Levellers

When All You Have Are Hammers

In the latest issue of Sojourners, editor Jim Wallis writes about U. S. foreign policy using the old Chinese proverb, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” See
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0608&article=060851

That not only applies to U.S. foreign policy, but to Israel as well, as the current maelstrom of violence and counter-violence in the Middle East shows so clearly. There is a failure of moral imagination on all sides. The same, unfortunately, is often true with the peace movement, even with Christian pacifists. When one says no to war, to what can one say yes? Well, for one thing,
one can get behind the campaign for a U.S. Dept. of Peace at the cabinet level. Using 1% of the budget allocated to the Dept. of Defense, the Dept. of Peace would work proactively for peace abroad and work to solve issues of violence in homes and neighborhoods domestically. In short, the Dept. of Peace would have the job of creating alternative tools to hammers, so that we can be cured of our “nail fixation.” Over time, as this works to lessen our dependence on military might, we can redirect ever greater portions of our huge military budget to humanitarian needs at home and abroad. See http://www.thepeacealliance.org/ for the U.S. campaign for a Dept. of Peace. There are also international campaigns building in Canada, the U.K., Australia and elsewhee for similar departments or ministries.

One can also volunteer for and/or financially support organizations that do not wait for governments to get their acts together, but work for independent, third paryt, nonviolent direct action to create space for conflict resolution efforts. I have in mind the efforts of groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams (http://www.cpt.org/), Witness for Peace which concentrates on Central America (http://www.witnessforpeace.org/), Nonviolence International (http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ ) which trains and equips local groups around the world to initiate nonviolent direct action campaigns, and Nonviolent Peaceforce (http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/) which is an attempt to create a global “nonviolent army” for third party nonviolent intervention in conflicts–as an alternative to both military intervention and armed U.N. “peacekeepers.”

Let us pray and work for new tools. The world has had enough of being hammered.

July 26, 2006 Posted by Michael Westmoreland-White | peacemaking | Comments Off on When All You Have Are Hammers

Highway Blogging for Peace

As civilians continue to die in both Israel and Lebanon (and in far greater numbers in the latter), and thousands of Lebanese are becoming internally displaced refugees, we must work harder for both an immediate ceasefire and for lasting peace. It is clear that our leaders will not act without our pressure: Both Hezbollah and Israel are promising to step up the war, the U.S. has rushed more weapons to Israel, and Bush actually opposes a ceasefire! Meanwhile both the House and Senate have passed one-sided resolutions that unconditionally support Israel with no mention whatsoever of the atrocities on her side! When horrors have been committed by two parties, one-sided condemnations of only one side are extremely counter-productive. You can oppose such one-sided expressions of support here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=8922331

But don’t just stop with contacting Congress, but work to rally the public for strong peacemaking. Write letters to your local papers. Also, hang banners from highway overpasses. This practice, called “Highway Blogging” is inexpensive and reaches many people with important messages, as this article makes clear:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0725-03.htm

DON’T DELAY: BECOME A HIGHWAY BLOGGER FOR PEACE TODAY!

July 26, 2006 Posted by Michael Westmoreland-White | peacemaking | Comments Off on Highway Blogging for Peace