What is the Peace Movement all about?
by Michael Tivana ... 10-04-01 - Back to Tribal Messenger

The purpose of the PEACE movement is to encourage people to wage peace in the world in any way that their calling beckons. Through people's own actions during their daily lives or through encouraging those around them peace becomes a contagion in our world.

Being a part of the PEACE movement means more than stopping a war, it means fighting for survival of life on the planet.

"The more PEACEniks the better. Maybe the terrorists among us will be converted." Dave Ross, KIRO Talk Radio announcer on 10-03-01"

"We say killing is disorder; life and gentleness and community and unselfishness is the only order we recognize. For the sake of that order, we risk our liberty, our good name. The time is past when good men can remain silent, when obedience can segregate men from public risk, when the poor can die without defense."
Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit Priest, speaking out against the Viet Nam War.

This is a movement that has a long history. Perhaps as long as people have waged war people have waged peace. I joined the PEACE movement while fighting to stop the war in Viet Nam. I soon found myself fighting for more than stopping a war, I was fighting for the basic rights to live on the planet Earth. The PEACE movement fights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Below is a partial list of the victories from hard fought causes along the way. It is sad indeed that these basic common sense things have to be fought for. The PEACE movement means fighting for:

  • the environment:
  • fighting to stop the causes of global warming
  • winning a moratorium on whaling
  • winning the labeling for dolphin free tuna
  • ending the construction of nuclear power plants
  • ending nuclear bomb testing
  • creating nuclear free zones
  • fighting for anti-ballistic missle treaties
  • saving old growth forests
  • replanting strip mines
  • cleaning up hazardous waste dumps
  • save our wildlife (salmon etc.)
  • sustainable agriculture through organic farming and perma-culture
  • sustainable energy through solar, wind, fuel cells
  • banning DDT, Paraquat and other deadly chemicals - pesticide and herbicides
  • establishing recyling as a household word
  • Protecting our food from irradiation and damaging chemicals
  • labeling ingredients in our food that are harmful to health
  • justice & workers' rights:
  • higher wages for working class people
  • better working conditions, fair wages, no slave labor, more jobs
  • civil rights of all Earth's citizens
  • helping the plight of the homeless & the hungry
  • stopping oppression
  • stopping wars
  • defending the constitution of the United States - and the Bill of Rights
  • CIVIL RIGHTS
  • standing up to hate crimes
  • equal rights for blacks, chicanos, women
  • passing laws protecting corporate whistle blowers

    These are some of the goals and achievements from the political wing of the movement, there are also huge advances in self-improvement, spirituality, and global awarness. Earth Day, Farm Aid, Hands Across America, the Harmonic Convergence are some of the events that symbolize the movement. I am honored to be a part of the Peace Movement and I admire its courage as it fights for the life of our planet and for the evolution of civilization.
    E_mail: Michael Tivana

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