Speak loudly and bury the big stick

The genie of war has remained uncorked too long.  I am amazed at the number of people who are not only supporting the occupation of Iraq, they also don't seem to have a problem with all the death and destruction any war brings with it.  Those of us who are smart enough to know that George W. Bush has this world teetering on the brink of destruction also have to put up with the slings and arrows of outrageous persecution.

One has to wonder what would make people viciously irate at those of us who are only asking for peace.  Peace is not a dirty word, yet we see the anger in the eyes of some who notice an anti-war sticker on our car.  They tell us we are in league with the terrorists, yet if they had half a mind to think about it, why would people who want peace support any group that deals in death and destruction?

But it is not just the people who support the war who are hurting the cause of peace, it is also the fringe elements of the peace movement who are talking about other issues and conspiracy theories.  It is these people who bring a huge chuck of animosity toward the rest of us.  At this juncture in history, there should be only two goals for the peace movement - the end of the war in Iraq and the end of the extreme right wing theocracy that threatens the very existence of the United States.

After a time, we start to repeat ourselves - Bush is bad, war is bad, corruption, destruction . . . we've all heard it before, we've all said it before.  But our message starts to get jumbled when our target audience, the independent and swing voters also hear conspiracy after conspiracy.  If we want to make a positive and vital change to our government, we need to stay focused on the core messages.  Even if the some of the conspiracies are someday proven as fact, they do our cause no good at this point.  George W. Bush is throwing the world into chaos and we must speak with rationale and intelligence if we are going to put the genie back into the bottle.

"I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war." - Cicero.

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men'."  -  Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"Peace be with you." - The Bible: Genesis XLIII. 23