The Great CR Peace-nik Sit-in

[dauer]

Ciel,

what are you talking about? If you have something to say to me, please be direct. The indirect statements you've made so far have seemed pretty cryptic to me, and if I were to guess, I'd say you're engaging in ad hominem abusive instead of answering the actual meat of what I have to say.

Dauer



As Monday was Memorial Day here in the US, this is a song by Metallica about a soldier who was injured in war severely by a landmine, and is now bound to a bed in some sort of coma. As we yearn for peace, we need to remember all of the victims of war, not only the ordinary citizens who get caught up in the war zones, but the soldiers too. I would appreciate if we could have a moment of silence after the song ends.

Plays One by Metallica on his boombox

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Back in the womb it's much
too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Now the world is gone, I'm just one
Oh God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

shuts off the boombox

[lunamoth]

...

[lunamoth]

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War is something that I despise
For it means destruction of innocent lives
For it means tears in thousands of mothers’ eyes
When their sons go out to fight to give their lives

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War
It’s nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
War is the enemy of all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
Handed down from generation to generation
Induction destruction
Who wants to die

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War has shattered many young men’s dreams
Made them disabled bitter and meanlife is too precious to be fighting wars
Each day
War can’t give life it can only take it away

War
It’s nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding
There must be some place for these things today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But lord there’s gotta be a better way
That’s better than
War

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

[China Cat Sunflower]

"We have a secret weapon ... we will deprive America of The Enemy. And how (then will) you justify ... the military expenditures that bleed America white?" -- Georgi Arbatov, Director, Soviet Institute of the US and Canada, Letter to the New York Times, 1987

An analysis of the events that have followed the fall of the Soviet Union fifteen years ago leads to a tragic conclusion: The United States economy, as currently constituted, cannot maintain itself without an international enemy. The defeat of one enemy, Soviet Communism, did not result in a "peace dividend." Instead it led to a desperate search for a new enemy to justify a continuation of the Military-Industrial (Political-Academic-Media) complex. Then Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and "Islamo-Fascism" - George Bush's "Axis of Evil" - obligingly stepped forward to fill this role. And so we continue to build multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers and submarines, and an unworkable missile defense system, and we have reinvigorated our atomic weapons program, to fight the new enemy: fanatics armed with box-cutters, and armed brigands hiding in the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We now spend as much on our military as the rest of the entire world combined. Our military hardware is truly impressive, yet we cannot defeat an "insurgency" in a small country equipped only with small arms and improvised explosives, nor are we willing to furnish our troops with body armor and potable water.

Is this any way for a civilized nation to behave?

http://journals.democraticundergroun...risisPapers/21

Chris

[pohaikawahine]

Poh sits at the computer thinking about the 60's and visions of rose petals floating in the wind and lining the path appear:

"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, A Book of Verse ... and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow."

Wine of the Mystic
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
A Spiritual Interpretation by
Paramahansa Yogananda

"Glossary - Bread: Prana, or life force (cosmic lift energy). Beneath the bough: With attention inwardly concentrated on the cerebrospinal tree of consciousness (whose trunk is the pranic pathway of life into the body, and whose branches are the nervous system). Wine: God-intoxication; the bliss of divine love that comes when one communes with God in meditation. A Book of Verse: Inspirations of divine love emanating from the heart, Thou: God, the Cosmic Beloved. Singing: Entertaining with intuitional perceptions of sublime truth. In the wilderness: In inner silence, whence crowds of restless thoughts have departed. Wilderness is paradise: The initial loneliness felt in the stillness of deep meditation, owing to the absence of restless thoughts, becomes a paradise to the devotee when he discovers therein the celestial bliss of God."

We all read from the Rubbaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the 60's (I was then about 20 years old) but did not understand the inner meaning. This was always my favorite piece. My daughter was born in the 1960's ....my husband was a graduate student at Berkeley in California .... it was a beautiful time .... me ke aloha pumehana, poh

[littlemissattitude]

NOTE: This was meant to follow China Cat Sunflower's post. Guess I'm just too slow.

Well, you know, Dwight Eisenhower warned about the dangers of letting the military-industrial complex gain undue influence way back in his farewell speech on January 17, 1961. Among his comments were these:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Of course, nobody listened, and now look where we are.

[Ciel]

Dear Pohaikawahine,

Thank you for creating a balance here.

Your words of beauty shall feed all.

peace, love and illumination.

- c -

[China Cat Sunflower]

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

NOTE: This was meant to follow China Cat Sunflower's post. Guess I'm just too slow.

Well, you know, Dwight Eisenhower warned about the dangers of letting the military-industrial complex gain undue influence way back in his farewell speech on January 17, 1961.


Of course, nobody listened, and now look where we are.

Well, I thought a little speech making was in order here at the sit-in, and it was the only way I could get Dauer to turn that damn boom box off.

I'm too damn angry to just sit-in. I'm sharpening my pitchfork for the revolution.

Chris

[wil]

Originally Posted by China Cat Sunflower

Well, I thought a little speech making was in order here at the sit-in, and it was the only way I could get Dauer to turn that damn boom box off.

I'm too damn angry to just sit-in. I'm sharpening my pitchfork for the revolution.

Chris

take a deep breath my brother...take your frustrations out over at the drumming circle...Dauer's boom box is ours to overcome...such a beautiful lesson we thank the brother for showing us our need for silence and a reflection of how ourselves act in babylon.

The krishna's got some wonderful cornbread coming out of the oven, joining the chanting with a full belly may be another option...one can't stay in that zone during the om na shiva

[InLove]

My Fence

I sit on this fence of which I'm not proud,
But from here I can make out the voice of the crowd;
To my left I hear songs of peace and good sense--
To my right, freedom anthems that bought me this fence.

With both feet dangling over for so many years,
I am drawn to one side, but just then I hear
From behind me the cries of young soldiers intense,
Whose blood has bought me the right to my fence...

In confusion, I lift my face to the hill,
For an answer from those who dwell there, but still,
Little sense I can make--is it all a mistake,
Or a greedy pretense? Yet, I sit on my fence!

I've lived long enough to see this before,
But I am not sure it's the same kind of war;
The one thing I know, and have known ever since--
It's not easy for me to come down from my fence.

For from here I can make out the face in each crowd,
And the songs and the anthems are growing so loud
That I stretch down my arms to be somehow convinced
Of one or the other from each side of the fence--

I touch hands with grieving wives and with mothers,
And fathers of sons who give lives for their brothers,
Some brimming with pride, some lost in laments,
And all of it threatening to topple my fence.

I do not trust the ones on the hill;
For most of my life they've dwelt there, and still
I can't give up hope or lose confidence
That a voice will yet count from the ones on the fence!

If only no one had opened the door,
But from battle to battle, and from war to war,
We miss the lesson and what it portends,
Else there would be no need for my fence.

(unfinished work, dd, copyright 2006)

[Vajradhara]

Namaste all,

there is no way to peace, peace is the way.

War Pigs: Black Sabbath (second lyrics)

Generals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerers of death's construction.

In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh Lord Yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away,
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that all to the poor, yeah.

Time will tell them they have power minds,
Making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah.

Now in darkness world stops turning,
Ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.

Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pigs crawling,
Begging mercies for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
Oh Lord Yeah!


metta,

~v

[dauer]

CCS,

Me n' this boombox have been through a lot together. This piece of tape here, over the left speaker, that's from a pothole on a trip to a war protest in D.C. And this dent right here, that's from when I dropped it in Frisco. But if you're going to speak at length again, please, use this soapbox. Produces a large soapbox from his back pocket. It's the little things that add color.

Vaj,

I was very close to playing that song, but then I decided the "witches at black masses" verse wasn't ecumenical enough.

Dauer

[Vajradhara]

Originally Posted by dauer

Vaj,

I was very close to playing that song, but then I decided the "witches at black masses" verse wasn't ecumenical enough.

Dauer

Namaste Dauer,

thank you for the post.

have you heard the original lyrics for this song? they are quite different and have nothing to do with war or anything of the sort. i have a tribute album with the original recording. pretty neat.

oh, by the by, the "wash our your gruel bowl" is a partial koan. how it was intended, i cannot say.

metta,

~v

[Ciel]

Vaj,

With respect, can you say how the lyrics from B S of War Pigs fit in relation to Buddha Dharma and compassion.

- c -

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

WAR.....GOOD GOD.....WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR.....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...

SAY IT AGAIN....

WAR.....GOOD GOD...WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR.....ABSOLUETLY NOTHING.....