Duelling was once regarded as an entirely appropriate way for two gentlemen to resolve a dispute.
Today, a gentleman challenging another to a duel would be regarded as peculiar. Duels have become obsolete in the civilized world.
Could war also become an outdated method of conflict resolution – particularly as we enter an era of intensified global conflict over dwindling resources?
MADRID - Activists from many nations will set out from New Zealand Saturday on a march for peace and non-violence that will cover more than 90 countries on five continents, winding up on Jan. 2 at the foot of Mount Aconcagua, in western Argentina.
The coordinator of the march activities in Spain, José Manuel Muñoz Felipe, told IPS celebrations were held simultaneously Friday in more than 300 cities in about 100 countries, "calling for nuclear disarmament, an end to war and the elimination of all forms of violence, whatever pretext or argument is used to justify it."
World leaders can't seem to hold an economic summit without security forces at the level of an occupying army running roughshod over the host city. This is both a symptom of what's wrong with our global economy — predicated on war, domination and scarcity — and a metaphor for how it works.
On Monday, September 14, the Costa Rican legislature passed a law
changing the name of the country's justice ministry to the Ministry of
Justice and Peace, making the department the first of its kind in Latin
America and only the third in the world.
"A fight, a fight . . ."
Oh
Lord. From what depths did this story come? This was the power of the
peace circle, pulling something out of me beyond any known zone of
emotional safety.
On Saturday, it will be 40 years since 400,000 hippies descended on Max Yasgur's dairy farm for a concert.
Jimi Hendrix performed, as did Richie Havens, the Who, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, Santana, and Sly and the Family Stone, among others. It was billed as three days of ``peace and music.'' It became a generational signpost: Woodstock.
In America, we don't have
many companies that fund peace activities. Most American companies
seem to be more interested in making money off war.
On Wednesday, the 29th of July, I filed a lawsuit against the federal government declaring that, because of my religious beliefs, I should not be required to register for the draft unless it could be officially recognized that I claim to object to all war.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, “the city that made the atom bomb,” clearly
illustrates the difficult conundrum people must face when their
government decides to build a stockpile of highly lethal nuclear
weapons.
The origins of this conundrum are steeped with justifications like (a)
“the bomb” ended the World War II and saved American lives; (b) the
weapons protect us from our enemies and have prevented World War III;
and (c) the research and manufacture of nuclear products preserve jobs,
homes, and the local economy.
Inez Tenenbaum was unanimously approved by US Senators to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission on June 19. She vowed to ban or toughen standards testing for several consumer products from China, including toys with lead paint.
Inez's top priority should be banning war toys. War toys are products threatening the safety of people everywhere with or without lead paint.
