Be The (CLIMATE) Change!!!

Dear Friends,

Today, Sunday, September 21st is the International Day of Peace, one day each year designated by the United Nations as an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. During the General Assembly discussion of the resolution establishing Peace Day it was suggested that:

"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace."

So it is appropriate that today the largest climate march - People's Climate March - in history takes place in New York City, headquarters of the UN. Ahead of the September 23rd UN summit on climate change over 100 world leaders have gathered in NYC, and there will be 2808 solidarity events in 166 countries.

Why a Climate March on Peace Day??? It is the very endless cycle of militarism and war making directly tied to an unsustainable means of existence that drives the war against the planet. Most of the effects over past decades were isolated, and felt by only a fraction of the Earth's inhabitants. Yet now, with Carbon Dioxide levels at dangerously high levels, we are seeing the beginnings of more far reaching effects on climate that will most definitely affect all of us.

We can no longer plunder our way to maintain an unsustainable way of life. And a key factor in stopping the plunder is accepting that we MUST change (for the sake of future generations) and make the hard choices now. Such a huge paradigm shift will be extremely difficult, and yet the stakes are also huge.

Conversion from a fossil fuel consuming, war making society to a sustainable one that utilizes resources intelligently and resolves conflict nonviolently will be a massive challenge. We (the people) have been so acculturated and indoctrinated to accept and support the very system of our planet's destruction that we are blinded to the reality of the impact of our choices on our planet (and all of its inhabitants).

Today in countless cities in the US and around the world people who have removed their blinders are rising up to say no more status quo. They are saying yes to "a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities." They are saying yes to a "just, safe, peaceful" and sustainable world.

Yet for the massive turnout for today's People's Climate March, it will take so many more of us to engage the issues that are dragging us down and to change direction. As their website says, "TO CHANGE EVERYTHING, WE NEED EVERYONE."

Mahatma Gandhi once said, we must "be the change we wish to see in the world." May we ALL be that change!!!

Peace,

Leonard

 

People's Climate March

 

Campaign Nonviolence

Global Network Coordinator Embarks on West Coast Speaking Tour

Recognized by artist Robert Shetterly in his series Americans Who Tell the Truth, Bruce Gagnon, an international peace organizer and activist, will embark on a 30-day west coast speaking tour that will take him from San Diego, California to Bellingham, Washington. The 24-city trip will run from April 1-30.

Gagnon, who coordinates the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space from Bath, Maine, will help local communities explore and confront the reality of the Pentagon’s drive for “full spectrum dominance.” He will discuss the impact that our expanding militarism has on our natural ecosystems and our economic crisis at home. From Maine to Jeju Island, South Korea his indefatigable studying, traveling, and organizing has shown how the Pentagon’s intent to control the planet on behalf of corporate globalization has moved from land to sea to air to space pouring our natural and fiscal resources into escalating war-making and violence.

Gagnon’s assessment is: “The Pentagon will send our kids off to foreign lands to suppress opposition to corporate globalization. How will we ever end America’s addiction to war and violence as long as our communities are dependent on military spending for jobs? We must vigorously work to convert the military industrial complex to decentralized sustainable technologies like wind-power, solar, and mass transit.”

His talks will challenge communities to discuss the strategies behind President Obama’s “pivot” and expanding U.S. militarism in the Asia-Pacific region; current U.S. space technology strategy; the need to promote the conversion of the military industrial complex to sustainable production to mitigate climate change; the 2012 elections, and what Americans can do about corporate domination of Congress.

Gagnon concludes, “U.S. foreign and military policy today is all about control of declining natural resources around the world. The Pentagon is restarting the Cold War by surrounding Russia and China with so-called ‘missile defense’ systems that are actually key elements in U.S. first-strike planning. We do have a real problem today and it is called climate change. We can’t afford the pay for endless war that only benefits the mega-corporations and further pollutes our planet. During this speaking tour I intend to share a spirit of determination and non-violent resistance with people throughout the west coast. We need to make a collective demand across this nation and around the world. We are tired of war, tired of corporate domination, and determined to take back our governments. The future generations depend on our courage and our success.”

Gagnon intends to use Amtrak trains and buses for most of the west-coast travel during this tour.

You can view Gagnon’s full travel schedule at http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2012/03/west-coast-speaking-tour-schedule.html