The American Gandhi

Journeying in 2011

2011-04-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

A steady stream of activities resisting nuclear weapons has been occurring here in the northwestern United States and the west! On November 2ND, 2009 five people entered Sub Base Banger, port for the Trident Nuclear Submarine 20 miles from Seattle Washington, and approached the section holding the weapons before being apprehended. As they had cut through three fences while pouring their blood on the ground, dropping sun flower seeds, they ended by praying and singing. The five are known as the Disarm Now Plowshares. Over 200 Plowshares actions have occurred since 1980 in Europe and the United States. A few people have given years of their lives to prevent nuclear wars and accidents, related to what Archbishop Hunthausen called the Auschwitz of Puget Sound, i.e. Sub Base Bangor. The Disarm Plowshares were sentenced on March 28Th and are now serving terms of two to fifteen months plus probation time.

Another action occurred at Sub Base Bangor on Martin Luther King's birthday commemoration, February 15Th. Six persons were arrested attempting to speak to the base commander. They were arraigned for trespassing April 6Th, as the Federal Government has decided to raise the stakes from warnings to legal jeopardy.

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action sponsored this action and will conduct the next action on May 6th for Mother's Day.

Underlying all this resistance is dual response of the United States government to the United Nations efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons through tne Nonproliferation Treaty. While the US speaks to supporting the treaty, the Pentagon is constructing new facilities to produce the next generation of nuclear weapons in Tennessee, Kansas and New Mexico.

I attend the events at Sub Base Bangor and the related legal events and Celebrations of Hope. Also, I attended the Pacific Life Community's retreat at Sunnyvale, California. After a day of reflection, interactions and study of Lockheed Martin, we vigil at the entrance to the corporate site. Several persons were arrested for entering the property (owned by the US government, leased to LM.) Lockheed Martin has 36 billion dollars in government contracts for this fiscal year, the largest military contractor. Lockheed Martin also produces the Trident Missile. Read William Hartung's Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

Now, we have the tsunami/earthquake caused damage to the Fukushima nuclear power complex in Japan. The radiation circles the earth, immerses in the waters, and soaks the earth, descended from the first Atom Bomb and the first plutonium nuclear bomb dropped on Japan. Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility displayed the effects of Hanford Nuclear Reservation called "PARTICLES ON THE WALL." Download a copy: www.healthworldpress.org.This is a combined art and science display.

While I feel immersed in this ethos, I also feel soaked in the Middle East events and realities. But, my garden, my spiritual/social studies keep me somewhat steady.

Gandhi and Egypt's nonviolent revolt

2011-02-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

Revolution in Egypt, Nonviolence
Gandhi influence and critique

“Gandhi and Nonviolence in the air”
“Gandhi and Nonviolence in the head and in the heart”

February 12, 2011

By Bernie Meyer, “American Gandhi”

The extraordinary 18 days of revolt in Egypt which led to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak and the promise by the Military Council replacing him to have elections and democratic reforms warrants reflection and analysis. This is such a surprising development that only time and revelations about the lead up to the revolt, its playing out and conclusion will give a much more complete picture. Of course, only time will tell how authentic and meaningful the reforms will be. Just over 30 hours have passed since a President Mubarak has resigned and left the scene. The jubilation and exultation are still at a high pitch.

I am making this reflection about the influence of Gandhi on the nonviolent nature of the revolution as an activist for justice and peace and as one who has been portraying Gandhi for the last nine years in the United States, Canada, the UK, and especially India. I have been continually studying the life and the “experiments” with truth of the historic Gandhi. I attempt to understand his efforts and principles, his experiences, his culture and heritage, his effect upon India, the British Empire, and the world.

Most important for me is Gandhi’s influence on the issues today. What are the lasting effects, not just on India, but on the movements and nations of the world? I believe that it is inadequate to merely study Gandhi’s life and read the 100 volumes of his writings, and the numerous volumes about him. I see my efforts as a continuation of his experiments with truth. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The surprising and amazing nonviolent revolution in Egypt beginning January 25th, 2011 demands in my mind a thoughtful assessment of Gandhi’s influence. This essay is only a beginning. We do not know much about the details of events and constituents leading up to the 18 day revolt. For myself, I have not been a student of Egypt. My knowledge is but an outline of the events over the last sixty years and a sense about the Mubarak regime and its predecessors of recent memory, especially the second and third presidents Gamel Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, the confrontation with the British and French over the Suez Canal and the war with Israel in 1967. The Egypt of the Pharaohs going back 4500 years is a marvel of “civilizations.” Egypt’s culture today is a result, but one affected by modernity in very significant ways. When looking at Gandhi’s influence, I can only say that India today has not gone the way of Gandhi. Modern India is more Western than Eastern in terms of technology, economics, and probably politics. Nonetheless, India has its Gandhians and its nonviolent movements. Gandhi is in the air. Gandhi is also in the hearts and minds of many Indians. I cannot but believe that he is also in the air, as well as in hearts and minds of Egyptians.

While positing this position, I have more questions than answers. What led the young men and women who joined together with twitter and facebook to begin with nonviolent protests? Why did the workers who joined them in coalition adapt the same nonviolent posture? Or, was it the other way around? Or, was it a mutual decision? And, they claimed that there is no one leader, but that all were leaders and responsible. Gandhi went through rigorous personal “purification” and self-training. Gandhi spent years preparing the Indian National Congress and the people for the various campaigns for independence. The Civil Rights movement in the United States began long before Martin Luther King Jr arrived on the scene. Even then, training and preparation for the campaigns and actions was standard and necessary. So, what training and preparation did the Egyptian participants have for the last 18 days of action?

Friday, February 18, 2011 I am inserting here information due to yesterdays New York Times front page article about Gene Sharp’s influence on the Egyptian revolt, “Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution.” Sharp studied Gandhi’s methods along with those used in several nonviolent protests and revolutions. He has published several volumes considered prime resources to movements fighting for human rights, oppression, and democracy. The Times article describes how the April 6th Movement, 2006 in Egypt, found Sharp while seeking help, how Peter Ackerman trained Egyptian’s in 2007 using Sharp’s methods, and how the trainees learned the strategy and actions helped both the recent Egyptian and Tunisian revolts. Sharp comments about the Egyptian lack of fear, “That is straight out of Gandhi.” “If people are not afraid of dictatorship, that dictatorship is in big trouble.”

As I followed the daily developments in the alternative media (I have no television.), the press, and local gatherings, I observed a continuous set of developments. Each day required new actions. Each day, it seemed, meant an injection of additional energy and commitment. The momentum built up incessantly from beginning to end. And, the actions were disciplined.

At the beginning there were the burning buildings of the hated police and destruction of some property during the street confrontations. The police disappeared rather quickly. Then, the reactionaries came on camels and horses to attempt beating and intimidating the participants into submission. That too was short lived, although 300 and more died during the period and thousands were injured. At each stage more people came out to join in, the numbers increased. A moving moment occurred when Wael Ghonim was released from twelve days in jail. His televised testimony stirred the people. He said that Gandhi moved him and admitted that he felt positive moments with some of his interrogators. The segments of society participating grew as the drama unfolded. Toward the end, doctors and nurses walked together to visibly support the demands and meaning of the revolutionaries, followed by the lawyers in unison.

Middle class folks who had comfortable and secure lives also took the risks. I read about a middle class mother with two young daughters who said that she left her home with the idea that she wanted to support this movement for critical change. She not only offered support. She said that if she should die, even if her daughters should die by participating, the sacrifice would be necessary and worth it. Major changes like this movement in Egypt cannot be made without sacrifice.

How did these attitudes come about and develop? No doubt those 30 years of harsh rule gave many opportunities for consciousness raising -- despite government propaganda to the contrary. People must have spent time thinking and talking about repressive and abusive events. The state run media was unable to completely fool the population. Again, as the days and related events unfolded, as the escalation of government repression, propaganda, seeming concessions to the demands, and Mubarak’s refusal to resign occurred, more people and new constituencies came forward. It appears that the majority population was “like-minded” with the folk’s in the streets.

In these situations it is imperative that the revolt’s objectives be clearly identified. The demands for Mubarek’s resignation and for elections of a democratically elected government, and related reforms (no doubt also an end to police repression and brutality) were consistently before everyone, including myself watching with my internet sources. The people were not fooled by Mubarek’s apparent concessions. They would not trust him nor his chosen designee, the newly appointed Omar Soleiman.

Back to the organization, strategy, communications, etc of the events and developments over the 18 days, how did these hold together? Surely, twitter and Facebook communications alone by hundreds of thousands of people did not account for the consistency and clarity we observed. I do not have an answer to the particulars. But, the reporter I observed daily on Democracy Now! made it clear that there was a group who was steering the direction and course. I am sure we will learn more in time.

The commitment to nonviolence is the wonder. As Gandhi often said during his campaign for independence, the power and methods of nonviolence will grow in unimagined ways in the years ahead. In the Middle East where suicide bombings and all sorts of violent attacks appear to be the main way to respond to governmental oppression, ethnic division and competition, including US and Western war making and power moves, Egypt found and chose a different way. (The Tunisia revolutionaries did the same thing.)

Gandhi’s objective in satyagraha (truth force), ahimsa (nonviolence), and tapasya (suffering and commitment) was to come to a resolution to conflict which was mutually beneficial to the opponents. The ideal is a dignified result for each opponent, where each could walk away with head held high and continue in like relationship if desired. Gandhi’s goal was neither to embarrass nor to defeat the opponent. Obviously, in Egypt Mubarak and his cohorts were defeated. The government is now controlled by The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The military has ultimately controlled the government since the 1950’s. The question now is, will the military hold true to its statements of reform, democracy, and elections in the months and years ahead?

The military is a core question in itself. During the campaign of the last 18 days, the military was visibly present. For the most part the visibility was from tolerant to supportive of the people. After Mubarek’s departure, the military in the streets took part in the celebrations. There is an obvious rapport between the people and the military, at least on the rank and file level.

However, there are more than reports about people being tortured and abused. Elements of the military were responsible for these. And, for people like me who are aware about renditions by the United States military and intelligence agencies to Egypt, the torture executed was done by military elements. Suleiman, whom Mubarak appointed Vice President during the revolt, was former Chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (EGIS). (We in the US movement who have participated and followed the 20 plus year resistance by the School of the Americas Watch know that the US has been training foreign military and paramilitary personnel in oppressive measures at least since World War II.)

Second, the leadership of the Egyptian military is well entrenched and Mubarak had a nearly 30 year tenure in office to appoint and foster leadership with an antidemocratic mentality. Will the coming months see a transformation of this repressive mindset?

Finally, I must name the relationship of the United States and Israel to Egypt. The US has strong, critically strong, interests in the Middle East. Egypt is a major and needed player for the United States and Israel. The United States invests billions of dollars yearly in Egypt. Most of that treasure goes to the military. President Obama played a cautious hand during the last few weeks. He did not come right out and support the people. While the US purportedly supports democracy, it must be a democracy that allows the interests, and not just the security interests, of the United States and its allies to be achieved.

Will the Egyptian democratic government happen? Will that set a tone for more democratic governments to arise in other Middle East nations? Will these set a new approach to social change through nonviolence and an end to the dominant paradigm of terror? There is change occurring. (I viewed the documentary, Budrus, the other evening about a West Bank Palestinian village which made nonviolence work in moving Israel to reposition the “Wall” away from the village. Nonviolence is being tried more and more.) Nonviolence (Gandhi’s way) is in the air. Nonviolence is in the hearts and minds of many people.

Another observation about Gandhi and his methods and vision is swaraj and civilization. I must clearly state that Gandhi espoused and dedicated himself to a more fundamental reality than satyagraha. He called this his “constructive program” which he centered in the villages of India. From the bottom of Indian society the individual lives by swaraj (disciplined self direction with duty to the community) and participates in village life for the good of all. The village in turn expresses swaraj to other villages. Gandhi’s vision was that swaraj envelop, more impregnate, the world. Gandhi’s core vision was expressed in his inspired piece, Hind Swaraj. For Gandhi, true civilization is one of this nature, rooted in swaraj. Egypt was a great civilization. With Gandhi, I think that in the evolution of humanity, great civilizations will not be built with slaves and oppression, but with dignified local communities among world democracies.

As a corollary to this piece, I want to name the daunting challenges that underlie all the realities that we are discussing. No matter who governs or how they govern, in the words and book by Lester Brown, we live in a WORLD ON THE EDGE, How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse. Egypt and the area of the Middle East are very much on the edge. Here are key factors about Egypt:

Population 1960: 27.8 million
Populaton 2008: 81.7 million
Current population growth rate: 2 % per annum (a 35 year doubling rate)
Population in 2046 after another doubling: 164 million

Rainfall average over whole country: ~2 inches per year
Highest rainfall region: Alexandria, 7.9 inches per year
Arable land (almost entirely in the Nile Valley): 3 %
Arable land per capita: 0.04 Ha (400 m2)
Arable land per capita in 2043: 0.02 Ha
Food imports: 40 % of requirements
Grain imports: 60% of requirements

Net oil exports: Began falling in 1997, went negative in 2007
Oil production peaked in 1996
Cost of oil rising steeply
Cost of oil and food tightly linked

Posted by Chris Martenson, Feb 10, 2011, “Egypt’s Warning: Are You Listening? http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/250866-egypt-s-warning-are-you-listening I recommend reading the blog to see the elaboration of these figures.

These conditions pre-existed the revolution and continue after the revolution. They challenge not only the goal of democracy, but the very existence of government of the state called Egypt. Will the peoples living in this land of ancient civilization be able to develop a sustainable way of life?

Now on February 22, 2011 I add another significant input about the revolt by Stephen Zunes who posted an article in Truthout on February 17th: “Credit the Egyptian People for the Egyptian Revolution.” This excellent broad analysis does not mention Gandhi or Gandhi’s possible influence, but validates many of my observations and fills in important answers to my questions. Nonviolence indeed has been “in the air” in the Middle East and in Egypt for decades. Zunes points out that nonviolence was chosen in many situations, not for political nor for spiritual reasons, but because “it works.”

Here are two summary observations by Zunes:

“It is critical, particularly for those of us in the United States and other Western countries, not to deny agency to an Arab people who had the courage and smarts to organize and fight their own nonviolent revolutions.” Zunes then goes on to state that “the revolution strikes a blow” to the two extremes, Al Qaeda and the American neoconservatives.

The last paragraph of the article summarizes: “This rich history, mostly dramatically played out on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities in recent weeks, demonstrates a critical point: Democracy will not come to the Middle East through foreign intervention, sanctimonious statements from Washington, voluntary reforms by autocrats, or armed struggle by a self-selected vanguard. It will only come through the power of massive non-cooperation with illegitimate authority and the strategic application of nonviolent action by Middle Eastern peoples themselves.” http.//www.truth-out.org/credit-egyptian-people-egyptian-revolution67850

www.oly-wa.us/berniemeyer
www.americangandhi.blogspot.com

Gandhi's influence with Egyptian and Tunisian revolts

2011-02-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 18, 2011 I am inserting here information due to yesterdays New York Times front page article about Gene Sharp’s influence on the Egyptian revolt, “Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution.” Sharp studied Gandhi’s methods along with those used in several nonviolent protests and revolutions. He has published several volumes considered prime resources to movements fighting for human rights, oppression, and democracy. The Times article describes how the April 6th Movement, 2006 in Egypt, found Sharp while seeking help, how Peter Ackerman trained Egyptian’s in 2007 using Sharp’s methods, and how the trainees learned the strategy and actions helped both the recent Egyptian and Tunisian revolts. Sharp comments about the Egyptian lack of fear, “That is straight out of Gandhi.” “If people are not afraid of dictatorship, that dictatorship is in big trouble.”

REVOLUTION IN EGYPT

2011-02-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

Revolution in Egypt, Nonviolence
Gandhi influence and critique

“Gandhi and Nonviolence in the air”
“Gandhi and Nonviolence in the head and in the heart”

February 12, 2011

By Bernie Meyer, “American Gandhi”

The extraordinary 18 days of revolt in Egypt which led to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak and the promise by the Military Council replacing him to have elections and democratic reforms warrants reflection and analysis. This is such a surprising development that only time and revelations about the lead up to the revolt, its playing out and conclusion will give a much more complete picture. Of course, only time will tell how authentic and meaningful the reforms will be. Just over 30 hours have passed since a President Mubarak has resigned and left the scene. The jubilation and exultation are still at a high pitch.

I am making this reflection about the influence of Gandhi on the nonviolent nature of the revolution as an activist for justice and peace and as one who has been portraying Gandhi for the last nine years in the United States, Canada, the UK, and especially India. I have been continually studying the life and the “experiments” with truth of the historic Gandhi. I attempt to understand his efforts and principles, his experiences, his culture and heritage, his effect upon India, the British Empire, and the world.

Most important for me is Gandhi’s influence on the issues today. What are the lasting effects, not just on India, but on the movements and nations of the world? I believe that it is inadequate to merely study Gandhi’s life and read the 100 volumes of his writings, and the numerous volumes about him. I see my efforts as a continuation of his experiments with truth. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The surprising and amazing nonviolent revolution in Egypt beginning January 25th, 2011 demands in my mind a thoughtful assessment of Gandhi’s influence. This essay is only a beginning. We do not know much about the details of events and constituents leading up to the 18 day revolt. For myself, I have not been a student of Egypt. My knowledge is but an outline of the events over the last sixty years and a sense about the Mubarak regime and its predecessors of recent memory, especially the second and third presidents Gamel Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, the confrontation with the British and French over the Suez Canal and the war with Israel in 1967. The Egypt of the Pharaohs going back 4500 years is a marvel of “civilizations.” Egypt’s culture today is a result, but one affected by modernity in very significant ways. When looking at Gandhi’s influence, I can only say that India today has not gone the way of Gandhi. Modern India is more Western than Eastern in terms of technology, economics, and probably politics. Nonetheless, India has its Gandhians and its nonviolent movements. Gandhi is in the air. Gandhi is also in the hearts and minds of many Indians. I cannot but believe that he is also in the air, as well as in hearts and minds of Egyptians.

While positing this position, I have more questions than answers. What led the young men and women who joined together with twitter and facebook to begin with nonviolent protests? Why did the workers who joined them in coalition adapt the same nonviolent posture? Or, was it the other way around? Or, was it a mutual decision? And, they claimed that there is no one leader, but that all were leaders and responsible. Gandhi went through rigorous personal “purification” and self-training. Gandhi spent years preparing the Indian National Congress and the people for the various campaigns for independence. The Civil Rights movement in the United States began long before Martin Luther King Jr arrived on the scene. Even then, training and preparation for the campaigns and actions was standard and necessary. So, what training and preparation did the Egyptian participants have for the last 18 days of action?

As I followed the daily developments in the alternative media (I have no television.), the press, and local gatherings, I observed a continuous set of developments. Each day required new actions. Each day, it seemed, meant an injection of additional energy and commitment. The momentum built up incessantly from beginning to end. And, the actions were disciplined.

At the beginning there was the burning buildings of the hated police and destruction of some property during the street confrontations. The police disappeared rather quickly. Then, the reactionaries came on camels and horses to attempt beating and intimidating the participants into submission. That too was short lived, although 300 and more died during the period and thousands were injured. At each stage more people came out to join in, the numbers increased. A moving moment occurred when Wael Ghonim was released from twelve days in jail. His televised testimony stirred the people. He said that Gandhi moved him and admitted that he felt positive moments with some of his interrogators. The segments of society participating grew as the drama unfolded. Toward the end, doctors and nurses walked together to visibly support the demands and meaning of the revolutionaries, followed by the lawyers in unison.

Middle class folks who had comfortable and secure lives also took the risks. I read about a middle class mother with two young daughters who said that she left her home with the idea that she wanted to support this movement for critical change. She not only offered support. She said that if she should die, even if her daughters should die by participating, the sacrifice would be necessary and worth it. Major changes like this movement in Egypt cannot be made without sacrifice.

How did these attitudes come about and develop? No doubt those 30 years of harsh rule gave many opportunities for consciousness raising -- despite government propaganda to the contrary. People must have spent time thinking and talking about repressive and abusive events. The state run media was unable to completely fool the population. Again, as the days and related events unfolded, as the escalation of government repression, propaganda, seeming concessions to the demands, and Mubarak’s refusal to resign occurred, more people and new constituencies came forward. It appears that the majority population was “like-minded” with the folk’s in the streets.

In these situations it is imperative that the revolt’s objectives be clearly identified. The demands for Mubarek’s resignation and for elections of a democratically elected government, and related reforms (no doubt also an end to police repression and brutality) were consistently before everyone, including myself watching with my internet sources. The people were not fooled by Mubarek’s apparent concessions. They would not trust him nor his chosen designee, the newly appointed Omar Soleiman.

Back to the organization, strategy, communications, etc of the events and developments over the 18 days, how did these hold together? Surely, twitter and Facebook communications alone by hundreds of thousands of people did not account for the consistency and clarity we observed. I do not have an answer to the particulars. But, the reporter I observed daily on Democracy Now! made it clear that there was a group who was steering the direction and course. I am sure we will learn more in time.

The commitment to nonviolence is the wonder. As Gandhi often said during his campaign for independence, the power and methods of nonviolence will grow in unimagined ways in the years ahead. In the Middle East where suicide bombings and all sorts of violent attacks appear to be the main way to respond to governmental oppression, ethnic division and competition, including US and Western war making and power moves, Egypt found and chose a different way. (The Tunisia revolutionaries did the same thing.)

Gandhi’s objective in satyagraha (truth force), ahimsa (nonviolence), and tapasya (suffering and commitment) was to come to a resolution to conflict which was mutually beneficial to the opponents. The ideal is a dignified result for each opponent, where each could walk away with head held high and continue in like relationship if desired. Gandhi’s goal was not to embarrass nor to defeat the opponent. Obviously, in Egypt Mubarak and his cohorts were defeated. The government is now controlled by The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The military has ultimately controlled the government since the 1950’s. The question now is, will the military hold true to its statements of reform, democracy, and elections in the months and years ahead?

The military is a core question in itself. During the campaign of the last 18 days, the military was visibly present. For the most part the visibility was from tolerant to supportive of the people. After Mubarek’s departure, the military in the streets took part in the celebrations. There is an obvious rapport between the people and the military, at least on the rank and file level.

However, there are more than reports about people being tortured and abused. Elements of the military were responsible for these. And, for people like me who are aware about renditions by the United States military and intelligence agencies to Egypt, the torture executed was done by military elements. Suleiman, whom Mubarak appointed Vice President during the revolt, was former Chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (EGIS). (We in the US movement who have participated and followed the 20 plus year resistance by the School of the Americas Watch know that the US has been training foreign military and paramilitary personnel in oppressive measures at least since World War II.)

Second, the leadership of the Egyptian military is well entrenched and Mubarak had a nearly 30 year tenure in office to appoint and foster leadership with an antidemocratic mentality. Will the coming months see a transformation of this repressive mindset?

Finally, I must name the relationship of the United States and Israel to Egypt. The US has strong, critically strong, interests in the Middle East. Egypt is a major and needed player for the United States and Israel. The United States invests billions of dollars yearly in Egypt. Most of that treasure goes to the military. President Obama played a cautious hand during the last few weeks. He did not come right out and support the people. While the US purportedly supports democracy, it must be a democracy that allows the interests, and not just the security interests, of the United States and its allies to be achieved.

Will the Egyptian democratic government happen? Will that set a tone for more democratic governments to arise in other Middle East nations? Will these set a new approach to social change through nonviolence and an end to the dominant paradigm of terror? There is change occurring. (I viewed the documentary, Budrus, the other evening about a West Bank Palestinian village which made nonviolence work in moving Israel to reposition the “Wall” away from the village. Nonviolence is being tried more and more.) Nonviolence (Gandhi’s way) is in the air. Nonviolence is in the hearts and minds of many people.

Another observation about Gandhi and his methods and vision is swaraj and civilization. I must clearly state that Gandhi espoused and dedicated himself to a more fundamental reality than satyagraha. He called this his “constructive program” which he centered in the villages of India. From the bottom of Indian society the individual lives by swaraj (disciplined self direction with duty to the community) and participates in village life for the good of all. The village in turn expresses swaraj to other villages. Gandhi’s vision was that swaraj envelop, more impregnate, the world. Gandhi’s core vision was expressed in his inspired piece, Hind Swaraj. For Gandhi, true civilization is one of this nature, rooted in swaraj. Egypt was a great civilization. With Gandhi, I think that in the evolution of humanity, great civilizations will not be built with slaves and oppression, but with dignified local communities among world democracies.

As a corollary to this piece, I want to name the daunting challenges that underlie all the realities that we are discussing. No matter who governs or how they govern, in the words and book by Lester Brown, we live in a WORLD ON THE EDGE, How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse. Egypt and the area of the Middle East are very much on the edge. Here are key factors about Egypt:

Population 1960: 27.8 million
Populaton 2008: 81.7 million
Current population growth rate: 2 % per annum (a 35 year doubling rate)
Population in 2046 after another doubling: 164 million

Rainfall average over whole country: ~2 inches per year
Highest rainfall region: Alexandria, 7.9 inches per year
Arable land (almost entirely in the Nile Valley): 3 %
Arable land per capita: 0.04 Ha (400 m2)
Arable land per capita in 2043: 0.02 Ha
Food imports: 40 % of requirements
Grain imports: 60% of requirements

Net oil exports: Began falling in 1997, went negative in 2007
Oil production peaked in 1996
Cost of oil rising steeply
Cost of oil and food tightly linked

Posted by Chris Martenson, Feb 10, 2011, “Egypt’s Warning: Are You Listening? http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/250866-egypt-s-warning-are-you-listening I recommend reading the blog to see the elaboration of these figures.

These conditions pre-existed the revolution and continue after the revolution. They challenge not only the goal of democracy, but the very existence of government of the state called Egypt. Will the peoples living in this land of ancient civilization be able to develop a sustainable way of life?

www.oly-wa.us/berniemeyer
www.americangandhi.blogspot.com

Our Journey Continues

2010-11-15T10:42:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I discussed the Afghanistan boys efforts to bring peace. In that message I mentioned my words of Gandhi: "In nonviolence courage is in dying, not in killing." These Afghan boys have taken the words seriously by quoting them in the statement for their journey to Afghanistan villages and towns to bring peace. I have maintained my relationship with these boys. During recent months, the message has been brought to youth and adults in many parts of the world by skype communications and personal contacts. They and we are now connected to "Friends Without Boarders." I have taken the message to India, especially to the International Youth Peace Festival in Chandigarh last September. 900 youth from 20 nations participated.

In addition to portrayals in the United States I have been to India three times during 2010 bringing Gandhi to Delhi, Aurangabad, Ahmadabad, Rajsamand, Jaipur, Kota, Sardarhalar and Pune. Most of these appearances were with international participants. (I must add that this blog has been neglected during these trips, usually due to the difficulty in accessing the Internet. I regret this because the experiences were very rich.)

I continue to maintain the same basic message with which I began this blog in 2007. I believe that humanity is at a crossroads: we must address climate change; we need to find sustainable energy resources to replace fossil fuels; water must be conserved; natural resources are being exhausted; living species are disappearing. I continue to emphasize that humanity must overcome its fears and greed by making sure that all humans have their rightful share to basic needs of food, shelter, work, health and education. And, war must be abolished along with the weapons of mass destruction. No matter what my audience, children or adults, I encourage living by truth and love as Gandhi taught, while we seek to "become the change we seek in the world."

India, United States, integrity

2010-02-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the long delay between posts the last few months have been demanding. In December I had a reaction to typhoid vaccine. Then, in January my trip to India was blocked when I arrived at Chennai. India Immigration would not allow me in due to visa issue. They sent me back on the same plane I flew in on. Almost 50 hours in the air is not something I rec commend. After three days resting, I hustled to see if I could put together funds and get a visa.

I returned to India in time for the War Resisters International triennial conference in Ahmedabad on January 22ND. The theme of linking movements for justice and peace brought organizers from many places in the world. Some of them were involved in trying circumstances from Venezuela to Eastern India. After a week at Gujarat Vedjapeeth, the University founded by Gandhi in 1920, I went to the World Peace Center in Pune for the Round Table Conference on democracy in today's violent context. A different level of activists participated in this event which addressed a range of issues from holistic health to global climate change. The trip concluded with the Third Training Camp for nonviolence based upon Preksha Meditation at the Children's Peace Palace in Rajsamand. Again, I mixed with people from various backgrounds, but mostly connected with the Jain philosophy. This collage of events and viewpoints represent efforts to address the violence and disintegration that is happening. Not everyone thinks there is disintegration, but it seems that all agree that we face troubling times. In each event I portrayed Gzndhi bringing both the views and experiences of the historic Gandhi, as well as my own applications to cureent issues as the "American Gandhi."

As on the last trip in October, I came upon a book that filled in many blanks about my experiences. GOODBYE TO GANDHI, TRAVELS IN THE NEW INDIA, by Bernard Imhasly covers the territory between Gujarat in Western India where Gandhi was born and where Hindu-Muslim tensions are prominent to Eastern India where tribal and village peoples face the exploits of the corporate/government powers to appropriate land and resources. Imhasly interviews a very representative cross section of persons on all sides of issues. India does not have an easy row to hoe!

Neither does the United States of America have an easy row. As I traveled, I was aware of many events in the US, including health care reform. It appears that significant health care for all is not in the cards. Obama seemed to admit that in a comment I saw on the Internet. Then, Obama's military budget was submitted: 7.04 billion dollars. The figure does not include military related expenses in other parts of the budget. And, the sum is more than the rest of the world spends on the military. I ask: where is the national internal integrity that the military is trying to defend going to be as the richest nation in the world disintegrates?

Am I being too negative? As I regroup from this trip and reassess my situation and the world situation, I will see what I can see.

Journey to Smile

2009-12-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

For the last two months a group of us has been communicating with Afghanistan boys who are vigiling for peace. They have been requesting President Barak Obama to bring peace to Afghanistan and the world. They were hoping to have him acknowledge them and their efforts when he gave his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10th. Naturally, they were disappointed when he announced the escalation of war making efforts and did not mention the boys vigil. (Ambassador Eichenberry, a former commander of the US led Afghanistan military forces, did visit them in October.)

Last night (December 10th) I gave a message to the boys through a Gandhi portrayal. I encouraged them to continue their Journey to Smile as they have been by following Gandhi's philosophy and principles. "Cling to Truth," as the meaning of Satyagraha. Live by love. Be courageous. Cast off all fears. War makers use fear to move people to war and to kill. Gandhi: "In nonviolence, courage is in dying, not in killing." These words are the essence of my message to them.

This is a strong challenge to boys who have lost fathers, grandfathers, uncles during the fighting. I thought: What do they face in the near future as the US and NATO add 40,000 more troops and continues to use unmanned drone planes like the Predators to bomb suspected targets? Following Gandhi's path of nonviolence in these circumstances is a call to powerful love. Yet, I know that people in Iraq and other conflict areas are doint the same. Some heartwarming stories have emerged here in Olympia as we have been vigiling in support of these boys and their peacemaking.

I feel too that my words to the Afghanistan boys are also words for me. Have courage to love and to live by truth everywhere and in all circumstances.

The boys website is: http://OurJourneyToSmile.com. See their beautiful videos and messages.

Disarm Now Plowshares

2009-11-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

"I will purify you from the taint of all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and make you conform to my statutes." Ez. 36:25-27 introduces the DISARM NOW PLOWHARES statement.

On November 2nd, 2009 five persons entered the Trident Sub Base Bangor on the Hood Canal in the State of Washington, 20 miles from Seattle. The Base houses nine Trident submarines which carry 24 missiles each, which in turn carry multiple nuclear warheads. This is a first strike weapon, in other words it has the capability of wiping out any opposition without retaliation. Nuclear weapons are prohibited by International Law according to a decision of the United Nations International Court in 1996. I believe the weapons are immoral.
The five entered the base at night by cutting through chain linked fenses and walked around the base for four hours before cutting through the third fence which alerted the Marines who proceded to arrest them, putting hoods over their faces and making them lie on the ground for four hours before taking them to booking and questioning by the FBI. But, they poured their own blood on the ground to symbolize the terrorism of nuclear weapons and they carried hamers to symbolically destroy the weapons which were in bunkers a short distance away.
The five were Lynne Greenwald, 60, local member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Ann Montgomery, 83, member of religious order, Bill Bischel, 81, Tacoma Jesuit priest, Steve Kelly, 60, Jesuit from Oakland, California, and Susan Crane, 65, from Jonah House in Baltimore. They were booked and released, pending further charges by the Federal Prosecutors.
The Plowshares movement began in 1980 and has grown into an international effort. The Plowshares name is from Isaiah 2:4, "God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes of many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

More information can be acquired from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action: www.gzcenter.org.

My 2009 India trip: Gandhi facing the 21st Century

2009-10-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

I traveled to India from September 23rd to October 14Th and want to report a sense of India from this trip. The trip has two general levels of experience: my itinerary to five cities portraying Gandhi and my observations about the radical changes in India happening at this time.

I was invited to the Youth Peace Festival in Chandigarh from September 27Th to October 1. Here, 500 youth from 10 countries, including Pakistan, Shri Lanka, the Philippines, UK, US, and India, participated in the Festival. I gave the "Inaugural Address" as the American Gandhi and presented the youth with the opportunity to be the change that the world demands today in the light of resource depletion, climate change, nuclear weapons, poverty, and violence. As Gandhi, so they can change themselves to face courageously the realities of today's world.

After the Festival, I traveled to Delhi to participate in first "All India Rally" against nuclear power on October 2ND, Gandhi's 140Th birthday. My Gandhi appearance fit right into the occasion to lead the rally at Raj Ghat (memorial site of Gandhi's cremation) and walk through the streets of Delhi. I connected my anti-nuclear work in the US and UK with that of India.

From October 5Th to 8Th I presented Gandhi in the Rajsamand area under the sponsorship of ANUVRAT at the Children's Peace Palace. We visited numerous schools, universities, and teachers' educational institutions.

On October 10Th and 11Th, I presented Gandhi in Aurangabad with the aide of Dr. Chavan who had invited me originally to India in 2005 to portray Gandhi. Among the appearances was a lively discussion among activists, doctors, scientists about the serious needs of the day. As at the Children's Peace Festival, the escalating shrinkage of water was the dominant topic. Chavan picked up on the "American Gandhi seeking 79 truth seekers" flyer from my book, THE AMERICAN GANDHI, My Seeking Truth With Humanity at the Crossroads." Chavan promised more to come from the encounter.

On October 12Th and 13Th I presented at a university co-initiated by Gandhi in 1920, Gujerat Vijapeeth, which includes a Gandhi Studies Program. Also, I visited for the first time the Sabermati Ashram, Gandhi's second ashram in India and the site of the initiation of the Salt March. My host took me to a village where I experienced a traditional village undergoing changes due to modern developments.

The trip included 23 Gandhi presentations, two public demonstrations: the Anti-nuclear rally and a disarmament walk in Chandigarh; and numerous media interviews among all the interactions with people along the way.

My second level of experience and observation is about the developments within India as she seeks to take her place as a nation and power (superpower). The new creation of superstructure in roads and airports is most obvious everywhere. What is not obvious is the social upheaval to the peoples. Gandhi's India is disappearing, the India of the 700,000 villages. Creations of dams, roads, cities, and superstructure of all forms as India joins the world market economy is pushing the villagers to the cities. On top to this the rampant grabbing of natural resources (water, uranium, bauxite, etc) is taking place in the tribal and village rural areas. I had two personal encounters with persons and groups facing these daunting challenges. Upon entering Delhi at the airport I discovered Arundhati Roy's new book, LISTENING TO GRASSHOPPERS, FIELD NOTES ON DEMOCRACY. Here, she presents a poetic, passionate account of the effects of these developments on the peoples of India, emphasizing the "terrorist" actions of the first decade of the 21st Century. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those interested in India and the world today. Her sense is that India's options are boiling down to social justice or civil war.

Citizens' Actions for nuclear disarmament

2009-08-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

We at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action have just completed one more citizens' action at Sub Base Bangor on the Hood Canal to commemorate the 64Th anniversary of the Atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I have been participating in actions with GZ since 1978. We yearn for the end of nuclear weapons, a nuclear free world without the threat of ending life on earth. We must take the threat away. And yet ... And yet.

Today we have the best opportunity to begin the disarmament process, since President Barack Obama has stated that he wants their abolition and has begun a process with Russia aimed at taking the next step in that direction. Both countries have thousands of the weapons on hair trigger alert, although the Cold War ended twenty years ago. Both countries have been involved in the Start Treaty process which have taken thousands of nuclear weapons out of commission. This process was severely stalled by the Bush administration. Now, Obama must hustle just to keep the disarmament protocols in place until new treaties can be negotiated. The protocols are scheduled to cease in December, 2009. While this opportunity beckons us with hope and expectation, several factors hamper the will to do so.

First, the health insurance reform is diverting energy and political capital from disarmament. Second, while the US led administration is stating the intent to disarm, it is also assisting India with nuclear deals which enable India to develop its own nuclear weapons and submarines. Other countries are being tempted to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. Third, the Nonproliferation Treaty has its next meeting in May, 2010. Without serious US leadership that Treaty is threatened by India's and other nations arming. Fourth, the US nuclear weapons establishment has careers on the line with disarmament and true believers in nuclear weapons. This is a formidable force for keeping the weapons in place, not only in place, but also creating new and more diverse nuclear weapons. Fifth, a recent poll showed that a more than 50% majority of Americans support the possession of nuclear weapons. To continue down the road to disarmament the Obama administration needs to take a very proactive posture. The activists and American people must put greater energy in support of US leadership.

This is the situation as I see it. Our best opportunity for nuclear abolition. Our daunting challenge to take advantage of it.

A denier becomes an agreer!

2009-06-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

For several years now I have been waving the flag trying to catch activists and citizens attention about the serious connection between peak oil, global warming and war making, especially nuclear war. Well, a significant development by a conservative source has now underlined this message. In its 2009 report the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has joined ranks with peak oil folks in its "International Energy Outlook." The report is a radical turnaround, one issuing "gloom and doom" according to one analyst.

In 2007 the EIA report projected the projection of conventional oil to be 107.2 million barrels per day by world sources by 2030. Now, in 2009, the projection for 2030 is 93.1 MB/D, a drop of 14%. The EIA has gone from rosy to cloudy, dark clouds due to compounding factors. The first compounding factor is the surging increase in Asian oil demand expected to resume with the economic turn about in 2010. The second compounding factor are the technical, environmental, and energy demands to produce unconventional liquid fuels. These changes will have huge effects on economic, military, and human issues affecting all nations, beginning with the United States and China.

In 1990 Asia and the Middle East consumed 17% of the world's oil. They are projected to consume 41% by 2030. China is expected to pass the US consumption in the next five years. How will this competition between the US and China play out?

At present, unconventional fuels (syn fuels) account for 4% of liquid fuel production. The report estimates that this will be 13% by 2030. Don't look now but demand is racing ahead of supply with these slippery projections. Canada's oil sands, Venezuela's extra heavy oil, Brazil's deep off shore oil and biofuels, Arctic oil and natural gas, Colorado's oil shale, every body's coal to liquids (CTL) offer some relief from conventional oil limitations, but at the costs to the environment and energy demands. Think about the changes in international relations implied here. Think about the billions of poor living, existing, fading implied here.

Then, there is global climate change.

You can obtain Michael Klare's full analysis by going to Truthout.com: "It's Official - The Era of Cheap Oil is Over -- Energy Department Changes Its Tune on Peak Oil."

Yesterday, I read an insightful piece by Chris Hedges, who said we need to resurrect our emotion and put it behind our rational understanding. Amen.

The United States has been found guilty of war crimes.

2009-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

The following article was submitted for the summer Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action newsletter.

The War That Refuses To Go Away

By Bernie Meyer

June 3, 2009

What weapon of war causes widespread destruction to the environment?
What weapon of war causes massive and horrendous death to all in its path?
What weapon of war marks its victims with a lethal dose for future generations?
Is the use of the above weapon forbidden by International Law?

Of course, nuclear weapons are a correct answer. But, it is not the only one. Agent Orange with dioxin is another.

Agent Orange with dioxin was used in Vietnam between 1961 and 1971. The United States used it to defoliate wide areas of South Vietnam, thus creating the most extensive use of chemical weapons in history. The environmental effects remain in the land, in agricultural soils, where forests were, in waters, in fish and animals for the foreseeable future. Estimates of human deaths run into the three to four million range in 2009, abstracting from the past loss of life, and ignoring the ravages to the “monsters’ born from the womb. Internalized dioxins are claiming the third and fourth generations in Vietnam. Not only in Vietnam. But United States, Korea, New Zealand, and Australia also claim victims who were troops during the war or are children of troops. The Geneva Conventions outlaw targeting civilians.

Catherine Sagan and I visited the victims of Agent Orange and their caregivers from December 23rd until January 10th 2009 in Vietnam to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the DC Nine action of 1969. We were part of the group that went into the Dow Chemical lobbying office in Washington DC to protest the profiting from weapons in an unjust war. Napalmed children and adults were our focus with photos, blood, smashed office equipment, and files thrown out the 4th story windows. Catherine and I pleaded “no contest,” when these photos were not allowed to be shown to the jury and when Vietnam was not permitted to be mentioned, sending us to prison with a felony in 1970.

We were aware of napalm and defoliants, but not of the dioxin component. A post action speaking tour led me to be “educated” by Vietnam students in Boston about the effects of the defoliation with dioxin. I still have the written story which they shared with me. It is only with the last few years that I have been made aware of the extent of the suffering. It is only recently that I have learned about the fact that Dow and other chemical companies, along with certain military personnel knew about the effects of dioxin in the late 1960’s. Only when the Environmental Protection Agency limited the defoliants in the United States did the military end the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam in 1971. (Of course, it still was used by troops when other agents were short in supply.)

When one of the Nine suggested a 40th reunion, I said, “We should do it in Vietnam.” Catherine and I visited The Friendship Village outside Ha Noi where veterans from the North Vietnam Army and the U.S. Army joined together with an international coalition to treat veterans and children suffering from Agent Orange/dioxin in a beautiful community. The Friendship Village witnesses a heart warming reconciliation, highlighted by the story of US Vet, George Mizo, and the General who were opponents during the Tet Offensive. George’s platoon was totally wiped out. George had been evacuated due to wounding. He died in 2002 as a result of Agent Orange effects upon him.

We visited facilities of Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) in Ha Noi, Hue, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Through these and other sites we saw the many victims and their families. Can you imagine yourself caring for one, two, three, four children with any number of effects? Some are bedridden from birth to death. Most are among the poorest. Most are receiving a minimal assistance, if any. “They live with missing and malformed limbs, mental retardation, without eyes, two sets of elbows and knees, cerebral palsy, spinal bifida and internal organs growing on the outside of their bodies. … This book is a tribute to their fortitude.” (my emphasis) Philip Jones Griffiths, AGENT ORANGE, “COLLATERAL DAMAGE” IN VIET NAM. Also, each hospital has a closed room of the “monsters” in formaldehyde bottles. Would that this article was long enough to share Catherine’s and my welcoming experiences!

“So, while Operation Ranch Hand provided no one or short-term military benefits, it also provided neither long nor short-term psychological benefits. If anything, it embittered the civilian population of Viet Nam and drove it closer to the Viet Cong and NVA. And no one yet was sure what eventually would be the effect on the health of those exposed to the chemicals. Operation Ranch Hand was shown by late 1968 to be a bankrupt strategy, one devoid of good sense, good planning or good military strategy.” (Griffiths, 168)

The US Government has not acknowledged the “mistake.” Nor, has the government offered to assist the victims. It took decades before the government made assistance available to US veterans. In March of this year the US Supreme Court rejected VAVA’a suit against 29chemical companies on behalf of the victims after a New York District Court and Appeals Court denied the law suit.

It was an interesting coincidence that The International People’s Tribunal of Conscience in Paris concluded “that the use of dioxin by the US military in Viet Nam from 1961 to 1971 was a war crime against humanity,” on March 18th, the same date as the DC Nine reunion. (I was unable to attend due to eye surgery. But, I was present through my Vietnam power point about the trip and about the causes of human victimization and through my book!) According to the Viet Nam News, the Tribunal conducted this process:

“After examining evidence and the testimonies of 27 victims and experts, the tribunal found that the US Government and chemical manufacturers were well aware of the fact that dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man, capable of causing prolonged serious consequences not only to humans and the environment but also to the Vietnamese economy.

“The tribunal concluded that the US Government was guilty of using dioxin and damaging the environment, defined as ‘ecocide’. The chemical companies were also found guilty of colluding with the US Government’s actions.

“The tribunal asked the US Government and the chemical companies who manufactured and supplied Agent Orange, to fully compensate victims and their families. The tribunal also demanded they rehabilitate the environment and eradicate any dioxin from Viet Nam and its waters, especially hot spots around former US bases.”

The story goes on: Every US resident has dioxin within their bodies causing lethal effects. This should be the topic for another article for action. Peace.

My Vietnam Power Point: “Paradigm of War” can be accessed on my web site, www.oly-wa.us/berniemeyer/ or have me over to share it.

Bernie Meyer has been active with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action since 1978.

DISCONNECT/RECONNECT

2009-06-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Friends and readers, I've been through a disconnect with this blog due to a disconnect in my eye, a detached retina, which occurred at the end of April. I had surgery on April 28Th and am still under the surgeon's care. It's been an amazing experience, though threatening to vision. Detached retinas can lead to blindness. The surgery places a bubble of nitrous oxide in the eye to assist the retina which covers the back of the eye ball. After five weeks I still have the bubble in my eye which is gradually being replaced with natural fluid by the eye. In four or five weeks I hope to have my full vision returned with disappearance of the gas bubble. It will be a miracle for which I am deeply thankful.
During the initial 17 days I was required to keep my head facing the floor 24/7. With my good eye I was able tor read a broad spectrum of books and articles, about the most abusive violence today to the most sublime insights about life and existence. This is a forced retreat, again which I have come to appreciate. Vision is a wonder. The April issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN presents an article about the evolution of color vision in primates which our eyes reflect. The retina is a layer of nerve cells at the rear of the eye, which transmits visual information to the brain via the optic nerve. Color vision depends on cones, tapered sensory cells containing light-activated pigments. Along with rods, which together are called photoreceptor's, the cones tailor the color vision. Most mammals have two pigments to transfer color information, humans and some primates have three. These determine the color that the brain "sees."
As I reflect upon my reading about the human condition from the sublime to the tragic and ridiculous, I think about the information that the brain receives as the culture and/or self selection transmits information. I think of Jesus' comments about the 'blind leading the blind." I think too about his appeals about his being the "light of the world."

The deciders' price of US way of life

2009-04-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

I read the following article with this in mind: The Middle East has the bulk of the world's remaining oil supply. The United States is laying claim to this fuel for industrial society and the military power to control it. The price is what you read. And, the world is not at the "peak", let alone on the slide down the other side. The continuing price will only grow if this is the way the deciders choose it. Bernie

THURSDAY 16 APRIL 2009
Opinion
Iraq in Fragments
Sunday 12 April 2009
by: Dahr Jamail Visit article original @ Foreign Policy In Focus
Iraqi children, (L-R) Rebaz, 12, Omer, 7, Muhammad, 12, Hussein 7 and Imad, 11, who were injured during the Iraq war. (Photo: Reuters Pictures)
"[W]hat lengths men will go in order to carry out, to their extreme limit, the rites of a collective self-worship which fills them with a sense of righteousness and complacent satisfaction in the midst of the most shocking injustices and crimes." -Love and Living, by Thomas Merton
On Wednesday, March 25, Major General David Perkins of the U.S. military, referring to how often the U.S. military was being attacked in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad, "Attacks are at their lowest since August 2003." Perkins added, "There were 1,250 attacks a week at the height of the violence; now sometimes there are less than 100 a week."
While his rhetoric made headlines in some U.S. mainstream media outlets, it was little consolation for the families of 28 Iraqis killed in attacks across Iraq the following day. Nor did it bring solace to the relatives of the 27 Iraqis slain in a March 23 suicide attack, or those who survived a bomb attack at a bus terminal in Baghdad on the same day that killed nine Iraqis.
Having recently returned from Iraq, I experienced living in Baghdad where people were dying violent deaths on a daily basis. Nearly every day of the month I spent there saw a car bomb attack somewhere in the capital city. Nearly every day the so-called Green Zone was mortared. Every day there were kidnappings. On good days there were four hours of electricity on the national grid, in a country now into its seventh year of being occupied by the U.S. military, and where there are now over 200,000 private contractors.
Upon returning home, I experienced the disconnect between that reality, lived by roughly 25 million Iraqis, and the surreal experience of living in the United States - where most media pretend the occupation of Iraq is either not happening, or uses the yardstick of decreased U.S. military personnel deaths in Iraq as a measure of success. In the words of Major General Perkins, "If you take a look at military deaths, which is an indicator of violence and lethality out there, U.S. combat deaths are at their lowest levels since the war began six years ago." But it's a less useful metric when one looks at the broader picture inside of Iraq: the ongoing daily slaughter of Iraqis, the near total lack of functional infrastructure, the fact that one in six Iraqis remains displaced from their homes, or that at least 1.2 million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of their country.
Seventy-two months of occupation, with over $607 billion spent on the war (by conservative estimates), has resulted in 2.2 million internally displaced Iraqis, 2.7 million refugees, 2,615 professors, scientists, and doctors killed in cold blood, and 338 dead journalists. Over $13 billion was misplaced by the current Iraqi government, and another $400 billion is required to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure. Unemployment vacillates between 25-70%, depending on the month. There are 24 car bombs per month, 10,000 cases of cholera per year, 4,261 dead U.S. soldiers, and over 70,000 physically or psychologically wounded soldiers.
There 's no normal life in Baghdad. While it's accurate and technically correct to say there is less violence compared to 2006, when between 100 and 300 Iraqis were slaughtered on a daily basis, Iraq resembles a police state more than ever. U.S. patrols consisting of huge, lumbering mine-resistant vehicles rumble down streets congested with traffic. It's impossible to travel longer than five minutes without encountering an Iraqi military or police patrol - usually comprised of pickup trucks full of armed men, horns and/or sirens blaring. Begging women and children wander between cars at every intersection. U.S. military helicopters often rumble overhead, and the roar of fighter jets or transport planes is common. There's no talk of reparations for Iraqis for the death, destruction and chaos caused by the occupation.
Neighborhoods, segregated between Sunni and Shia largely as a result of the so-called "surge" strategy, provide a blatant view of the balkanization of Iraq. Neighborhoods of 300,000 people are completely surrounded by 10-foot high concrete blast walls, rendering normal life impossible. The fear of a resurgence of violence weighs heavy on Iraqis, as the current so-called lull in violence feels tenuous, unstable, and possibly fleeting. Nobody there can predict the future, and to hope for a sustained improvement in any aspect of life feels naive, even dangerous.
The title of the film "Iraq in Fragments" by James Longley, which was nominated for Best Documentary Oscar at the 2007 Academy Awards, best describes Iraq today. The country has been destroyed by decades of U.S. policy that has plagued Iraqis. Looking back only to 1980, we see the U.S. government supporting both Iraq and Iran during their horrible eight-year war. In 1991 we see George H. W. Bush's war against Iraq, and his, Bill Clinton's, and George W. Bush's oversight of 12-and-a-half years of genocidal economic sanctions that killed half a million Iraqi children. Today, under President Barack Obama, what is left of Iraq smolders in ruins, with no real end of the occupation in sight.
All of the recent talk of withdrawal from Iraq is empty rhetoric indeed to most Iraqis, who see the giant "enduring" U.S. military bases spread across their country, or the U.S. "embassy," the size of the Vatican City, in Baghdad. The gulf between the rhetoric of withdrawal and the reality on the ground spans the distance between Iraq and the United States, while the reality is pressed in the face of the Iraqi people each day the occupation continues.

Remembering and Lamenting

2009-04-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

As we journey the road to peace and justice, new expressions of the human heart and mind blossom. The Veterans for Peace have been creating memorials for US soldiers killed in Iraq over the recent years by placing religious symbols in open public grass areas like a military cemetery. These extensive memorials are impressive, stimulating a sense of the numbers of people who have been killed fighting for the nation. The loss of life can move the soul to appreciate the reality of war.

Now, we had the Iraq Memorial to Life. Here in Olympia Washington on the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, we created a symbolic memorial to the Iraq persons killed since March 20, 2003. The memorials were in the form of markers which identified the person, often unknown by name, date of death, location. Each marker was handmade on authentic burial cloth shaped like a tombstone and laminated. These could be staked into the ground with a metal wire and spaced like a cemetery. We had nearly 4,000 markers, a mere fraction of the more than 90,000 deaths from the war which have been identified from newspapers, hospitals, or other documents in Iraq. The intention was to create one marker for each, but that was beyond our means at this time.

The Memorial did impress me and many others for its stark reminder that the war has been a horrendous experience. Each marker personalized a death, enabling the imagination to ruminate over a life cut short and relationships changed by the loss of a mother or father, son or daughter, grandparent, and friends.

I led meditations on both mornings of the Memorial. During the evening Vigil, the American Gandhi expressed the search for the real truth and the desire to express authentic love in this situation. This was a radical act here in the United States, which is still occupying and in some ways still at war with Iraq. I tried to put a face on the markers. Since the mainline media does not bring the faces to our attention because journalists are not going out to the Iraq communities, I went to the narrations of Kathy Kelly in her book Other Lands Have Dreams. Here are the first hand stories of the sick and dying during the sanctions which the UN says were killing 5,000 children each month. Kathy and other volunteers from Voices in the Wilderness were there and they were there when the invading troops arrived in Baghdad in 2003.

The Iraq Memorial to Life is now available to be transported and shown in other cities. We must be made aware of war and its consequences in this age of modern weapons which kill at the rate of 90 % civilians, a reversal of the 10 % killed at the turn of the 20Th Century. More information can be had by going to www.IraqMemorialToLife.org.

Having recently returned from Vietnam where I saw the continuing effects of Agent Orange and dioxin to the third generation, I felt very sensitive to the fact that our memorial was showing only a part of the death scenario. We did not highlight the sanctions effects between the 1991 Iraq war and the 2003 War. Further, we did not mention the effects of depleted uranium which will go on killing indefinitely.

Merton's Peace, Our Peace

2009-03-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Thomas Merton quoted Clement of Alexandria in his autobiography, Seven Story Mountain, published in 1947 stating that Christians are "an army shedding no blood." Merton was therefore on record that he was part of that army, consequently a peace advocate, a soldier for peace. Merton's story grew impressively over the years as he found that he was called as a monk to love the world, to love nature, to love all people. The monk does not flee the world, although that motivation can be mixed into the original thoughts at the entry of the monastery. The monk is a human finding a way to God and life through contemplation in solitude so that he or she can find truth about all creation in love and compassion. Merton's classic on peace, Peacemaking in a Post Christian World, was published in the 1990's. He died in 1968. He journeyed as the world grew deeper and deeper into the nuclear age. He became a light in the darkness.

That light still burns brightly as people seek the insights and wisdom from Thomas Merton's journey. I attended the Thomas Merton Society of Canada's annual conference on "Peace -- A Transforming Vision" last weekend. Jim Forest gave two keynote addresses beginning with the Clement of Alexandria quote. The weekend was full of workshops and presentations by people who carry on Merton's broad range of relationships and insightful communications. I attended a workshop on Merton and Rilke poetry, "at the Pivot of Silence," and "Thomas Merton at Gaza." The one a vivid exercise on the common contemplative expressions drawn from the wordless and the other a piercing presence into the anger, rage, frustration of Israel and Palestinian confrontation sum up the influence of Merton's life.

My journey has been guided in no small way by the wisdom of Thomas Merton.

The International Thomas Merton Society will conduct a Conference June 11-14 at Nazareth College in Rochester New York: BEARING WITNESS TO THE LIGHT, MERTON'S CHALLENGE TO A FRAGMENTED WORLD.

Maria Rilke's Poem

Breath, you invisible poem!

Pure, continuous change

with all that is, flow and counterflow

where rhythmically I come to be.

Each time a wave that occures just once

in a sea I discover I am.

You, innermost of oceans,

you, infinitude of space.

How many far places were once

within me. Some winds

are like my own child.

When I breathe them now, do they know me again?

Air, you silken surround,

completion and seed of my words.

A Poem by Merton:

"Love Winter When the Plant Says Nothing"

O little forests, meekly

Touch the snow with low branches!

O covered stones

Hide the house of growth!

Secret

Vegetal words,

Unlettered water,

Daily Zero.

Pray undistracted

Curled tree

carved in steel--

Buried zenith!

Fire, turn inward

To your weak fort,

To a burly infant spot,

A house of nothing.

O peace, bless this mad place:

Silence, love this growth.

O silence, golden zero

Unsetting sun

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

The victims of nuclear weapons tests

2009-03-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

On March 1, 1954 the United States military tested a thermonuclear weapon on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands which was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever exploded by the US and exceeded the five megaton blast expected by the scientists by ten megatons. US military personnel, Japanese fishermen, and Island residents still suffer the effects of that weapon. The environment will carry the radiation and scars indefinitely.
On March 1, 2009 eleven of us were arrested at Sub Base Bangor on the Hood Canal in Washington State to commemorate the 55Th anniversary of the Bikini Atoll blast and to express our concern about the victims and the environment. The Navy base at Bangor houses the most powerful nuclear weapon on earth, the Trident Submarine., nine of them and 1500 nuclear bombs.
The Pacific Life Community held its retreat during the weekend and concluded it with this citizens intervention on behalf of life for all people, every species on earth. We commit ourselves to nuclear abolition, abolition of war, life as life is intended.
Next year, 2010, the United States has the opportunity to participate in the United Nations Non Proliferation Treaty meeting. At the last meeting, the United States maintained a token presence which told the world the US did not support nuclear abolition. Next year, either the US will support the Treaty or other nations will proliferate nuclear weapons in response.
We, citizens of the United States, must tell the government (and the world) that we want nuclear abolition.

Updating

2009-02-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here we are over a month into the new year, 2009, and going on three weeks since Obama's inauguration, and now four week since I've returned from Vietnam. So much is happening, these weeks seem like a lifetime. Just keeping up with events and coping with actions and possibilities is a stretch. The main thing for me is that I have recovered from the Vietnam trip! Not really, but it feels good to be recovered.

Several threads make up my present involvements, all in keeping with my mission/message of the last few years. Working towards an end to War making, especially nuclear war; overcoming Global Climate Change; and the effects of Peak Oil remain my top three priorities. I have raised up Climate Change and Peak Oil to just a little over war making. These humanly caused realities vie with each other for the lead. I don't think you can separate one from the other, as humans intentionally and unintentionally mix them.

Following up from the Vietnam trip, I continue to study and research why humans sacrifice other humans. While I diligently study Ernest Becker's Escape From Evil with its piercing insights, I find other complementary sources for insights. One interesting one is that Becker reflects on William James' essay "The Nonviolent Equivalent to War," written in 1906. That is the same year that Gandhi came up with his "satyagraha" method, which he tittled "the nonviolent equivalent to war!" When I finish this study, I will have to decide how I can use the insights. One possibility is to combine some with my photos from Vietnam. Few people realize that the bombing of Vietnam with Agent Orange is massive, the greatest use of chemical weapons in history. 3,000,000 suffer the effects today. I feel deeply thinking about the babies, children, and adults I've seen. Then, this compares with the effects on the peoples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention the victims from all the nuclear bomb testing. We can go on to the radiation of "depleted uranium" in Iraq, the Gaza Strip, and elsewhere.

What about Climate Change and Peak Oil? To make a long narration short, I went to see what Richard Heinberg's latest is. He now works at the Post Carbon Institute (google it). Reviewing the site and the series of videos "Why all the things are going wrong"," has moved me to re prioritize, rather go back to my priorities of the last few years.

So, I'm regrouping and reorganizing. If anyone wants to make comments, critiques, suggestions, etc, go to it. Thanks.

Chaos as "Opportunity"

2009-01-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

Today is the 14Th day since I returned from Vietnam. I am going through a many faceted reentry. First, of course is the recovery from the jet lag and red eye flights from Vietnam and Korea. This has been complicated by a head cold which started in Vietnam, and which I thought was cured there, but has not ceased. Second, I am still thinking about the whole experience of the victims of Agent Orange. The stated need by VAVA (Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange) is US and chemical company assistance for the victims, including an apology. Third, I am reviewing and analyzing the issue of "sacrifice." Why do humans sacrifice their own people and their enemies as was done with Agent Orange, but is done in all wars? Fourth, the economic meltdown is demanding every one's attention. I have been spending some time going into that since it is affecting me and family members. Back to the first named, my energy is gradually returning.

My sense is that "we are in deep trouble." Analysts, including both the new President Obama and the past President Bush, do not have a handle on the economic meltdown. The word "Great Depression" was mentioned by Bush in his closing press conference (See Tom Englehardt's comments in Truthout.org) and creeps into conversations with a number of sources. No one wants to name it with certainty. Yet, the sense of the words that I am receiving is that this may be even more devastating or unwieldy (I'm reaching for the right words here) than the Great Depression. Those who have been reading this blog for the last nearly two years know that things are even more involved than the economy. How do you be "real" or "realistic" in this situation, without panicking or going into pessimism? I'm trying to name the elephant in the living room without the pessimism. But, no one knows the name of the elephant!

I return to Richard Heinberg's hope: After the 21st Century, one hundred years from now, whoever survives could live in a more human world, a more congenial civilization. We have the know how for that due to insights into human nature garnered of late. We also have the capability to continue laying waste to Mother Earth and each other.

I just read an article in the current issue of The Journal of Psychohistory about the effects of the Black Plague in the 13Th and 14Th centuries. The flux in all the facets of the way of life at that time enabled the survivors to make many gains in social relationships and in human life conditions. This was like the Chinese meaning of "chaos", i.e. opportunity. The normal patterns went out the door when the plague entered. Change happened.

Does not this remind us of what is happening on a small scale at this time, so far? A black president promising change has been elected and his/our opportunity has been "enhanced" due to all the issues raining down upon us: economic melt down, global climate change, wars, resource depletion.

I am still taken up by the human and environmental sacrifice due to Agent Orange in Vietnam and will do what I can to support the peoples there and here (our veterans and their families.) However, I must connect that reality to the others. This is our "opportunity." For me, the opportunity requires forming a deeper faith and discipline of will.

War Museums

2009-01-04T16:50:00.000-08:00

Today, January 5th, we begin our next to last day in Ho Chi Minh City and on our tour. I have not shared the War Museum experiences in Hanoi, Hue, and here in HCMC. The museums go back to the historic 1000 year period of Chinese control of Vietnam, from the beginning of AD to 1000 AD, and they touch uppon the various exploits in the second millemium. But, the major emphasis is the Indochinese war with the French, the post WW II peiod when the French were supported by the United States until they were defeated in 1954; then, the United States exploits culminating in the Vietnam War ending in 1975. The museums show the histories from a Vietnamee point of view as is expected.

For me, the visits are a review, almost a reliving of the history, especially from 1965 to 1975 when I was becoming involved in social activism, moving from supportive to US policy to radical desent and resistance. As the museum show quotes of US Senators that US policy of Vietnam violate the Geneva 1954 Peace Accords, the UN Constitution, and US Constitution, I also feel like "this is just like the Iraq war." Not really a surprise.

The museums begin outdoors with huge displays of captured US weaponry, aircraft, and tanks, and go to documemtaries, photo exhibits, models, etc of all types. There are even prisons and tiger cages. And, some were from the Diem regime in South Vietnam. Of course, the role of Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnam military are given central focus for saving and liberating Vietnam. (We will return to the HCMC museum today to see the Agent Orange documentary.)

The self immolation of the Buddhist Monk protesting the oppression of the Buddhists by the Diem regime is shown with photographs which I remember from 1967. The execution of the Viet Cong prisoner by a South Vietnm officer in Saigon, and the girl stripped by napalm are captured by historic photos, among numerous other experiences are also shown. However, there is no mention of the witness of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk who spoke against both sides in this conflict, advocating peaceful resolution, and being sent into exile in 1966, only to return to Vietnam for the first time in 2005.

Yesterday, we visited the Co Cui tunnels outside of HCMC where the villagers lived from 1954, resisting first the French, then the Americans, until 1975. We crawed through a tunnel and saw a way of life that harrassed the militaries in amazing, and grusome fashion. Now a tourist site, the transformation exploits the war situation for economic and "educational" purposes. Our tour guide is from this area and is a sincere Buddhist. We enjoyed our visit to his home and fine lunch served by his family.

Agent Orange visits

2009-01-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

From Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, this entry will bring up to date our tour of Vietnam to visit Agent Orange victims and support. HCMC is the last location of five. Our reception has been full of gratitude and appreciation. In Danang, we have been given a certificate and marble plaques, along with ginger. This was very emotional. We donate US dollars at each place, solely a token amount. We represent only ourselves, no NGO, no government program. I feel hesitant even to ask for the opportunity to meet with VAVA leaders. Yet we have met with them in Ha Noi, Hue, Danang, and will meet them today in Ho Chi Minh City. We offer a few things, our efforts to tell the story back in the US and to seek some help. We even want to approach Dow Chemical Company to enter the caring community. And, we share our resistance to the use of Agent Orange by the US in 1969 by our citizen's action and imprisonment.

The need is great. 3,000,000 victims of Agent Orange. Add to that the families and friends who try to care for them. Our visits have taken us to a rehabilitation center, The Friendship Village, a day shelter, and to several homes of victims and their families. These are very modest places. They expose only a few views into the complexity of the millions. The physical effects range from total deformity and incapacity to inability to walk, to a modicum of normal functioning. The mental effects can cover the same range, total mental disability to moderate mental presence. Some have both physical and mental issues. We find sisters and brothers caring for their adult siblings who at times lay in bed 24/7 and at times roam the neighborhood returning when they find their way home. The families we visited live in the most basic of homes. Our three day visit in the Hue/Danang area was in continuous rain with flooding conditions. (The sun shines on our first morning in HCMC.)

The spirit and dedication of the families and volunteers is very heartening. They have been in for the long haul, and will continue. They want and need our help. They need and want the US help. And the chemical company's support. They want us to return.

Why do the people have such good feelings for us from the United States? Why do they continue with such care? At least part of the reason is indicated in the observation of a monk we visited two days ago in this Buddhist country: "The past is no longer real, the future is not yet, the present is now."

New Year's

2008-12-31T21:42:00.000-08:00

Wishing all a Happy New Year from Danang. Our driver arrived early, so that is the message for New Year's day. May we step toward a peaceful world this year with growing humility.

Local people

2008-12-27T17:39:00.000-08:00

The spirit of the local people we have met so far is best exemplified by a woman I met on the streets of Ha Noi. She was selling tee shirts with beautifully woven flowers and other decorations. (Woven may not be the correct word, needle point?) I expressed disinterest, not in the market, and kept walking. A little later, she asked again if I would buy one, or a cap. I kept on. Again, she approached me and asked what I was looking for. "A copying business." She pointed further down the way. Several blocks later I had not found it. She offered to show me the way. "Okay." When we arrived where she thought the business was located, she found upon inquiry that it had relocated. After we sat on a step to a storefront, she used my map to point out the way. Then, we began talking. She knew English and started a conversation about how years are calculated locally. Nine months in the womb is the first year, followed by the next nine months, the second year, etc. In contrast, conventional annual calculations begin with birth. Turns out she is has two daughters and is the same age as my daughter. At some point, she returned to requesting that I purchase something and we looked over her beautiful tee shirts. She said that she knew I will buy one because of the way I greeted her at the first encounter. She was right. I bought one which caught my eye for my daughter. After showing on my map where the copy business was, she offered to show me. I said that I could find it. However, she stayed with me and we found the establishment and I had my copies. We talked enroute. I asked what her husband does for work. "He is a farmer." I said, "That's wonderful!" She looked at me like I was crazy. I said he grows food and we need food to eat. She replied that it is very hard work and does not pay enough to take care of the family. "That's not right.'' This woman, named Ba, rides her bicycle 16 miles into Ha Noi everyday to sell beautiful tee shirts, hand decorated, to make ends meet. She had not had a sale in four days before she met me and knew I would buy one. She parted with a request to make other purchases from her.

Our articulate interpreter described the farmer women who are everywhere in Ha Noi, carrying food and things to sell with a pole having baskets suspended at each end. They all travel from rural villages into Ha Noi to sell. What strikes me is the warmth and dignity of these women. Ba is a talented and self-determined woman who could do well in middle class America. I hope she continues to do well in Vietnam.

First visits in Vietnam

2008-12-26T03:34:00.000-08:00

We have just completed our first three days in Ha Noi, Vietnam. Commemorating the near 40 years since the DC Nine action challenging the United States government and the Dow Chemical Company, Catherine Sagan and I are undertaking visiting the victims of Agent Orange and concerned persons for the next 16 days from Ha Noi, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and nearby villages. We want to lend support to the efforts toward reconciliation and healing needed since the war with Vietnam ended in 1975.

Catherine and I began by visiting VAVA (Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange) on Wednesday afternoon. We met with three leading members led by Dr. Nguyen Trong Nhan. It was a rreunion for me sisnce I had met Nguyen at Portland State University in 2005 when he was touring the United States about Agent Orange. This reception committee share basic information about VAVA's efforts to educate the public, to move the US government to address the need for redress to victims, families, and the environment. A lawsuit has been proceeding through the U.S. Courts to little avail to date, next stop the United States Supreme Court. Readers can begin educating themselves by going to www.vava.org.vn.

Putting the human face on the issue, we visited The Friendship Village yesterday. Here we met the persons running this place of peace and reconciliation, along with students who are victims, ages two to twenty. These children were not alive when Agent Orange was sprayed over the jungles of South Vietnam, but suffer the effects anyway because their parents unintentionally pass them on or because the water and soils speread the deadly dioxan. Not only do these children suffer from Agent Orange, but they are like orphans at the Village. The staff and volunteers cannot fully replace the nurturing care and love of parents and sibblings. We enjoyed visiting them, but felt that there was not much you can do to help during a short visit. Smiles and hugs. This was a gratifying way to spend Christmas day, a day to remember the immigrant child Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.

Today we met Thao Griffiths, who works with a peace organization to assist with the effects of unexploded ordinance from the war. Each year thousands of rural people die from tripping the firing mechanisms on personnel bombs dropped during the War. With each of these visits, we not only listen to their stories and work, but also share the work we are part of making peace. Needless to say, each of these organizations is doing wonderful work, but do not have the necessary resources to address the full problem. The United States government needs to step to the plate along with the corporations which profited from War.

Tabitha

2008-12-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

Tabitha

The PLU psychology class
A small student group in a warm evening classroom
The American Gandhi invited by a middle age student
Activist, alive with inquiry.
Questioned and explored, Gandhi laid out his wares
Penetrating the human, the evolving human
From the primitive
To the scientific primitive of this day
Live truth, the truth in you.
Discover by experimentation
Let integrity develop by self-realization
Be authentic.

And, Jesus brought the authentic—by acceptance—
Into the Ordinary.
With Jesus acceptance entered the world.
Find your truth and live it.
Accept yourself.

But, acceptance is social. Our identity is social.
We find ourselves among others.
The human way. “I am” in the midst of you.
Jesus acceptance.

Tabitha—a student presenting her inquiries
Late in the class.
My family members see things differently.
Searching questions, emerging analysis, how handle this?
Reaching out, trying to grab hold…what’s the answer,
Gandhi?
Find your truth. Do you want it?
To be integral, human, authentic.
Struggle for acceptance.

Jesse Jackson in the Obama election crowd of millions.
Jesse Jackson, Martin’s lieutenant of many
Civil rights battles, of latter efforts “to be” …….
president. To find acceptance in
America.
Jesse, one in the crowd, not on the stage,
Jesse with tears running down his cheeks.
A black had found acceptance—elected in
America. Among other blacks with tears
Among all seeking acceptance.
Wanting acceptance.
The primal human desire.
Tears of acceptance.

Tabitha’s query, Tabitha’s searching struggle
The struggle of all.
Gandhi—my only purpose is to attain God.
Only done by service.

The American Gandhi’s service—the truth of
Acceptance. Stand strong in yourself.

By Bernie Meyer
November 2008

Touring Vietnam as the effects of war continue

2008-12-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

On December 22 I am scheduled to fly to Vietnam, if the weather allows. We are having a snow fall with cold snap. The occasion is the commemoration of the 40Th anniversary of the DC Nine action in March 1969. We decided to have a reunion next May. Most of us have not seen one another since the sentencing on May 5Th, 1970, the day after the Kent State University killing of four students and wounding of 12 by the National Guard. Catherine Sagan, one of the nine will meet me in Seoul Korea airport, from which we will fly to Ha Noi for a 16 day tour.

The DC Nine entered the Dow Chemical Company's lobbying office in Washington DC to protest Dow's production of napalm and Agent Orange used in the Vietnam war to defoliate the jungle. Nine of us entered the office on a Saturday, hung photos of napalmed children, splattered blood, broke office equipment, and threw files out the window. Then, we waited for the police to come as the media covered the story. My role was to lead the media to the site. (This is more fully described in my book, THE AMERICAN GANDHI, My Seeking Truth With Humanity at the Crossroads.) Catherine and I went to prison for this action.

Agent Orange has not stopped maiming and killing. 3,000,000 Vietnam citizens suffer the effects because the dioxin remains in the soil and the water. American Veterans also suffer along with many of their family members. For the next two plus weeks I will journal the experiences of this trip on this blog.

We will begin in Ha Noi at The Friendship Village, later proceed to the Central Highlands and Hue, and end up in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly, Saigon). The Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) is facilitating the visits with treatment sites and their work to redress the wrongs. Peace Tours will facilitate our itinerary.

Ending violence by way of India's culture

2008-11-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

Peacemaking takes on a decidedly cultural flavor in India, especially at religiously sponsored events. I just returned from the 7Th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action in Jaipur, India. The primary sponsor is ANUBHIA, a Jain initiated organization for the betterment of the world. (I attended the 6Th ICPNA last December.) It is very clear that this is a religious event with the ritualistic presence of His Holiness Acharya Mahapragya and his retinue. Then, you find that the former President of India, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, has coauthored a book with His Holiness. The book, The Family and The Nation, gives a succinct overview of cultural and societal history to lead to a vision for a peaceful and just society. Religion is fundamental to the contents, but with a much different rationale than you would find in the United States where separation of church and state has prevailed, at least until recently.

To understand this, a person would need to spend some time learning about Hindu religion with its acceptance of diversity, even within the Hindu faith. No centralized body is charged with overseeing orthodoxy and dogma. The ancient culture sets the tone. the individual expresses belief within the culture.

As a result, when you look beyond the white clothing of the monks and ignore the blue masks preventing harm to microbes, you find a rationale and scientific presentation for peace and nonviolence. Ahimsa, nonviolence, is the central tenet of Jain religion. (Jain religion is not Hinduism, but comes from the same roots and communicates the same acceptance.) The 7Th ICPNA took another step toward overcoming violence and finding peace in our troubled world.

I was invited to this Conference as The American Gandhi. I attended the five days of sessions and activities as TAG. In addition, I was invited to address two other gatherings at the same location, including The Conference on Nonviolent Economics. I do not know how much my words communicated, but my physical presence, as Gandhi, did communicate. As someone said, you are the best known person in Jaipur. This was due to photos in the daily papers. I feel that that is well and good, but my message is of crucial import and my main purpose for attending. Gandhi is symbolic only. (My message is recorded in my website.)

Related to my message is the November 7-9 gathering of the World Economic Forum in Dubai. The attendees were aghast at the state of the world. A "reboot" is needed. It is worth checking.

SILENT AND INVISIBLE TO THE HUMAN EAR AND EYE

2008-10-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

SILENT AND INVISIBLE TO THE HUMAN EAR AND EYE

The particles in the air, particles of CO2,
Gases of many kinds, the stuff of climate heating
Silent and invisible to the human ear and eye

Agent Orange—visible by colors merges
With the soil and dust—lethal
Not perceived And, water.
Silent and invisible to the human ear and eye

Nuclear radiation—of many elements and intensity levels—
Low to high—invisible to eye and ear
As cause visible, and harsh in effect
In the air and in the water, on the beach sands
Silent and invisible to the human ear and eye

Depleted uranium— U 238,
Depleted of U 234, or U 235, for other uses.
U 238 just as lethal when ingested in aerosol form.
Used by the megatons in recent wars,
Tested regularly in the environments near home,
Silent and invisible to human ear and eye

Gamma radiation, alpha radiation, beta radiation—
Lethal to humans, lethal to life
Silent and invisible to the human ear and eye

63 years of uranium extracting from the earth,
testing, using, and wasting
Millions of years enduring
Beyond human life experiences on earth,
Shortening life experiences
Ending life experiences on the visible and audible Mother Earth

Ingested and DNA incorporated

The silent and invisible

The normal and the abnormal

2008-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Another journey is now completed. My sense of "our reality" grows deeper. I traveled by train from Seattle, Washington to Cleveland, Ohio with my daughter, Amanda, and her 19 month old son, River. For the most part the ride was beautiful across the mountains and plains states. Our little family grew together and enjoyed the world family on the train and in the Chicago station.

We had a family reunion at Geneva on the Lake, catching up with everyone and experiencing the storms and the calm sunsets over the lake. My 92 year old mother was also able to visit with us for a day. Our four generations are blessed.

We stayed with old friends from the Thomas Merton Community of the 1960's. Though the near West Side of Cleveland has become gentrafided over the years, my bonds with the friends has only grown stronger. We still share concerns for our society and the world which is more precarious than the conflicted days of the 60's. We have grown in spirit and in deed. Now, yoga, community gardens, and peace demonstrations have transformed the expressions of forty years ago.

I worked hard on this trip. With the help of peacemaker friends, I offered twenty Gandhi appearances. Three colleges, two high schools, and an interfaith peace gathering were the venues. Also, I offered two book signing events. Finally, we traveled to Dayton to the Peace Museum where we participated in the International Day of Peace on September 21st. We were hosted by Chris Dull who made the original request for my Gandhi portrayals. What a heartfelt time!

The twenty day experience in Ohio was overshadowed for me by the consciousness of global threats: finance and climate change. Hurricane Ike reached up to Ohio from Haiti, Cuba, Texas. Forty four or the 48 counties in Ohio had electrical breakdowns from wind storms. Caravans of electrical repair trucks crossed Ohio to the south from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Storm was deadly and costly.

The financial crisis caused by the failure of several institutions and by the governments inability to handle the crisis (suddenly the private markets were screaming to the government to bail them out) occured during my last week in Ohio. As of this writing, we are still watching the harried efforts of Congress and the "Presidency" to come up with a plan. No doubt that whatever the plan is human services and US infrastructure will suffer for years. My reading on this trip was Richard Heinberg's PEAK EVERYTHING, WAKING UP in the CENTURY OF DECLINES. It was most instructive that in the midst of the financial crisis, I happened to read the chapter noting the collapse of the US economy. Even the Wall Street types are claiming that there is no clear way to handle this, could be much worse than the depression's collapse.

My Gandhi presentations at least mentioned the usual three: climate change, the effects of peak oil, and nuclear weapons/war making. I think people are traumatized, ignorant, and empty handed. Some have their eyes open. Our hope.

Carrying the message on

2008-08-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Round Table Conference was held at the World Peace Centre in Pune India on August 1St and 2Nd. The theme was "Role of Science and Spirituality in Promoting a Culture of Peace in the World." This subject is right up my ally! Followers of this blog would recognize my comments because I have been saying that unless we humans begin acknowledging the ultimate Truth of the universe, nature, and humanity and live by the laws of nature, we do not have much future on this earth. As an invitee to this Conference, I had the opportunity to elaborate on this theme and to apply it to global climate change, fossil fuels and natural resources, and to war, in particular to nuclear weapons.

Attendance was from around the world. I had opportunity to rub elbows with people from New Zealand, Belgium, the Philippines, Africa, other Americans, and, of course, Indians. Since I spent eight days at the Centre, we were able to exchange experiences and insights informally. These were very rich. Two contacts expressed interest in inviting my Gandhi presence to participate in their service projects for the poor villages and communities. I am edified by the work my new friends are doing for humanity and look forward to working with them.

Dr. Karad, who founded and leads the World Peace Centre, hosted this Conference and related activities with his usual vigor and energy. (I had participated in the January 2008 Congress for Youth and a Culture of Peace.) We had the opportunity to attend local Hindu Peace religious services and to visit Gurukul, a unique higher education campus incorporating the principles of science and spirituality. From India's millennia of history, culture, religion, a deep expression of human meaning and direction arises. Gurukul expresses this through modern lenses.

I do not know how well my message was heard, certainly it was heard and expressed by others. I made a resolution challenging the scientists to apply their skills to resolving the three major issues I identified. The resolution was cited in concluding remarks. The Conference will be reporting out to leaders, philosophers, scientists around the world. I continue to belief that we need a grassroots "uprising" to spur official world leaders to act with urgency and immediacy.

Grassroots, local activism

2008-06-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting this blog to some degree, but there is much I would like to put into it. During the past few weeks, I have participated in several local Olympia public hearings. Each has a significant concern from many points of view. Puget Sound Energy is up for sale and the top bid is from an Australian and Canadian bidder. The oversight council had a hearing at which I testified against the sale to a distant mega company using retirement funds (and a loan) to purchase the utility. My view is that a far distant company will make it even more difficult for consumers to have their needs addressed and to take effective responsibility for their environment. This potential purchase is an example of "privatization." Private entities are purchasing public assets to make profits. Toll roads and bridges, water, utilities, etc are shifting to corporate ownership, unless we organize to stop them.
Another issue at which I testified to the Port of Olympia Commissioners meeting is the construction of the Children's Hands On Museum over a toxic chemical site which the Port sold to the City. "Oh, the Department of Energy will clean it up or cap it." Easier said than done. There is leaching into Puget Sound which was originally filled in to create the site. There is also deterioration of the cap which takes place in time. How much risk can we put the children to? The public knows little about toxic chemicals and how they are communicated to the people and living creatures through the environment. The toxic effects are multiple: cancers, birth defects, many illnesses.
These are just two of the issues I have addressed.
My time is also going into the final stage for printing my book: THE AMERICAN GANDHI, My Seeking Truth With Humanity at the Crossroads. The book should be out around the end of July, early August.

Gandhi insights

2008-06-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

The followint is a BOOK REVIEW which I wrote for the Spring issue of Fellowship Magazine.

Gandhi, A Political and Spiritual Life
Kathryn Tidrick
I.B. Tauris, 2006

By Bernie Meyer

For the authentic Gandhi, Gandhi, A Political and Spiritual Life is an important book. Kathryn Tedrick has delved into the religious and cultural sources, which motivated his creative life and his quest not only for himself, but for all humanity. Tedrick has wrestled with the core of Gandhi’s thought to uncover the forces that moved his spiritual life with its political activism.
She announces in the Preface that “the secular saint is not the Gandhi we will write about here.” His words and deeds are but an indication of his life-long yearning for moksha, pure unity with God. She makes the essential point that Gandhi saw himself as the “chosen vessel of God.” She states:

“The principal article of this belief system (Gandhi’s) has to be stated as clearly as possible at the onset. It was that he, Gandhi, was the pre-ordained and potentially divine world saviour whose coming was logically implicit in the ‘ancient’ and especially ‘Eastern’, religious writings to which so many of his English acquaintances had turned in their search for a new revelation of god’s purpose in the world.” xii

Other biographers present sources and influences which moved Gandhi, but do not dwell on the way Gandhi internalized, organized, and utilized them.
Tidrick emphasizes his consciousness. The first two chapters present her research into the influences upon him which began during his education in England when he was acquainting himself with English culture for his goal of reforming India to be like the English. The Vegetarian Society, the Theosophist Society, Esoteric Christianity and other “cutting edge” thinkers formed the framework and content of Gandhi’s thinking. In South Africa he added insights from Tolstoy, Ruskin, and Thoreau. These were influenced by Eastern thought, most notably the Gita and the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi created his self-image in South Africa and translated them into a life of action to bring about the Kingdom of God.
Gandhi pursued “purification.” Inspired by his bible, the Gita, he sought detachment from the results, no desire, to become as dust so that god’s will would be accomplished. To these passive objectives he added the active way of Christian charity expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. Suffering became the primary means for purification. Suffering became the tool for political and social transformation. He gained insight and confidence in his political ability to influence the life of Indians and the policies and actions of his opponents. India brought struggles.
He called off the Satyagraha campaign for Independence in 1922, “walked alone” after the failure of the Round Table Conference in 1931, desperately searched for candidates who were capable of the “nonviolence of the strong” after his imprisonment during World War II. There are other Himalayan mistakes. He often took the burden upon himself because he was not pure enough for god’s purpose. Or, India was not ready for “swaraj.” Tidrick describes the lulls in his political activity with the Indian National Congress as “waiting games.”
Tidrick does not dwell on his “constructive program.” She uncovers areas, which other authors are beginning to enter, the human side of the “mahatma.” Gandhi regarded sex and eating for pleasure as “lust.” He possessed views considered as weird or bizarre, and experimented with sex which tore at his followers. Tidrick goes into detail showing how Gandhi coped with his views and activity, expending considerable space in describing “brahmacharya” (celibacy.) Gandhi had a series of relationships with women over the years. He was challenged and sometimes modified his ways, but usually clung to his truth. Tidrick does not hide her own repulsion at some of his ways.
For Tidrick Gandhi’s greatest moment was his ending the Hindu-Muslim killing in Calcutta in 1947. Truly, this was a tremendous feat. Bihar was also bloody. Gandhi negotiated an agreement to stop the killing there while ending the killing in Calcutta. His “fast to death” was his ultimate means. And, it worked not only in Calcutta but in Delhi. Tidrick does well to show the roles Gandhi’s numerous fasts played.
Gandhi considered his life an “open book.” By this he meant his “life”, not his words and writings. (xiv)
Peace makers would do well to study Gandhi’s psychological and cultural creation. His experiments led him to become what he became. His religious approach may not appeal to some. His discipline, courage, total view of human living, and ahimsa translate into a creative “culture of peace,” challenging us.

(I did not include my observation that Tidrick was repulsed by Gandhi's classic Hind Swaraj written in 1909. Gandhi held firmly to HS throughout his life. I think she did not pick up the underlying context and meaning of this "little simple book" (Gandhi) as Anthony Parel so well explicates.)

GANDHI'S INSIGHT AND WARNING

2008-05-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

GANDHI’S INSIGHT AND WARNING
By Bernie Meyer
May 13, 2008

Gandhi discovered many insights by his experiments with truth. Some of them, perhaps most, even all, apply indefinitely. After all, he claimed that he had nothing new; his learning was as “old as the hills.” Gandhi sought the true nature of reality. The truth founded on “what is” was his goal. Gandhi believed that it was his duty to be not only responsive to that reality but to live by that reality.

Now, 2008, I hold up a warning from Gandhi, which applies immediately. Gandhi did not see the application of the warning as I see it. Gandhi noted the principle and the reality which underlies the application. If Gandhi had been aware of the facts, he would note the application with warning as he did with the atom bomb. In fact, in his critique of technology and civilization I think he had an instinctive sense of the application which I am holding up as Gandhi’s insight and warning.

I am searching for people who want to face reality. I want people who are open to truth and who will not be turned back by it. I want people who will overcome their narrow self interests and vision. Somehow, we must unite and apply the insight and warning.

Gandhi’s insight warning: “Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaters into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all is the only way to find oneself.”

The warning God sends today is the very health of planet earth. The health has disappeared. Our Mother is very ill. The illness is caused by human deeds. The earth as viable for human life (and most living creatures, our fellow species) is threatened. Very little time is left for reversing course. If course is reversed, millennia will be required to heal Mother Earth.

Three general conditions cause the illness: global climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and industrial society.

The earth has already surpassed the critical point for global climate change: 350 PPMs, 350 particles per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The earth now experiences 385 PPMs. We, humans, must take immediate steps to reverse this ascent to mass extermination. From another angle, the earth’s temperature has risen by one degree centigrade which translates into 10 degrees at the poles. Forecasts are for two to five degrees during the 21st century if the trend is not reversed.

Humans are beginning the creation of the next generation of weapons of mass destruction with nuclear weapons in the lead due to the United States “superpower syndrome.” The US nuclear posture is based upon “full spectrum dominance” with nuclear weapons as the ultimate spectrum threat. The space around Mother Earth is being utilized for surveillance, communications, and targeting for war anywhere on earth. Preparations for war through research and experimentation, war itself through use of these weapons, and the consequences of war through toxic effects, are what is causing the illness of Mother Earth. Nuclear power is a twin to these causes and effects.

Industrial society began the ascent to global climate change and to nuclear weapons and modern war. Industrial society is fueled by liquid fuels, oil and natural gas. Humanity has developed the fossil fuel energy to the full extend of capability. Reversing course will require massive energies from consciousness, intelligence, physical labor yet unheard from, “a management problem humans have not experienced.”

These three categories of Mother Earth’s illness dominate. All other injustices damaging peaceful living can be traced to these physical roots. The human mind and will determined these causes, continues to follow the courses of actions chosen, and can decide to reverse them. But, the action must be now and must be total for all humans. As the West has led the way, the West has first responsibility to lead the way out.

This is Gandhi’s insight and warning applied. Human density is being penetrated by God’s drums. As Gandhi began his experiments with truth with a few, I am joining those who are making the same path.

For me, this is the choice noted by Martin Luther King Jr., “between chaos and community.” For me, this is the way of Jesus, who is “the way, the truth, and the light.” Simply, we are humans living on Mother Earth, our destiny and our gift.

Unusual action: boycott peace meeting

2008-04-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I took the unusual step to boycott the Western Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Washington Spring Assembly. The Spring Assembly is held every spring to review and coordinate the FOR's peace making efforts among the chapters. I facilitated the planning process which led to the initiation of the Spring Assembly several years ago. I respect FOR and all the folks who attend these activities. The agenda for Saturday's meeting was good, but lacking. Also, I believe that anyone and everyone trying to help people and society live peacefully and justly today should be respected and honored. It's a growing uphill struggle due to the issues of the day and the continuing shifting of the United State's budget from people needs, indeed the very US infrastructure, to military weaponry and war making. But, the agenda ignored the dominating events affecting the whole works.

I advocated that an opening analysis of the global situation be presented at the Spring Assembly so that workshop deliberations would be able to reflect their concerns in this context. This includes the reality that the earth is in rapid climate change. I take the cue from experts who say we cannot continue "business as usual." This includes the apparently "out of control" food crisis due to the increase costs. 100 million people have been recently brought to starvation risk, and more added daily. Food riots in over a dozen countires. This includes peak oil realities, actions the US is taking which contribute to the food crisis, and social/political crisis. This includes the US military budget of over one trillion for 2008 (when you add in all the hidden costs in the budget) supporting the "full spectrum" military options including nuclear weapons, and more. And, there is a growing sense that the US will attack Iran between May and August.

A year ago I began this blog with a walk from Faslane Scotland to London. The message was the same. I am only updating it. I could not not take this stand last Saturday. In fact, I have been evolving my analysis and message for the last several years and acting upon it. I will not stop the death and destruction. Nor will FOR. I could not stay alive by ignoring these realities and doing what I can, which is still not all that I can, puny as the efforts are.

The reason I share this is to keep walking the talk, to encourage you to join in your own way.

An UNWANTED REALITY, US imperial madness

2008-04-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

How far and how long can this war destructive power go? War destructive power is the weaponry with its driving engines created by human scientists and engineers. Nukes, missiles, submarines, jet airplanes, etc are commonly known weaponry and delivery means. Now, much more is in the works. I just returned from Omaha Nebraska where the Strategic Command at the Offutt Air Base is located. Stratcom for short. The long of it takes pages just to name. Americans and the world have little idea of what is concentrated there.

President Bush fled to Offutt on 9/11. Offutt has been transformed since then, a secret needing revelation.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org) put on a conference: "Stratcom: The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth." It was hosted by Nebraskans for Peace (www.nebraskansforpeace.org.) I strongly urge you to go to these websites to acquire basic information and resources about this concentration of military power and intelligence.

We began the Conference with a vigil at the gates of Offutt Air Force Base in blustery wind and rain. People from around the world were present, including leaders I met while walking from Faslane to London last summer and while attending conferences in India last January. In that bitting Midwest cold we joined arms to take note of the horrors for death concentrated there and to commit to resisting them. That evening a moving presentation by Native Americans simply asked for what it takes to "live." The Conference then proceeded to present in detail the many components present at Stratcom. All the intelligence operations, the worldwide networks of military bases, the air, sea, land, and space weaponry, and so-called Missile Defense commands were laid out in graphic presentations. In US policy terms this is the command post for "full spectrum dominance." From what is considered conventional to nuclear weapons the US is establishing an intentional system to be able to attack any threat to "US Security" on earth within an hour's notice.

Perhaps, the most cynical and depressing situation I observed was the workshop about plans for the moon and planets. A physicist said that her acquaintances in science for space had given up on the viability of planet earth. They are laying plans to establish a base on mars with further conquests expected. And, these are bright people? Who will pay? US taxpayers from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, social programs.

My first mail upon returning home included an appeal to defend Social Security and Medicare from George Bush's proposed 2009 Budget. $556 billion cut in Medicare over the next 16 years. $150 billion in insurance industry profits over the next ten years. Privatizing Social Security with $30 billion in fiscal 2009. This could be a "healthy" beginning to pay for weaponry and space colony development!

The backdrop of this conference for me is the soaring food prices, energy costs, and global climate change effects already happening. These could be ameliorated by a "crash program" to save planet earth along with the poor people and the species being vanished.

A proximate addenda, a young man I met and roomed with from St. Louis handed out an appeal for people of renown to move to Estafan Iran until the danger of US attack on Iran has passed! St. Louis Boeing has developed a 30,000 pound Massive Ordinance Penatrator for Iran. B-2 Stealth Bombers at Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri have been prepared by widening bomb bays to deliver them to Estafan, home of Iran's largest nuclear reactor. (www.ironpeaceshield.org)

I felt I was in a fantasy land at this conference as I watched the videos and photos of cyber space. Yet, the 2003 war on Iraq was directed here in Midwest USA. This is real, delusional as it is.

VISIONING FROM THE HEART

2008-04-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

VISIONING FROM THE HEART

Called by the heart to find a way
Find a way, find a way, a way, a way
The violent human way must go away
We are wasting away the life sources
Wasting away, away, away
Life sources, sources for living,
The species are going, going away
200 a day, 200 a day, a day, a day,
200 a day, species going away.
The human species will fade away, fade away
Killing the species which feed the human,
Killing the species which feed the human.
Killing the species for living.

New visioning
New visioning to save the day, save the day
We need new visioning to save the day.
Village celebration, every day, every day
Village celebration to save the day
Working, walking, talking, taking, taking time
Time spent in the village to save the day
Natural food, back working food, hand to mouth food
To save the day.
New visioning, new living, new ways
To save the day.

By Bernie Meyer
March 31, 2008

NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL

2008-03-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

It is approaching one year since I began this blog, as I was leaving for the walk from Faslane to London. My purpose for the walk was to send the message that we must act now. The we is every person and organization, every nation and all nations, the world bodies. The reason is not only the destructive force of nuclear weapons, but the destruction due to climate change and due to human exhaustion of resources, especially water and fossil fuels. We are already seeing catastrophe in the works: war, genicide, hunger, violence of all types.

But, WE CAN TURN THIS AROUND, KNOW HOW AND RESOURCES ARE STILL THERE. WHAT WE NEED IS THE WILL.

My reminders about our precarious position:

Jonathan Schell's THE SEVENTH DECADE, The New Shape of Nuclear Danger, 2007.
Lester Brown's Plan B 3, 2007.
And many others.

While the gifted minds of nuclear scientists and administrators are being wasted on suicidal means for "security", the urgency to apply all knowledge and skill to the transition is being ignored by them.

Lester Brown continually sends out the message: The Arctic ice is melting at astounding rates, the Himalayan glaciers are quickly receding, the aquifers are depleting. Result will be inadequate food for the billions of people. This reality is intensified by the policy decision to use corn crops for ethanol in the United States. Food prices are and will soar as food is used for fuel, thus making food subservient to $100.00/barrel plus oil. And, the United States taxpayer is subsidizing ethanol!

BROWN: NO TIME FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL. We have until 2020 to reduce the CO2 by 80%, not 2050 as politicians and their prompters stipulate.

These statements are simply the headlines of the issues. A quick review of the sources will uncover the analysis of the daunting facts.

I feel that my actions by the walk and so many other efforts are feeble. Who is paying attention? Who is doing anything? I know a few are, especially those waving the flag of warning. Not enough.

Spreading Gandhi's way

2008-02-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

January 30th, 2008 was the 60th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination. I attended the Congress 2008 in Wardha, India at the Institute for Gandhi Studies. Wardha is near the Sevagram Ashram, Gandhi's last ashram initiated in 1936. Wardha has Gandhi sites: other ashrams, research institutes to support village life, Kadhi (homespun cloth) production workplaces. For four days I visited them with Congress attendees. Here, a way of life is in progress consistent with Gandhi values and principles. Gandhi's vision built on the lifestyle developed over the centuries in India's 700,000 villages. It was a way of life centered on dignified living for everyone--and a sustainable way of life. Now, the principles of appropriate technology are being fostered incorporating the work of E.F. Shoemacher. In Wardha a person can discover the compliment to corporate and global economy.

I knew Dr. R.B. Chavan from my last trip to India. Now retired from his university position instructing in Khadi, he works for Jamnalal Bajaj Central Research Institute, (MGIRI), Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Ministry of Micro And Medium Enterprises (Gov. of India.) I took a day to be with him to visit his workplace. Here I had a personal tour led by Dr. Chavan and the Director, Keshav Kamble, to see each step in the production of Khadi, including the experimenting in colors and fabric methods. The production methods are then made available to the villages for villagers to produce and sell for their own sustenance. Individual vendors are common in India providing a rich variety of services and products. This research center also develops herb products, medicines, and pottery for villagers use. The pottery was beautiful. I came home with the possibility of initiating a similar development and training center here in the United States. Anyone interested in spearheading such an endeavor? Training is available in Wardha.

The Congress itself was organized by parties in France and from the Institute. The event was truly international with representatives from every continent except Australia. I shared a room with a young man from Cameron, an Austrian, and a Frenchman. Our conversations were rich because we could share stories and customs from each country. Claude, the Cameron member, wants to bring nonviolence to his homeland. He has had training in dispute resolution and is passionate in his concern about the violence there. He has asked me and others for support, especially money. I gave him a large picture of Martin Luther King Jr. standing with arms folded in a room with a photo of Gandhi on the wall. This moved him. (I received the picture among several other significant items from Dr. Savita Singh, Director of Gandhi Samriti, Darshan Samiti, the site of Gandhi's assassination in New Delhi.)

I will cover the next phase of the Congress visit, the Congress itself, at the next post.

Fifty Days in India

2008-02-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

I am back in the United States after 50 days in India. First, I regret not being able to make more posts on this blog because there were many experiences worth sharing. Due to traveling in many rural areas and to the intensity of the schedule, internet use was very limited. Often when the internet was available, the electricity was off. This is common in India. To distribute electricity each location has the supply turned off for several hours a day. Second, I will use the next set of blog entrys to recap certain experiences or insights.

During the trip I attended four conferences and made one meditation retreat, plus visiting several locations of interest and portraying Gandhi in the conferences and/or locations. No wonder I am slow to recover from return jet lag! An earlier blog describes something of the 6th International Confernece on Peace and Nonviolent Action. Now, I am communicating with organizers from ANUVBHA to share insights about follow through. The second conference was the 2008 Gandhi Congress in Wardha on January 25th to 31st. I received the addresses of the 125 attendees from all the continents except Australia today. This was a very rich experience due to local resources and the Congress itself. More later.

The Third event was the World 2008 Youth Peace Congress in Pune where I brought The American Gandhi presence to address the assembly. A previous blog presents my written address. I stand by its contents. The urgent message is a huge frustration for me because people nod "yes", but nothing seems to happen. This Congress was most unusual for me because of its well healed religious content and setting. More later.

Finally, I attended the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Convention in Nagpur. Here, I was down home with the academic activists. Well researched papers and presentations about nuclear issues and about peace issues, especially the Middle East, were presented. Here, the setting was very grassroots. More later.

I needed to buy another suitcase to bring home all the books, literature, and gifts for portraying. I will never be able to read everything. Most are good additions to the library for reference.

Perhaps most important are the new contacts and relationships in peace making. I am very edified by so many people who are committed to justice and peace, to Gandhi nonviolence, to truth. I think they are having the effect upon me, raising to the next level. I am not sure what form that will take, but it may be some kind of organizing presence in India.

Message to Youth of the World

2008-02-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

GANDHI 2008 YOUTH CONGRESS
PUNE
Jan. 31, 2008
By Bernie Meyer
The American Gandhi

Namaste

Look at who you are; youth of the world. 500 and more of you have come to Gandhi peace congress for thought and action for peace. Peoples of the world live together. Be aware of who you are.
How many of you want to be Satygrahis? How many want to cling to the truth? How many want to stand for truth? How many want to live with non-violence-love-Ahimsa? How many of you are already to be warriors for truth? Gandhi said “in non-violence courage is in dying, not in killing”

Today, the world faces unthinkable problems; global climate change, water and energy exhaustion, nuclear war, terrorism. These are call to mobilize, a call to join together to face the storm of 21st Century. Mobilize for the life on earth, Mobilize for the life on earth. Survival itself. How many here want to be Satyagrahis?

I speak to you as the American Gandhi. In 2005 I came and was invited to India to bring the message of the historic Gandhi, the father of India. Gandhi’s way is Satyagraha, Ahimsa, Tapasya, non-violent way to live truth for all people. Gandhi’s way made India independent from the United Kingdom. In 2005 they called me the “American Gandhi” Now in 2008 I bring Gandhi’s vision and message to climate change, water and fuel loss, nuclear weapons and terrorism. This is the world of your generation, this world of my generation.

We have a choice. First choice, live business as usual approach, seek career in business. Second choice, live and face problems to change the world. Crisis problems. There is no time to spare. We must change climate change, we must not exhaust resources, and we must end war with weapons of mass destruction. The earth is giving us warning. The scientists are given us warning.

When Gandhi was 23, your age, he faced the choice. When he was thrown off the train in Pietremuritzburg in South Africa for not sitting in the third class train cabin, he sat outside on rail road platform in cold mountain town, freezing all night. He thought “How could a human being treat another in this way?” “What should I do? Return to India or fight for the rights of Indians in South Africa” When he met Indians they said “Gandhi, put up with this treatment. We do. We make money in this way” Gandhi made a choice. Gandhi decided to stay in South Africa to fight for the rights of Indians. Look where it led him. He went in 1893 to South Africa dressed as an English lawyer with the frock coat, creased black pants, shining black shoes. He wanted Indians to be like English in 1893. He found the non-violent way of war on September 11, 1906, Satyagraha, Ahimsa, Tapasya. He left South Africa in traditional Indian clothing in 1915. Gandhi found his Indian voice in South Africa. At age 54 in 1923 he put on the Dhoti and Shawl, dress of the masses of India. In this way he led all Indians to independence. He is the Father of India. He showed the entire world the way of non-violence. Gandhi said on the day of his assassination “Non-violence is stronger than any weapon. If humanity does not end the atom bomb I do not think the human species can last.” Gandhi also said “Non-violence is the first article of my creed, the last article of my faith.”
Now in 2008 all youth have a choice. And all people have a choice. Change the way humans live, stop climate change, stop wasting air, water resources, stop killing, end war. Or risk being thrown off the earth like Gandhi was thrown off the train. If we risk being thrown off the earth, it will be too late to make the choice.
The United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change is warning us that life on earth is at risk. We must make haste. Lester Brown from Earth Policy Institute has written the book, Plan B 3.(http://www/.earthpolicy.org.). We can change the situation if we act now with urgency. Here is what Luster Brown says, See Website!

You, do not accept my word, seek your own truth. Many experts say the same thing as Brown says “Search the truth thyself.” Budha “Make your own choice”.
I made my choice, as the American Gandhi on September 10, 2006, 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s 1906 non-violent equivalent of war. I led a Salt Walk in Olympia Washington “ We must be the salt of the earth, salt of the air, salt of the water,” We must save earth for life.

In the summer 2007 I walked as the American Gandhi over 700 miles from Glasgow Scotland to London England, May 29 – August 6, 2007. My message is; change from nuclear weapons to saving the earth. With others your ages I was arrested in Scotland at Faslane Trident submarine base where nuclear weapons are. Also we were arrested in England at Aldermaston Atomic Weapon’s Establishment. I have been arrested many times since 1969 to end war and killing.
I ask you again, how many of you want to be Satyagrahis? In Gandhi’s words I want you “To become the change you want to see.” Gandhi also said “The earth has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.” Now we may not have enough for everyone’s need.

Think about these realities. Gandhi Youth Conference 2008 will give you understanding and other information.
Suggestion, take 6 months off from business as usual. Experiment for 6 months and do three things,

1. Discipline yourself in non-violence- train your minds to control your passions and bodies. Perceive truth. Learn Ahimsa discipline for Tapasya. Prepare to be Satyagrahis with Swaraj. Non-violence of the strong. Only those who have the non-violence of the strong will survive in situations of chaos and violence.
2. Study Brown’s Plan B 3 and other analysis at this conference. Make your own plans and your own analysis. End climate change, save earth resources and end war.
3. Act-mobilize youth of India and youth of other nations.

In three months; tell nations of the world to stop business as usual and begin urgent action. Tell nations of world you are committed to save the earth.

In six months, if the nations do not listen, begin Satyagraha campaign – non-cooperation with business as usual, non-cooperation with business as usual, non-cooperation with business as usual This simple three point plan is urgent. No time to waste. If the youth and adults of the world agree, they will join you. Reach out to them, mobilize them. I will be with you.
If humanity lives like ‘Business as usual”, nature will end business as usual.

Why should youth lead?
1. Your world- your future
2. You have energy and vigor – fresh and young.
3. Adults are numb - stiff with fear. Stiff with self interest in business as usual. Stuck.
4. Like 1930 Salt March, English laughed – what can Gandhi do with Salt? But 10’s of thousands made salt and were arrested, some gave their lives and died.

Now we will see what youth can do.
You have choice:- business as usual or face problems – save life on earth.

I leave you with the question.

How many want to live the way of Satyagrahi?

Getting down To It

2008-01-18T23:42:00.001-08:00

I am now spending five days and six nights at the Preksha Meditation Center in Delhi. This method of mediating was shown us at the Peace Conference in Rajsemand. What appeals to me is that it is based upon the human physical and 'spiritual" make up. As such, it does not claim to be a religious exercise, which means Preksha Meditation has no religious identification nor religious intent. But, it is unapolgetically spiritual. Second, the method has a clear way to involve the emotions. In fact, the method is designed to control and utilize the emotions in their proper human place. These are very significant steps. Third, once the mind is brought under full control, the way is open to experiencing deep contemplation. This is a simple, dry bones, explanation. While I have to work to get past the Hindi language aspects and cultural expressions, I am able to grasp the methods. This nonreligious approach is a direction I have been going for awhile. I see myself adapting the insightful techniques to my usual practice.

Also, while at this Center, I have the opportunity to prepare a keynote address to be given on the 30th at the Gandhi2008 Youth Congress in Pune. I have been shaken back to my primary mission of the last few years by the press release from Earth Policy Institute, Mobilizing To Save the Earth and Plan B 3. This will be the core subject of the keynote. This invitation is a result of my American Gandhi work here in India and relationships with a few Indians over the last years. I implore you to check out the Plan B 3. And, please act upon it.

Encouraging growth in youth and in seeds.

2008-01-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

The humans for life are present here in India! The last ten days have been full in three respects.

From the 7th through the 9th I gave six Gandhi presentations in Chandigarh, plus media interviews. Chandigarh is a planned city north of New Delhi, wide streets and roundabouts like England. Yuvsatta, an NGO youth program with 200 youth groups in northern India and Pakistan. The presentations were in two pubic schools, one most outstanding, in Panjab Unversity, in a Women's University, and concluded in the slums at a women's literacy graduation. These were all moving and celebratory events. The mayor attended the first presentation.

From Chandigarh I took a bus for five hours to Dehredun where Navdana Center is located on the outskirts. Here Vandana Shiva and her associates are pioneering a significant effort to show the way of sustainable agriculture. Based on organic principles, they experiment with composting and growing a wide variety of vegetables. Also, to counteract the monoculture of agribusiness a seed bank maintains diversity. To overcome the top down approach to corporate ag, a democratic agriculture is encouraged and lived in many villages. Education and community action is counteracting the GE (Genetic Engineering) of Monsanto and other corporations. Women's role is given priority. I toured the farm with a group from the states organized by Global Exchange and led by Arun Gandhi, a grandson of Gandhi. This was the last day of their tour.

I have just given you a peak at these two events. Now, I am back in Delhi doing a variety of contacts and activities before going to Wardha on the 24th. The last two weeks of this trip will have several significant events to share. (This is the third time I have tried to enter this journal entry in two days. Electricity failure did the first two in.)

Today, January 14th, is my mom's 92nd birthday. Congrats to a most loving woman.

Peacemaking and then agriculture

2008-01-13T03:23:00.000-08:00

Over the last thirteen days since the last post, I have been to Chandigarh, Navdangan Agriculture Centre near Dedredun, and now back to Delhi. Most mermorable.

I spent three days and four nights in Chandigarh, a 50's planned city with wide boulevards and roundabouts. Here, I presented the American Gandhi to six youth audiences amidst much media coverage. The diversity of groups included an outstanding middle/high school assembly attended by the Mayor and other dignitaries, another middle school youth group, two University classes, a Women's College, and a women's litteracy valedictorian graduation. Like in 2005 I was treated "as Gandhi", even as I spoke as The American Gandhi. Over 2000 attended, a truly memorable experience. The message encouraged serious commitment to nonviolence amidst all the changes humanity is undergoing.

From Chandigarh I took a bus to Dedredun to see Vandana Shiva's agriculture center, a 45 acre experimental farm emphasizing organic farming, seed saving, GMO (genetic made organics) resistance, local farming democracy, and women's uplift. I toured the farm with a Global Exchange tour led by Arun Gandhi on its last day. I recommend the visit and volunteering there to anyone able.
The bus ride was an exciting five hour adventure: a two way highway through villages with road construction interrupting at times. Modern tractors pulling carts, horse or ox drawn carts, often loaded with sugar cane (which our bus driver once pulled a few from), walkers, bicycles, motocycles, busses, trucks of all conceivable descriptions, cows, dogs, and pigs made up the users. Yes, we are all one!

The farm once was used for fossil fuel fertilizers and herbicides, giving little support to natural growth or birds. Now, it is a living organism with many birds.

Consciousness and Nonviolence

2008-01-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Consciousness is a key word for human functioning. I had a most pleasont surprise yesterday when I discovered an Anuvrat Building directly across the street from the Gandhi Peace Foundation where I am staying in Delhi! After all, I just came from an international conference sponsored by Anuvrat. I entered the administrative suites to be enthusiastically received as I told my story.

I have been thinking about consciousness continuously while reading Thomas Merton's essays of late, since he mentions various forms of consciousness and their implications. Well, Anuvrat emphasizes a consciousness based upon ancient wisdom and modern human science. The result is a way of being conscious that is self directed and self controlled. The way is religious but nondenominational. I would describe it as spiritual discipline, which avoids all the baggage of religious terminology. It is simple and practical, once you understand its basic insights. This method has been essentially what I have been working on for several years. A website you can go to for some information is www.terapanthinfo.com.

I think that this way of living, as it is more extensively developed, offers a more mature approach to human living.

From Rajasmand to Delhi

2008-01-01T20:55:00.001-08:00

Greetings, Weeks since my first message from India, I am now in Delhi, staying at the Gandhi Peace Foundation until the 5th or 6th of January. Happy New Year. I spent the New Year's Eve on a train from Udaipur to Delhi, arriving at 7:30 AM. Now I am well rested after a good nights sleep with ear plugs. Most unexpected last evening was meeting Kanu "Bhei" Gandhi at the Foundation. He is Gandhi's grandson, noted for pulling Gandhi with Gandhi's walking stick on the beach, as a little boy. Kanu was a joy to talk with due to his enthusiastic spirit and his commitment. He lives in Virginia and travels all over. He studied under John Kenneth Galbraith, majoring in economics. Kanu was very enthusiastic about my Gandhi work, most supportive. This includes my basic statement about humanity being at a crossroads. I felt that we saw realities in very similar ways, even mentioning peak oil. He encouraged me by saying not to be concerned about "matching up" to Gandhi, since I have the same spirit as Gandhi. I have felt that way, but it was good to hear it from a grandson.

I cannot do justice to the last two weeks at the International Peace Confernce in a short blog. Most basic is the observation that the Children's Peace Palace has the ingrediants of a culture of peace as I see it. Raising children with love and understanding from the womb, not beating correct behaviour into them. This together with teaching a nonviolent way of thinking with emotional discipline in the broad context of human environment and activity combines for well rounded individuals. The Jain way is based on ahimsa, nonviolence. This culture is community and family in its best sense.

The Conference was in Rajasmand, a rural community with predominately Jain population and culture. All the signage and most of the language was Hindi. This is a good example of a culture and a nonviolent way of life. (However, I do not have a good analysis of the wider systemic context to show how the culture supports or resists the systemic violence of industrial society. Some, if not many of the participants, have some consciousness of systemic violence and global issues.) I have enjoyed myself and have been strongly affirmed as The American Gandhi. I would love to share more of this rich two weeks.

Computer access has been limited. Even this Internet Cafe computer leave much to be desired. But, what a difference from writing letters! Now, I must go to plan more of my itinerary with Babuv Lal who just retired from the Foundation. I have received invitations from people in villages near Benares and in Bengladesh. If I can figure a way, I will go in mid January.

Do all roads lead to my destination?

2007-12-21T02:25:00.001-08:00

I arrived at the Children's Peace Palace yesterday about noon after about 40 hours travel, including all night at the Mumbai airport waiting for the 5:55 AM flight to Udaipur. There was a beautiful sunrise to view while flying and eating breakfast on the plane...free! After landing, the fun began. I had expected Dr. Gandhi to send someone to pick me up as he said he would. So, after picking up my back pack, I saw a sharp young man in a trim long blue coat holding a sign for the Peace Palace, but with a different person's name than mine. I said, "You must be here for me?" He called someone to check it out, but made no indication. After some conversation between him and his crew, he said that they would send me in a car. I assumed I was with the right people. My car was new with leather seats and a pert driver with white gloves and beaked cap. They gave me a wet towel to wash my hands and face before setting off. When we arrived at Udaipur and at the on shore greeting station, the red carpet treatment began with a ritual reminiscent of the raj: Indians in all varieties of "uniforms".
Before setting off in a boat, I received juice and another wet towel to wash with. The boat took me to a hotel in the middle of the lake. I thought, "I heard that the Jains were wealthy, but never expected anything like this to attend a peace conference concerned about poverty, food, and violence! Udaipur is compared with Venice, the Venice of Asia. At the island, I was escorted up the red carpeted stairs by several greeters into a reception room where I received a bindy, flowers, and a drink. My receptionist gave me her card with the direction to ask her for any needs to be met. After a comment about my coming room assignment, I told her that I thought I might be in the wrong place. Then, it came together that I was indeed in the wrong place. This was a hotel training a new crew who was weloming American looking visitors. After they checked with Dr. Gandhi's Peace Palace, they continued the good treatment by giving me a five star breakfast and arranging a ride to the Conference (for 1000 rupees). I was able to observe the whole ritual set up. What a show! Americans dressed mostly in shorts with thongs or jeans and running shoes being greeted by dressed to the hilt Indians, greeting visiters with namaste, bindys, and bows. Not one American looked me in the eye, but every Indian did! While observing the show while eating breakfast, I could also observe the Indians bathing and washing clothes across the lake in the beautiful warm sun.

I wondered who was setting up whom for what. The Times of India reported that Prime Minister Singh expects India to make a ten percent growth goal in 2008.

My ride to Rajasmand was also eventful, driving for over two hour through old rural villages, as most likely can only be experienced in India. Wild. Trouble was, I was very tired and the ride forced me to stay awake. Dr. Gandhi made sure I napped long and went to bed early.

I'll tell you what it is like hear later, after more naps.

Off to India

2007-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today I leave for India to return on February 12Th. The itinerary is established for several events and contacts with room in the middle for development. I have the opportunity to get a good overview of key developments: nuclear weapons, poverty, agriculture, violence and nonviolence, international relationships for justice and peace, natural resources, destructive forces and constructive work, etc. I appreciate all the contributions enabling me to make the trip. People have given me a sense of mission, rooted in bringing Gandhi to India! I feel well prepared and well stocked with insight and understanding and expect to receive much from the Indian experiences.

At a recent Gandhi presentation someone recommended that I read Freedom At Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. I will complete the reading today. This covered the period from April 1947 to January 1948, the pre and post August 15th 1947 Independence of India and Pakistan from the English Empire. It is an emotional read because of the violence during the period. It is emotional because of Gandhi's "defeat" at the independence (opposed to dividing India, the rejection of his constructive program, and the horrendous slaughter and uprooting). To see how Gandhi responded and was successful in Calcutta and Delhi in stopping killing with two "fasts to the death" is to see how in defeat he found victory, to see how one man could intervene in stopping social violence. For me this is a study in human violence and in human potential.

The Walk in the UK last summer showed the violence of global climate change in its incipience and the violence of nuclear radiation. The flooding last week in western Washington and the continued efforts of the United States to maintain dominance with nuclear weapons and nuclear power show the same realities in the United States and make all the connections. The effects of these on people, most prominently the poor of the world, intensify my motivation for this journey. I hope to share experiences and insights along the way with this blog.

Namaste.

India trip 12/07 to 2/08

2007-12-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

This blog began with a trip to Walk from Glasgow Scotland to London England in 2007. My first entry was "why" the Walk. Now, I offer the "why" to India for the next two months.

In late November friends informed me about the 6th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action in Rajsamand near Udaipur India sponsored by the Jain ANUVIBHA PEACE PALACE. The week long process is in three parts: From December 23rd to 25th, International Dialogue on The Challenge of Violence, Hunger and Poverty: Evolving Sustainable Countermeasures. From December 26th to 28th, First International Nonviolence Leadership Training Camp. On December 29th, The Challenge of Inter religious and Intercultural Cooperation for Peace (continuing the High Level Dialogue organized by the UN General Assembly on October 4th and 5th at UN headquarters. These conclude with a Anuvibha Silver Jubilee celebration. I have been given the "mission" to represent the people of the United States to bring my message of peace. I accept with some nervousness, but with deep conviction. Dr. S.L. Gandhi has invited me to make presentations at both of the first segments. I will bring my "The American Gandhi" offerings.

Since I will be in India, I decided to stay for related activities and visits. Most salient is the International Congress on Peace and Non-violence from January 29th to 31st in Wardha India, near Gandhi's last ashram at Sevagram. This Congress has the following themes: Food Sovereignty, Unethical patenting of living organisms, Civil Interventions for Peace, Import of individual and collective action, Education for Peace and Nonviolence, fundamental and civil rights issues, empowerment of women, minorities, and excluded. Before the Congress, four days of visits to Gandhi sights will occur. (I will also visit with my hosts for my 2005 Gandhi portrayals in India.)

I have a number of contacts in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Mumbai with whom I am lining up visits and activities. I will use this blog to journal the experiences. I am particularly excited about the possibility of contacting the organizers of Janadesh 2007, a 320 kilometer walk of the poorest and allies from Gwailor to Delhi with the slogan "Give us land or jail." No doubt, I will meet a large number of activists and folks along the way.

The way I see reality, this India trip has the same urgency as my walk in the UK. Every day I read serious warnings by scientists and others about the growing precariousness of life on earth. Experience backs up the warnings: We had record flooding here in western Washington during the last two weeks, as we had walking through the UK in June and July. The US military/corporate/government cohort continues down the path of nuclear and destructive weaponry. I believe humans can do better.

If you are interested, more information is available: www.anuvbha.in/6thICPNA.htm and www.acse.info/camino-gandhi2008.htm.

The visible and the invisible

2007-12-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

The rains have come and so has the radiation, the visible and the invisible. These are exciting times in many ways. One is sobering exciting times. We have had torrential rains in Western Washington this week. People have lost homes, cars, possessions, lives right here. On the unnoticeable side, we are informed that Tacoma is considering accepting uranium hexafluoride through the port. Seattle has been accepting it for years. Who knows about it? Yet, uranium, if ingested, causes lethal effects. (Check our uranium hexafluoride at en.wikipedia.org.)

The exiting side is that people are becoming aware, awakened, alive. As I mentioned in the last post, the Port Military Resistance brought the new generation out -- with the old -- saying no to the Iraq war by blocking the roads from the Port to prevent the shipment from traveling to Fort Lewis.

In terms of the rains, they are record breaking. I connect them to the effects of climate change, at least in the sense that climate change will bring increasingly severe storms. (A month ago tremendous winds came through here with harsh effects, even placing large branches from a downed huge tree on my daughter's home.) This storm included 100 mile per hour winds. As I walked through Scotland and England last summer, we walked through record rains in June and July, sometines through flooding. Observers attributed the severity to climate change.

Now, having the rains and news of the uranium hexafluoride shipments in this context, the dots are connecting themselves, at least for those with open eyes.

If you have a life threatening disease, I think it is better to know about it, than to be ignorant. At least you can decide how you want to deal with it. Remember the days when doctors did not tell people about their cancer?

New Developments

2007-11-26T08:14:00.000-08:00

I just realized that it has been almost three weeks since my last blog. I want to offer at least one blog each week. But, this has been an intense period. Three significant processes have been going on: the Port actions, a decision to travel to India, and finishing my book.

The Port of Olympia actions mentioned in the last blog continued for nearly two weeks with many demonstrations and several blockades of the Port transfer of equipment and military vehicles used by Fort Lewis soldiers in Iraq. 65 people were arrested. I felt thrilled at the standing up of the youth and adults. Their determination to say "No" to the Iraq war and the killing was inspiring. Despite pepper spray in their faces when they simply stood in front of the gates, these folks stood their ground without recriminations. To date only two have misdemeanor charges against them. In the wings of all this action is the possibility of the U.S. attaching Iran. I believe, as I have for almost two years, that unless some intervention happens Bush and Chaney will attack Iran. So far, elections for Democrats, Congressional actions, and statements by retired military, let alone continued peace actions, have not done the job.

Second, I have decided to go to India to attend the 6th International Conference on Peace and Non-violent Action in Rajasmand outside Jaipur at the end of December. www.anuvbha/6thICPNA.htm While in India I will stay for the International Congress on Peace and Non-violence in Wardha near Gandhi's Sewagram Ashram at the end of January in memory of his 60th anniversary of assassination. www.aces.info/camino-gandhi2008.htm This decision was due to some persuasive words which I appreciate. I have the prospect of taking "The American Gandhi" perspective to these conferences.

Third, I am completing my book which was initiated after my 2005 trip to India when I portrayed Gandhi. The book is titled: CRUX OF THE MATTER, Autobiographical Foraging Into Being Authentic In These Times, by Bernie Meyer, The American Gandhi. I will submit for self-publishing within the week. I have also been promised assistance that publishing the book in India while I am there. My hope is that the book will assist peace makers.

A greater than titanic illuson

2007-11-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

The Port of Olympia is again being used to be complicit with the Iraq war, with occupation and oppression. The USNS Brittin is offloading equipment for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) after it's tour in Iraq. We are challenging the presence, not wanting to be complicit in this war.

We look at the USNS Brittin. It is bigger than the Titanic. According to The Olympian the Titanic was 882 feet in length and the Brittin is 950. The Titanic displaced 58,587 US tons, the Brittin displaces 69,517 US tons. The ship dwarfs the Port of Olympia in fat gray bulk. Cindy Corrie (Rachel Corrie's mother) told me that she was celebrating her 60th birthday at lunch in a Port restaurant with her husband (Craig) when the ship arrived yesterday, escorted by several tug boats and Coast Guard gun boats. She said it about came into the restaurant, catching everyone's attention! We were protesting the ships mission when our conversation occurred.

"Catching our attention," that is the point, I think. I remember my mother telling me as a boy that the Titanic was considered "unsinkable" when it was built. Humans had overcome nature, and God. It sank on its first voyage.

For me, the Brittin represents waste, illusion, death. The waste of resources for the war in Iraq, war making itself. The death of troops and the Iraqi people. The illusion that this "superpower" can dominate the world by naked power. The illusion that humans can waste the earth's resources and not pay the consequences. Or, should I say the illusion that some humans can live and thrive by wasting the earth's resources?

History's Perspective

2007-10-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

The wages of our times are products of history. Realizing that the rise of the "American Superpower" cannot be separated from the trends which go back in time indefinitely gives understanding to today's events and to tomorrow's possibilities. The Superpower cannot dominate the trends and their effects. And, the less the Superpower recognizes them, the less She will be effective. The United States as Superpower is attempting the impossible by seeking to dominate the earth's human organization, the global economy, and the United States will fail.

That is the conclusion from the historical perspective Joseph Gerson presented at talks in Olympia on October 30th. The United States has grasped hold of (or is attempting to grab all of it) the Middle East as the equivalent of all the historical gold, silver, and resource wealth claimed by previous powers. Gerson prresent this as the great prize as a result of WWII. In this process the United States annually expends over half a trillion dollars on military hardware and forces, more than all other nations together. In addition, the United States debt to Japan, China, and Europe exceeds a trillion. This is matched by personal debt of its citizens. At some point these loaners will cash in their chips. "The Great Game" will take another step in its progression. However, the earth's resources are now nearing exhaustion. With this global climate change, the effects of peak oil, environmental destruction, human unwillingness to find another way than destructive and wasteful war making will change "the Great Game" in my opinion. This is Gerson's analysis simplified by yours truly for the sake of presentation.

Joseph Gerson's well thought out and articulated views are presented in his new book, EMPIRE and THE BOMB, How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World.

His action responses to the present reality encourage organizing to interact with the military and Congressional representatives to prevent war against Iran. "The Iraq War was the worst decision in United States governmental history." Gerson shakes his head with down cast eyes when responding to the possible effects of the waring against Iran as the U.S. is now postured to do. That is the immediate focus.

In the broader context of world developments I just came across the book, PARADIGM WARS, Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Globalization, by Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. Here are presented the developments of indigenous peoples, especially in Latin America, which counter the historical attacks and exploitation by colonial powers. Indigenous people seek to salvage their sustainable heritage. Merton presented the folly of the West's colonial domination ("domination without understanding") in his introduction to Gandhi and Non-Violence. Again, I carried this valuable tome with me on the Walk last summer to keep before my eyes "the crisis" of the West, indeed, of the world now that the East is emulating the West. Paradigm Wars is a flesh and blood response to this historical overshoot. Gerson too takes note of these developments.

Scotland takes dramatic step

2007-10-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

After the last blog posting, I must add a heartening event. The Scottish political leadership is going to conduct a political process with the people to move Britain to reverse the effort to create the next generation of nuclear weapons! That is a wonderful statement in our present context.

A majority of Scottish people oppose nuclear weapons. The Faslane Trident base is in Scotland and under control of England with United States support and ultimate control. Scotland will seek the support of 122 nuclear weapon free nations. The call has gone out!

One of the main reasons I walked in the UK this past summer was to support the Faslane 365 Campaign against the next generation of Trident weapons. I have a good feeling amidst all the negative realities. Even more, I continue to discover peoples around the world who believe in life and are acting on the belief.

My frustration about inaction

2007-10-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

What must be said about daunting times? Maybe, start by admitting that daunting times are emerging, not yet daunting to everyone. Certainly, I do not experience hunger, loss of home, life and limb. But, I do experience the pervading consciousness of other with those experiences and the causes welling up in the life of Mother Earth. The rains in the UK this summer I walked through, the draught in the Southeast USA, the fires in California, all portent the growing effect of global climate change.

To date it is estimated that the earth temperature has risen 0.8 Centigrade, that the CO2 emissions have been released which will raise the temperature to the critical threshold of 2.0 Centigrade, that a world wide emergency effort is needed to avoid further increases which could go as high as an increase of 5 degrees.

A peak oil conference took place in Houston Texas the week of October 22nd which gave new perspective about the effects and maintained the dire warnings. One observer noted that most aware Americans have a sense that something is happening, but have little understanding about what.

And, the Bush administration is moving concertedly into attacking Iran. One analysis after another states this. Frontline presented the latest this week.

What did Jesus say about removing the plank from your eye before criticizing another?

New Nuclear Power Plants???

2007-10-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

The Government will guarantee billions in insurance of new nuclear power plants if proposed legislation is passed. No one else will insure nuclear power plants. The tax payers will be saddled with it, if we allow it. Go to www.nuclearfree.org to see video and to learn about the legislation.

The Walk this summer went through Sellafield nuclear power and processing area. We experienced the radiated water and land. We learned about the effects. The above web site gives most of the reasons not to support nuclear power. The one not mentioned seems even more fundamental to me: when radiation enters the body, it can attack the genes and DNA. Thus, untold generations will be susceptible to cancers and diseases. The web site certainly implies that radiation can lead to the deaths of those immediately affected, but the future generations are left out.

Oh well, if future generations are loaded with debt, they might not care anyway! Ugh?

Effects of Walk

2007-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, October 2nd, we celebrated Gandhi's birthday and my 70th (which is October 11th) with a dramatic presentation of the Foot Prints For Peace walk. I incorporated dance, which was my first action at Faslane Royal Navy Trident Base, as well as scenes and information about the walk itinerary, much of which is on this blog. Now, I share a few facts I did not know while walking.

1. The radiation from Sellafield accumulates on the beaches and sands in concentrations at estuaries. Alpha radiation clings to sand particles. Radiation extends on average for 1000 kilometers inland from the sea. The alpha and DU radiation which enters the body interacts with chemicals and the DNA producing serious effects. This simplistic statement is clearly described by Chris Busby (Statement of Chris Busby in Relation to the Millstone Reactors and Their Effect on Local Health in Populations Living Near the Sea and River Estuaries, March 26th, 2001) and Bill Adamson (The Problem With Nuclear (Part I) November 17th, 2006.)

2. DU radiation from the March 2003 Shock and Awe bombing of Iraq reached England seven to nine days after the bombing. Chris Busby reports that censors were set up around Aldermaston and recorded the radiation. This was 2400 miles from Bagdhad!

3.www.corecumbria.co.uk reports that the "Number of Radioactive Finds on Local Beaches has doubled in a month." 17/7/07 These recordings were taken at the time we walked through the Sellafield and other areas.

Anyone have a radiation detector? My body feels funny.

DU Moves around. So does climate change.

2007-09-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

On June 24th I reported in this blog about our walk through the Sallafield Atomic Weapons Establishment haunting presence. We knew about the dumping of radiation into the Irish Sea, making it the most radio active body of water of that size. We knew about the fact that DU radiation from Chernobyl resided in the area. But, we did not know that radiation from the Gulf War (II) also made its way to Europe and England. Sensors at Sallafield AWE recorded the fact seven days after the bombing of Baghdad. Remember "Shock and AWE"? Now that I am home I am catching up on the reading and research I could not do on the Walk. I am surprised by the revalation. No one mentioned it, even though we walked through the Dundrenom DU Testing site down the road. All my reading about DU did not point out this fact of long distant effect.

Googling Chris Busby, a key scientist on low level radiation, I came across "The Problem with Nuclear (Part I)" by Bill Adamson. The article is a good overview of nuclear radiation issues. Regarding Depleted Uranium, he mentions in part: "Meanwhile, a special set of radiation filters had been set up in Aldermaston, England, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). A report by Chris Busby stated that within 7 to 9 days after the bombardment of the Baghdad region, higher levels of uranium radiation were picked up at the five sites in Berkshire, England, some 2400 miles away. He believes that uranium aerosols were dispersed in the atmosphere and blown across Europe. Hence, the increase of radiation levels in this globe of ours." (End note about this: "'Uk Radiation Jump blamed on Iraq shells,' by Mark Gould and Jon Angoed-Thomas, The Sunday Times, Feb. 19, 2006, 'From Baghdad in the Middle East: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere,' by Leuren Moret, Global Research, March 2, 2006. Also, 'Occasional Paper on Depleted Uranium,' by Chris Busby and Saorise Morgan, Green Audit: January 1, 2006.")

From the time of the Walk in this area, I wanted to put Chris Busby's work on the blog. Walkers told me that he is the leading light in terms of nuclear power and radiation. I have found his comments about the New England Millstone reactors and their effects on populations living near the sea and river estuaries. I recommend his book: WOLVES OF WATER, A Study From Atomic Radiation, Morality, Epidemiology, Science...Philosophy and Death". I am ordering it. (admin@greenaudit.com) I will detail why this is important on the blog in the near future, i.e. new methods of determining the effects of low level radiation, internal versus external. the older method is compared to the newer like heat from a radiator versus ingesting a hot coal.

Just in: "The latest study from the United Nation's intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put the inevitability of drastic global warming in the starkest terms yet, stating that major impacts on partos of the world...are unavoidable and the focus must be on adapting life to survive the most devastating changes." The Independent UK, 19 September 2007. I won't dispute it, my walking stick won't either!

Pulling back the "security" vail

2007-09-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Iraq related tensions on the streets is increasing. Here in Olympia vigils against the Iraq war are every Friday from 4:30 to 6:00 PM on Percival Landing. Across the street, "support our troops" people counter and demand "victory". The decibel levels have increased, as a pro-war mother of a son in Iraq uses the whole time to shout her messages continually. On the anti side of the street, a band plays supportive music. Cars drive by tooting their horns, mostly favorable to the anti-side. My sense of the event is significantly more emotional intensithy since I left for the UK in April.

Last evening, an unusual and important incident occurred as an Air Force vet of 20 years joined the anti side with an "Impeach Bush" sign. I spent at least 20 minutes listening to him describe the security procedures for B-52s which carry nuclear bombs. The reason was the August 30th incident which was reported by Military Times stating that a B-52 flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana carrying six nuclear bombs attached to the wings on Cruise Missiles. 1500 miles covered. The flight was against all rules and procedures. The Air Force said it was an "accident." Incredible according to the 20 year vet who joined us at Percival Landing. Incredible according to a number of like vets who have serviced B-52s. There is no way this could have been an "accident" occurrence. I spent this morning checking reports on the Internet. I recommend that readers do likewise.

An investigation is mandatory. The media and the politicians have become silent since the August 30th event. Our street vet, Internet vets and journalists connect the event to Iraq and to the highest reach in the government. The silence must be broken to determine what occured moving people to risk revealing the incident at the risk of their lives.

The three who reported the incident to the Military Times on condition of anonymity had better "keep their backs covered" according to one Internet reporter. Our street vet said he expects them to be removed, which I understood to mean assassinated. This is entirely within the realm of possiblity as I see it.

As our vet was concluding his reporting on nuclear weapon security (I was amazed at the detail and extent of the procedures), a middle aged woman approached us and charged us with being wrong and betraying the country. She was very nervous and anxious. We shared our reasons with her as best we could in the face of the emotional strain she was experiencing. I felt that she was beginning to wake up to the fact that her security, which rested on the strength of the President, was not so secure after all. (This was the day after Bush's national address to continue the course.) We ended shaking hands and smiling at each other. She smiled with wide eyes and nervousness. I cannot help but wonder how many people are waking up to the realities, finding themselves having their trust for security betrayed, or, at least, not up to the hype. What now?

NEXT GENERATION OF TRIDENT IN THE UK

2007-09-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here is an edited piece I submitted to the Ground Zero Center For Nonviolent Action newsletter. It is important due to info about the Trident, Faslane 365 Campaign and our Walk.

“Toward A Nuclear Free World” was the theme of the Foot Prints for Peace walk from Dublin to London from March 12th to August 6th, 2007 that I joined in Glasgow. We intended to contribute to efforts by locals’ to stimulate more awareness and action to eliminate both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Most significant for me was the Faslane 365 Campaign in Scotland to convince the United Kingdom not to engage with the United State in developing the next generation of Trident warheads nor submarines. Since the walk ended, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has revealed secret efforts by the UK at Aldermaston to create the next generation.

I was arrested at Aldermaston on July 27th (See my blog entry on July 28th, “Aldermaston arrest". ) to protest the Atomic Weapons Establishment’s (AWE) participation in the UK weapons program. Now we know more about what is happening there. At the protest we witnessed the building being constructed for a laser named Orion. The laser will be programmed to approximate the basic formation of a planned nuclear bomb explosion. The laser data will be entered into a new supercomputer which will create a simulation of the actual explosion for this particular bomb. Named Larch, the computer can calculate what it would take the six billion earth’s human inhabitants 7000 calculations per second to do. This new generation of nuclear weapons is a counterpart to the work the United States is doing. The UK program is called High Surety Warhead. The United States names its program, Reliable Replacement Warhead. All this reliable sureness is to circumvent the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTP) and the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). AWE spokespersons deny that the UK has made a decision to make a new Trident bomb. (The secret nuclear weapon development was reported in The Herald on September 4th, 2007, www.theherald.co.uk/print.php?artid=1661681)

I had heard neither about the Aldermaston weapon production site nor the Atomic Weapons Establishment until reviewing Foot Prints for Peace website while researching the proposed walk. I joined the Walk at Faslane because it interfaced with the Faslane 365 Campaign at that point. I fully intended to participate in the direct action to block the gate at Faslane before the trip. By the time we reached Aldermaston two months later, I was more than ready to block the entrance to the AWE facility.

My 700 plus miles participation in the Walk taught me not only much about the nuclear weapons system in the UK, but also nuclear power and radiation. As one of the CND analysts named it, the “Terrible Twins”. Radiation effects from the bomb and nuclear power amount to the same lethal effect. The lethal effects are horrible enough. (I kept the images of the hibakusha from the world before me. We met world representative hibakusha at the World Peace Forum.) Perhaps, one of the most insightful and humanly disconcerting realizations is the sociology and psychology of life under nuclear radiation. People are not only shamed and numbed into silence. Their fears are manipulated into job and future “insecurity.”

The journey toured us through US intelligence bases, missile defense installations, depleted uranium impacts on the environment, and much more. . Walking through beautiful hills and dales, villages and towns, cities gives views and insights, time for thinking and fathoming.

I heard about the Walk at the World Peace Forum, June 2006 in Vancouver B.C., while taking part in the Workshop about Faslane 365 Campaign representing Ground Zero. During the year I ended up deciding to join the Walk. I fully supported the theme of the Walk, “nuclear free world”, and hoped to join the efforts of Scottish and English citizens to persuade the UK not to join the US in the next Trident generation. But, Tony Blair and his cabinet, later the Parliament, blemished that aspiration when the decision was made to move ahead with Trident even before the Walk began. There is still some hope that Scotland will reject its participation, as it seeks independence. The people and the new Scottish parliament leadership have expressed their common disagreement with the Trident system. A new economy will need to be developed to ally local’s apprehensions about jobs.

But, my Walk concerns were also related to climate change, the effects of peak oil on industrial society and the poor around the world. In a word or two, I am most uneasy about viability of life on earth. I walked the entire 75 days as Gandhi to symbolize that the 1.8 billion poorest people, along with creatures like the polar bears, will get the initial brunt of human created abuse. For me the Walk was almost a last ditch effort to say to all of us: “We must change our ways now.” Decades are needed to turn these realities around.

First Steps At Home

2007-09-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

Reentering Olympia after nearly five months, I find it is taking time to reconnect, bodily and psychologically. Wonderful to see my three adult children and my now six month old grandson. Some activist friends are eager to hear about the Walk, others noticed I have been gone but were unaware of my trip. I had a nice gathering the other evening with some to share the events, who said it was enjoyable. I met with Bix, who was arrested with us at Faslane, in Tacoma. We are brainstorming what's next. A walk will occur on September 11th, a Jesuit/Buddhist will share 30 years of peace activity in Cambodia next week. Last night, a friend set up a Gandhi birthday celebration on October 2nd at Traditions Fair Trade to share the Walk experience. I will also make it a celebration of my 70th birthday (October 11th). In between all this I do domestic things, weeding and harvesting, reading many insightful and troubling things, flailing about.

For those who want to acquire an up to date understanding about nuclear abolition, I want to recommend the just published NUCLEAR DISORDER OF COOPERATIVE SECURITY, U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace, by Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, Western States Legal Foundation, Reaching Critical Will of the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom. For those who find it to cerebral and dry, I suggest they follow our foot steps in Foot Prints For Peace walk "Toward Nuclear Free World." I guarantee it will not be cerebral nor dry. The message will be the same.

Zia Mian highlights our context in the Forward: "Polls have also found that almost 60% of Americans did not know that a commitment to disarmament was part of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is despite the fact that the United States was one of the two original sponsors and the NPT has been a central element of U.S. policy since then, especially in its dealing with third-world states with nuclear ambitions. As surprising is the finding of the scale of ignorance about which other states have nuclear weapons. Large majorities of the U.S. public know Russia and China have nuclear weapons, but more of them (55%) mistakenly think Iran has nuclear weapons than know that Britian (52%), India (51%), Israel (48%) and France (38%) actually have these weapons. The poll shows over 40% of Americans mistakenly believe Japan and Germany have nuclear weapons."

To make the lethal nature of nuclear testing more graphic, my son, Todd, emailed a CNN post, http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/btsc.chance.nukes/index.html, about the effects of USSR tests beginning in the 1950's. Besides the physical effects, the shaming and numbing of the population are traumatic. We cannot let ourselves assume the blame and silence.

In Persuit of Wisdom

2007-08-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

From the beginnings of this journey and Walk I have wanted to share insights about wisdom on this blog. As I observed the effects of human misjudgements on people and the environment in Scotland and England through weapons and nuclear energy, the impulse became stronger and stronger. One of my poetic blurting even screamed, "Wisdom, wisdom, where is the wisdom?" Now that I am home and reflecting on the insights, this blog cannot carry them. The subject is too comprehensive. In fact, wisdom is poetic and elusive. But, wisdom is.

Experience and knowledge are its sources. As are the heart and intuition. Emotion has a role, once understood and disciplined. I have come to see that even the esteemed in truth and nonviolence, though way out ahead in certain areas of human insight and action, have parts that are unwise and weak. Life is really complex. Gandhi, King, Tolstoy could not overcome every aspect of insight to be wise in all things.

I want to share two sources from which I would have summarized on this blog, were it possible. The May 6th issue of the New York Times Magazine's cover article is "Can Science Tell Us Who Grows Wiser?" The basis is psychology and its use of scientific measurement. While frustration is the result of all the efforts over the last thirty years, many insights emerge. "There is a yin-yang to wisdom that makes it difficult to pin down. Wisdom is founded upon knowledge but shaped by uncertainty. Action is important but so is judicious inaction. Emotion is central, yet detachment is essential."

On the other side of learning is observation and experience without measurement. At one of the Quaker Meeting Houses on the Walk I came across Bede Griffiths Universal Wisdom--A Journey Through the Sacred Wisdom of the World. The introduction is an excellent overview. As Griffiths quotes Judith Miller, Vedas..."show that vedic seers sought to transcend conventional religion and discovers hidden source of religion in the divine mind."

These two approaches to wisdom are what Thomas Merton persuded to address the "crisis of the West" (now the East too) and gave body and soul to my search.

In the words of the New York Times article, "As Gandhi (who topped the leader board a few years ago in a survey in which college students were asked to name wise people) put it, 'It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom.'"

Separation, Culture Shock, Death

2007-08-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Honda-shoni is dead. Honda-shoni became a close friend in a very short time. Honda-shoni stands for humanity's cure.

"CIVILIZATION IS NOT ABOUT installing electric lights, having airplanes or producing nuclear weapons. What defines civilization in its entirety? It is not to kill; not to destroy; not to wage war. It is about people holding one another in mutual affection and respect. There is nothing else that defines a viable human civilization. The foundation for these conditions in our communal life is not to be found in the enactment of laws nor in institutions but in religious faith that nurtures tenderness and integrity in our hearts." From Tranquil is this Realm of Mine, DHARMA TALKS AND WRITINGS OF THE MOST VENERABLE NICHIDATSU FUJII.

Honda gave me this book as I left his ashram in Milton Keynes at the end of the walk, when he took me to catch my bus to Birmingham. Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of Nipponzan Myohoji order, spent time with Gandhi and taught him how to chant. (I have not found mention of this relationship anywhere in all my Gandhi readings.)

I received word yesterday by email that Honda was killed in a tractor accident at the ashram.

The Walk spent two nights during the walk at the Peace Pagoda, and also concluded the Walk at the Lantern Ceremony on August 6th. (I mentioned this in another blog.) Honda joined the Walk for a week as did the nun, Martha-shoni. A few memories of my experience with Honda: walking rapidly through a crowded shopping mall looking for a toilet, "the young people have strong blatters" (honda is 50, I'm 69.); Honda's powerful chanting Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo troughout the week walk, not missing a beat during the day, even on the day that the six inch headlines said "TWO MONTHS RAIN IN A DAY"; making coffee to satisfy my need; lending me his poncho to finish the Walk, because mine was held together by tape (A sport's vender told me that "We don't carry ponchos, no need for them here!"); driving me all around Milton Keynes to find batteries for my hearing aides; talking about peace and life. Thank you Honda.

I do not understand many expressions of Honda's Zen practice, except through the spirit. One are the the words in the bowing ritual at every greeting and separation, the practice of Tangyo-raihai. It means "the mission of peace--call it non-violence or ahimsa, passive resistance or not taking life--... the singular practice of bowing and venerating the Buddha in others, is the active precept of cultivating good." How civilized!

Thank you, Honda.

I am going through a "culture shock" of sorts after the Walk. News of Honda's death only accentuates its meaning. The intense living for over two months with a community of Walkers who have nonviolence as their effort to be civilized only accentuates the inadequacies of Western civilization. I remember similar experiences in 1964 when returning to the US after travel to Mexico with a family.

I will continue this blog because so much is accentuating Walk experiences.

2007-08-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

I did have an opportunity to share a little about the Walk with a large group of Japanese students at Woodbrooke. The students are from Tokyo and attend a Quaker school there. Their tour is sponsored by the Quakers to give them an exposure to the roots of the Friends in England and Scotland. They will visit some of the same places we walked through.

My Gandhi presentation (in "full" Gandhi attire!) was well received. I felt the intensity as I described my experience with hibacashas in Olympia, the Walk's intent of no more Hiroshima's, and Gandhi's message. My words were translated into Japanese. Their attention was shown by a girl's question, "How were you arrested?" Time did not allow me time to stun them with the situation in the area they would be visiting, i.e. Sellafield's and Chernobyl's radiation. (I had only fifteen minutes at the end of their day.)

Tomorrow I head home to Olympia after five days in New York. I have shared the Walk with the staff at Fellowship of Reconciliation (where my Gandhi portrayals first began), with staff at Democracy Now here in New York, and a number of friends and relatives.

Also, I talked with Leila Zand, FOR's Coordinator of Iran Program. We shared our concerns about US intentions in Iran. She is organizing two week trips to Iran, the next being in October.

The Walk moves on

2007-08-12T01:12:00.000-07:00

The Walk has ended, the Walk goes on. Here I am on the last day in England before heading to the US tomorrow morning. I am at Woodbrooke Study Centre in Birmingham thanks to some help and encouragement of new UK friends. I just had breakfast with an Anglican priest, Nduma, who was born in South Africa and is now a British citizen due to the twists and turns of the apartheid experience. We had a wonderful conversation about our activities, leading into mutual insights about living with nature as opposed to living by dominating nature. Woodbrooke is a beautiful place to do that, due to its wonderful garden and philosophy. Founded in 1903, the Centre is a Quaker study place which has a rich history including the experiences of coping with two world wars as a pacifist body. And, Gandhi slept here...and more, because the Quakers sent Alexander to India during the Salt Walk so that he could bring to England the reality of the repression which resulted. This was crucial at the time. I will spend the day absorbing the ambiance of the Centre and Birmingham. Also, there is a large group of Japanese youth here who are going to be touring the Quaker places up north, which we had walked through. They are seeing if there is time in their schedule for me to share the Walk with them.

Nearby is Bilberry Centre where a Gandhi Gathering put on by the Gandhi Foundation was held for the past week. I attended from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday. Gandhi books, pictures, references were the unavoidable settings. It felt good to see how people are seeking to learn and apply his way in their lives. The group is religiously diverse and ethnically composed of people from England and Scotland, including a number of Indians living in the UK. I had opportunities to briefly share the Walk with them, and took opportunity to insert insights during their regular sessions. It seemed that most of the mainstream Christian denominations were present through members, as well as others. I think it is indicative of our times that one woman has just been certified to be an Interfaith minister. That means that she will offer various ministries from an interfaith perspective, but not with denominational ties. She has gone through a multi-year program in preparation.

Related to the crucial environmental/human issues, the group members have a fairly good idea about global warming and energy concerns. Of course, I shared my statements. In fact, the organizer had printed out part of my blog for them before I arrived.

One most difficult experience of our last evening was an outburst of a mentally affected person who threatened people. The result was having the police come in at midnight and his arrest. Some felt relief, others felt like we failed him. I left them some suggestions for future organizational tools to handle future possibilities. I compared the week to a Gandhi Ashram, which was meant to include all, also the untouchables, and to be a training place for nonviolence.

In these settings, I have been given heartfelt welcomes and honor. For me, they are opportunities to reenter "the ordinary" after more than two months of intensive involvement with the walk. (An added note, I had opportunity to walk with a man whose parents were part of Bonhoffer's Confessional Church and died leaving him as an ophan. This was a first for me, which I feel blessed with.)

I have been wanting to share a number of insights from along the road. One is from Karen Armstrong's book, Buddha. She writes, "In his view, the spiritual life cannot begin until people allow themselves to be invaded by the reality of suffering, realize how fully it permeates our whole experience, and feel the pain of all other beings, even those we do not find congenial." From especially our own sufferings to that of others like the man arrested at Bilberry to the radiated environment of Scotland and the Irish Sea life will not be full until we pass through the darkness.

Last Day or the Walk

2007-08-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

The Walk concluded last night with a Lantern Ceremony at the NIppozan Peace Pagoda in Milton Keynes. The Zen Buddhist community put on the most beautiful and heartfelt lantern ceremony I ever attended. This was entirely fitting to commemorate the victims of Hiroshima's Atom bombing and all victims of nuclear weaponry and radiation. Hundreds of people attended, many from Japan and other parts of the world. We walkers had opportunity to be presented. I was asked to bring my Gandhi presence in word and in deed.

The day began when we piled into the van with our luggage to drive across London to the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park where we concluded on Saturday, when we had the most attended day of the walk to enter London. That beaautiful day concluded with a program and meal at Kingsley Hall. It is still a viable community center, which maintains the room where Gandhi stayed in 1932. (I hope to share more of significandce about this day.)

Back to yesterday, we walked from the Pagoda to Number 10 Downing street to deliver our Walk message to Prim Minister Gordon Brown. Work on the street and entrance resulted in our being in a cage to present our message by letter. The security people went through procedures before accepting it. The guards were armed, some with threatening weapons. After leaving Downing Street we walked to Tavistock Square for the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament annual Hiroshima Day event, number 40 at that location. Here again we were recognized and celebrated. CND and its members are dedicated and committed in the face of our Goliath opposition.

Two experiences highlighted the event for me: Len Aldis with the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society spoke of the continuing effects of Agent Orange on the the Vietnamese, showing that also nuclear radiation victimizes future generations. Since I went to prison in 1970 for a direct action with Dow Chemical Co in Washington DC for its production of Agent Orange and napalm, I felt closely connected to his words and deeds.

The second was regarding a documentary film crew from Iran. When they heard of our September 23rd action and my motivation about concern for Iran, they filmed me as Gandhi. They inquired about the US citizens and governments intentions about Iran. I am still most concerned that the US will bomb Iran with fearful consequences. Representatives of Campaign To Prevent War In Iran (I do not have the precise name handy) were also present at the event, passing out their analysis of the situation. Being out of the United States and observing reactions to US actions is a good experience. Wonder, confusion, anger, ignorance, fear, and other emotions are there. The intense interest in the filming of me as American conveyed the desire to find out more about the American people's knowledge. One question was, "Do the American people know that the US has undertaken 270 (?) plus military actions around the world since 1900?

There you have a brief summary of our last day. I will leave on Wednesday for a Gandhi School in Birmingham, England before returning to the US on the 13th of August. I will continue entering more about the Walk as I reflect and have opportunity. The reasons for the Walk are more precisely known now. I need to reflect on their implications. Thank you for staying with me.

WALK END MESSAGE

2007-08-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2007

Dear people of the United Kingdom and all peoples,

I have just finished walking over 700 miles with Foot Prints for Peace, “Toward An End of Nuclear War”. In thanks to all who welcomed us, I offer my closing words. To those who do not welcome us, I ask understanding and consideration. The world is in a precarious situation due to the exhaustion of the earth’s resources and due to human inventiveness gone awry. Global climate change, fossil fuel decline, and nuclear radiation from war making and from power, and human conflict are primary sources of the dangers. The poor are affected the most and first. All will pay the price.

My journey began at the Faslane Trident base, and proceeded to include Sellafield nuclear power, Dundrennan Firing Base (depleted uranium weapons), and Aldertmaston among others, before entering London. We conclude on the 62nd anniversary of the Atom Bombing of Hiroshima. My observation is that nuclear weapons kill even without their actual use. Nuclear power kills with the mining of uranium, the production of power due to loss and accidents, and the waste. Radiation is entering the human DNA to last indefinitely. People have died and continue to die. We must find other ways. They are available if we make up our minds to use them.

My study of these concerns by compiling scientific research is that we have little time to reduce the harm done and put the human species on a viable and sustainable course. Utmost urgency is required.

Catastrophes are already happening, portending ill for the future. I believe that the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, the Israel Palestinian conflict, the Darfur situation, are symptomatic of the technological policies made with Western leadership gone awry. India and China are now joining this abusive consumption and illegal and immoral war making path. The earth, the air, and the water are first victims. They are our life sources. This catastrophic pattern must be turned around.

Albert Einstein said that the nuclear question will be solved only in “the Truth of village square.” Ultimately, all these life issues will only be solved in the village square.

I have travelled this journey as “The American Gandhi”, because it is the most radical way I have to give this message. Gandhi experimented with truth, lived by love, and took the burden upon himself to suffer for truth, rather than attacking his opponents to make them suffer. And, Gandhi dressed as one of the masses to point out the dignity of every person. Gandhi used the spinning wheel because it was a sustainable tool available to all to provide for him or her self…with dignity. This is what I want to say.

All who have eyes and ears to see and hear, listen, study, discover, do whatever it takes to address human caused problems. Our lives are precious, the earth is precious. We have all we need to address our needs.

Thank you for your attention.

Peace, and love,

Bernie Meyer, The American Gandhi

Berniemeyer2001@yahoo.com
www.theamericangandhi.blogspot.com

London entre'

2007-08-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

We arrived in London today! After more than 700 miles for me and more than 850 from the four who started on May 12th in Dublin. We met Buddhists at Battersea Park at 12:30, had lunch at the Peace Pagoda, and then walked to Parliament Square amidst thousands of tourists and vacationers. There we joined an Iraq veteran who has been graphically witnessing to the DU effects on children in places like Kirkuk for several years. I stood for more than an hour next to his display to help call more attention to it. The sun is hot as was the air. The week has been wonderfully summer like, including one shower.

So, we are here. Tomorrow is a rest day. Monday is the last day of the Walk with several activities to commemorate the anniversary of Hiroshima. I will report them later. I feel great physically, though tired from a long day. Tonight we stay at Kingsly Hall, where Muriel Lester began youth programs in poor neighborhood. She is credited with beginning welfare programs in England. Also, she did much internationally promoting pacifism with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Her friendship with Gandhi led him to stay here in 1932 when he was in England for the Round Table Conference. I visited his room and say where he slept. Nice.

A little piece of drama. On Thursday morning I arose at 6:00 AM to do my meditation, etc, I was quietly starting down the stairs so as not to awaken my roommate, Duncan, nor my hosts, Irene and Paul. A human shadow flickered on the wall at the foot or the stairs and a whoosh sound. No one there when I got to the first floor. But, an open bathroom window indicated that someone had broken and entered. I had scared off a thief! You never know when the unexpected will occur. Except for a stolen purse with diary, credit card, and pounds, all is well. Well, not quite, Duncan is furious about his stolen tobacco.

I hope to find time to do more sharing tomorrow or Tuesday. Peace and love.

Last nuclear weapons establishment

2007-07-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

The last weapon system base on our itinerary is Burghfield Atomic Weapon Establishment. We conducted a vigil at the main gate yesterday after circling it for hours searching for the gate, escorted in a way by three Ministry of Defense vehicles. There is more here than loading the nuclear warheads to and from Coulport for loading on the Tridents at Faslane. The experience is sinister, even in the warm sun. We had a discussion last night at our Quaker Meeting House, memorable as we shared the learning and impacts of the Walk with those attending.

The day was exhausting because we arose around 5:00 AM to participate in an Aldermaston vigil with the Muriel Lester Affinity Group at 7:00 AM. No arrests this time.

I fantasized earlier a sunny walk into London. It's happening. Three days sunny summer weather! Three and a half more days of walking to London. Then, we speak to those who set the policy and budgets for this nuclear disaster.

Aldermaston arrest

2007-07-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

After a week of walking, at times in the flooded Thames River area, we arrived at Aldermaston, nuclear weapons producer, which is also working on new laser facility. We vigiled with a supportive group, then four of us stepped into the gate road to block traffic. Three strong young folks locked hands and feet together, Dan from London at 32, Lianna and Ita from Atlanta at 23 and 19. Ita arrived the day before. What a team! Police needed special pressure point tactics to separate them before arrest. Meanwhile Gandhi was pushed aside. They did not want to arrest him. Gandhi persisted. He was arrested after the others were hauled off. I kept coming back on the road, despite the loving solicitude of the police. We will be charged with a new law, called the By Laws, which are as vague as the US Congress Guantanamo laws which were denied by the courts. We are now released.

Police were the ultimate in courtesy. While the other three were occupying the police with their resistance, I faced a whole line of police between me and the others, most much bigger than I. One by one I entered conversation with them on various subjects related to our present environment. One, a former Trident crew member, who has even been to Bangor, and was a crusty guy to start, said "In other circumstances, I'd take you out for a pint." After arriving at the police station, the other three were still outside awaiting entrance with their arresting officers. The wait was long. This enabled some conversation. My officer was a fine young man, as were the others. It is regarded as an honor to be a policeperson in the UK.

My Gandhi message which I beamed out while on the street before they pushed me aside was: Aldermaston must be closed. Radiation kills. Aldermaston gets its nuclear materials from uranium mines which are killing now. Accidents here allow radiation into the environment, finding its way into humans and animals. The Bombs will kill when used. Radiation will kill even in the disposed wastes.

This message is a result of the walk. Compare it to my action message at Faslane when I quoted Gandhi's comments on the Atom Bomb.

At the vigil before the citizen's action in the road, I read a victim's of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima account. It was graphic and moving. I hope to create some kind of litany before our August 6th gatherings in London.

We are now resting for two days, real rest! Then, we move out Monday morning after witnessing another action at Aldermaston by the Muriel Lester Affinity Group.

An aside, While on our last rest before entering the Aldermaston Base, I was looking for a toilet at a closed restaurant. An Indian gentleman inside noticed and invited me in with the comment "You look like Gandhi!" After telling him what we were doing and what I am doing, he took my picture alone and with him, read my statement, and gave me a glass of ginger ale. He invited me back with "I love what you are doing." You never know what unexpected person you will meet.

Today is sunny and nice. The flood waters are receding. On Tuesday, July 24th, The Independent of England said that this is the wettest period on record, wetter than the record set in 1947. The article's analysis attributed it to global warming. (A one day walker told me of her recent voyage up the Norway Coast to the Arctic, led by a geologist who laid out the trends in global warming beginning in 1920. No doubt in my mind.)

Well, one more week til August 6th, the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Peace, Bernie

Through Thick and Thin

2007-07-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

From the Milton Keynes Peace Pagota, the Walk has moved into its last two weeks with growing activities and nature's vigorous participation. I have had almost no opportunity to do internet work for over a week. During that time we have been to Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester, Lutterworth, Northhamptonshire, and others. People are joining in from each location for a day, half day, week, etc. CND'ers, Quakers, Peace Activists, Buddhists, spontaneous folks, constantly change our parade. Events in the afternoon with mayors and community greeters, evening programs, and logistical jumbling keep us going. A few highlights follow.

Last Sunday we had a vigil on our rest day at Rolls Royce where are types of nuclear cores and armaments are produced. This was followed by a dinner at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Welfare Centre in Derby, an Indian Workers Association seeking to overcome racism, facism, and nuclear armaments. They welcomed Gandhi warmly, even though freedom fighter Singh was hanged in 1931 at the age of 23 for terrorism.

In Leicester the Indian Mayor recognized Gandhi among the walkers and headed for him. Leicester is composed of 50 % Asians, most Indians. The textile industry drew them there.

Richard Johnson, a CND leader, accompanied us on the walk for a day. After reading his "Terrible Twins" paper about organizing for abolish nuclear power and nuclear weapons, I wrote the following:
(With Merton's Gandhi and Non-violence in mind, the One Eyed Giant (the West) heading into Asia, Africa, and American with "dominance and no understanding" in mind)

The Two Eyes seem ever farther apart.
One Eyed giant--the west circles the earth in ever expanding swaths. Defending itself with ancient jungle mentality--grab, kill, consume, kill. Devastation left behind, species extinct, water polluted, ground radiated, air angered with heat. Where will it end? When? How?

The one eye of count, measure, invent, and use, no matter the consequences, is jaundiced by its Smart Bomb powers an voracious appetite.

The lost and ignored eye, seemingly dissociated, is a glowing light before the dawn...the second eye. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom--come forth. You are in our hearts, in our soul. Enlighten our way. Enliven our courage. Transform the jaundiced eye. END

Then the day heading into Loughborough, July 16th, signs for Trinity Park, Trinity Methodist Church, and other trinities reminded me of Trinity Test on August 16th 1945, when the US tested the first atom bomb. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project, thought of the Gita words as he observed the test:

"If a thousand suns were to rise
and stand in the noon sky, blazing
such brilliance of that mighty Self."

As the Bomb lite, "I am death, shatter er of worlds,
annihilating all things."

A few years later Oppenheimer went to President Truman in contrition and repentance. Truman told his secretary to keep him out of there.

So, we litter ally go through it all. The weather has given us a day or so of sunshine summer between storms which at times are harsh. On Thursday headlines said "Two months rain in 24 hours." That day the wind, downpours, and chill kept us moving through route confusions, flooding, and soaking shoes and clothing. Some exciting times!

Next weekend, we go to Aldermaston, producer of nuclear bombs, etc. Probably another direct action. I'll try to keep you "posted."

Entering Derbyshire County

2007-07-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Fritchney, a small town on the way to Nottingham where we enter tomorrow for a semi-rest day. We are back in the rain after a few days of sunshine weather. Walked ten miles today in the rain, after what I thought were 20 miles yesterday, a beautiful walk from Chesterfield to Fritchney. Although very tired, we were revived by a musician who came special to play for us after hearing our presentation the night before. We presented in both Sheffield and Chesterfield on successive nights. Gandhi spoke truth and love to the adults first night and stories to children the second night. "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." T.S. Elliott Despite our speaking truth, people respond kindly with hospitality and wonderful food.

Duncan Ball, who joined us at Sellafield, is beginning to share his 19 year experiences with this nuclear power base. He narrates the lies and abuses his bosses allowed, etc. Placing a book of documentation on their desks, he ends up in prison for a year...shades of Karen Kirkwood. I am proud to have the opportunity to walk with him daily sharing stories and views. His credentials are his experiences and his openness to truth, overcoming the common fear and denial.

We now have two women from Japan among the walkers. A third Japanese woman from Hiroshima came to our Sheffield presentation. She greeted my American Gandhi presence with tremendous joy and a paper dragon made by her seven year old student.

My Gandhi frustration is that we have little time to speak all we have to say.

Sheffield is the first city to grant asylum to immigrants and political refugees throughout the world as a policy. (I may not have this worded accurately.)

The Village

2007-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

"The Truth of Village Square" Einstein quote

Village, Truth of Village Square

Village, the crossroads of the countryside

Village, the place of exchange,

food, clothing, tools, and necessities

ideas, insights, tools, controversy

dance and song

Village, the place of exchange.

In the ideal--Truth and love shared and embraced

Truth to guide the destinies of all

In a nuclear world, truth abandoned...the nation-state finds its power

in The Bomb. The Bomb holds captive in the name of national security.

Nation-state complex...grasping the power in fear of terrorists

Nation-state complex...fear of villagers rejecting the power of the Bomb.

Nation-state complex...tied and bound by national security.

Can't let go. Can't let go.

Gandhi's ever expanding village circles

moved by power of love and responsibility.

Individuals giving themselves for the village.

Villages giving themselves for the greater good.

Truth is the guide, love is the way, taking on all burdens.

Einstein's observation:

Atoms for war, atoms for peace would be solved only in the "truth of the village spuare."

Or else. Or else by the power of nature, nature abused. Or else.

A momentary village: two Australians, one Englishman, One East Cumbrian, One Japenese, one New Zealander, three U.S. citizens,

walking, walking from theheart, walking from the heart,

seeking express truth in village square.

"Truth in Village Square"

from the heart, The American Gandhi

o7/10/07

2007-07-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

From Barnsby, we are having a needed rest day after a daunting period of coping with the weather, as well as coping with the earth damaging effects of nuclear armaments and nuclear power. Fellow Walker, Dan, discovered a book in the Quaker Meeting House last night that addresses the two inter-related issues in one and concludes with a chapter on non-violence as the only attitude to save humanity and Mother Earth: From Hiroshima to Three Mile Island, by Jim Garrison, 1980. Dan gave it to me with the comment, "It's your kind of book." Indeed, it is so. Garrison quotes Merton's "Gandhi and Non-violence", which has been my constant companion on this trip, among other favorite authors. The introduction is classic Merton with comments about violence being based upon "irreversible" judgements about human interactions and nonviolence upon reversible perspectives. While I am finding it difficult to get into the depths of insight I would like to with both the Walkers and the people along the way, I am heartened with Dan's remarks.

To conclude with our present string of encounters with nuke sites, we visited the Fylingdales Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station, way up north of Leeds. Gifted and committed activists drove us north to England's National Park where we walked in hard rain, mud and wind for a couple miles. When the clouds opened up, we could observe the beauty of this high country where sheep graze and wilds competed. There on the top rise was a massive three-side structure in characteristic grey, puncturing the horizon with defiance. We walked the trails and circled the site, wet and muddied, angered and concerned. The security police met us in vehicles and on foot, in numbers and with a dog. The barbed fences reinforced their message. One of them said to Marcus, our walk co-leader, "I remember you." Marcus was here before, a year or so ago.

The Station is early warning for missiles on the attack. The USSR was the opponent during the Cold War. Both the Russian and the US maintain its missiles on hair trigger alert, despite the end of the Cold War. My sudden realization: "The Cold War is not over." Now, the site will take on the added load of the Missile Defense System being created by the United States with its "allies". This, despite the fact that the System has failed test after test to stop single missiles, let alone gangs of missiles. There have to be other objectives for MDS. The grey sterility of the massive structure and its related facilities stands as symbol and reality of the emptiness of the consumer-industrial world sapping the strength of the earth. Bring back the thoughts of Garrison, Merton, Arndt, Lifton, etc. And Gandhi, nonviolence is stronger than any weapon of violence.

Our route moves on to other areas of England where we will be treated less in terms of bases, and more, I hope, with interactions with real ordinary peoples.

Confrontation at Menwith Hill

2007-07-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

From Leeds, an urban center at the Quaker Meeting House, we are moving into the more populated areas of England. The last few days have been most stimulating and insightful. We left Spikton for Otley by an old Roman road that transverses the crest of a "mountain/hill" trough farm pastures. Rain had deposited water filling the wheel tracks, holes, and rivers overflowing. The adventure left our feet soaked and soft. The beauty was awesome. Later in the day we walked along a canal now used for vacation boats converted from hauling barges. Lo and behold a documentary crew on a boat spotted us. They proceeded to film our muddy crew, focusing on the flag holding crew working for nuclear disarmament and the "costumed" American Gandhi. They filmed him beginning with muddy sandals to hairless head. It will be interesting for those viewing to see if they convey the purpose of the Walk....next January in the Uk and Discovery Channel.

Highlight of the last few days was our trip to Menwith Hill for the demonstration "Independence from America" organized yearly by the Campaign for Accountability for American Bases. We walked the ten miles on July Fourth to be part of the demonstration. Drumming and American flags in distress posture (upside down) greeted our arrival...except for the American flag over the base at its entrance. The base is part of a worldwide intelligence network called Echelon centered in Colorado under a mountain. UK and Australian witnesses say that the bases are also used for economic advantage. Legislative delegations in both countries are unable to learn what is occurring at these bases.

The event was greeted by new rules imposed by the police dressed in their yellow and black uniforms. Citing a 1986 law the demonstration was restricted from the customary walk around the base to a short walk (one mile). We were surrounded the whole way by police on foot and in the presence of horse riding police, motorcycles and paddy wagons. The message was clear, we are going to restrict you.

The climax was the stopping point on the road beyond which we were not allowed to proceed. The two hundred of us needed to turn back or face the consequences. Anni Rainbow was the last to decide. We gathered around her as she struggled to make the decision in her wheel chair, clearly and deeply affected as the police tried to persuade her. The police worked at persuasion, but were ungiving. Anni agreed to return the way she came. I later learned that her son had died in Iraq and that she saw the walk as a way to honor him. The event organizer asked me, "What would we do in the US?" I said, "Sit down in the road." She replied, "The people need to be ready for that." I agreed. This short blog cannot do justice to the drama of the situation.

I did have the opportunity to briefly address the gathering as The American Gandhi, receiving a most warm hug by on organizer at the end.

Yorkshire and on

2007-06-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

From Settle, we have entered Yorkshire County, a more activist area of England, after traveling through some of the beautiful areas into the mountains and valleys. We even take time (two seconds) to smell the aromas of the roses along the way. The only breaks in the peace are the low flying military jets shaking the environment, the sudden racing trains, and the sections on the narrow highways. Otherwise, we enjoy a pastoral beauty. Today, we bused back to Igelton to walk to Settle so that we could say that we walked all the way. We will be in Settle for three nights, leaving Monday. The Quakers and others have been joining in the walks. We are entering the rain soaked areas with more in prospect. Nonetheless, the drizzle today gave a new beauty to the views, then the heavy rains hit us the last mile and a half. Better then, than the first miles.

On Wednesday, the fourth of July, we will participate in Independence from America, which is celebrated at Mendel Hill each year. Mendel Hill is a RAF base which is operated by the US to gather intelligence. The reason it is an RAF base is that English law established that all bases on English soil be operated by the English military. Two courageous women entered the base to test the law. A judge asked who operates the base. No answer has been forthcoming. So, the case is in limbo. Independence from America is sponsored by an international Campaign to end United States bases on foreign soils (I do not have the exact name at the moment.) and local peace groups. I will let you know about the event later.

Gandhi did not know what "Indian Independence" meant. His word was "Hind Swaraj", Indian self determination. Swaraj is an important and meaningful word in this context. It means listening to the voice within, acting with determination based upon truth, whether individually or nationally. CONSCIENCE And so, again we are 180 degrees away from Gandhi on many issues.

I just finished Ernest Hemingway's, Garden of Eden, his last novel published post humosly. The plot of characters is a contrast to the Eden Valley we passed through recently. Eden here means "water" according to the early Norsemen, water the basis for life. Garden of Eden is an existential expression of the biological human along with the psychological. The Eden Valley continues my thoughts on the ontological views of life, which have been my reflection for months before this journey. In other words, we generally live in the Hemingway realm, unless we reflect deeper in contemplation of the full reality. Both can be gripping. Both are critical to understand to be real. The duality is the reason we are ruining the earth.

Marcus Atkinson, organizer or this Walk, is from Australia, but his ancestors are from the area we are transversing. They were taken to Australia centuries ago. Even today, the name Atkinson is known in the community.

Today is Lenore Meyer's 60th birthday. May she be blessed with happiness.

Added note about Barrow: Ten years ago the employment was 10,000, now it is 3,000 plus outsources. Little wonder the people are insecure.

Heading inland

2007-06-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

From Broughton. We just arrived after a walk over the "mountains" in England's national park on a beautiful cool and windy day. The sights are truly wonderful looking out toward the Irish Sea and the Isle of Man. The park is different than I expected, since sheep were grazing everywhere. the mountains remind me of the peaks of the Rockies, round and green grass. We enjoyed the hike as we now enter the inland, heading for Yorkshire in a few days. We are informed that it is "alluvial" there to use Duncan's word. Severe flooding with four deaths. I hope the worst is over when we arrive.

Yesterday was blustery to say the least as we hiked around the Sallafield area, past their nuclear waste storage site near the beach and into a military weapons testing sight. We hiked several miles toward a town, when we ran into a closed pedestrian bridge. Seven mile detour would be required to get around, making a 20 mile day! No way. After overcoming our fears of nuclear radiation which is everywhere, we walked onto the broad mud flats and across the river. If the tide had been in, we would have needed a boat. Needless to say, we were cold and some of us with wet feet. At a cafe, we thought warm soup would be the ticket. The reality of a three pound price (six US dollars) convinced us otherwise. Then, our local Sallafield reject, Duncan, came to the rescue. He seems to know everyone, including the owner of the cafe, whom he convinced to give the nine of us soup! Rescued in more ways than one.

We hiked the rest of the day through an area with serious warning signs about nuclear radiation and unexploded bombs, then through some local farms where trials led us to our destination. St Mary's Catholic Church hosted us a second night despite objections from locals who don't like Greenpeace! Thank you Marilyn.

Hattie joined us from Vermont for two weeks. She has made nuclear radiation and power her basic issue. Her avid advocacy and concerted study convinced us if we weren't already that it's worse than you could expect it to be...everywhere there are nuclear power plants. Every group needs a Hattie. I don't have all her info with me, but check www.core.org (?). Peace

The Light in darkness

2007-06-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the cradle of The Society of Friends, Quakers, at Swathmore Hall. We are having a rest day after a challenging three days, challenging due to the realities of life in this region. George Fox found this 16th Century society here and we are enjoying the life giving place on the rural edge of Ulverton. Peace and solitude, organic grounds and gardens, spiritual food for the soul, loving hospitality for the walkers. How idyllic for our centering rest!

The Friends have been providing hospitality, support and participation in the Walk's purpose since entering England a week ago. They are light in the darkness, along with individuals and small peace groups in the area.) The closer we got to Sellafield Nuclear Repossessing and then the BAE Systems plant in Barrow, the more fearful was the presence of the community, fearful in that the inhabitants are fearful for their "livelihoods" dependent upon nuclear weapons and power. The word is that they do not want peace!

As we wound our way in the gray rain toward Sellafield on Friday, we saw the gray figures of the nuclear power plants, processing stacks, and buildings spread out in the fog of the valley by the sea. The sun emerged to warm our vigil at the gates, where the group stood in silence with drumming while I stood with arms extended in prayer for the peoples and communities.

Though more sunny and friendly, the weather could not overcome the dark gray of the newly launched submarine at Barrow, BAE Systems. The sub nestled the birthing dock as though attempting to disguise itself even at birth. BAE Systems developed the sub to "protect" the Trident submarines with Cruise Missiles and other lethality. The BAE and the community await orders to build the next generation of Tridents for the United Kingdom.

Sellafield and BAE Systems have a death mission for destruction, destroying the world to save it! As I mentioned previously, the whole local economy is build upon nuclear radiation. People seem to feel trapped by the reality, therefore the denial and hostility.

The strong unions for the coal minors and steel workers have been replaced by the bought off union leaders at Sellafield and BAE Systems. The government phased out the coal mines by replacing them with nuclear power, step by step. Duncan has joined us after living in local exile and after being squeezed out of Sellafield, despite a 19 year employment there. He came to us by trying to catch us, sleeping in farm fields and developing blistered feet. He will come to London with us.

I could not help feeling like Jesus overlooking Jerusalem and weeping for the city.

Thank God for the light of the Quakers! (The other churches are silent.)

Tomorrow, we head inland, walking for a time in the largest UK national park.

Fourth Day In England

2007-06-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Quaker Meeting House in Wigton, England! I am not walking today due to the distance (up to 20 miles) to Maryport, which would challenge my ankle too much and the group's capacity to make the distance. We are a few days from Sellafield, which turns out to be a nuclear waste "reprossessing site", notorious for radiating the Irish Sea affecting England, Irish, Norweigan, and all unsuspecting species. I have much reading to do about these realities before we come to the facility. (I am reminded continually of the work of Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a scientist and Grey nun, whose latest book, Planet Earth, The Latest Weapon of War, opens by describing the earth as looking well, but in the throws of sickness due to the military preparations for war and weapons experimentation.) I want to be in shape for Sellafield.

The Sellafield security staff have been checking us out, anticipating what our actions might be when we arrive. They tell us we will be alright as long as we keep in front of the base which has three plus miles between its gates.

I have not mentioned the walk's organizers, Marcus and KA. They do tremendous work juggling organizing walkers, food and supplies, trip arrangements, media, etc, etc. Their stories are awesome too. For example, they led a nine month walk, four and a half in Australia and four and a half in Japan ending up in Hiroshima. Australia and Canada have half the world,s supply of uranium. The mining of uranium requires huge amounts of water, which is being taken from an ancient aquifer in Australia. This not only affects the lives of the indigenous peoples, but pollutes the environment. Marcus and KA are from Australia, and bring stories, songs, and character to our discussions. The walk through Japan carries the same energy. Marcus once led a walk from Auschwitz, through the Bosnian conflict in the 90's to Hiroshima. Talk about living on the edge! In so doing they connect the mining, production, use, and waste of the nuclear system.

They set a determined pace too. In averaging at least 15 miles a day, they reach their destinations. Gandhi did the Salt Walk in 30 days (241 miles), Foot Prints For Peace did it in 12 days! Marcus and KA once ran 74 miles in 24 hours with a group according to set rules.

I urge you to check out their website for more about their walks, etc. This morning KA shared greetings of support from all over the world for our walk.

Update about Gandhi response: People in Carlisle on Monday in the downtown square and in Wigton yesterday generally do not recognize the Gandhi impersonator. Most avert their eyes. Many respond to my greetings courteously. Some youth snicker. Others inquire about the meaning. One man said that I was Hare Krishna, and refused to accept that I was Gandhi. Our activist hosts honor and encourage me with appreciation.

We have seven walkers at present. Marcus and KA, Jamie from Boston, Cameron from Bainbridge Island (across from Seattle), Liana from eastern US, Dan from London, and me. Each bring rich and interesting stories, despite those with youth. Individuals keep coming and going with us. They are very supportive of me and my presence as Gandhi with limits. Of course, everyone in the group has limits and experience the usual stresses of such and undertaking. the group spirit is strong and very peaceful. KA directly criticised Marcus this morning for first commenting that he would like to spend the day hanging out, later mentioning that the weather looks wet and dreary. "You are some motivator, Marcus." Both these individuals have great sense of humor, strong voices and always responsive. They set the tone.

Crossing Hadrian's Wall

2007-06-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings from England. Crossed the line between Scotland and England yesterday at 9:30 AM after leaving Greta. Now we are in Carlyle hosted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) at the Quaker House. We have had quite a time. People are approaching the realities today with vigor, as is seen in the Positive News International Network. http://www.positivenews.org.uk/ Some communities are drawing up plans to reduce dependence upon fossil fuels at 3 % per year, the amount projected after peak oil. Humans can take charge of their lives...when they trust with vision. These things I discovered at Global Peace House, a wonderful effort to bring peace by the positive.

Walking from Dumfies was cold and with heavy rain until yesterday. Major along the way was passing the Chapel-cross Nuclear Power Plant on the way. The cooling towers were demolished 10 days before we arrived. Now, it has an ere look with four weathered structures each with a high chimney stack in black. Fifty years of electrical power for billions and a radiation legacy of undetermined effect left us postponing our lunch until we found a better setting. How long can we dot the landscape with these?

We were met coming to Carlisle by a couple and then a CND leader. I asked them about the Hadrian Wall, which crosses the length of the Island and which I just learned about. It was constructed in the second century to keep the savage Scots out. The Castle across the street from the Quaker House is on the remnants of the wall. Our hostess just told me about the 1745 defeat of the Scots by the British. The castle was used to hold hundreds of Scots, whom the British intended to execute. The Carlisle residents said "No." They then had to choose one out of ten for execution. The song, "You take the low road and I'll take the high road", originated from the experience. I need to research these things.

I am not finding much support for our mission here. Our friends say that nuclear power is about all that supports the region. (Note Julie's research about local nuclear disposal (Sellafield where we will be in a few days) into the Irish Sea, two blogs ago.) The coal mines are closed, steel mills down, lumber down. Some farming left. Residents are left with what? We must do more to foster the visions mentioned above. I thought I had discovered a comrade in the message yesterday in James Lovelace's book on Gaja, then was told he now advocates nuclear power!

I feel like I am giving you bad news again, and I am. I hope you bear patiently with this, and seek the truth as I am trying to do. As you can imagine, walking close to Mother Earth for hours gives much time for thought. If I had more time and Internet access I would develop more of these ideas. Our walking and chanting at times just carries us along, beautiful and uplifting. NA MU MYO HO ZIN GE KYO

Why radiate the beauty of creation?

2007-06-14T03:07:00.000-07:00

This has been a full week. We have passed through an area full of radiation "incidents". Most prominant result is the high rate of child lucemia. The Irish Sea had radiation wastes dumped into it in the 50's. Nuclear radiation has been released into the environment from the nuclear plant we will visit soon. Chernobyl released radiation into Northern Europe due to east winds at the time, much landing in the hills of Scotland. More recently, we walked through the base where the Royal Air Force practiced firing DU along the coast.

The Sunday newspaer has a nice panaramic picture of us walking into town, Creetown, to highlight an article about the fact that the UK Department of Health will not release a report about radiation in the area.

Our recent walk took us to the town of Kirkcudbright, where we were hosted by activists, including church folks. They have some most knowledgeable people, but "apathy" rules the day. Our hosts thanked us heart fully for coming and moving them to move into more action.

The countryside and water are so beautiful, with spring flowers ruling the day. I never saw so many cows, sheep, and to a lesser degree, horses. It is very pleasant walking along side roads in this place, two lane main highways are another story. For a few days I could wear my cotton Gandhi clothing since it was sunny and hot. The last two days brought back the wool clothing and rain poncho. There was a stretch yesterday where the wind tried to undress me. Now, we are at a World Peace retreat center with a needed rest day. We continue to be very well fed. Our night in the wild two nights ago was needed respite from too much food. Even there, we were brought up a casserole and desert.

Just past the firing range for DU, etc, we stopped at the partial shell of Dundrennan Abbey, a classic middle ages abbey now a visitor site. It was founded by the 12th Century Cistercians of St. Bernard fame. I was moved because it is the same monastic order of Thomas Merton in Kentucky. I thought of Merton's latest book, Peacemaking In A Post Christian World, published forty years after his death. Th local pastor told me that his church was built with some of the stones from the Abby after the reformation (Church of Scotland) by the former abbot of the monastery, and that now the roots of the next paradigm or religious meaning are beginning. Perhaps, the mix of folks I am walking with and meeting are the co-creators of that paradigm.

I am impressed with the awareness of peak oil, global climate change, the futility of modern war, organic living and agriculture that our present hosts embrace. Flashback to Cleveland: I was surprised by the awareness there too. But, we are all captured by modern transportation, etc.

Talking about transportation: my feet are getting me there, but with discomfort due to various maladies. the rest of the body is doing very well.

Today, we are in Dumfress, tomorrow move on toward the nuclear power plant.

Walking along

2007-06-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Just finished the second of two 17 mile days, now in Kirkcowen. We had a wonderful host family, Maggie and Jim with four daughters. We fit right into their family and they with us. They gave us a deeply moving letter about our presence. And, did they feed us too. Now, we have a busy evening. After dinner, we will meet at the town hall. The next few days will be eventful too. I have only a few minutes.

I asked Marcus if he took us out of the way to see the scenic route along the coast. "No" he said that the Irish Sea is one of the most polluted body of water in the world due to the nuclear plant, which we will visit at Sollefield (?). We bear witness to these. Foot Prints For Peace has visited many nuclear sites.

My feet are responding!

Brake at Ballantrae

2007-06-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Gandhi's words are one of my companions. For example, "It has been suggested by American friends that the atom bomb will bring in ahimsa like nothing else can....This is very like a man glutting himself with dainties to the point of nausea and turning away from them only to return to them with redoubled zeal after the effect of nausea is well over. Precisely in the same manner will the world return to violence with renewed zeal after the effect of disgust is worn out."

Our youngest companion turned 17 yesterday. Jamie is from Boston, is home schooled, and has been participating in these walks since he was 13. We had a nice BD party last night.

Duncan, who is near 60 and joined us for 10 days from a nearby village, observed that wars are killing fewer and fewer soldiers after viewing the ever present war memorials. Twenty some in The Great War (WWI) and five in WWII from this village of Ballantrae. I observed that civilians killed in wars went from one civilian to 10 soldiers at the beginning of the twentieth century to 10 to one soldier at the end of the century.Then, there are the long term effects, like DU.

Ballantrae is on the ocean across from northern Ireland. Quaint and beautiful. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Master of Ballantrae.

Tomorrow, I will walk after seeing a doctor, who gave me wraps to support my ankles. I may have to go to shoes. Ah,the soft life of the American Gandhi!

Our Dance

2007-06-06T04:17:00.000-07:00

Second day off for swelling, after a wonderful hosting by Church of Scotland in Gervan. Tomorrow is a rest day. Walk on Friday?

So much is negative, i.e. yesterday's news of which I blogged a summary. Here are my deep beliefs in summary form with words of teachers:

Merton: "The hidden ground of love", "The Hidden Presence", "The hidden reality", as other words for God, Tao, Allah, Brahman.
Gandhi: "Truth is God", "God is truth", "God is light, and life, God is ethics and morality, beyond all God is Conscience". "God is pure consciousness".

We are totally sustained by the Hidden Ground. We are merged as an unspeakable unity. We are mere expressions of reality, given a consciousness of all observable reality. We have the ability to consciously live in the eternal. To live is to express love, knowingly or unknowingly.

To live is to play in existence. To live is to dance with the endless possibilities. Open to all and to every, charged with expectation and mystery, but with the possibility of harm and death. No matter, all are our reality.

The world is about to pass through an era of change. Rampant and blind technological "advances" will be blunted by limits. To live is to play with reality, the Hidden Ground of Love.

I know this is rough and undeveloped. The limits of time with the Internet and the Walk. Peace.

Carnegie Library interlude

2007-06-05T03:04:00.000-07:00

From the Ayr Uk coast looking out toward Ireland, I am taking the day off from walking due to swollen foot/ankle. We had a wonderful night at a home B&B. Reading this mornings news, the heat is on which relates directly to my statement about "why" I am walking. Putin has stated two threatening complaints just two days before the G 8 meeting to deal with global climate change and poverty. He see threats in the US missile bases in Eastern Europe and he points to BP's not complying with agreement for gas production, threatening agreement licensing. He did not mention that Gazprom, the Russian oil/gas company, restricting the use of gas lines to China and other locations as causing the problem. Of course, the 2002 US backing out of nuclear ABM Treaty, etc, has also contributed to the growing friction. The UK analysts are more concerned with the loss of gas possibility at this time.

My time is running out. But, these are the international/corporate dynamics which will be increasing in the coming years if the powers to be do not choose different modus vivendi.

First Days of the Walk

2007-06-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

Just arrived at a B&B outside Ayr after three days walking. The Walk organizers happened upon our hostess while looking for a place. We have been walking through urban and rural areas. The first day was cloudy, the second rain all day, the third, cloudy then sun. Beautiful countryside with violet Rodie's everywhere, the color of my home. We stayed in a Church of Scotland in Glasgow, a Christian Reformed Church in Barrfield, St. Matthew's Roman Catholic last night. The CND hosted us with meals and a program, which we presented about nuclear disarmament and Foot Prints For Peace. I shared some Gandhi words. Around 45 miles in three days.

Today as we approached Prestwich, police sized us up by asking many questions about our trip and identities. Prestwich Airport has had many protests about the cluster bombs flown in from the US on the way to Israel to be used on Lebanon, also People were flown to Guantanamo through the airport.

All in all we have been treated very well. I do not know how often I will have access to the Internet in the next few days. At present, we have seven walkers, two from the UK, Two from Australia, three from the US. Numbers will increase as we get closure to London. Walkers come and go.

I understand that the Faslane 365 website has pictures of our arrests.

The change we need to see?

2007-06-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

Spent a day and night at the Peace Camp outside Faslane, where they have been for the last 25 years. The Camp is nestled among the trees next to the road to Faslane. It is an assemblage of salvaged materials: vans, buses, tarps, constructed huts, shelters, etc. Here resides a community of people committed to a peaceful and sustainable life. Flowers, vegtables, bushes, trees bring life to the colorful shelters. Some would call the place a "hippy" village. I call it "futuristic". No doubt, most of the world's population lives in lesser conditions than Peace Camp. The way the haves, we US citizens among them, are consuming the earth's resources, future villages will be similar to the Camp...for those who can learn to be loving humans.

This is the world I am working for: a world where we can let go of fear and anxiety, greed and hyper-control, where we can spend the time in convivial living accepting the reality of life on earth. People have been and are still "being the change they want to see."

THE MESSAGE CONTINUES

2007-06-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Glasgow! Tomorrow we begin our walk to London, due to arrive on August 4Th. There we will have days to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will stay one night at Kingsbury Hall where Muriel Lester hosted Gandhi in 1932, then walk to the Nippon Zen Pagoda (not the exact name or spelling) north of London.

Scotland has just elected a prime minister who stands for independence from England and who is opposed to the Trident weapon system. We will see how this plays out in the coming years. Traveling by foot brings us into many contacts with folks on the ground, giving us grassroots views about down to earth life. I maintain that only the grassroots can empower "leaders" to act for justice and peace. Of course, leaders can set a course. Even there, the people must accept it. While the Scottish people are opposed to Trident on their land, like the in US, standing up with loud and clear voices is not yet sufficient for full resonance.

Faslane 365 is looking for US citizens to come on August 19Th for US action.

MESSAGE DELIVERED

2007-05-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

Three days of actions, May 28, 29, 30 at the gates of Faslane Royal Navy Base for the Trident submarine. On Monday I danced with Dancers for Peace from 11:30 AM until 5:30, using many inspirations for life to counteract the nuclear warheads lethality. We sang many tunes for liberty.

On Tuesday four men and three women from Japan, Australia, England, Scotland, and the United States bound themselves in a circle to block the North gate, while the American Gandhi stood facing them and the base.

Message: The words of Gandhi to Margaret Burke-White hours before the assassination in answer to the question, "What do you think of the Atom Bomb?" "Nonviolence is the most powerful weapon, stronger than any weapon made. If humanity does not get rid of the Atom Bomb, I do not see much future for the human species." The American Gandhi added words to the effect: "Truth is our way. We live by truth. Love is clinging to the truth with unwillingness to harm another. Nuclear weapons, biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction counter truth and love." And, Gandhi's words were repeated, as the circle was carried away to the waiting police vans. Then, the police approached Gandhi and asked him to leave the road. I said, "I am with them." "You will be arrested." Gandhi spent the night in Dunbarton jail with the others.

On Wednesday, four repeaters and two others tube locked themselves blocking the road to the South Gate. After the tubes were cut open, they too were carried to the vans and to jail for the night.

The police conducted themselves with the utmost courtesy.

Much more could and will be written about these few days. I must add the my arresting officer said the my portrayal was "most effective." Others used the word "amazing." All involved are possessed with amazing grace, one of our songs.

GLASGOW

2007-05-26T01:59:00.000-07:00

The American Gandhi arrived on May 24th in Glasgow, Scotland at 7:45 AM. The head stewart on the plane in Newark said, "You know you are on a plane to Glasgow, don't you?" In addition to my loincloth and white cotton shirt, I had my straw hat on. I looked like someone heading forHaite. My luggage failed to make it on the Glasgow plane in transfer from Cleveland. Now, I await for my clothes so I can go to the Foot Steps For Peace meeting to plan Tuesday's Faslane CD action. Showers interspersed with sunshine and temperatures in the 40s or 50s is our "typical weaather."

My Gandhi experiment in travel seems to be saying that I am recognized as being from a different place, but not as Gandhi. This is all from nonverbal communication. Bix observed that the airports are full of the global diversity facilitated by air travel. We walked aroound downtown Glasgow last night, windy, cold in a setting sun. Teenagers were often dressed in less clothing than I had on. We could hold a contest about who was more noticed.

Today, we plan the Walk Faslane action; tomorrow, a different group will plan our Dance For Peace Monday Faslane action. And, we are off!

Ignorance about Gandhi

2007-05-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

One last blog before going to the airport: At the Asian Garden restaurant, conversation with the proprietor led to the Revelation that he sold Indian food to a woman who taught GED women. That was Julie. When told that I portrayed Gandhi for the women, he said: "Sixty percent of Indian youth do not know about Gandhi! Let me know when you portray in Cleveland next."

The American Gandhi is off to the UK

2007-05-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I leave Cleveland by air for Glasgow Scotland in my new wool loincloth and shawl. My Cleveland visit has been full with interest and support. On Sunday evening the Catholic Worker community blessed me with prayer and well wishes at their Pentecost ritual. Pentecost celebrates the spirit descending on Jesus' disciples, inspiring them to carry the message of love and nonviolence to the world. Flaming fire is the symbol. Like at Traditions in Olympia and Seneca College in Toronto, the assembly laid hands on me with heartfelt words. How could I not be moved to undertake this walk and action!

On Monday, the editor of India International photographed me in character before the powerful memorial statue of Gandhi in Cleveland's cultural gardens. Gandhi is walking at full gait with stick and streaming shawl. His words are quoted, "No weapon is more powerful than nonviolence."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer will have a short article about my journey in tomorrow's paper.

As morning news comes about the United States' president sending a Navel force to the shores of Iran, sending covert destabilizing forces into Iran, and the Senate authorizing $94 billion to continue the assault on Iraq without any commitment to withdraw, I could not have more motivation to seek a new human presence on earth with a renewed spirit.

Necessity amid possibility

2007-05-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Discoveries in recent years have have led me to intense awareness of possibilities among impossibilities. What is sustainable? What is meant to be on earth? What are human possibilities at our stage of evolution? Every culture is a "gamble with nature." (Marshall Sihins) This is a gamble with necessity, that the entire field of possibilities will remain stable. But, a middle ground exists among possibilities. "The middle ground is the place between in between cultures, peoples, and in between empires and the non state world of villages...On the middle ground diverse peoples adjust their differences through what amounts to a process of creative, and often expedient, misunderstandings...They often misinterpret and distort both the values and the practices of those they deal with, but from these misunderstandings arise new meanings and through them new practices of the middle ground." (Richard White)

A fifteen minute walk from my host home on the Near West Side of Cleveland at the edge of the Cuyahoga River is a memorial to Standard Oil, founded by John D. Rockefeller and his partners. This is where the mega oil world began, where they concentrated the refining capacity to form the basis of energy power. This is what brought on anti-monopoly laws. This is what enabled the auto industry and our love affair with cars. This is where the river burned in the 70's.

Now, we prepare for a middle ground of sorts between energy intensive technology and a more primitive way of life. At this writing, the oil companies lobby for diluting the legislation to reduce global climate change. The question is open about whether or not humans will find a middle ground among the possibilities of necessity.

Worlds Apart

2007-05-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

The American Gandhi visited a community center class for GED students yesterday. The students were young women between the ages of 18 and 21, mothers without spouses, and ethnically diverse. I shared my message of truth, love, and suffering compassion briefly. Then, launched into the tumultuous marriage at 13 through South Africa and India. Four sons, commitment through celibacy in 1906, to Kastur's death in prison with me in 1942. And, the warts were shared in their reality as I remember them. Kastur taught me nonviolence.

I could not be more conscious about the sociological differences of family and culture than I was between my experience in India and these young women's experiences in Cleveland. Yet...yet. While they did not believe that the world would become nonviolent, I felt a sense of acceptance. The teachers felt the experience was well worth it. I wondered what it would be like to develop trust which would bring out an honest discussion about sexuality, urban living in our United States ethos!

I hope to get the video to share with you.

Discovery, Symbols, Meanings

2007-05-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

My old community on the near West Side of Cleveland has evolved into a collage of meaningful expressions. I'm having a fine time going from one event after the other. On Thursday evening I participated in a Catholic Worker community bible study discussion, Friday morning a Zen Buddhist meditation at a storefront amidst drug houses, today a yoga of the mind/then body exercise, and later a Catholic Mass in an archaic Irish church. The original Thomas Merton Community, which I cofounded in 1969 with many of these folks, has emerged into a beautiful blend.

The Bible study dwelled on Luke 14, four scenarios about who is invited to table. Those invited limited themselves by not coming. Healing became truncated through personal choices and the power dynamics of hierarchial social structure. As a result, Jesus taught the disciples to go out into the highways and byways to bring in the lame, the disenfranchised, the rejected. Still, there was more room at the table. Making a long and lively discussion short, Megan shared how she recently chose to downsize by moving into the Catholc Worker house. Megan, a bight young woman who has spent a year in Chile, was on fire with the vigorous insights of the discussion she helped lead. The room contained folks who work with the homeless, who just returned from Palestine with the Christian peacemaker team, or who have been or are going to work with New Orleans post Katrina community. Of course, I shared that my journey to the UK in Gandhi loincloth dress was another way of sysmbolizing "going out to the highways and byways" to include the impoverished masses.

If we go deep enough, we can find common truth.

My transformation

2007-05-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

One of the themes of these blogs is transformation, personal/individual and societal/humanity. Yesterday, I experienced an unusual view of my own transformation. Previewing my Gandhi presence in the UK, I donned my loincloth and shawl to walk the half mile from my near West Side Cleveland home to St. Ignatius High School where I graduated in 1956. A neighbor on a front porch asked, "Are you a Hare Krishna?" "No, I'm Gandhi." He looked puzzled. Then, I said I'm working for peace. He seemed happy with that and gave me the peace sign.

At Ignatius, a Jesuit school which is perhaps the best academic school in Cleveland, I was being photographed by a journalist who was writing an article about my Gandhi portrayal experiences for the alumni magazine (a contrast to alumni who are in the military, one of whom carried the Nuclear Red Button for President Reagan.) We were taking photographs outside in the square among the buildings with many students walking between classes or just hanging around. A cluster gathered around us to see what was happening. I addressed them about my Gandhi journey and we entered an interesting conversation until an art prof entered to check us out. This served to end our dialogue. But, each student shook hands with me often with heartfelt eye contact. An impression was made, a note was struck. I felt moved and sensed that they were too.

For me to be in this situation brought up memories of my high school years here, where I was most shy about speaking in speech class before my classmates. Today, I felt confident and determined. Gandhi too was so shy that he had to ask others to read his talks before the Vegetarian Society in London. As a new lawyer, he was tongue tied in the Indian court. Under the shyness lies a sentiment, a character that is only discovered over time. Shyness, fear of conflict, uncertainty about one's mission or the world with its meaning, can be overcome by experience, study, discipline. Today, I want to offer a different vision than the mainstream US "superpower" exploits. Friends are making me aware of the school's positive efforts in this direction, while using me to challenge the alumni.

Gandhi's words resonate with my own sense and speak to his appeal to me: "I claim to be a votary of truth from my childhood. It was the most natural thing to me. My prayerful search gave me the revealing maxim "Truth is God" instead of the usual one, "God is Truth." That maxim enables me to see God face to face as it were. I feel Him pervade every fiber of my being."

It may have been "the most natural thing" for Gandhi, but took a while to surface in his being! It takes decades of experimenting and of creating mistakes to come to these insights and beliefs.

In persuit of transformation

2007-05-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

I have been in my hometown of Cleveland Ohio for a week already. And it is good to be with friends and family.

I am experiencing many stimulating readings related to the what this trip is about. In preparing the workshop which I conducted last week in Toronto, I explored Thomas Merton's insights into the significance of our age. He has profound insights into the crisis of the West, and shows how the crisis of meaning is subverting the East. I will share some of this as I go along with these blogs. This thoughtful meanderings into meaning add significance to this journey to the UK. While the journey is to contribute to peace and saving life on earth, much has to do with what it means to live. Thus, in challenging ourselves to preserve life on earth by living sustainably, we have to transform ourselves to mature, wise, and sophisticated beings. This is no small order. In these short blogs I will give snippets of my findings.

One example is a man, whom I will name Mac. I met Mac in my Olympia laundromat. Mac approached me with alarming statements about his experiences as a Brown Beret special forces warrior in Vietnam between 1968 and 1972. "We killed 2,000,000 Vietnamese. Only 58,000 US military were killed. You tell me who lost the war. And, we Brown Berets killed more that all the other branches of military together." Mac indicated how they parachuted behind lines and did their work. Mac is articulate and not bragging, though proud, although I was not sure at first.

I told him that while he was doing his work, I was resisting the war and the Dow Chemical Co, producers of Agent Orange, napalm, and other weapons, and that I went to prison for my actions.

Mac went on to tell me his present story. Now, he practices healing through Eastern methods. He is healing himself and others like he killed many in Nam. Yin and yang. He tells amazing stories and presents them as reversing what he did in Nam.

Mac was given the option at the age of 17: "Behind the bars or put on the bars." He had the choice of joining the military or going to prison for four years. That is how he got into the Brown Berets. He did not know the implications of his choice to join the military. I think he is living a new way, a transformed way. I look forward to meeting him again (twice so far) to learn more of his story...and share more of mine.

Gandhi believed that, if you are not able to kill, you are not able to truly be nonviolent. Nonviolence of the strong takes courage.

In this story about Mac's transformation, I find some hope of transforming the world from its violence. Mac did not know what he was getting into when he was drafted. Later, he found a different way. The human world did not know the implications of nuclear weapons when they were developed during WWII. I see a growing consciousness in humanity of the folly of nuclear armaments. Will humanity overcome all the vested interests involved in their production? I.E. scientists, engineers, corporations, military leaders, and politicians? I hope we are around to see it. Will humans learn and transform before their demise? I hope my children and all children are around to see.

Hope In Time of Despair

2007-04-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Beginning with the first leg of my journey last Friday, I was greeted with a special securiy check at the airport and had my ticket stamped by TSA. I looked and felt different with my unique straw hat, my alpaca wool vest with llamas, and sandals, etc. The head steward asked me "when was I in Peru?" , as did the customs official in Toronto. Previews for the Gandhi trip!

The Conference was full of scholarly presentations about our world and Merton's insightful learning. Keynoter and former parliamentarian, Douglas Roche, inspired us with hope for a transformed world and steps in that direction with efforts like the "Alliance for Civilization." This, despite his sense that nation states are making nuclear weapons "permanent." Don Greyston opened his address with "We already know everything we need to know." With magnificent quotes from the inspired, he explicated each word of the quote. Healing the planet is the "supreme challenge of our times."

How deep into "reality" can we go? My workshop, "Activism without Delusion, attempted to plunge into the depths of reasons for despair: global climate change, war making and nuclear weapons, and the effects of peak oil. (I would have added species loss after my bus reading of the current Mother Jone's issue featuring that subject with a naked human in a glass jar on its cover.) How many of us can go to the ultimate reality and meaning of creation, of life? I wanted to, but only was able to point in that direction. Truth, reality, that which is: Gandhi's "sat". Merton amplifies on reality and I was loaded with his and other insights. I was not able to elaborate on his Zen question, "Where do you go from the top of a 32 foot pole?" Nonetheless, our ninety minutes together was dynamic with interactions and insights. A senior Indian woman asked me "Am I ready to die?" Death through mass killings also came into our discussions for analysis. At the end everyone gathered around me to give blessings for the UK American Gandhi journey. Don Greyston added the word "Bernieji" to his sendoff, a new twist on Gandhiji.

The Sendoff

2007-04-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday evening EARTH'S HEALING HEARTS DRUMMERS gave me a powerful sendoff at Traditions Fair Trade in Olympia, Washington. The program was titled: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?? and asked questions like "How do we survive during these times of great change?" and "where do we go from here to create peace?"

The speakers addressed them from many perspectives. Indigenous persons told stories befitting the ancient ways of tribal societies. Local activists analyzed some of the complexities of societal life today. The Women In Black stated their silent presence to remember the violent death from oppression and war. Everyone wanted and sought peace. Song warmed our passionate hearts.

At the end of these moving statements, I was given a sendoff with gifts and ritual. I will feel the laying on of hands by the entire attendance (40 or so) in unison, each expressing their own prayer in low voice, as I journey during the next four months. I will carry and intone the healing heart drum given me to express the "earth's heartbeat" as I seek to be the "salt of the earth, the air, the water.

I intend to give some of the answers I have and discover when I "blog". "Blog" is a new word for me.