War in a sense is a very rational thing. It fits into the concepts we have about life, where, in additional to whatever objective reality we perceive, we also live in a giant idea. War is included in the idea we now hold — when “justified,” war is the answer. From Yvonne Garcia [yvonneg@tampabay.rr.com] After reading “Do we really need to do this?,” I couldn't stop “feeling” the Iraq people. Before they were just a name. How many others must feel as I do? I am sure there are many. I am reminded of a quote in the Bible, that goes something like, “What they meant for our harm, God meant for our good.” What if this administration's stupidity and lack of real consciousness is creating the world to come together as never before? What if all of this is helping us “feel” others around the world whom we never would have considered in a personal way. I am a very deep feeling person, and have always worked towards loving others, higher consciousness etc. etc., but I have never felt the kind of compassion and love I now feel for people in Iraq. My heart is repeatedly broken open when I consider what I am seeing and reading. They are always with me now, throughout the day.What if, after all is said and done, there is no war, because the people of the world have bonded enough in consciousness to make a shift, just as happened when the Iron Curtain came down? I have never felt as united and bonded with the world's people as I do now. I imagine it is so for many others. Perhaps Mr. Bush does not know what he has created, for, sooner or later, we must become a force of higher power and love that will stop the insanity.What if? Have you had a chance to read this? LETTER FROM THE ROAD, IRAQ, 13 Suzanne to Yvonne There's been so much verbiage in those Letters that I haven't been reading them closely. Maybe I should have been. I like this: If war does come, will this great movement for peace by the people of the world have been in vain? Will we have lost? No, as the marchers chant in dozens of languages, “The people, united, will never be defeated.” We are building new neural pathways for the human mind and the entire human project. It may take a little time, but once these landscapes of imagination have been opened they will not be closed again. We are using the threat of yet another war to collectively take a leap in human evolution. I wonder if the certainty of this is quite right — maybe will make a SoundBite, but I don't want to post pie in the sky where it's easy to say that good comes out of bad. True enough, but in the midst of any bad you don't want to be glib about this. What do you think?. Yvonne to Suzanne: “We are building new neural pathways for the human mind and the entire human project.” This one statement is very true, I feel. My experience of feeling like I know and love the Iraqi people is on a deep feeling level…not intellectually. This is just one example of the effect this whole thing is having on me, and we know it's not just happening to me. That quote from the Bible about what they meant for our harm God is using for are good is the spirit I get from this. “Once these landscapes of imagination have beenopened they will not be closed again.” This is an awesome statement….I know I will never be the same. For me, of course, all of this comes on heels of Swimme's tapes etc. Yet, we know, as Brian always says, the Universe is up to something big…to have millions worldwide come together on the same day for peace, is very big. Suzanne, we have to “dream” the Earth's dream… it's not pie in the sky. .. we are helping create it. The spirit of unity being felt worldwide is not pie in the sky–that has already happened, no? Suzanne to Yvonne Humanity learns from major horrors, like slavery and Hitler — even grief over Diana was a shared experience of heart that helped gentle us. Esoteric teachings are that we need shocks that devastate us so that we can reorganize in higher order understandings. That seems clearly to be the way it has gone. But now that we can destroy the planet, please God we can be prodded to take those leaps by positive things. Or by terrible things that we avert by our common desire for the good. Bush may be serving to create something good by being so determined to do what's so awful. From: Bob Bates [bobbates7@earthlink.net]
After Colin Powell's speech to the Security Council I was reflecting on what might be if war weren't on the table. It's challenging, and maybe impossible, where there are people who operate outside a willingness to negotiate. What do we do with a Saddam Hussein?
My daughter wrote a parenting book that's a guide to negotiation as an alternative to force, which is war translated to the parent/child relationship. (Watch for a PBS special this spring, “Great Parents, Great Kids,” starring Dr. Dana Chidekel, author of “Parents in Charge.”) If force is not in your parental toolbox, you develop other ways.
What's the translation of this to the world scene? We know the adage, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” If what we have is war, it's the club we wave. Today, with Iraq possibly defying U.N. orders, the question on the table is whether they've crossed the line to where we should wield it.
We aren't discussing the presumption that war is the answer if that line is crossed — if Iraq is bad enough, we are “justified.” But, if it were not a done deal that war was an option, the way human intelligence works is it becomes creative. Who knows what the answer would be, but I want to make a case for taking preemptive war off the table, and then calling the world to gather round.
I heard social commentator Max Lerner, years ago, tell a story I never forgot. He was walking down Broadway, in New York City, when he passed a store with a sign in the window which said, “If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?” Lerner stopped and reflected on this, looking for the right answer — until he realized it was the wrong question. The sign he might reflect on today might ask, “Has Iraq violated its agreements egregiously enough for us to go to war?” It may be that that is the wrong question.
Here is a very poignant piece on waging war, written in the wake of the shuttle disaster, by my good friend, listmember Bob Bates [bobbates7@earthlink.net], who founded and presides over Inner-City Arts, a nationally renowned arts program for inner-city kids in L.A.:
February 4, 2003
Subject: Do we really need to do this?
The tragedy of the space shuttle, Columbia, brings into our hearts the loss of seven amazing men and women.
They knew the dangers of their work and embraced the risks of the mission — we will miss them dearly.
As the bombs fall in Iraq, will you miss the thousands of innocent children and families who we will kill — whose faces we have never seen on television or in the news papers — thousands who will never grow to maturity as our seven astronauts did — lives that have never been touched by us till now?
You now know so much about the lives of the seven astronauts who died in space — will you ever know anything about the thousands of innocent human beings that we are about to destroy to free the world from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein?
How would you feel knowing that you were about to die under a blanket of our bombs and invading soldiers?
We mourn the lives of the seven, will we mourn the lives of the thousands?
Do we really need to do this?
Elias Amidon eliasamidon@earthlink.net
The People Yes!
I feel great hope as well as danger. Yvonne's words are a vision of a real possibility! I sense huge spiritual forces gathering around our world. Our words and prayers and hopes are becoming a magnet drawing in the light of new possibilities.
Yvonne to Suzanne
The other night a reporter in Baghdad was asked how the Iraq people felt about the American people, and the reporter said they know it's not the American people but the Bush administration. The Iraqi people are good people and so are the American people. A lady who has been to Iraq a number times said that most American people could not bear to see the great suffering. We are too kind hearted, and also have lived such protected lives.
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