The Peace Train is celebrating its first blogiversary with a blogswarm invitation: "Help us celebrate our birthday by posting for peace on the Fourth of July. Our challenge this year is to reflect on 'Where we came from and where we are now.' This, of course, can mean many things, including but not limited to, the following questions:
* What is our individual responsibility in our eroding democracy? What do we need to do individually and collectively to restore our democracy and American values?
* Within our own borders, how do we create peaceful, violence-free communities?
* How do we create a language of peace, where our words and actions mesh with our values?
* Reflecting on our birth as a nation and the Declaration of Independence: How can we declare our independence from the domestic terrorism that our nation has helped to spread through the world?
* How do you see the role of the blogging community in forging a new standard of peace, both nationally and globally?"
I've chosen to pass along this invite rather than participate with an essay, because I don't know that peace has ever truly been with us. It's just so much easier to destroy than to create, and the human tendency is always to go for the easy way out; therefore, testosterone-driven warlike tendencies have so far always won out over sensible nurturing ones, at least on the societal level. Heck, we can't even get past envisioning peace as a starting point for prosperity, rather than an end-goal justifying warmongering means. Until the mindset about peace changes, I don't see much point in overly pontificating about a Utopian possibility so self-evident to me.
* What is our individual responsibility in our eroding democracy? What do we need to do individually and collectively to restore our democracy and American values?
* Within our own borders, how do we create peaceful, violence-free communities?
* How do we create a language of peace, where our words and actions mesh with our values?
* Reflecting on our birth as a nation and the Declaration of Independence: How can we declare our independence from the domestic terrorism that our nation has helped to spread through the world?
* How do you see the role of the blogging community in forging a new standard of peace, both nationally and globally?"
I've chosen to pass along this invite rather than participate with an essay, because I don't know that peace has ever truly been with us. It's just so much easier to destroy than to create, and the human tendency is always to go for the easy way out; therefore, testosterone-driven warlike tendencies have so far always won out over sensible nurturing ones, at least on the societal level. Heck, we can't even get past envisioning peace as a starting point for prosperity, rather than an end-goal justifying warmongering means. Until the mindset about peace changes, I don't see much point in overly pontificating about a Utopian possibility so self-evident to me.
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