Happy Holidays?

Even though my heart and spirit are so heavy and troubled this holiday season, I do want to send to all greetings and prayers.  We will be needing them, it seems.  No matter what you celebrate, believe, or not believe, we ALL need to believe in common humanity and the need for PEACE!  And that is certainly a large part of the message of the holiday season.

And as Steven W. Thrasher wrote - 'hold you loved ones close.'  Of course, my kitty thinks that includes pets, too! I certainly concur with that!!!

So let us  all, human and animal conpanions, send good wishes and vibes for the entire planet.

 

Some Unity Sayings...

Greetings once again...

Here's something "just for fun" - a "board" from which to read some sayings I came up with about Unity.  There are five rows across and each word in the saying begins with the  respective letter of the word "unite."  And as a bonus, I believe that the two major diagonals also give sayings if you read from top left to bottom right or from bottom left to top right.

You can also try using some of these words to come up with your own sayings. Would love for you to post one if you do.  I did this in Paint so I hope the text part is readable. Let me know if it came out ok.

Now here it is:

International Day of Peace is Almost Here!

Greetings again.  The annual International Day of Peace is almost here.  Don't forget to somehow honor Peace on Wed., Sept. 21!  One good idea is to join in the moment of silence/meditation at 12 Noon in each time zone around the world.

To get us ready, here's a great Scripture verse (which I think ANYONE might be able to relate to), and one of my own original graphics.


The Scripture verse is James 3:18 : "And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

And now the graphic (which might seem to fit in with this year's theme):

My original graphic - 'Collage for Peace'

Freedom Uncaged

This is my own take on some really neat graphics I ran across today while searching.  

My own graphic: "Freedom Uncaged"

Privacy Word Cloud

Inspired by the panel of Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and Noam Chomsky very recently at Univ. Ariz. (Snowden by video link, of course), I have made the following privacy word cloud.

Equality, Equality...

Of course we Americans value the words of the Declaration of Independence or we're supposed to, anyway.  Some time ago I wrote some thoughts about it.  Although I haven't read the book (I still might someday...) I have enjoyed seeing the author of Our Declaration, Danielle Allen,on Booktv.  On a recent appearance, she noted we don't seem to have many 'sayings' about equality as we have about say - freedom.

That got me thinking.  'Why not?' and 'If not, why don't we start creating them?'

My mind almost immediately thought of a passage from the song "The Farmer and the Cowman" from the musical Oklahoma! - this passage delivered by the character Aunt Eller:

 I'd like to teach you all a little sayin'
And learn the words by heart the way you should
I don't say I'm no better than anybody else,
But I'll be damned if I ain't just as good!

To me, that goes to the heart of equality: the sense that we all are equally valuable human beings.  Dr. Allen  thought that there are so many aspects to equality - moral equality, equality before the law, equality of opportunity, and maybe more, if I remember some of what she said correctly.  I suppose that this passage speaks so very clearly to MORAL equality.  My feeling is that recognizing and honoring moral equality certainly would help to point us toward equality in other respects.  So of course I feel we should all work toward making this a reality to and for everyone.

However, we still have to fight for equality before the law, equality of opportunity and other equalities regardless of how folks feel.  For example, I love the scene in Lincoln where Thaddeus Stevens turns the tables on one of the anti - 13th Amendment representatives, noting that however reprehensible and unequal he felt that fellow was, even he was entitled to be equal before the law.  So we must start insisting that folks be given equality before the law; regardless of their circumstances or the way some folks might feel about "them."  We must fight for programs and policies to promote equality of opportunity for all.  We must continue to spread the word that "All men - and women - are created equal..."

Oh yes, back to the idea of creating sayings about equality.  Well, being both a strong proponent of equality and a math person, here's my shot:

"Equality - not just a word you heard in Math class!" 

 
More ideas???  Feel free to share in comments!  And here's the visual - an original graphic:

Language(s) of Peace

Gearing up for the International Day of Peace on Monday? 

 My Original Graphic - "Peace Mosaic"

I had thought of a word cloud also including some other languages' words for peace other than English and Latin.  But of course, it would be a real project to include all I could find...and I hated to only include a few representatives as I had planned. 

But it did make me think that since there WAS a word for peace in so many languages, there must be some longing on the part of most peoples for PEACE.  So it should indeed be our aspiration!

And in case you're curious and/or interested, you can find a great list of words for peace in many languages here.  And see if you notice the name of a one time space station there!

Day of Peace is Coming...

 

 "My Original Graphic - 'PeaceBelieve' "

Time really flies, doesn't it?  International Day of Peace is almost here again.  Sponsored by the U. N., it is observed every September 21.

This year's theme is:  "Partnerships for Peace - Dignity for All"

You can view and even download the poster and postcard !

Found this quote from Nelson Mandela which really fits the theme:   "If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." ~ Nelson Mandela

There will be a synchronized meditation for peace on the 19th.  Unbfortunately I don't find their site really very usable...

And I invite all to click on "peace" in the tag cloud on the right sidebar to read all my previous posts about peace as we get ready!

And let's not forget music.  Here's the "Raga for Peace" performed at the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony.

A Unity Word Cloud

Something both verbal and visual for you...

Remember:  "Divided = Conquered, But United = Empowered!"

Excellent Presentation, Real Challenges

This weekend I was able to watch Noam Chomsky's presentation from New Mexico in support of his book, Masters of Mankind. His message isn't exactly cheerful, but not devoid of hope, either.  He really lays out the concerns that challenge us.

It's definitely worth the time to view his presentation

And here is my effort at a visual summary of his talk:

Surveillance Art 2 - Wall of Shame

My Freedom/Liberty Concept Map