First, Martin Luther King's vision of peace, freedom, and justice (Please see also My Open Letter to President Obama Regarding Disarmament and part of a HCR post that has a list of disarmament resources). I am going to try and compile a more comprehensive list of resources / links for the interconnected goals and themes of peace / disarmament, environmental sustainability and ecological wisdom, and social justice / civil rights, but that may take some time indeed :). On a more artistic yet no less important note, then I will share some poetry and new music (to me) as well as a drawing that I thought might help me keep working toward King / Gandhi / Thoreau's vision of truth, beauty, and good, and perhaps may help others toward that goal of a better world for ourselves, our children, and seven generations and beyond into the future.
New START For Nuclear Disarmament: Petition to President Obama for Nuclear Abolition
Disarmament Peace Sunflower
Dear President Obama,
We must ensure the future survival and sustainability of not only our generation, but future generations to come. Everything and everyone, human and nonhuman, is intricately interconnected, and we must ensure that our environment and society is moving forward toward the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau: peace, freedom, justice, equality, and environmental sustainability. Thank you for your leadership and your wisdom. Thank you for everything you have done, are doing, and will do in the future to make the world and our country a better place, more peaceful, disarmed, and free. Peace be upon you, your family, your friends, our country, and all the world, human and nonhuman alike.
Petition to President Obama for Nuclear Abolition:
On April 5th President Obama pledged the United States to demonstrate leadership for nuclear disarmament and abolition. Now we must work to ensure that commitment is fulfilled. Help us add 100,000 signatures to an international petition for abolition to be delivered before the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations in May 2010. When you're done, download a paper petition here and collect signatures from your friends and family.
Petition Digg
Petition PDF (To Download & Distribute)
via Peace Action
Also check out Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Abolition Caucus
April 2010 Sunflower Newsletter
Martin Luther King "I have a dream"
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And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Martin Luther King, Jr. - "I Have a Dream"
*****
From an Email:
Dear [Supporter],
In the past few months you signed our petition for a nuclear free world, thank you! Now we are at a critical junction for nuclear disarmament work. Please take another step towards a nuclear free world by forwarding the message below to as many friends as you can.
Once you've done that take a minute to download a paper petition and circulate it
because a grassroots movement must be organized the old fashioned way --people talking to people!
And if you can, we'd love for you to you join us, Sunday, May 2,
to march with the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 80 Hibakusha (survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ) and thousands of peace and disarmament activists from around the world in New York City.
Thanks again for all your support! Please take a minute to forward the message below.
*****************************
Dear Friend,
I signed Peace Action's petition for a nuclear free world, and I hope you will too. Now is a critical time for nuclear disarmament, and lending our voice to the effort can make a real difference now.
Last week, President Obama announced the new nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia, the follow on to the START Treaty, to be signed April 8th. The details have not been released, but the GOP is already getting geared up to oppose the treaty.
The ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces, Representative Michael R. Turner of Ohio, released a letter he solicited from the directors of the nuclear weapons laboratories in January, questioning a federal report which said modernization of existing stockpiles was not necessary.
As President Obama tries to take one small step towards nuclear disarmament, the GOP begins efforts to confuse, distort and delay efforts to reduce the stockpiles.
President Obama needs to take a bigger step towards a nuclear weapons free world that won't be mired in a tug-of-war in the Senate.
President Obama should initiate good faith multilateral negotiations on an international agreement to abolish nuclear weapons, in our lifetime!
Peace Action launched a petition campaign calling on the President to do just that!
Working with our international partners in Japan, and around the world, millions of signatures will be turned into the White House and United Nations during the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May.
Without the support of public opinion and a grassroots movement for peace and disarmament, no steps big or small will be taken! We have learned the lesson of the healthcare fight! The GOP may try to confuse, distort and delay. Therefore, it is up to the peace and disarmament movement to push back!
Please sign the petition,
and once you do, download a paper petition and circulate it
because a grassroots movement must be organized the old fashioned way --people talking to people!
Take one more step to make sure we START and do not get stopped! The moment is now for nuclear disarmament but it can't happen without your involvement! Sign and circulate the petition, march on May 2 in NYC and forward this message far and wide!
START is just the beginning, and we won't be stopped in our quest for wiping the scourge of nuclear weapons from the Earth!
Peace,
Judith Le Blanc
Organizing Associate
Peace Action
P.S. Make sure to share this e-mail with your friends and family by forwarding it on.
How Long? Not Long! - A Better World Is Possible . . . .
*****
Mike Oldfield - To Be Free (& Tubular Bells III), New First Beginning Poetry, & Hahn-Mu
This video / song really got to me, for some reason today, and in combination with my desire to change myself and others, against perhaps wisdom and truth, I thought it might help someone else see things slightly differently, better, or perhaps even in a much more peaceful, happy, far-looking perspective / vision / perception. In any case, I am very glad indeed that I found this song (thanks to Last.fm radio!). I hope everyone in the world has a peaceful, loving, and free weekend, year ahead, and beyond!
"You find yourself alone, sometimes Without a home, no protection You don't know which way to go You're lost, no direction Suddenly, out of the blue Some kind of magic comes to you You don't know how, you don't know why But someday, gonna take off, fly (wish, make a wish) My wish would be...To be free To be wild And to be Just like a child And if I get lost I really don't mind Cos I'm me Doing just fine You're out in the cold, sometimes As far as you can see, misty And you want to run, into the sun The road is lost, sandshifty (then) Suddenly, out of the blue Some kind of magic pushes you through You don't know when, how or why But someday, gonna take off and fly And if I had a wish, my wish would be...To be free To be wild And to be Just like a child And if I get lost I really don't mind Cos I'm me Doing just fine To be free To be wild And to be Just like a child And if I get lost I really don't mind Cos I'm me Doing just fine To be free To be wild And to be Just like a child And if I get lost I really don't mind Cos I'm me Doing just fine Just like a child" via AskLyrics
*****
The Fool, Beginning, Adventure, Hero, Self Becoming
Dream Of Star Raven Fantasy Empress Lover
Begin Always Again And Again And Again
Tears fall like rain, sweet
Breaking the bonds that separate
Imagine peace and an end to violence
Peace in your minds, on earth, in your houses
Love and giving always to your secret inner Self
Swimming in the seas of dreams and oceans of future
Saved from drowning when you most need help
Men and women on a boat that sail across worlds
A great ship that can go where men alone cannot
We catch a leviathan of the deep
It is almost too horrible to look at
To see it is to despair
And yet my friends are still in the sea
And who knows how many more monsters are there
Primordial, ancient, terrible to behold
And the one we caught was already dead
I remember the hill where we played
The bus where I broke the rubber bands
A wilderness, a forest, a river, a path, journeys
You and the others, my friends and family
I danced and floated away, you sang my name
Onward toward the sea, my destiny
I leave you, and you are still in the cold water
It is almost as if you were never here at all
Yet I still feel the phantoms of your presence
Some more people I know remained behind below
In the dark waters among the ancient ones
I felt bad for leaving you most of all, my love
But when I saw the rope I grabbed on
The strange elder ones in human form pulled me to safety
To help raise the other monsters and people from the sea
We are all related to one another, by ancestry and origin
United by the memory of ocean and the promise of sky
Happy to be alive and desirous of one another’s company
Endeavor always to change ourselves and others
A difficult task requiring much effort, grace, art
Working as a fisherman in the cosmic ocean
Writing and knowing the true and beautiful
As well as I can, remember my dreams
Try to create some kind of meaning
Always growing, changing, learning, becoming
In the midst of being, time, evolution
Revolution of the mind, psyche, society
How can I hope to change the world?
Why would I dare to question nature?
Who am I and where am I going?
What can I do to help humanity renew?
When will be the time when I can change?
How can I dream while still awake?
Are the paths and journeys only my creative imagination?
Each and every day that passes
I change and yet always remain
In love, with life, living, and dreaming
Visions of the future that may be
Where, when, and how we can be
Together, free, peaceful, disarmed, loving
I remember we are part and parcel
We belong to the earth, sky, and water
Mother and father, rich and poor, everyone
In every case and in every situation
In every problem and possibility
In every way and path I travel, I think of you
Creative rebel goddess, dear lovely star raven
Everlasting Starflower: Diamond Soul Fractal Mandala Spirit
*****
☮"Peace is every step." - Thich Nhat Hahn
☮ "The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." - John Muir
☮ "Luck is being ready." - Brian Eno
I'm really glad that I discovered Mike Oldfield. This next video seems like a good end to this post. Good night / day, and good luck! Peace! :) <3</p>
Peace: Spring - Let's Keep Working
Like the proposed attempt at a comprehensive list of resources and links for peace, environment, and justice activism, I will also try and add more music, poetry, and artwork / drawings in the future, both to my fledgling blog at WordPress and here at Daily Kos for you fine lovely folks to read / look at if you so desire and you have the time. Peace, Love, Light, Life, and Good Health to everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful evening, weekend, year ahead, and beyond, and good luck! :) <3</p>
Queen - Under Pressure
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