Onward to DC

Tomorrow, I fly to DC. It will be the first time on a plane for me in almost 5 years. Mostly, that is because I just want to stay home, and secondly because of all the fuel it wastes to fly somewhere.... and because oil is the basis of a lot of conflict in the world, and the source of a lot of pollution. But I feel this trip is important enough to overcome these objections. I don't know what all the new airport "security" feels like. I heard you have to take off your shoes, and that strikes me as rather stupid. Hope the guy behind me does not have smelly feet.

I am going to DC to do my real work in life at this time: to protest the Iraq war. I believe this war is immoral, illegal and oh-so-breathtakingly-stupid. I believe Iraq is on fire, and the US troops there are fuel to the fire. I believe with every Iraqi civilian the US troops kill (accidentally or not) makes 10 new "insurgents". I believe a lot of the terrorists in Iraq right now are there because of US troops. That is not fair to the Iraqi people or even our troops.

I will be protesting on several days, and working for the EYES WIDE OPEN exhibit on several days. (more information on that exhibit at www.afsc.org ) If you have not signed the American Friends Service Committee petition to remove US troops from Iraq, please go to that website and do so!

Here are some words from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

'I still believe that we shall overcome'

Martin Luther King Jr. accepts the Nobel prize for Peace on Dec. 10, 1964. An excerpt:

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.... I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent, redemptive goodwill will be proclaimed the rule of the land....


I still believe that we shall overcome....

And this next week, I will be acting full time in the struggle to overcome.

Peace. It's worth living for, and it is worth dying for..... it is not worth, nor can be achieved, by killing or violence..