The War Prayer

Mark Twain wrote the whole of The War Prayer in response to the jingoism that took the US into the Spanish American War.  It is always good to read the final interpretation and understanding what those who pray for war are actually requesting and to consider if this is really what is desired for our fellow man.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

For information  go to the Blogblast for Peace 

Countdown to Blogblast - One More Day

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace. ~William Ewart Gladstone

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. ~Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

I take it that what all men are really after is some form of, perhaps only some formula of, peace. ~James Conrad

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists. ~William J. Clinton, 1997

Peace hath higher tests of manhood
Than battle ever knew.
~John Greenleaf Whittier

Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace. ~Francesco Petrarch

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Countdown to Blogblast

“There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”

A. J. Muste

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can 

live at peace with others."

 Peace Pilgrim quotes (American Teacher and Spiritual leader and Peace Prophet, 1908-1981)

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we

 arrive at that goal.”

 Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

 Buddha quotes (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

 

“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something 

you do, Something you are, And something you give away.”

 Robert Fulghum

 

“If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.”

 Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama quotes (Dalai Lama, b.1935)

Video for Blogblast for Peace

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

All information to join in on the November 4 Blogblast for Peace can be found at mimiwrites.

Nobel Peace Prize - 1919

Thomas Woodrow Wilson

World War I (The war to end all wars) had ended and the President of the United States proposed a League of Nations to ensure that there would never again be a global conflagration as the one that had just passed.  Apparently nobody was listening.  Are they listening yet?

As soon as I typed "are they listening", I heard Don McLean's "Vincent"

Starry starry night
paint your palette blue and grey
look out on a summer's day
with eyes that know the
darkness in my soul.

Shadows on the hills
sketch the trees and the daffodils
catch the breeze and the winter chills
in colors on the snowy linen land.

And now I understand what you tried to say to me
how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
they would not listen
they did not know how
perhaps they'll listen now.

It's time to listen.  Only 25 days until Blogblast for Peace

1901 - First Nobel Peace Prize

The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901 and was equally divided between:

JEAN HENRI DUNANT, Switzerland. Founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva; Initiator of the Geneva Convention (Convention de Genève).

FRÉDÉRIC PASSY,   France. Founder and President of the first French peace society (since 1889 it has been called the Société Francaise pour l'arbitrage entre nations).



Nobel Peace Prize

In the run up to the Blogblast for Peace, I'll do some short pieces on the men and women who have won the Nobel peace prize.  Today's is the winner in 1975 - Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov.

In 1975, he was the first Soviet to win the Nobel Peace Prize. After he denounced the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Soviet authorities were quick to respond, exiling him to Gorky. In December 1986, Sakharov's exile ended when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev invited him to return to Moscow. He was subsequently elected to the Congress of People's Deputies as a democratic reformer. Sakharov died in 1989.

A Thousand Cranes

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

Yesterday was the United Nations International Day of Peace.  On November 4 we will once more celebrate Dona Nobis Pacem, the Blogblast for peace when thousands of bloggers worldwide fly their peace globes in a common effort to set differences aside as as human beings simply declare "Give Us Peace".  November 11, once called Armistice Day and now Veterans day, marks the end of The War to End War in 1918.  It is now 92 years later ...

Last year, this was my fanciful Globe for Blogblast.  This time with another year of war and thousands of more deaths, I will be more serious in my approach.  If you have never done a Globe for the Blogblast, please join us.  You will find instructions on how to get a globe to design and make your own HERE.  The lovely lady who started this several years ago also shows many of the beautiful globes on her Facebook page.  It is only 42 more days.  Be sure your globe tells us that one more person simply wants PEACE.