“… And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation — the right to breathe air as nature provided it — the right of future generations to a healthy existence?” President John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963

today is a special day of re-membering and entering the deep silence of the inner ground and gathering seeds for the almost new moon in sag……

as i till this organic field of consciousness, i am transported to that friday sixty years ago and into my 12 year old self sitting in my 7th grade classroom in a sleepy, backwater town… the world took a dramatic turn when the principal appeared at the door of our classroom with a newsflash: the president has been shot and is dead… i re-member my outrage now as if those words were just pronounced and how i could not believe how cavalierly he uttered them and with a smile… we were shooed out to recess where all of my classmates circled around me knowing JFK was like a member of our family… three years earlier, I had traipsed around the state with my father to his speeches and to his senate office in DC and i can still feel my heart almost beating out of my chest every time i’d get to greet him and shake his hand… and then the inauguration and his address that stirred a nation and now, 1000 days later, we’d be heading back to DC for the state funeral… today, i’m both a 9 year old living in Camelot on the brink of a new world and a 12 year old taking comfort in hearing strains of “We Shall Overcome” rising from the somber and dignified crowds of people gathered to say goodby to our fallen leader…

may we take this moment, this beautiful moment, to salute all poetic peace pilgrims with JFK’s invocation of peace in the quotations above and the video below of the whole speech that is magnificent…   these quotations come from this greatest speech of his ever, a commencement address given at American University some four and a half months before he was gunned down in Dallas… these words live on eternally as a clarion call for a peace for all time…

may we all awaken to the wisdom of this radical (rooted) vision of peace…

“Oh Great Spirit who dwells in the sky,
lead us to the path of peace and understanding,
let all of us live together as brothers and sisters.
Our lives are so short here, walking upon Mother Earth’s surface,
let our eyes be opened to all the blessings you have given us.
Please hear our prayers, Oh Great Spirit.”

~Native American Prayer~

~

“PEACE IS A DAILY, A WEEKLY, A MONTHLY PROCESS, GRADUALLY CHANGING OPINIONS, SLOWLY ERODING OLD BARRIERS, QUIETLY BUILDING NEW STRUCTURES. AND HOWEVER UNDRAMATIC THE PURSUIT OF PEACE, THAT PURSUIT MUST GO ON.”

~JFK~

~

in this creation moment of eternity bathed in the waters of gaia’s womb, may we wage peace…

~

today, i am still in the glow of the prophet Martin and his call for peace which moves me right into the prophet, John who was also assassinated while serving the causes of peace and nuclear disarmament… as a child, i was impacted very personally by this being who was calling us into a new consciousness many were not ready for and amazingly, almost sixty years later we still hear so much of last century’s jingoistic, xenophobic cold war rhetoric; to raise my spirits and keep centered on what peace really sounds like, i listen over and over to what i consider his most profound speech… posted below are some of the stirring words of his that are taken from a 1961 address to the United Nations and still ring so true today:

“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race – to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved.”

in June of 1963, five months before he was shot, he continued in the same vein in a Commencement Address at American University, where JFK delivered A Strategy for Peace (this speech is sooo important and i will stretch my abilities and try to give a link so you can listen as well):

“…I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived–yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

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 of 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.

…I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war–and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament-and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must re-examine our own attitude–as individuals and as a Nation–for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward–by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.

First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable–that mankind is doomed–that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

We need not accept that view. Our problems are man made – therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable – and we believe they can do it again.

I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of universal peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.

Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace–based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions–on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace–no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process–a way of solving problems.

With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor–it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it…”

yes, let us persevere and move irresistibly toward peace…

today is a special day of re-membering and entering the deep silence of the inner ground…

as i till this organic field of consciousness, i am transported to that friday fifty-eight years ago when we heard  JFK had been assassinated, where i wander through the field and float in the waters under the bridge also re-membering the journey of grace three years ago on this day as i member this day, this moment of cross-pollination of re-membrance and presence in the present moment…

may we take this moment, this beautiful moment, to salute all poetic peace pilgrims with JFK’s invocation of peace…   this quotation comes from his greatest speech ever, a commencement address given at American University some four and a half months before he was gunned down in Dallas… these words live on eternally as a clarion call for a peace for all time…

may we all awaken to the wisdom of this radical (rooted) vision of peace…

“Oh Great Spirit who dwells in the sky,
lead us to the path of peace and understanding,
let all of us live together as brothers and sisters.
Our lives are so short here, walking upon Mother Earth’s surface,
let our eyes be opened to all the blessings you have given us.
Please hear our prayers, Oh Great Spirit.”

~Native American Prayer~

~

“PEACE IS A DAILY, A WEEKLY, A MONTHLY PROCESS, GRADUALLY CHANGING OPINIONS, SLOWLY ERODING OLD BARRIERS, QUIETLY BUILDING NEW STRUCTURES. AND HOWEVER UNDRAMATIC THE PURSUIT OF PEACE, THAT PURSUIT MUST GO ON.”

~JFK~

~

in this creation moment of eternity bathed in the waters of gaia’s womb, may we wage peace…

today is a special day of re-membering, entering the deep silence of the inner ground of being and gathering seeds for the almost new moon in sag…

~

as i till this organic field of consciousness, i am transported to that friday fifty-six years ago when we heard  JFK had been assassinated, where i wander through the field and float in the waters under the bridge also re-membering the journey of grace last year  on this day  as i member this day, this moment of cross-pollination of re-membrance and presence in the present moment…

~

may we take this moment, this beautiful moment, to salute all poetic peace pilgrims with JFK’s invocation of peace…   this quotation comes from his greatest speech ever, a commencement address given at American University some four and a half months before he was gunned down in Dallas… these words live on eternally as a clarion call for a peace for all time…

~

may we all awaken to the wisdom of this radical (rooted) vision of peace…

~

Oh Great Spirit who dwells in the sky,
lead us to the path of peace and understanding,
let all of us live together as brothers and sisters.
Our lives are so short here, walking upon Mother Earth’s surface,
let our eyes be opened to all the blessings you have given us.
Please hear our prayers, Oh Great Spirit.

~Native American Prayer~

~

PEACE IS A DAILY, A WEEKLY, A MONTHLY PROCESS, GRADUALLY CHANGING OPINIONS, SLOWLY ERODING OLD BARRIERS, QUIETLY BUILDING NEW STRUCTURES. AND HOWEVER UNDRAMATIC THE PURSUIT OF PEACE, THAT PURSUIT MUST GO ON.

~JFK~

~

in this creation moment bathed in the waters of gaia’s womb, may we wage peace…

today, on the fifty-fourth anniversary of John F Kennedy’s assassination, i salute all poetic peace pilgrims with JFK’s invocation of peace…   this quotation comes from his greatest speech ever, a commencement address given at American University some four and a half months before he was gunned down in Dallas… these words live on eternally as a clarion call for a peace for all time…

may we all awaken to the wisdom of this radical (rooted) vision of peace…

Oh Great Spirit who dwells in the sky,
lead us to the path of peace and understanding,
let all of us live together as brothers and sisters.
Our lives are so short here, walking upon Mother Earth’s surface,
let our eyes be opened to all the blessings you have given us.
Please hear our prayers, Oh Great Spirit.

Native American Prayer

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.

JFK

the calendars say it was fifty-three years ago today, this young, bold leader was struck down but on this day i’m transported into my 12 year old self sitting in my 7th grade classroom in a sleepy, backwater town… the world took a dramatic turn when the principal appeared at the door of our classroom with a newsflash: the president has been shot and is dead… i re-member my outrage as if those words were just pronounced and how i could not believe how cavalierly he uttered them and with a smile… we were shooed out to recess where all of my classmates circled around me knowing JFK was like a member of our family… three years earlier, I had traipsed around the state with my father to his speeches and to his senate office in DC and i can still feel my heart almost beating out of my chest every time i’d get to greet him and shake his hand… and then the inauguration and his address that stirred a nation and now, 1000 days later, we’d be heading back to DC for the state funeral…

today, i’m a 9 year old living in Camelot on the brink of a new world and a 12 year old taking comfort in hearing strains of We Shall Overcome rising from the somber and dignified crowds of people gathered to say goodby to our fallen leader…

i salute all poetic peace pilgrims with JFK’s invocation of peace…    namaste…