Is there anything we can do to spread peace?

Is there anything that normal people do to help bring peace to the world?  I want honest answers, because if we truly have no power to change things, I might just stop caring.

It has been emotionally exhausting for me to watch the news lately and see the world tear itself apart.  

It doesn't matter to me who's "side" you are on, or which side is "right".  Global violence has to stop, because the bombs are only growing in strength and number.  And a death is a death is a death.  

Are the Israelis justified in retaliating against Hezbollah for acts of terrorism against their nation?  Is Hezbollah justified in attacking Israeli troops in retaliation for the oppression of the Palestinian people?  Hell if I know, but I doubt that the 120+ dead Lenanese and Israelis would answer in the affirmative.  I'm sure they'd rather be alive.

Does anyone have an answer?  Is there anything we can do to bring peace to the world?

•  Find some children somewhere...

  ...and teach them about Peace.  Tell them what life could be like and help them be not afraid.

  by rserven on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:05:28 PM PDT

  •  the pictures of kids in the middle east

    are amazing.  Fox news (of all places) has some excellent photos from Lebanon, Isreal, and the Palestinian territories right now.  Their is one photo of a few kids in a bomb shelter, of all places, playing with each other.  If only all people were morally frozen at the age of 5.

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:08:05 PM PDT

•  Dubya says

  Lets build spend another 10 Billion to build a new and improved Nuclear weapons. First we need to get rid of that bastard on Pennsylvania Ave. i hope when he goes, it is straight to hell! What a pig!

  by donlong on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:09:02 PM PDT

  •  oh he's going to hell alright

    if there is such a place.  

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:11:28 PM PDT

•  Peace

  is something to be lived in each moment. Each breath, every step. Every interaction with another human being. We must be at peace with our inner selves before we can live peace with our outer selves.

  It is so easy to lose sight of true peace amidst the chaos and brutality we see every day in the world but true peace is to be found in how we put on our slippers in the morning, how we pay for our coffee or take a left hand turn on our way to work. It is every breath.

  Peace,

  Andrew

  by Andrew C White on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:20:15 PM PDT

  •  i agree

    And I am so lucky to live a peaceful, relatively wealthy life.  but the larger world seems like such a sad, dark place.  i don't know whether to stop caring and save myself from the stress, or figure out what i can do to make help improve things.

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:31:28 PM PDT

    •  To stop caring

      is deadness, not peace. Peace is understanding that each moment contains everything there is in life. It cannot be improved. Each moment is perfect exactly as it is.

      by Andrew C White on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:49:05 PM PDT

    •  You can't bog down

      Anthony, if you could change just one life for the better, do one positive act, that's like saving millions.  Maybe one day you'll be in a position of power to truly help people, you'll be an extremely  wealthy lawyer who can write million dollar checks to pro peace and anti hunger and anti poverty groups.  But that's at least a couple decades away.  In the meantime, you have to focus about what you can do in the short term and small scale.  It's like what Howard Dean said: Think Globally, Act Locally.  If you can make one depressed friend feel better, if you can help one person get their life back on track, if you can get more people out to vote, if you can change one mind for the better, you'll have done something good.  That is pro peace.  

      by SoCalLiberal on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 11:52:45 PM PDT

•  spread peace?

  Here's a place to start.  Maybe we could stop being the world's leading weapons supplier.

  by DBJ on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:22:30 PM PDT

•  During the 60's...

  I was involved with the Transcendental Meditation movement. It was the Maharishi's contention at the time that if we could get 10% of the world to meditate, it would have a positive, cumulative effect, that would create world peace.

  This was a popular philosophy of the 60's.

  The fact that 40 years later things are so messed up, really doesn't bode well for the Maharishi's prediction. Such a pity.

  by steelman on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:23:56 PM PDT

•  History proves peace is very unlikely for long.

  Various strategies for peace have been tried. Disarmament, The League of Nations, The United Nations. Some have have had linited success but all have failed in the end. As long as some country has something another country wants, there will be war. For instance, Iraq was not invaded because of WMD's, to get rid of Saddam or even to establish democracy. It was all about establishing permanent bases in the middle east to keep the oil flowing. We do not believe any country has the right to deny us oil even if they do own it. We will probably invade Venezuela some day for the oil. The experts say, regarding a nuclear attack on our cities, the question is not if but when. My advice is to give up on peace, live day to day and move to Canada or at least Montana. Of course I am not doing that because I love home too much.

  by drumroll on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:30:00 PM PDT

  •  'It was all about establishing permanent bases'

    I know, i've been saying this too.  How long will it take for a majority to figure that out?

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:33:04 PM PDT

    •  We really don't plan to leave Iraq.

      Newsweek said we are building very expensive permanent bases in Iraq. If we planned to leave we would build smaller, cheaper temporary bases. The advisors around Bush were planning to invade Iraq before 9/11 which just gave them a wonderful excuse.

      by drumroll on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 11:01:52 PM PDT

•  I'm assuming

  you mean something practical.  I've been thinking about this, too.

  I've written several times that the Bush Admin. is, as usual, criminally negligent in how they have not engaged in the area as an honest broker.  Of course with Iraq that is even more impossible, as well as the fact that this crew couldn't mediate a fight on a kindergarten playground without it turning into a full scale child war.

  The only thing I could come up with was contacting all our elected representatives, and demanding that this Administration bring in someone credible, Jimmy Carter, Clinton, even the heinous James Baker, if it comes to that, to start real talks with all the players involved in this debacle.

  Only when the American public starts a real uproar is anything going to happen with our foreign policy.

  by Nightprowlkitty on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:33:20 PM PDT

  •  yes, i mean something practical

    I want to know what I can do.  If there's really nothing one person can do, then maybe my mom has the right idea.  She doesn't pay attention to it, at all really.

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:35:44 PM PDT

    •  peace is something you make

      peace is a state of mind, a lifestyle and a gift. No wonder it's so hard for us to do.  If you are at peace grasshopper, it will spread.

      Things you can do.  Ask people questions about this current turn of events to picque their interest (a ton of people are unaware bout all this, thank you 40 hour work weeks)

      You can start planting trees and native plants for your area, since every year:
      1 million new houses go up, along with shopping centers, office buildings, stripmalls, franchise businesses
      and enough pavement to cover the state of vermont is laid.

      Find ways to use less gasoline, unless you buy citgo (or another non-MidEast company) your money is going into the hands of corrupt Republicans and even worse Middle Eastern autocrats (who finance terror and live in appalling luxury).

      choose one day of the year that you can set aside to work at a soup kitchen.  I'd recommend Food Not Bombs?

      If you don't go to church (but also if you do) join a weekly Women in Black protest... silently standing in protest of the death our leadership is bringing to the Middle East.  Gives you time to think about what peace is while you send a potent symbol to others and encourage them to question our country's predicament.

      Watch Democracy Now, not the Evening News or some other shade of entertainment, read The Guardian or Counterpunch online for information instead of the local paper or The New York Times.  Even so-called "liberal" bastions in the media have very specific agendas which include war-cheerleading or omission and numbing the people into being good consumers. Democracy Now is commercial free, unfiltered and not a collection of soundbites from generals and pundits. you can watch @ democracynow.org. (no I'm not affiliated)

      by Nulwee on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:51:18 PM PDT

•  Emotional Exhaustion

  Lately I've been exhausted with all the news.  I mean it just gets to be too much sometimes.  Often I find releif on Daily Kos.  But with all the debates on Isreal vs. Palestine, I've found Kos to be tiring as well.  There is so much anger and frustration and I definately know I've felt it.  

  I think there's a difference between personal peace and international peace.  I feel that international peace can be created through greater communication, understanding, and education.  The main tool allowing for peace is economic development and improvement as well fighting disease and hunger.  This is what leads to peace.    

  As far as inner peace goes, there is no easy answer.  Some people can lead lives of complete wealth, leisure, and outward success yet can be miserable and unhappy on the inside.  They're not at peace.  What can be done to find inner peace?  I don't think there are any clear answers.  Perhaps it's different for everyone.  Lately I've just felt exhausted and have needed to rest a lot more.  The Middle East conflict has generally accellerated this.  But I don't have to worry about Hezbollah rocket or an Isreali bomb coming through the house.  In that way, I should be grateful.  

  by SoCalLiberal on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:33:41 PM PDT

  •  i know

    I'm grateful too.  Even as I bitch and moan about my horrible existance of late--studying 7 days a week--I know that I have it better than 95% of the world.

    by anthonyLA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:37:11 PM PDT

    •  Yeah, you probably do

      That's what my pilates instructor told me yesterday.  We usually chat about politics and major issues (her son is Iraq and she's very anti war).  And she told me that I might have felt sick last week and that it was bad but it wasn't as bad as what the Iraqis and the troops over there were experiencing.  

      One thing I do for myself (although not today since I didn't excercize and only really ate KFC, which I'm not going to do again) is to try and excercize and eat right.  This not only helps my overall health but makes me feel good and puts me in the right mindset.  I think in times like these, with Bush, and the right wingers running everything, and threats of war, you need a right mindset for life.  I remember working at this hotel once, and this guy, some Hollywood type, came to the pool at like 3 in the afternoon and wanted nothing but black coffee and plain bagels.  He was not in good shape.  I definately don't want to become like that.

      by SoCalLiberal on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:49:26 PM PDT

•  And I'll tell you what else

  In terms of spreading peace or making a difference, it's not easy.  I think for me, it's especially frustrating because it seems like at times no one is listening.  I'm a 21 year old college student, people out there don't want to listen.  And I think for people of all ages, looking at conflicts abroad, there is a general sense of helplessness.  What can we do?  It's troubling when we can see something wrong yet it seems like there is nothing we can do.

  Now look at our fucknut president.  All these people want to love him because he says that Isreal is doing the right thing and has the right to defend itself.  I agree.  But what I don't agree with is watching him sit back on his ass and do nothing except issue general statements of support.  The situation in the Middle East is rapidly spiraling out of control and threatens to turn into something much more massive.  The United States is not leading, we're letting it happen.

  by SoCalLiberal on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:42:44 PM PDT

•  well there is

  this.
  a lot of folks thought it was a joke. i didn't. i'll try anything once.

  by rasbobbo on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:48:55 PM PDT

•  Here are seven organizations

  that are working for peace, human rights and reconciliation in the Middle East: link. We can support them.

  by word is bond on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 10:51:33 PM PDT

•  Sign the pledge...

  at VotersForPeace. You may cynically think that it has little impact as a voting block, but at a minimum it represents yet another avenue to send a message to the world that there are those here that want peace.

  by Malachite on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 11:33:17 PM PDT

•  organize

  demonstrate

  write our congress critters? Call them?

  Why is this exclusively an executive branch issue? Why isn't Congress exercising any oversight in this area?

  Why aren't they discussing what our relationshit with Israel and the other nations in the middle east should be?

  And why aren't we holding their feet to the fire for failing to have a rational discussion on these topics?

  by Tamifah on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 12:55:39 AM PDT

•  Peace is a curse

  Clearly, the rest of the world doesn't want it.

  Yes, that was a snark. Swizterland is a very peaceful country.

  by Super Pretzel on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 03:44:53 AM PDT

•  I'm not sure what you can do to spread peace

  but here are two good ideas:

  1. drive your car less

  2. plant a tree

  both of these will help the co2 imbalance.

  by xjac on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 06:31:19 AM PDT

•  Bringing peace to the world

  I'm paraphrasing from memory;
  "If you think that you cannot create peace just by thinking about it, how do you think wars get started?"
                        Jane Roberts  

  by NancyWH on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 06:47:34 AM PDT

•  Be the change we wish to see.

  Gandhi led the way.

  by BeninSC on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 05:32:45 PM PDT