The Day after Mother's Day, 2007, the USA Government and Military blocked our sons, daughters, brothers, husbands and wives on base access to:
Myspace, Youtube, MTV, Blackplanet , photobucket, live365, hi5.com, pandora.com, 1.fm, and others, claiming "SECURITY" and denying FREEDOM of SPEECH.
Our sons, daughters, brothers, husbands and wives, have ALL put their ass on the line for Big Brother and Corporate Interests as they guard Iraqi oil bases and are NOT allowed off-base for months at a time.
And Big Brother rewarded our sons, daughters, brothers, husbands and wives, the day after Mother's Day 2007, by denying them access to FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."- Article 19 UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
The October 2006 edition of The Lancet, a British Medical Journal, concluded that 654,965 Iraqis, [about 500 people a day] have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003. [1]
Nearly 4,000 Americans have also perished and the number of people dying in Iraq has risen on an annual basis.
Fifteen million U.S.A. tax dollars a day provide Israel the means to continue its 40 years of occupation of Palestine; while International Law states occupation is to be temporary.
"Every day, the U.S gives more than $7,023,288 to the Israeli government and military (and at least $108 billion since 1948), but provides nothing to the Palestinians...The indirect or consequential costs to the American taxpayer as a result of Washington's blind support for Israel exceed by many times the amount of direct U.S. aid to Israel." [2]
The genesis of Mother's Day in the U.S.A. began when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, 150 years ago.
Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe wrote the first Mother's Day Proclamation, from which I excerpt:
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
...From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the 21st century, patriarchal testosterone driven 'civilization' persists in the manufacturing, use of, and exporting of weapons of destruction which terrorize innocent children just because they happen to be Iraqis, Palestinians, or have the misfortune to be born in any other country that defies the empire builders of American hegemony.
In 1999, the UN dedicated the first decade of the 21st century to Create a Culture of Nonviolence for All Children of The World.
On December 29, 2005, while I was in the Little Town of Bethlehem: Occupied Territory, attending a workshop sponsored by the United Network of Young Peace Builders [UNOY] the Netherlands Expertise Centre Alternatives to Violence informed this reporter that in regards to the United Nations Decade of Creating a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, America abstained from voting YES and is on the record in the UN as stating:
"We cannot support this initiative as it will make it harder for us to wage war."
As the American government [Caesar?] is unable to support Peace and Nonviolence, it is delusional to imagine a culture of nonviolence becoming reality without the transformation of hearts and minds by those who hold political power.
Gandhi said that personal nonviolence is not much use to society until one weds society to political action.
It is not enough to speak TRUTH to power because power is deaf and doesn't care. We must imagine that we ourselves are but 'actors' in this drama we call life and when enough of us accept and then play our part in seeking peace in nonviolent solidarity as we pursue justice, human rights and international law: Caesar will once again fall; for pride and arrogance always precedes one..
On December 30, 2005, a Palestinian refugee and Anglican priest, founder of SABEEL [Arabic for The Way] Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, Naim Ateek, spoke in Bethlehem during Holy Land Trust's Celebrating Nonviolent Solidarity about how the use of state sponsored violence corrupted the true message of Christ.
Ateek explained how Christ's teachings and life reflected the revolutionary concept of nonviolent action and how thousands of years of not reflecting upon the fact that evil can be opposed without being mirrored, and the cycle of a 'tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye', never has and never will bring peace and justice.
Christ taught that one must forgive and love ones enemies and one must pray for those who persecute and hate them. In a nutshell, that is what being a Christian is truly about.
Before the reign of Emperor Constantine, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other human being.
St. Paul taught that the only way to resist evil is with good. Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence contradicts Christianity.
In 313 Constantine sought to unite his empire and with his legitimizing of Christianity, many have said that was when the soul left the church.
Within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized as Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity began. Augustine was the first Church Father to speak about the concept of a Just War. The Church relaxed the standards Jesus set as they negated the true teaching of Christ to justify war and thus; wrong became right, for a true Christian is nonviolent.
"The God of war, violence, oppression and terror must be rejected. Authentic Christianity is nonviolent and is all about peace, justice and liberation." -Rev. Naim Ateek.
Candidate Bush claimed his favorite philosopher was Jesus, but President Bush has defied the philosophy, ethics, morals and teaching of Jesus which espoused one must forgive to be forgiven and one must love and do only good towards one's enemies; not bomb, torture or occupy them.
The problem is not with Christianity, but that too few who claim to be Christian, have actually done what Christ taught.
Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer from the Salam Institute of Peace and Justice [www.salaminstitute.org] lives in Washington, D.C., but he also spoke in Bethlehem during Holy Land Trust's Celebrating Nonviolent Solidarity Conference, "All the Abrahamic traditions are based in nonviolence, it is our lenses that determine whether we see it. Like Christianity the concept of a Just War took root and developed after lots of discussions dealing with how to deal with believers and nonbelievers.
"The first twelve years Mohammed spent in Mecca he practiced nonviolent resistance. He was persecuted but always prayed: 'God forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.'
"Mohammed taught against the killing of innocents, the desecration of the environment and for the humane treatment and respect towards one's enemies. Suicide bombings are not justified and those who try to justify it negate the early principals and teachings regarding nonviolence, the pursuit of justice, doing good, universality and human dignity, equality, that all life is sacred, to be forgiving and be a peace maker."
As with Christianity, the ideals and reality have yet to mesh.
In explaining this gap Dr. Abu-Nimer continued, "We are quick to blame the external factors such as colonialism, war, humiliation, Zionism and economic dependency. But what we lack is looking internally for we Muslims love authority, bureaucracy, loyalty and our core government system is based on nepotism not ability. There is corruption, co-optation of religious leaders, the patriarchal structure and hierarchy, the authoritarian control system, and the tribal mentality.
"We are not raised in our culture to question authority and if you engage in nonviolence you must resist authority. Our first step is to challenge our own presumptions...We have 5,000 sayings attributed to Mohammed and 700 authentically traced. The politicalization of his teachings began the corruption of his teachings.
"Every Muslim child is exposed to positive values as well as interpretations that are narrow and exclusive. An example is: 'We are the best nation that God sent to people.' If we truly follow the ideals of Islam, we are, but reality is that the ideals have been corrupted by wrong actions.
"Many interpret the saying: 'Support your brother if he is just, right or wrong' to mean you must be loyal regardless of his actions and don't ask questions. The true way to support one's brother [or tribe] is to point out the error of his [their] ways; to explain to him why he is wrong, to correct but not fight."
"Islam was revolutionary at its time but it went backwards. There is no lack of values; the lack is in interpretation...Islam must reclaim what Mohammed put down. It is a myth to believe that the conflict between Israel Palestine can be fixed by secular methods."- Dr. Abu-Nimer.
Peace is not a noun, it's a verb: Peace is who you are and what you do.
This Mother's Day, may we all:
Arise then,
From the voice of a devastated Earth,
With a voice in solidarity that demands Disarm! Disarm!
For the sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
And blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let all people of good will and of conscience bewail and commemorate the dead,
And may the great human family in nonviolent solidarity live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress,
NOT of Caesar,
But of God.
WAKE UP America;
Big Brother is out of control,
Freedom of speech is in grave danger,
In a healthy democracy the government is afraid of the people,
Only in totalitarian regimes are the people afraid of the government.
While we still have freedom of speech;
USE IT!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!
RESPECT THEIR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH
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Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. -Article 19 Universal DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS