Imagine Peace By Cindy Sheehan

[Echo In Light]

Imagine Peace
By Cindy Sheehan

Imagine all the people, living life in peace.
John Winston Ono Lennon
October 9, 1940-December 8, 1980

A dream you dream alone is only a dream.
A dream you dream together is reality.
Yoko Ono Lennon

10/05/07 "ICH" -- -- On October 9th, on what would have been John Lennon's 67th birthday, his widow, Yoko Ono is dedicating a peace tower in Reykjavik, Iceland in the memory of her husband. There will also be almost a half a million peace wishes buried in capsules around the tower which is a blue tower of light extending up to the sky above us.

I received the link to the Imagine Peace website while I was on a layover in the airport in Las Vegas, Nv. Still reeling from the reports of hundreds, if not thousands of Burmese monks and other humans being slaughtered for protesting against their oppressive government, it was hard for me to watch all the people sitting hypnotized at the slot machines, pulling the handles or pushing the buttons as if the world is not going to hell in George's hand basket. The dichotomy of business as usual in America compared with genocides in Darfur and Iraq while I am still and always will be mourning my son makes me dizzy sometimes.

So, I made myself close my eyes for a few minutes between planes and tried to shut out the bells and whistles of the slots and "imagined" peace. What would a world at peace look like? What would a world at peace be like to live in? I have a great imagination but I knew this exercise would be challenging.

John Lennon called his song Imagine an "anti-religious, anti-nationalism, anti-conventional, anti-capitalist" sort of a "Communist manifesto." It is for sure a utopian vision of a perfect society that unfortunately can not be achieved by imagining, and probably not at all---but how close can we get to this world and how much sacrifice will a world at peace take from each and everyone of us?

First of all, imagine a world with no religion. A world where sick and evil people could not manipulate the masses into believing that the set of myths and beliefs that they profess are more important or powerful than the other's set of myths or beliefs. Israelis could not (with the help of Christian extremists) tell Palestinians that it is okay to occupy them or kill them so that the Jews could claim their "Promised Land." Land promised to whom by whom? Muslims could not proclaim "jihad" against infidels. There would have been no Nazi holocaust against Jews; no Crusades; no holocaust against our own native population; no black slavery justified by the Christian scriptures; no George Bush saying that his Christian God is like a mob-boss ordering him to "hit" the world. Imagine that!

More: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18510.htm

[Zandor]

1. Imagine Cindy Sheehan going away n/t

[Echo In Light]

4. I realize she's an embarrassment to mods/DINOs...

Given that, as rightists deems it so, activism and civil disobedience is unseemly, but Cindy's a courageous activist!!! Many could take her example.

[cali]

5. That's rather simplistic.

I don't find her an embarrasment; I find her irrelevant. And I love many activists, but I find her self-centered and often ignorant or deliberately obtuse.

Activists I love: Peter Schuman and Bread & Puppet. William Sloan Coffin. Grace Paley.

And I am not a moderate. I'm a liberal/Progressive dem.

[zulchzulu]

2. Thanks Cindy!

I may not agree with everything...but I still have your back.

:thumbsup:

[stimbox]

3. Rock on Cindy!!!

She was in great form at Beach Impeach 4!

[LWolf]

6. This paragraph

particularly resonates with me:

"I received the link to the Imagine Peace website while I was on a layover in the airport in Las Vegas, Nv. Still reeling from the reports of hundreds, if not thousands of Burmese monks and other humans being slaughtered for protesting against their oppressive government, it was hard for me to watch all the people sitting hypnotized at the slot machines, pulling the handles or pushing the buttons as if the world is not going to hell in George's hand basket. The dichotomy of business as usual in America compared with genocides in Darfur and Iraq while I am still and always will be mourning my son makes me dizzy sometimes."

[Echo In Light]

7. She was the first parent/activist to garner national coverage...

...At a time when dissent within the mainstream wasn't as permissible as it's become. She's spot on...as you noted with citing that paragraph. I usually go out of my way to applaud her efforts as I've witnessed the most venomous, ignorant attacks against her at various online forums. It's interesting how she apparently offers so many specific targets of ridicule for such a broad spectrum of haters.

[cali]

9. Do you consider anyone who doesn't

care for her rhetoric, a hater?

[LWolf]

10. Good point.

It's the polarized "Never criticize one of our own, never hold our own accountable, the only enemy is THEM" hypocrisy.

[Echo In Light]

11. I guess I don't understand having to hold Cindy "accountable" for anything

People are complex as consciousness is rich, varied, often contradictory. I support Cindy's efforts on general principles, doesn't mean I'm going to necessarily agree with every word that passes over her lips.

In short though, yes, I do believe that, generally, those who view her in a negative light do so under the sociological influence of how the so-called "liberal" media has framed her and her cause ... meaning that, within snide Establishment criticisms of her, usually framed within asking 'what do you think about Cindy?' with a snide jab to direct the question's results, they heard something negative about her that resonated positively within themselves.

[LWolf]

13. The bile comes from

the fact that she's had the nerve to criticize actual Democrats. She's held Democrats accountable for acting to end the war, and that earns her hatred from some quarters.

[cali]

14. er, no.

My objections to her don't come from "bile" or hate. And they certainly don't come because she's criticized dems. It can neatly be summed up by her comments about the dems having started every war in the twentieth century but the gulf war, her bizarre comment that the income tax is unconstitutional, her claim that the dem party IS the party of slavery, and other comments too numerous to list.

[LWolf]

15. Semantics.

It doesn't come from criticism of Democrats, it comes from criticism of the Democratic Party.

[cali]

16. Wrong. It comes from strange and FALSE statements.

If you care to defend them, do so, but don't rely on a facile misinterpretation.

And saying that the income tax is unconstitutional, has little to do with democrats; it's straight out of the LaRouche handbook. And it's damned odd.

As for the statement that the Democratic party IS (as in currently) the party of slavery- that's a hideous right wing meme.

The stuff about the Dems starting all the wars but one in the twentieth century but one, is not only absurd and wrong but silly.

[LWolf]

17. All bow to judge Cali,

who has again decreed what is right, what is wrong, what is false, and what is not.

:eyes:

[Nutmegger]

8. Keep on talking Cindy!!!

R&K!!!

[ShortnFiery]

12. Cindy comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. Bless you Cindy Sheehan! :-)

Cindy Sheehan :yourock: :patriot:

[Clanfear]

18. Cindy is worth her weight on gold.

To the rethugs.