I hate war

-

I was looking at old photos today, and I came across these. This is a rather somber quote, but I find it inspiring. I want to laugh and rejoice that a president said something so wise. I am not going to speculate about it, his time is done now and so I am going to simply accept it as-is. This is in the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC in April 2006.



"I HATE WAR. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood runnign from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed.....I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I HATE WAR."



"In these days of difficulty we Americans must choose the path of social justice….. the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man. "

"We have faith that future generations will know that here,in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a timewhen men of good will found a way to unite and produce,and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance,and slavery, and war. " (and I add, through peaceful means and not violence)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayers for Prague, Day 1 of Yoga Training

-
Dearest Prague , I learned today that the first day of yoga training is the hardest. You're going to do great, just know that its the hardest because everyone has a story about how they aren't good enough, or how they are going to mess up -- or god forbid that they aren' t afraid at all because they think th eir perfect (rarest of all). I know you are not one of the proud ones, so when your story gets going about how you aren't good enough or how you're gonna mess up, just remember to breathe -- we your Yoga brothers and sisters in training have all been through that time and you are not alone. Breathe dear, and stay with it. You ARE the one dear, now BE the one. I can't wait till you get home and tell me all about it.
Read more

Glimpsing compassion

-
It comes on like warm rum rolling from the heart and emanates in the ten directions of my body. It rushes into every part of my being, warming my soul and melting old scars. As it reaches the limits of my being, it falls back into itself -- a tiny spark chain reacts and promptly goes supernova. It burns and melts everything within me to light and I ......who am I? The light turns to liquid and burns through my veins, my nerves and melts everything.  Just when I must cry out, I must laugh, I must do something because I cannot contain it, the fire in my veins, in my blood, in my heart consumes into clarity. Everything seen is lit with the blaze of it - and everything heard and felt. Everything perceived is permeated. The atoms resonate, vibrate with it. Just when it cannot be contained, it burns cool in the veins and turns to oceanic clarity. Vast and deep and broad, the countless drops form waves and return again to ocean state. Out of that emerges form. Coo...
Read more

Birthday Thank You

-
If you do not know, when I was five years old my mother had to work on my birthday. She was a single parent at the time, and she was very sad to have to work. But we talked about it, and she arranged to have a wonderful all-day party for me, sponsored by some of her closest girlfriends of the time. We had a lovely time, and about an hour or so before my mother was supposed to be home, I looked out the window and a couple of blocks away there was a large hot air balloon going up and down, up and down, up and down. So we agreed to go check it out. It turned out they were giving away free hot air balloon rides. We were all very excited and got in line. We waited in line for about 20 minutes, all the while I was watching this giant flame burst forth and heat the air in the balloon. Now, I come from a whole family of firefighters. My mother, uncle and grandfather were all firefighters at the time. And as I watched that balloon go up and down, I started to suspect that it was not the safest ...
Read more