally dearly want to.

Hope For Peace #3:

We have new vital discoveries about ourselves.  Among the most helpful:  We humans, all of us alike, are children of Earth evolved by Nature;  Spiritual enlightenment and ecstasy does not depend on any religious doctrine;  And the worldwide web technology that lets us see and recognize each other everywhere, proves we share all the same joys and horrors.  New information such as this instinctively inspires a vast expansion in our recognition of each other as family.

In Other Words:

The forces of war and peace seem to be in a race to win the world.

"Petites Fleurs" by Pablo Picasso
A small poster issued by Picasso in 1958
to depict the end of World War Two.
Comments by Stone Riley: Link

Some Places I Like On The Web

  1)  Link  The peace demonstrations before the invasion of Iraq, described in a Wikipedia article.

  2)  Link  Dr. Martin Luther King's famous letter from Birmingham Jail, including full text, detailed analysis and a very fine video. Also has links to lots of other King material.

  3)  Link  U.S. Congressman John Lewis - one of Dr. King's original cadres - discussing the revolutionary politics of love, interviewed on audio by Krista Tippet.

  4)  Link  Mass incarceration in the U.S.: Prison inmate and humanist thinker Mumia Abu-Jamal discusses peace and justice both inside of you and in the nation. Here he is interviewed on video by Amy Goodman. Also has many links to related material.

  5)  Link  John Paul Lederach has spent his life mediating peace and humane change in countries all over the world. Here he discusses how it's done, interviewed on audio by Krista Tippet.

  6)  Link  Filmmaker and peace activist Julia Bacha tells us to watch and pay attention when peacemaking happens. Our attention makes peacemaking powerful. Here is her presentation with a fine video at a TED conference.

  7)  Link  What it means to be humane today: The scientist who first discovered whale song is Katy Payne, and then she found that elephants love. Here she is interviewed on audio by Krista Tippet.

  8)  Link  "This Time Of Destiny"  My poem on the new vital discoveries about ourselves which let us know that we are all kin.