The Observation Deck

What happened to the anti-war movement?

Stephen Calhoun wrote:What happened to the anti-war movement?

Sure has changed, hasn't it?

It's "out there".

I truely believe that the controlled corporate media has done one heck of a good job of showing their allegance to an administration which affords their CEO's such high market shares. The buck just goes round and round on this one, with no stopping point in sight. The Congress and Senate attempted to restrict the percentage of market share allowable to a given media corporation, and was shot down at every vote by the white house. With so much financial backing coming from these media corps to our leaders who then allow continued mergers/buyouts, I feel the darkness encompassing us all around.

The front page at kucinich.us this week is (again) all about an end to this war, inclusive of the info posted above by Kenneth Warren. There you'll find link to the Congressional Records of his continued plea to Congress, most recently of 5/12, 5/11, 5/10, 5/04, 4/28 and so on.

What I see happening, in the absence of publicized anti-war activity, is more of a push toward possible peacebuilding, peacemaking. Though this unfortunetly is going to have to happen without mass media, as they will continue to ignore the marches for peace, (unless of course the peace activists get violent, which would defeat the whole idea!). But it would get some coverage, wouldn't it? As in days gone by.

A Department of Peace. We'll see. I have wondered often, how our younger lives might have been different if we grew knowing the titles of our government structure as being the "Department of Defense" that worked closely with a "Department of Peace". (Did anyone know while growing up, what the State Department was there for?)

I realize that many consider it would be just another bureaucratic mess. But I believe it could be designed to avoid that, to bring together the various local and state agencies that currently concern themselves with reducing the violence in homes, in schools and on our city streets. Growing with the mindset of this white cloud of peace in our society just might, in time, reduce the black cloud of war after war, after war, after......

A ton of interesting research and practical applications of theory are being done in various fields which could have huge and positive impacts at a Department of Peace. (I'm thinking here of home grown initiatives too: Appreciative Inquiry and BAWB at Weatherhead come to mind.) The really advanced work is being done to refine humanity in the direction of cooperation rather than being done to refine the human propensity for mayhem, selfishness, and, collective delusions.

...lots of interesting work at the cutting edge of education, psychology, social psychology, etc.