A TIME TO LOOK INWARD
It becomes more apparent each day that the United States of America has become infested with greed, guns, violence, ignorant fundamentalism, bigotry, ad infinitum. What to do? Is the onslaught too much to do anything about? While many Americans profess that they cling to the Holy Bible for guidance, the history of the world indicates that either these same people are not reading the Bible or are ignoring it. No religion, no ideology has been more violent and more killing than have been the Christians ...sometimes of other Christians. The domestic terrorism in Oak Creek is not an isolated case. Using violence and guns in particular, Wisconsin has a recent history of religious or other bigotry manisfesting itself in multiple murders. Add greed, add selfishness, add more guns, add a warlike culture, and you have a recipe for these actions.
I struggle, too, to try and make any sense of it. Allow me to share some quotes with you...
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." -John Donne
"Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." -Robert Burns
"It is never too late to do right." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Today, the world is so small and so interdependent that the concept of war has become anachronistic, an outmoded approach." -Tenzin Gyatso [fourteenth Dalai Lama, 1935- ]
"The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people."-Molly Ivins
"Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives." -Ayn Rand
"Endless money forms the sinews of war." -Cicero [106-43 b.c.]
"Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible." -A. Philip Randolph
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. One must work at it." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." -John F. Kennedy
"Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew." -John Greenleaf Whittier
"All works of love are works of peace." -Mother Teresa
"Peace can start with just one heart." -Holly Near [American teacher and songwriter]
"You will not enter paradise until you have faith and you will not complete your faith until you love one another." -Muhammad
"Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people." -Garrison Keillor {Radio, "Prairie Home Companion"]
"Wars are not 'acts of God.' They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society. What man has made, man can change." -Frederick Moore Vinson [American Supreme Court Justice]
