Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A STAND FOR PEACE & HOPE

On 16 December military veterans, along with some high-profile activists: Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern and Robert Shetterly and others will Take a Stand for Peace at the White House Fence.

Thank goodness for men of integrity and principle. They shine out among the dross!

Last week Chris Hedges wrote that they will "protest the futile and endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of us will, after our rally in Lafayette Park, attempt to chain ourselves to the fence outside the White House. It is a pretty good bet we will all spend a night in jail. Hope, from now on, will look like this."

Chris Hedges' full essay is HERE. He went on:

Hope is not trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama, who, like Herod of old, sold out his people. It is not having a positive attitude or pretending that happy thoughts and false optimism will make the world better. Hope is not about chanting packaged campaign slogans or trusting in the better nature of the Democratic Party. Hope does not mean that our protests will suddenly awaken the dead consciences, the atrophied souls, of the plutocrats running Halliburton, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil or the government.

Hope does not mean we will halt the firing in Afghanistan of the next Hellfire missile, whose explosive blast sucks the oxygen out of the air and leaves the dead, including children, scattered like limp rag dolls on the ground. Hope does not mean we will reform Wall Street swindlers and speculators, or halt the pillaging of our economy as we print $600 billion in new money with the desperation of all collapsing states. Hope does not mean that the nation’s ministers and rabbis, who know the words of the great Hebrew prophets, will leave their houses of worship to practice the religious beliefs they preach. Most clerics like fine, abstract words about justice and full collection plates, but know little of real hope.

Hope knows that unless we physically defy government control we are complicit in the violence of the state. All who resist keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair and apathy become enemies of hope. They become, in their passivity, agents of injustice. If the enemies of hope are finally victorious, the poison of violence will become not only the language of power but the language of opposition. And those who resist with nonviolence are in times like these the thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration.

"As above, so below" - as the people conjoin to protest, the astrological chart for tomorrow in Washington shows some appropriate planetary conjunctions:



Uranus/Jupiter in Pisces ~ here's the peaceful but rebellious demonstration.

Chiron/Neptune in Aquarius ~ here's the socially conscious and creative attempt to heal the wound of endless war.

Pluto/Mars/Mercury/North node in Capricorn ~ here's anger being communicated via very down to earth means.

Sun in Sagittarius in harmonious trine to Moon in Aries at 10:00 am as the demonstration begins.




UPDATE 16 December





6 comments:

Vanilla Rose said...

Good.

I have to confess that I probably wouldn't have heard of Daniel Ellsberg if James Spader hadn't played him in "The Pentagon Papers", circa 2003 I think.

Twilight said...

Vanilla Rose ~~~ Me too - at least, the detail. I knew the name but not the story until I got the Spader bug.

Mr. Ellsberg is 79 now - amazing that he's still willing to chain himself to the White House fence in the winter temperatures of Washington.

More power to 'em all!!!!!!

Wisewebwoman said...

Revolution comes with a velvet glove and speaking the real truth.
XO
WWW

Twilight said...

WWW ~~~ Yes....and slowly, but let's hope surely!

Vanilla Rose said...

I once sat out in the snow (with others and banners!) in the hope of promoting nuclear disarmament. I'm not entirely sure it worked, but I would do it again.

And I would happily chain myself to James Spader ..........

Twilight said...

Vanilla Rose ~~~ Oh well done you!!
My Brit. political hero Tony Benn was usually in the front lines on such occasions, I recall.

Being chained to Mr Spader could very well melt snowdrifts and glaciers.....LOL! As Alan Shore he'd light up the scene and melt all hearts with one of those magnificent speeches (written by David Kelley). ;-)

I miss Alan Shore - we shall have to start at episode 1 of Boston Legal DVDs again over the holidays I think, to deal with withdrawal symptoms.