I wanted to pass on a very hopeful post that I received on another list. It
is amazing and an inspiring reframing.
Esther Ewing
The Change Alliance - Assisting Individuals and Organizations to Build
Capability
<A HREF="www.ChangeAlliance.com">www.ChangeAlliance.com</A>
330 East 38th St, Suite 53K
New York, NY 10016-9804
212-661-6024
Authorized Distributor, Panoramic Feedback
<A HREF="www.PanoramicFeedback.com">www.panoramicfeedback.com</A>
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Just wanted to pass on some hopefulness... see below. Also, i heard an
interview with Michael Ratner, the head of the Center for Constitutional Rights
and an expert on international law,being interviewed on "my" local Pacifica
radio news tonight. Although he feels the chance of war is still very high, he
ALSO said that he still does not think it is inevitable, things are so much in
flux -- and he said how much difference he truly believes the anti-war movement
around the world is making. So read below...and read my next post, with yet
another petition, soon to come your way!
Yours with peace and hope,
Gillian
>Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the
United Nations,
>now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica
was one of
>the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked
in support
>of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in San
Francisco to be
>honored for his service to the world through the U.N. and through
his
>writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty, Dr. Muller
surprised, even
>stunned, many in the audience that day with his most positive
assessment of
>where the world stands now regarding war and peace.
>
>I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by his
remarks. What he
>said turned my head around and offered me a new way to see what
is going on
>in the world. My synopsis of his remarks is below:
>
>"I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so
honored to be alive at such a
>miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in
our world
>today."
>
>(: I was shocked. I thought -- Where has he been? What has he
been reading?
>Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What is
he talking
>about?)
>
>Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history of
the world has
>there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and
conversation
>about the very legitimacy of war".
>
>The whole world is in now having this critical and historic
>dialogue--listening to all kinds of points of view and positions
about going
>to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation
the world is
>asking-"Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there
enough evidence to
>warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant an
attack? What
>will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a
war? How will
>this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful
alternatives? What kind
>of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real
intentions for
>declaring war?"
>
>All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of the
United Nations
>Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for
exactly this
>purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than fifty
years to realize
>that function, the real function of the U.N. And at this moment
in history--
>the United Nations is at the center of the stage. It is the place
where these
>conversations are happening, and it has become in these last
months and
>weeks, the most powerful governing body on earth, the most
powerful container
>for the world's effort to wage peace rather than war. Dr. Muller
was almost
>in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of this dream.
>
>"We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world
community, are WAGING
>peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must
not let up.
>It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense
proportions. It has
>never happened before-never in human history-and it is happening
now-every
>day every hour-waging peace through a global conversation. He
pointed out
>that the conversation questioning the validity of going to war
has gone on
>for hours, days, weeks, months and now more than a year, and it
may go on and
>on. "We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes,
troops are being moved. Yes,
>warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor is angry and
upset and
>spending a billion dollars a day preparing to attack. But not one
shot has
>been fired. Not one life has been lost. There is no war. It's all
a
>conversation."</DIV><DIV>
>It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in the
most
>significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in
the history
>of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever
before-not
>before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new and
it is a
>stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and
responsibility.
>
>In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being formed.
Russia and
>China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented outcome.
France and
>Germany working together to wake up the world to a new way of
seeing the
>situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history of the
world are
>taking place--and we are not at war! Most peace demonstrations in
recent
>history took place when a war was already waging, sometimes for
years, as in
>the case of Vietnam.</DIV><DIV>
>"So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what
"waging peace " looks like."
>
>No matter what happens, history will record that this is a new
era, and that
>the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a global
dialogue
>looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global community
at the
>legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate to go to
war.
>
>Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of that
nation are
>being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink, and
allowing all
>nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision to go
to war or
>not.
>
>Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York Times article
that
>pointed out that up until now there has been just one
superpower-the United
>States, and that that has created a kind of blindness in the
vision of the
>U.S. But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are two superpowers: the
United
>States and the merging, surging voice of the people of the world.
>
>All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert Muller,
one of the
>great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing short of a
miracle and
>it is working.
How fitting to conclude with this remarkable poem by Mary Oliver:
Wage Peace
Mary Oliver
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble;
Breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists, and breathe out sleeping children and freshly
mown
fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
Imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious--
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.
Pamela Meidell
Director
The Atomic Mirror
"reflecting and transforming our nuclear world through the
arts"
Gillian Dale
Ventura, California
(805) 643-0282
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