The twilight of Oppression "As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." - Justice William O. Douglas

 

Patriotism

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else." - Theodore Roosevelt

Because it is Right

"Cowardice asks the question — is it safe? Vanity asks the question — is it popular? . . But Conscience asks the question — is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, or political; but because it is right." — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

Silence

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We Will be the Cause of the Lose of our Freedom
 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -- Abraham Lincoln

I’m for justice

"I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits mankind as a whole." -- Malcolm X

The ultimate weakness of violence

"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 can murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence  merely increases hate. 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 do that." --  Martin Luther King, Jr.

War deadens the spirit of true manhood

"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades
and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder." - Alexander Berkman

America makes the same mistake

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster. How long will we permit millions of pounds, thousands of Imperial troops, and tens of thousands of Arabs to be sacrificed on behalf of colonial administration which can benefit nobody but its administrators?" -- August 22, 1920, written by former Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence (AKA Lawrence of Arabia)

Glory is not Dominion, but Liberty

“[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force ... she might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.... [America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty.” -- John Quincy Adams

Dominance of our ideas

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." -- Howard Zinn

What difference does it make to the dead

"What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?... What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals?... The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong... Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty." -- Mahatma Gandhi

The force of nonviolence

"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Democratic Despotism

"A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness." -- Walter Bagehot

War is Always Evil

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children." -- Jimmy Carter  2002 

A Double Wrong

"To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money" -- Frederick Douglass 1860

Sin by Silence

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." -- Abraham Lincoln

Threatening the Fate of Humanity

The war against Iraq as threatening the ''fate of humanity".... "When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society.'' ... ''Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men.'' -- Pope John Paul II, Mach 23, 2003

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."  -- Former President Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

Bush's war big political mistake, Gorbachev says

''The move defies the existence of the United Nations and international laws. The U.S. stance...means it regards other nations as subject countries or states.'' U.S. President George W. Bush's policy ''is far from real world leadership,'' Gorbachev said. ''It's really too bad. What has become of the world? I'm afraid the U.N. system has collapsed. We have to give our earnest consideration to the problem.'' ''The United States seems to believe this military action shows its world leadership. But that is its misconception. Real world leadership is to take initiatives in promoting the Kyoto Protocol, nuclear disarmament, and arms control, and solving environmental issues'' -- Former Soviet President Mikhail, Third World Water Forum, Japan, March 20, 2003.

War is Failure of Diplomacy

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.
--Tom Daschle

It Makes No Sense

"I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn." -- President John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963

Carter on Bush and North Korea

January 14, 2003 - "Rejection of the 'sunshine policy,' which had earned the Nobel Peace Prize for South Korean President Kim Dae Jung; announcements that North Korea, like Iraq and Iran, was part of an 'axis of evil'; public statements that the new "Great Leader" was loathed as a 'pygmy' who deliberately starved his own people, that America was prepared to fight two wars at the same time, and that our missile defense system was a shield against North Korea -- all this helped cause many in that country to assume that they were next on America's hit list after Iraq." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in Washington Post article on January 14, 2003

War - Humanities Cross of Iron

April 16, 1953 - "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." -- Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953

Pre-emptive Action - World Dominance

September 23, 2002 - "President Bush now asserts that we will take pre-emptive action even if we take the threat we perceive is not imminent. If other nations assert the same right then the rule of law will quickly be replaced by the reign of fear - any nation that perceives circumstances that could eventually lead to an imminent threat would be justified under this approach in taking military action against another nation. An unspoken part of this new doctrine appears to be that we claim this right for ourselves - and only for ourselves. It is, in that sense, part of a broader strategy to replace ideas like deterrence and containment with what some in the administration term 'dominance.'" -- Former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, in a speech on September 23, 2002

Bush Strategy  Sends Wrong Signal to the World

December 2002 - "A policy that sets the United States above and apart from the rules that other states are expected to follow is ultimately unsustainable and self-defeating. Perpetuating U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons as a key component of protecting U.S. security will only make the acquisition of nuclear weapons more attractive to others, not less." -- Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association

Bush Attempts to Silence Opposition to War

December 22, 2002 - After a number of Democratic Presidential hopefuls criticized President Bush's approach to the war, White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer said, "Any candidate who suggests that when the enemy attacks, the blame lies with the United States and not with the enemy does so at great peril to their own political future." 

I just wanted to take a moment to voice my support of our troops who are risking their lives on my behalf, although I do not support the Bush administration in its decision to declare war. Too often, discussions of war and peace become polarized into anti-war vs. pro-troop, but that narrow view doesn't capture the feelings of most Americans who are against the war. I appreciate our troops so much that I would rather them be home  than fighting a war that I do not see as just or immediately necessary. The Bush administration has tried to make it seem as though this is! a good war and that God is on the American side. However, as Jimmy Carter stated in his Nobel acceptance speech, "War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

I pray daily for all of those who are touched directly and indirectly by the war. I pray that our soldiers will be able to return home - alive. I pray for families who have been torn apart and for Americans who seem to have forgotten that it is OK to disagree. I pray for the citizens of Iraq and yes, even their soldiers.

I believe that my God is not just the God of the United States - he is the God of the world. He does not just love those who claim citizenship in these United States, He loves all of humanity. We should not just be saying "God Bless America" nor should we assume that God is happy with our nation's current actions or our lack of action in the past. Many of the reasons for which our nation's leaders claim we are going to war today are problems that we helped to create by supporting evil dictators to meet our
purposes or by ignoring them because they were not strategically important. I believe that God would want us to act on the side of justice and peace, whether or not it is convenient or strategic for us.

I ask that all of those who believe in the redeeming power of prayer, whether you agree with the decision to go to war or not, would join me in prayer not just for America, but for our world.