Peace Vigil Report (re-posted from OlyBlog)

Peace Vigil Report

Sat, 07/17/2010 - 11:42am — Berd

Richard and Me at the Peace Vigil
July 16, 2010
Percival Landing Olympia Peace Vigil—For some reason, although there were mostly acknowledgments of approval, there were more than the usual number of passerby who registered disapproval. One individual, who "did two tours in iraq," (and I believe them) verbally accosted me from an open car window with three or four young children in the vehicle. Another asked, "where is your green card."
There is more info about the vigil available here: olyblog.net/thought-bandit
I was asked to show my green card—and I am white! I can't believe it. I can only imagine what black, brown, and other people of color are experiencing these days. Racism is hate speech, and there are laws against hate speech. Hate speech does not belong in public, nor in society in general.
Please ask the Obama Administration to enforce laws against racist hate speech. If you're on facebook, you can find more info here:
White House Enforce Laws Against Hate Speech. If you're not on facebook, then please consider contacting the White House, information at whitehouse.gov.
—Berd
p.s. here is another photo from the vigil that shows the recent hazy polluted air quality:

Avatar the Movie, and Culture and Violence

I thought the movie was thought-provoking, and a good lead-in to thinking about culture and media and violence.

Perhaps I am just distrusting, but when I saw the film was produced by FOX, of the News Corporation, I became immediately skeptical. News Corp behaves in an evil manner, infecting peoples' minds with fear and hate and racism.

I believe that the only way we're going to have a world without violence and without exploitation will be to change the culture in a way that society no longer permits certain behaviors, for example - harmful economic activities for the sake of profit. Also, so society no longer produces persons with behavior like that of the crazed addicted to "cheddar" corporate boss, and the uber violent colonel. Those were characters, but those same mentalities exist and even prevail in our own culture.

I think a very similar criticism can be made of the film V for Vendetta. The concept that some heroic act of violence could in an instant halt a culture that has been destructive for thousands and thousands of years is irrational.

Another problem I had with the movie is how the hero, Jake, was not indigenous. There was some message throughout the film that Jake, as a sky-person, was somehow intellectually superior and also more capable physically than the natives.

I believe that the real way to peace is to change our very own culture so that those that are harmful and destructive behaviors, character personalities, and market functions are simply made extinct.

Anyway, it's a good movie for discussion purposes, and very entertaining.

But I think overall the movie sends a harmful message to people watching. That harmful message is this: that violence may be a rational or legitimate path toward saving the world.

Love is the Way

Help us to love even those who hate us - so we can change the world.
Cesar Chavez

Love Can Drive Out Hate

This is a re-post:

better seen large: www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/3518849249/sizes/l/

"The ultimate weakness of violence
is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.

Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.

Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.

In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
— MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

http://inthecourseofevents.blogspot.com/2009/05/love-can-drive-out-hate-martin-luter.html

Love Can Drive Out Hate | Martin Luther King Jr.

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.

Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.

Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.

In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

- MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, pp. 62–63 (1967).


see larger: Love Can Drive Out Hate

Against Hate: Against Violence

It astounds me how someone who is (or claims to be) against racism can be hateful.

I am against hate. I believe that hate and fear underlie many social ills, including racism, prejudice, intolerance of personal differences like age, gender, sexual preference, religion, ethnicity, and race.

So hate in and of itself is the problem. There is no good hate.

It's very frustrating to see supposed progressives, or radicals, engaging in hateful behavior. Very sad.

Healing is in order.

Definitions of Hate:

The most simple definition is "intense feelings of dislike."

From Wikipedia: "Aristotle viewed hate as a desire for the annihilation of an object that is incurable by time."

Also from Wikipedia: "In psychology, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness."

Wikipedia again: "In a more contemporary definition, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object.""

On Hate Speech, from Wikipedia:

Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action[citation needed] against a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, occupation, appearance (height, weight, hair color, etc.), mental capacity, and any other distinction that might be considered by some as a liability. The term covers written as well as oral communication and some forms of behaviors in a public setting[citation needed]. It is also sometimes called antilocution[citation needed] and is the first point on Allport's scale which measures prejudice in a society. Critics have claimed that the term "Hate Speech" is a modern example of Newspeak, used to silence critics of social policies that have been poorly implemented in a rush to appear politically correct.

I am against hate, and against violence. Until we can learn to sit down and resolve our differences in a constructive manner, there will always be people, even those supposedly working for justice, who will oppress and beat down on those with whom they have differences.

Thomas Merton: "I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set of bull-headed authorities to another."

Hate and violence are unacceptable and intolerable. In Peace, Berd

Something is Majorly Wrong with The USA

During class today I had a thought:

What is the government of The USA doing (or not doing) in Iraq that makes the Iraqi people hate America so much?

Then I called my Grandma after class and she told me about what happened in Virginia.

What is wrong with America?