[Peace-discuss] The people revisited

[Bob Illyes]

You're right, John. Things have to get pretty bad before the people stand 
up together and act. There are situations in dictatorships where trying to 
make things better is an act of suicide. These situations must be waited 
out, which is what happened in East Germany.

I doubt that anyone on this list has known real want. Real want is being a 
mother in a sweatshop in Latin America where she is fed at work but not 
given enough pay to feed her children, and must watch them starve. Real 
want is being in Iraq right now and being largely powerless to stop the 
slaughter of your friends and family.

I've brought this up before, so I risk boring some of you by bringing it up 
again, but we in the West think in terms of straight lines rather than 
circles and cycles. Bertrand Russell wrote something to the effect that 
Ecclesiastes was the most pessimistic book ever written. I do not find it 
so. I agree with Solomon that there is a time for everything. Solomon's 
sees clearly that we are all trapped in many cycles. He is pessimistic, but 
has not given up hope.

When Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King did the right thing, it cost them 
their lives. Kathy Kelly claims that making peace is as dangerous as making 
war. This is not usually the case, in my experience. Usually, I find that 
doing the right thing is beneficial to all.

Life has real value. People have real value. What we do does make a 
difference. This is as good as it gets. There is no quick fix.

Bob