VETERANS FOR PEACE CONDEMNS US WAR ON IRAN!!!

June 22, 2025

Veterans For Peace condemns the unilateral, immoral, and criminal U.S. bombing on the sovereign nation of Iran.  

June 21, 2025 will be remembered as the day the U.S. once again chose war over diplomacy, unleashing consequences we may come to regret. The United States deliberately carried out an unprovoked attack on the sovereign nation of Iran in total violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the U.S. Constitution. This is not only a provocation—this is a moral failure.

The pretext of Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons is a familiar lie. Just like Iraq in 2003, we are being dragged into war based on deliberate deception. The aggressors in this reckless escalation are the United States and Israel. They have lit the fuse for a wider regional war, putting U.S. service members and countless civilians in immediate danger. As veterans who know the tragic cost and futility of war, we urge all people of conscience to reject this madness.

VETERANS FOR PEACE DEMANDS THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT:

• Refrain from any further aggression against Iran
• End U.S. Support for Genocide in Gaza
• Stops Sending Weapons to Israel
• Withdraw U.S. Troops and ICE from our Communities

TAKE TO THE STREETS! – We Call on Our Members, Friends and Allies to:

• Join local and national protests against the US/Israeli war on Iran and genocide in Gaza
• Flood Congress and the White House with calls to End the U.S. war on Iran
• Tell your Senators and Representatives to support the War Powers Resolutions introduced in the Senate and the House, and call the White House to express your outrage (202-456-1111).

WE ADVISE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE MILITARY to:

• Question unlawful and immoral orders
• Seek legal advice from the GI Rights Hotline, 1-877-447-4487
• Explore support resources through Veterans For Peace
• Know that you are welcome to join Veterans For Peace

Peace at Home and Peace Abroad!

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EDITOR'S END NOTE: It is high time WE THE PEOPLE shut down the WAR MACHINE! A malignant narcissist (and his malignant regime) has started a war that puts US military personnel, the American people (at home and abroad), people in the entire Middle East (in the event of a larger conflict), and potentially (in the event of nuclear war) the entire world!!! 

MASS PROTESTS... MASS GENERAL STRIKES (ON THE PRODUCTION AND MOVEMENT OF THE WEAPONS OF WAR) ARE NEEDED!!!

Creating a Just World by Honoring and Defending Human Rights

Yesterday was the World Day of Social Justice. It seems fitting to reflect on what precepts would create a solid foundation for a world in which there was justice for ALL.  It seems to me that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, goes a long way in stating the essential human rights and freedoms that must be guaranteed for all people everywhere in order to build a just and peaceful world. I share it here, and I hope you will share it widely as well.  You can download an abbreviated form of the document here (courtesy of YES! Magazine) or the full version here.  Both are PDF files.

Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in the creation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the commonpeople,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore,

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

proclaims

THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

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NO War on Syria: Violence Begets Violence!!!

Dear Friends,

The Great Plague of violence keeps our nation on its (spiritual) death spiral as President, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Obama continues the push toward war against Syria.  And we should be clear that this would be WAR!  Call it by any other name, and it still emits the awful stench of war.

While in Oslo, Sweden on September 4th the President (aka Decider II) was asked by a Swedish reporter if he could "describe the dilemma to being a Nobel Peace Prize winner and preparing to make war on Syria?”

The President gave the expected answer - first invoking his Nobel acceptance speech, saying that "what I also described [in that speech is the challenge all of us face, when we believe in peace but we confront a world that is full of violence.” Among other things the President said that he has "made every effort to... strengthen our commitment to multilateral action, to promote diplomacy as a solution to problems."

Where are these commitments to multilateral action and diplomacy???  Where is the commitment to working with the United Nations (as is required by international law and the Constitution) in this case? Where is the diplomacy with Syria?  Above all, where is a commitment to serious nonviolent conflict resolution?

Speaking of international law, Howard Friel wrote in Common Dreams on September 5th that:

The same law—international and constitutional—that applied to the U.S. war in Vietnam and the U.S. invasion of Iraq would apply to any congressional authorization of force in Syria by the United States. 

Like Vietnam and Iraq, Syria has not engaged in an “armed attack” against the United States, and has no military capability to do so. 

As in Vietnam and Iraq, the UN Security Council has not authorized the United States to engage in any use of force in Syria. 

Thus, a congressional authorization of military force in Syria would violate the UN Charter, and thus, as above, the U.S. Constitution.  

This would be the case even if the Obama administration’s claims about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government were accurate, although, like the Gulf of Tonkin incident and Iraqi WMD, there is no detailed or confirmed evidence to date about which entity in Syria used chemical weapons.

We The People of the United States of America must continue to say (and a vast majority of the people have said no to war on Syria) - NOT IN OUR NAME!!!  We must continue to pressure Congress (and the President) not to make war on Syria!  Let us continue to call, email, fax, get out in the streets and the offices of or members of Congress!  

Let us not rest until this madness is stopped. Let us stop the onslaught of the violence of war that will only unleash even more violence, much of which cannot be predicted (and much of it that can). Let us invoke NONVIOLENCE - the active nonviolent conflict resolution that has not even been discussed, let alone attempted, in the heat of the moment and its accusations and "red lines."

Violence will only beget more violence, and the blood of innocents will be on OUR hands.  This must not stand!  Towards peaceful, nonviolent conflict resolution.

Leonard 

Some Relevant Reading on the Syrian crisis:

• Another War Is Not the Answer (Op-Ed by David Krieger, in truth-out.org)
• Top 10 Unproven Claims for War Against Syria (by Dennis Kucinich, in Common Dreams)
• Syria: Six Alternatives to Military Strikes (by Sarah van Gelder in YES! Magazine)
• How Intelligence Was Twisted to Support an Attack on Syria (truth-out.org)
• A war the Pentagon doesn’t want (Op-Ed by Robert Scales in the Washington Post)
• US military intervention in Syria would create 'unintended consequences' (in The Guardian)
• Are Chemical Weapons Reason Enough to Go to War? (A good primer on chemical weapons in Mother Jones)
• For Syria's sake, end Iran's isolation: Iranian support to help the west bring an end to the civil war in Syria would be beyond price (The Guardian)
• Chemical Weapons in Syria (Federation of American Scientists):  
• Possible U.S. Intervention in Syria: Issues for Congress, September 3, 2013 (Congressional Research Service)
• Syria's Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress, August 30, 2013 (Congressional Research Service)
• Syria: Overview of the Humanitarian Response, September 4, 2013

NATO is So Yesterday! Whatever happened to the U.N.???

The now infamous NATO Summit 2012 is but a memory, and it is apparent that it is business as usual for NATO moving forward (in a backwards sort of way).  As historian Lawrence Wittner states quite succinctly and eloquently (and with a keen sense of history) in the following article, NATO is a relic of the Cold War.  With the U.S. as the driving force behind it, NATO is driving the world headlong into oblivion - military solutions are not solutions at all for the issues confronting us. 


Wittner reminds us that the United Nations, intended to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace, is the vehicle to prevent wars between nations and provide the platform for constructive dialogue among nations.  Of course the U.N needs some help to live up to its mission, yet abandoning it (as the U.S. has effectively done through withholding financial support and undermining its mission) is done at the world's peril.

We should heed the lessons of history (and listen to historians like Wittner).  Our children's future depends on it.  Read on...

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Should NATO Be Handling World Security?

By Lawrence Wittner, in The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-wittner/should-nato-be-handling-w_b_1531799.html

Posted: 05/21/2012 4:06 pm

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (better known as NATO) is in the news once again thanks to a NATO Summit meeting in Chicago over the weekend of May 19-20 and to large public demonstrations in Chicago against this military pact.

NATO's website defines the alliance's mission as "Peace and Security," and shows two children lying in the grass, accompanied by a bird, a flower and the happy twittering of birds. There is no mention of the fact that NATO is the world's most powerful military pact, or that NATO nations account for 70 percent of the world's annual $1.74 trillion in military spending.

Lawrence Wittner

The organizers of the demonstrations, put together by peace and social justice groups, assailed NATO for bogging the world down in endless war and for diverting vast resources to militarism. According to a spokesperson for one of the protest groups, Peace Action: "It's time to retire NATO and form a new alliance to address unemployment, hunger, and climate change."

NATO was launched in April 1949, at a time when Western leaders feared that the Soviet Union, if left unchecked, would invade Western Europe. The U.S. government played a key role in organizing the alliance, which brought in not only West European nations, but the United States and Canada. Dominated by the United States, NATO had a purely defensive mission -- to safeguard its members from military attack, presumably by the Soviet Union.

That attack never occurred, either because it was deterred by NATO's existence or because the Soviet government had no intention of attacking in the first place. We shall probably never know.
In any case, with the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, it seemed that NATO had outlived its usefulness.

But vast military establishments, like other bureaucracies, rarely just fade away. If the original mission no longer exists, new missions can be found. And so NATO's military might was subsequently employed to bomb Yugoslavia, to conduct counter-insurgency warfare in Afghanistan, and to bomb Libya. Meanwhile, NATO expanded its membership and military facilities to East European nations right along Russia's border, thus creating renewed tension with that major military power and providing it with an incentive to organize a countervailing military pact, perhaps with China.

None of this seems likely to end soon. In the days preceding the Chicago meeting, NATO's new, sweeping role was highlighted by Oana Lungescu, a NATO spokesperson, who announced that the Summit would "discuss the Alliance's overall posture in deterring and defending against the full range of threats in the 21st century, and take stock of NATO's mix of conventional, nuclear, and missile defense forces."

In fairness to NATO planners, it should be noted that, when it comes to global matters, they are operating in a relative vacuum. There are real international security problems, and some entity should certainly be addressing them.

But is NATO the proper entity? After all, NATO is a military pact, dominated by the United States and composed of a relatively small group of self-selecting European and North American nations. The vast majority of the world's countries do not belong to NATO and have no influence upon it.  Who appointed NATO as the representative of the world's people? Why should the public in India, in Brazil, in China, in South Africa, in Argentina, or most other nations identify with the decisions of NATO's military commanders?

The organization that does represent the nations and people of the world is the United Nations. Designed to save the planet from "the scourge of war," the United Nations has a Security Council (on which the United States has permanent membership) that is supposed to handle world security issues. Unlike NATO, whose decisions are often controversial and sometimes questionable, the United Nations almost invariably comes forward with decisions that have broad international support and, furthermore, show considerable wisdom and military restraint.

The problem with UN decisions is not that they are bad ones, but that they are difficult to enforce. And the major reason for the difficulty in enforcement is that the Security Council is hamstrung by a veto that can be exercised by any one nation. Thus, much like the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, which is making the United States less and less governable, the Security Council veto has seriously limited what the world organization is able to do in addressing global security issues.

Thus, if the leaders of NATO nations were really serious about providing children with a world in which they could play in peace among the birds and flowers, they would work to strengthen the United Nations and stop devoting vast resources to questionable wars.

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Lawrence Wittner is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany. His latest book is "Working for Peace and Justice: Memoirs of an Activist Intellectual" (University of Tennessee Press).

Who needs the UN???

Friends,

Remember John Bolton?  As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations he once said “There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.”  This from a lawyer who once boasted that he never took any international law classes while in law school!  Some ambassador (not much of a lawyer either).

Well, the U.N. bashing continues, this time from (who else???) our very own Congress!

Just yesterday the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives voted 23-15 for the United Nations Transparency, Accountability and Reform Act (pretty much right down party lines).

The bill would require Washington to cut 50 percent of funding for the U.N. unless it converted to a voluntary contribution system permitting Washington to fund only those agencies and programmes "that advance U.S. interests and values" (hmmmm... wonder what those are???).

The bill would also require Washington to quit the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC); withhold contributions to any U.N. agency or programme that upgrades the current "observer" status of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO); and end U.S. contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N. body charged with aiding Palestinian refugees since 1949.  (Hey, we don't need no stinking human rights, and surely the Palestinians don't need any - RIGHT?!?!?!?!)

Wow!!!  This is something Bolton and all the rest of the neoconservatives (not to mention War Street) must be loving!  Let's face it - The U.S. is already doing whatever it wants to do around the world, and the U.N. just gets in the way.

Of course, if one looks at the U.S. track record of de facto weakening of the U.N. through various means, including withholding contributions for many years, it is obvious that the National Security State has trumped any desire to work in concert with other nations in the spirit of the intent of the U.N.

In 2008 President Obama attempted - and I suppose he's "attempted" many positive things in his tenure as President - to raise the status of the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. to a cabinet level position as it had been in the Clinton administration.  But alas, that got shot down.  The corporate media quoted Bolton (and no one else that I could find) in one story as saying it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again. “One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy.”  In another story he questioned whether the U.N. — whose culture he said is “impervious to change” — should be so central to U.S. foreign policy.

Well, it certainly can't be "central" to a U.S. foreign policy awash in targeted assasination, torture, illegal detention, illegal wars, conducting covert operations inside the borders of sovereign nations, and that's barely a partial list of transgressions. 

We really do live in what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as The World House, this huge dysfunctional family that has to learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools, and with the horrendous tools of death that we have created (e.g. nuclear weapons) he was not understating the case.  The statue at the U.N. that depicts the beating of swords to plowshares should be a reminder of why the United Nations was formed and of its mission. 

You can read the propaganda at the Committee on Foreign Affairs Website about what they call "landmark legislation."  Then click here to see if your member of Congress is on the committee, and let him/her know what you think we should do regarding the United Nations.

Working Together for Peace,

Leonard

P.S. - By the way, a recent poll by the UN Foundation and Better World Campaign shows strong support across the political spectrum in the U.S. for the United Nations.  Click here to read more about it.

Peace = Future

Friends,

September 21st is the United Nations International Day of Peace ("Peace Day"), a day on which individuals, organizations and nations are called upon to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly.

In this year's Peace Day message UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says that "this year's observance... focuses on youth and development, under the slogan, 'Peace = Future.'" Indeed, if we are to have a future we must create peace.

Moon acknowledges the crucial role that young people already play in peacemaking, while challenging them to do even more. He goes on to make a prophetic statement when he calls on young people to, "Expand on your work to build peace. Share your ideas with creativity and passion. The world's concerns will soon be in your hands."

Young people are a treasure; with knowledge and passion, prepared to venture out with conviction and courage to take on the world. They have much to offer even those of who have been at this thing for many years. We need to listen to their ideas and welcome them into our midst. We are all in this together.

As previous generations of peacemakers approach the end of their peacemaking days it will be up to the young people to take the torch and keep that bright light shining. I hope that young peacemakers will seek out the experienced elders of the movement and learn all you can. I also call on my fellow peacemakers, most of whom have had many more years of experience than me, to seek out young people with whom you can share your wealth of knowledge and experience.

It is my deepest hope that this year's Peace Day gatherings around the world will bring together the many generations of peacemakers to share our collective experience and learn from each other. May these gatherings be opportunities for us all to re-energize and redouble our efforts to build a world at peace with justice for all.

Click here to find an event happening near you on Peace Day.

Watch this video International Day of Peace message from UN S-G Ban Ki-moon.



Peace = Future,

Leonard

May Peace Prevail on Earth

Friends,

Monday (September 21) was 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. Of course, such a day is much more than a "Hallmark" holiday, and it seems a shame that every day is not an International Day of Peace. But I digress. 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."

Our local celebration of Peace Day in Bellevue, Washington brought together local peacemakers, all with a common goal and with many ideas of how to reach it. And that is the beauty of it; we come with a variety of approaches to peacemaking, but with common (or should I say uncommon) grounding in nonviolence and in the committed "service of peace". Whatever our differences, we check them at the door and work together for peace.

The United Nations Association (Seattle Chapter) was represented, and one of its representatives led the Flag Ceremony, in which the names of all the nations of the world are read in alphabetical order, and as each one is read a participant brings that nation's flag up to a table and places it in a stand. The nations are read in groups of ten, and after each ten nation's names are spoken, we say (altogether) a line from the World Peace Prayer: "May peace prevail on Earth."

As the last flag (number 194) was placed in its stand, and I looked at the table filled with these symbols of many nations all struggling to live together on our fragile planet, I was moved by the diversity that exists on this Earth that we all share. The World Peace Prayer Ceremony is a global celebration of the oneness of humanity, and as diverse as we all are around the world in so many ways, we truly are one great human family. And as with any family, we must (even with all our foibles and dysfunctionality) learn to live together. And in today's violent world in which we have developed the tools (nuclear weapons) of our own demise, that is more important than ever before. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish together as fools."

The United Nations Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports the work of the United Nations, and among other things encourages public support for strong U.S. leadership in the U.N. If you believe, as I do, that the United Nations provides the best chance for the nations of the world to learn (and work) to live together, then consider supporting the United Nations Association in its work. There are United Nations Association chapters in many cities in the U.S.

If we all (both citizens and nations of the world) work to build up the one organization that is capable of bringing the nations together, perhaps future generations will be able to live together in peace.

May Peace Prevail on Earth,

Leonard

P.S. - The theme of this year's International Day of Peace was Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation. Learn more at the U.N. WMD-We Must Disarm Web page. You can also find a list of many organizations working for nuclear weapons abolition at my Nuclear Abolitionist Blog.