Way-back Wednesday: Nothing short of complete peace (From September 2009)

With the International Declaration of Peace attached.

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Things may look bleak, but we are not without hope!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Nothing Short of Complete Peace on Earth and other Soapbox Actions by Cindy Sheehan

Nothing Short of Peace on Earth

At one of my many events in Kentucky this past week at a delightfully named coffee and beer hangout in Louisville, Ray’s Monkey House, a lovely woman named Trudie came up to me with tears in her eyes and she told me: “Cindy, when you were in Crawford that summer, I thought to myself, ‘this is the beginning of the end of war.’ It might take time, and it might not happen in our lifetimes, but what you started to honor your son will end war.”

If only. If only, we the people could finally realize that it is not up to our governments to end war. Our governments and the War Machine are locked in a violently greedy mutual stranglehold and could not care less about our opinions or our children.

In my opinion, our struggles are in vain when we try to organize each other and ourselves to go begging the Robber Class to reform itself. It’s not ever going to happen. Throughout history we have repeatedly and to no avail, begged for our few crumbs of prosperity and peace and look where it has gotten us…in the midst of an economic depression that is further fueled by the blood of our troops and the blood of strangers thousands of miles away.

The Capitalist system of military conquest to perpetuate itself will never go without a fight. So, we need to forget about our governments and their masters, we need to reach out to each other to make firm promises that we will never allow our governments to use us as weapons of mass destruction to kill or oppress each other again.

That is why I am working so hard on the International People’s Declaration of Peace (IPDoP). It proclaims our essential and intrinsic values as human beings and our basic human right to not be subjected to state sanctioned violence.

We can pour our hearts out in marches, elections, and petitions to beg for what is right and rightfully ours, but it won’t be effective if we avoid the real struggle: the revolution of values and the paradigm shift of peace through rejecting the status quo.

The final version of IPDoP is almost ready and will be available to be signed soon. It will be ready to be proclaimed in front of the White House on October 5^th, 2009.

Join me in the struggle.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Final Version of the International People's Declaration of Peace (IPDoP)

International People’s Declaration of Peace

PREAMBLE

We the undersigned, as responsible citizens of this planet, hereby proclaim the urgent universal need for sustained security through peace, for present and future generations of the human family.

In order that we all may live and prosper in dignity, we acknowledge the need for a genuine worldwide commitment by all people to break the dehumanizing chains of the savageries of militarism, of economic exploitation, of slaveries, of torture, of killing, and of all aspects of the culture of war and brutality that compromise the very survival of civilization on this planet.

We proclaim that the present geo-political-economic-social system is fundamentally incapable of delivering us from the merchants of war and exploitation and is completely devoid of offering positive, alternative solutions. Thus we come together as brothers and sisters to strive for peace and our collective freedom from violence and other oppressions.

DECLARATION

We the undersigned as responsible citizens of this planet do declare:

First and foremost, the intrinsic value of each and every human being, is equal, regardless of: race, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, or national origin;

Even though we are individuals with both unique talents and needs, we are also united in the community of humanity;

Enslavement to The Establishment by military service is never an option whether it is for economic reasons or patriotic fervor. We will actively resist for ourselves and/or for our children, as far as humanly possible, enlistment or forcible conscription into the armed services of our nations;

The root of all war is profit and we will not allow the war profiteers to own our labor or steal the fruits of that labor to be used solely for their greed of power and money;

The insidious and uninterrupted preparations for war, along with the act(s) of war, are major environmental destroyers of this planet. In contrast, we will do all we are able within our families and communities to protect all life, conserve natural resources and, as far as possible, utilize sustainable and renewable forms of energy;

We will boycott news sources that promote war, division and/or oppression. We will not buy into the culture of violence that is promoted by movies, video games, television programming, music, toys or other popular culture;

We will boycott products and/or services from companies that profit from war and/or companies that support nations that make war on others;

We will remove ourselves as far as ideologically possible from our governments when unjust war is proposed, propagated, or conceived of in any other way;

We will actively and courageously protest against wars, violence and economic oppression no matter who, or what, rule our nations;

We will proclaim to our nations, families, friends, co-workers, neighbors and others that using violence to solve problems is a disordered and barbaric choice. Except for legitimate and justified self-defense (as a last resort), we refuse to use violence in our own lives and will explore with our children and communities many approaches to peaceful conflict resolution.

CONCLUSION

War is the unspeakably evil pursuit of The Establishment of this planet. Wars of aggression are inherently war crimes and crimes against humanity. We the people of the world suffer while The Establishment grows wealthy from our sweat and blood.

As a first step to breaking the cruel bonds that most governments hold over us, we firmly declare that peace is the moral imperative and we reject violence in all forms: from personal to state-sanctioned violence.

Since most wars are not the will of the people and are brought on by the will of governments, at the behest of war profiteers, we firmly and with the highest conviction, state, that WE are not enemies to each other and we will stand in solidarity to Declare Peace with the entire planet.

We, the Undersigned of this Declaration of Peace, agree to help each other break those bonds of violence and oppression and affirm our resolve to never again raise a clenched fist of violence against one another. Instead, we will join hands to lead this planet on the path of reconciliation, healing and peace.

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Cindy’s Snail Mail addy:

PO Box 5342

Vacaville CA 95696

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