CNN has posted the latest from the peace demonstration in Washington DC. It doesn't give an estimate of how many folks were there. The report said "tens of thousands."We saw thirty-two of them off early this morning just after midnight from the Acoustic Coffee House in Johnson City.
Today in Johnson City at the corner of Roan and Mountcastle about 25 of us demonstrated on behalf of peace and for our troops. Sorry, no pics. The response again was overwhelmingly positive with a few folks in disagreement. Several Presbyterians were there along with some folks from the Quaker meeting in JC. Old and young were there. One little guy passed out Hershey's kisses. Peace is going to happen.
I speak only for myself here. I am not only in favor of ending the war in Iraq, but I am in favor of a new consciousness regarding war and peace in general. I believe in humanity. I believe at the core of our being we are compassionate, peaceful, loving, and intelligent. I believe that this is not about politics or political parties. I believe that humanity itself, when we trust ourselves and each other, have the gifts to change the way we relate to one another beyond all of our differences. I believe that we can creatively find a way to use our resources for the good of all of Earth's people and creatures. I believe we can do this without violence. I believe that this is the way of Jesus.
Thanks to Sharon Cobb for posting this classic:
The Beatles - All You Need is Love
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteThis was a ground breaking event.
From one of their bios:
On June 25, 1967, The Beatles made history becoming the first band globally transmitted on TV to an estimated 400 million people worldwide. The Beatles were a segment in the first-ever worldwide satellite hook-up and their new song "All You Need Is Love"
Did you notice Mick Jagger and Donovan and Marriane Faithfull in the video?
It's hard to believe this video is almost 40 years old!
I sometimes wonder if the Beatles were still around--if John Lennon were still around, if he could have impacted the youth culture of today like he/they did in the 60s and Viet Nam era.
"I believe at the core of our being we are compassionate, peaceful, loving, and intelligent."
ReplyDeleteI have my doubts that this is so, thus the absurd amount of violence, war, oppressions which pervade so much of human history and pervade us as people born and raised in this society.
That doesn't mean that there can't be a movement for peace, only that whenever we see such moves I'm apt to chalk it up to the movement of the divine, transforming us towards such ends, not a native response of human beings.
And btw love the plug for the Beatles. They rescued me from the musical mediocrity that I grew up with in the 80s :). After you listen to Revolver you can't go back to Madonna.
Thanks Sharon for the background to this video. I noticed Mick but I will have to look again for Donovan and Marianne.
ReplyDeleteDwight,
Yeah, I hear ya. I suppose my statement is somewhat mystical. At the core of our being is what we might call God.
As far as good tunes are concerned, it is not easy to find music that can inspire us today like the Beatles did 40 years ago.
The peace demonstrations tend to be somewhat nostalgic, a re-creation of the 60's rather than something contemporary.
What music will inspire us today? I ask that question not to be cynical, but to seek an answer!
One of my favorite songs of all time. I owned a copy of the 45 when I was a kid (I think "Baby You're a Rich Man" was the flip side). I can still picture that orange-colored Capitol records label.
ReplyDeleteI wrote an entry in my blog a few months ago in which I commented on Abbie Hoffman's response to the question of whether it was really true that all you needed was love. Hoffman claimed that "Beatle politics" was wrong, because what we need is not love but justice. But I argued that love and justice are really two aspects of the same phenomenon. I believe that Jesus taught a gospel of justice and of love, and that perfect justice is a manifestation of perfect love.
Watching almost any Beatles video is enough to make my day. I found a Youtube video of the Beatles in 1964 on the rock music show Shindig, singing three songs. It was funny to see the host of the show, in 1964, saying that the Beatles were the entertainment phenomenon of the century--and he said that when it was still only their breakthrough year! But he was right. People will be listening to the Beatles 100 years from now, long after people have forgotten who Madonna was.