[WCUSP] Imagine Peace by Cindy Sheehan

[yvonne simmons]

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Au plus fort de l’hiver, j’aicompris qu’il existait en
moi un invincible printemps.

Inthe dark of winter, I discovered in myself an
invincible summer.

– Camus

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/04/4302

 Published onThursday, October 4, 2007 by
CommonDreams.orgImagine Peaceby Cindy Sheehan


Imagine all the people, living life in peace. 
John Winston Ono Lennon 
October 9, 1940-December 8, 1980

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. 
A dream you dream together is reality. 
Yoko Ono Lennon

On October 9th, on what would have been John Lennon’s
67th birthday,his widow, Yoko Ono is dedicating a
peace tower in Reykjavik, Icelandin the memory of her
husband. There will also be almost a half amillion
peace wishes buried in capsules around the tower which
is ablue tower of light extending up to the sky above
us.

I received the link to the Imagine Peacewebsite while
I was on a layover in the airport in Las Vegas, Nv.
Stillreeling from the reports of hundreds, if not
thousands of Burmese monksand other humans being
slaughtered for protesting against theiroppressive
government, it was hard for me to watch all the
peoplesitting hypnotized at the slot machines, pulling
the handles or pushingthe buttons as if the world is
not going to hell in George’s handbasket. The
dichotomy of business as usual in America compared
withgenocides in Darfur and Iraq while I am still and
always will bemourning my son makes me dizzy
sometimes.

So, I made myself close my eyes for a few minutes
between planes andtried to shut out the bells and
whistles of the slots and “imagined”peace. What would
a world at peace look like? What would a world atpeace
be like to live in? I have a great imagination but I
knew thisexercise would be challenging.

John Lennon called his song Imagine an
“anti-religious,anti-nationalism, anti-conventional,
anti-capitalist” sort of a“Communist manifesto.” It is
for sure a utopian vision of a perfectsociety that
unfortunately can not be achieved by imagining,
andprobably not at all—but how close can we get to
this world and how muchsacrifice will a world at peace
take from each and everyone of us?

First of all, imagine a world with no religion. A
world where sickand evil people could not manipulate
the masses into believing that theset of myths and
beliefs that they profess are more important
orpowerful than the other’s set of myths or beliefs.
Israelis could not(with the help of Christian
extremists) tell Palestinians that it isokay to occupy
them or kill them so that the Jews could claim
their“Promised Land.” Land promised to whom by whom?
Muslims could notproclaim “jihad” against infidels.
There would have been no Naziholocaust against Jews;
no Crusades; no holocaust against our ownnative
population; no black slavery justified by the
Christianscriptures; no George Bush saying that his
Christian God is like amob-boss ordering him to “hit”
the world. Imagine that!

Secondly, imagine no countries. No jingoistic worship
of bannersmade of mere cloth (not spun gold) or
arrogant nationalism that givesleaders the right to
kill other human beings just because they do nothappen
to live within the same false borders that were
artificiallydrawn many years ago by empires that have
long ago fallen. In thishomeland-istic fervor it is
especially correct to kill those otherpeople if they
are not the same religion as the religion of your
state(and don’t kid yourself that the US does not have
a state sanctionedreligion). Imagine no armies that in
reality kill and get killed forthe imperialistic
neo-liberalism that has crept around our globe like
aflesh eating bacteria since the Reagan years. Imagine
that.

Imagine no possessions: This is the crux of our
problem. Going backto my brothers and sisters at the
slot machines in Vegas, pullingalmost catatonically on
the lever of the One Armed Bandit, for what? Towin the
“jackpot” of course! How nice is it of the State of
Nevada toallow gambling machines in their airports, so
we can perchance live theAmerican dream of buying
higher stacks of stuff! On a day that Georgevetoed the
health of over six-million children here in America,
16,000children around the world died of starvation. In
a week that we sawmurder on a horrendous scale in
Burma, more Iraqis were killed orforced from their
homes by violence: to wander in the desert, orprobably
off to Syria where their daughters may be forced
intoprostitution to help support the family which
should be able to live inpeace and relative prosperity
in their own country. Imagine that.

It was hard for me to imagine or envision peace when I
am terrifiedbecause BushCo is contemplating even more
slaughter in the Middle Eastin Iran and when Congress,
Inc is busy supporting a murderous statusquo that
hurts humans within all borders, even our own.

Peace will only happen when every member of humanity
is guaranteedprosperity, health and security which
will not happen when we here inthe US can’t even get
off our asses to protest a war that is four and ahalf
years and hundreds of thousands of bodies old, now.

We can imagine peace all we want but until each and
everyone of usis willing to sacrifice some of our
prosperity (because we have alreadyhad our security
robbed from us by the rotten Republicans and
complicitcorporate Democrats) true peace—not just the
absence of war—will be aselusive as a morsel of truth
or modicum of courage coming out ofWashington, DC.

Voluntary sacrifice is truly a revolutionary concept
here in theUnited States of America.

So you say you want a revolution? Imagine that.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin
Sheehan who wasKIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is
aco-founder and President of Gold Star Families for
Peace and the author of twobooks: Not One More
Mother’s Child and Dear President Bush.

Cindy at CindyforCongress.org




       
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