Oct. 24, 2002 - 19:03 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Visions

There is a new journal on the scene that I think is great. One by Maggie McQuade - a brilliant concept, but hopefully workable And Peace Broke Out it be great if folks would contribute entries and articles to it.

It has never happened before. Contentious Man seems to find something to always fight about. Sometimes dreaming up a cause, sometimes being raised up from scratch to be a macho fighter walking rough shod over other people. And it is just not a male thing. Women can find reasons, imagined or otherwise to dispute and fight about too.

Funny, most of the major religions have a creed of peace, gentleness, kindness, empathy and charity. But that is not what many of the various pillars of the church preach. They preach hate, war, divisiveness, and bigotry. Or at least many of them do. Why do most men, most groups seem to be hunting for reasons to hate, discriminate and deprive others ?

Dedicated and peaceful church leaders have been trying for centuries to succeed in their attempt to bring about peaceful dialog between different groups, with little success. We talk peace, but preach war, dissent, cruelty and all the other mean things that man gets up to freqently. For centuries and centuries this has been going on.

It is said that people are becoming more educated, know vastly more than those that came before them. But I guess that, "I ain't gonna study war no more," 1, 2, 3 or more - is not taught anywhere in an effective manner. Lip service is what we give the idea of peace, seems like.

It is my idea that as long as hunger, shelter, and human needs are denied a people, there will be war. I am not talking about the centuries old disputes over land in the Mideast, but there is a valid point there to think about. Supposing the Israelis and Palestinians would actually get together and work in good faith to arrive at a way to live in peace with each other ? Would the backers of the suicide bombings quietly steal away ?

Could it ever be possible for munitions manufacturers to truly begin to forge plowshares or their modern equivalent ?

How could we help a country, yet keep the warlords and peerless leaders from diverting the lions share to the insiders while others go hungry and without clothing and medicines sent in charity to help the whole populace.

I think the capability of waging peace is in the hands of all people if they would be willing to demand less in order that others could survive. The idea that millions of young people will starve and those who don't, die early, from one deprivation or another this is one of the saddest things on earth.

We here, most of us older folks anyhow, hated for a grown person to say, "Clean your plate now, children in Africa, China, India would love to have those carrots and peas." Cynically we youngsters wished that dammit, the grownups would send all that stuff overseas so that we could eat meat, potatoes and ice cream all the time.

Another sticking point is people all over the world can be doing the same work as others in other countries, but in other countries get paid less, have poor working and unsafe working conditions, no pensions, insurance or medical benefits. And I don't think that we should give up those things, but should bust our buns to see that equal work gets equal pay, everywhere. There would go the sweatshops, the Nike factories in places like Viet Nam.

There is actually enough I think, that everyone in the world could have enough to eat, pure water to drink, clothing, shelter and education. I don't in my own heart think that the haves would need to give up so much to see that it could be that way.

It would be a wonderful thing if Maggie's site would get people together working for peace and plenty.

Like Martin Luther King, "I have a dream." A dream that someday soon some news caster will excitedly say on a news program, "And peace broke out," Visions . . . . . . . . . .

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