The warrior WorldPeace

Isn't it interesting that religionists are actually beginning to come together. (See article below) Isn't it interesting that religionists are actually beginning to see that the exclusive elitism that has permeated all religions in their fight to dominate the world is being eroded and there is an initiative afoot to understand and acknowledge that there are many religious paths to the one God?

Isn't it interesting that I began my trek for WorldPeace 14 years ago by changing my name to the snickers of almost everyone. And I coined the phrase: "How can we manifest peace on earth if we do not include everyone (all nations, all religions, all races, both sexes) in our vision of peace?" Now people are searching for those common demonominators of peace and peaceful coexistence and yet there is still a fear of fully embracing such a notion as peace and WorldPeace. There is still an innate fear of WorldPeace if you will.

And what is John WorldPeace to do in these interesting times? I am sure that you have all noticed that I have avoided any association with anti-war protests and interfaith gatherings. Yet no one has asked the question as to why would John WorldPeace not join a peace march or two or lead an interfaith service? 

Well the reality is that people like war. They want a leader who is willing to go into a country and wipe everyone out if necessary in order to capture a few sociopaths. At Nuremberg, we did not put the entire German population on trial, just the leaders. But now we have to kill at least an equal number of innocent civilians in Afghanistan as were killed in New York. (Even as Laura Bush talks about women's rights we are killing innocent women. How do you talk about these things to dead women?) Even though most of them are just caught up in the same political apathy that exists right here at home. In other words, because they did not vote and fight for democracy, any more than most do here, because they individually did not go out and hand over bin Laden, they are subjected to being bombed and their families killed in retribution for something that they did not individually do. It would be sort of like thinking that if a serial killer lived in your neighborhood and if you and your neighbors did not find him, even if he were not there, and hand him over, well we would have the right to bomb your neighborhood. And all your friends and neighbors as well as family would just be considered so much collateral damage.

It is our refusal to believe that war only brings more war. It is a refusal to believe that the people in Afghanistan want the same thing that we all want, peace and security, a good job and time with our families. But no, we have demonized these people. We have killed the bystanders for not being politically active and we have refused to report in the news or pray for all those innocents that we have killed in our hunt for bin Laden.

But John WorldPeace cannot get on a soap box and say this because the people of the United States demand revenge: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Death to the foreigners abroad and to a degree those here in America also.

Did little george tell the nation that the problem was a handful of evil sociopaths and that all Muslins are not evil? Did he mount a police action with the rest of the nations and the world to get bin Laden? Did he infiltrate Afghanistan and find bin Laden? No to all these. He demonized the Afghanies and went to work bombing and murdering in the name of God and revenge and the USA. And the people are with him; but less and less so each day.

No prayers for those innocent deaths that we caused. No tolerance and no empathy for them. We can't do that. How could we pray for a people to whom we are trying to teach a deadly lesson? How can we pray for them as we blow them up?

No, John WorldPeace, has to sit back and let events unfold. Sit back and wait until the people have had enough killing; enough bloodletting. Sit back so that in his race for governor he will not be labeled a traitor or a pacifist or dreamer who is out of touch with reality.

In these times, it is best for John to go vigorously after the corruption of Don Sanchez and the ineptitude and deceit and corruption that is Tricky Rick Perry. It is better for the advocate for WorldPeace to follow in the footsteps of little george and be aggressive. It is OK to scream and yell because the Democratic Party in their mindlessness are foisting a criminal like Don Sanchez on the citizens of Texas. In their mindlessness, are they to be spared an accounting any more than the Afghanies who simply did nothing as bin Laden plotted to kill Americans?

Can WorldPeace who has studied all the religions of the world in great depth and who has made a sincere effort to reconcile the question of why God has manifested so many various religions which have been the source of more human sacrifices than any number of political monarchs and kings and suede democratic demigods, actually advocate understanding in these times? Can John WorldPeace really afford to stand up and try to make peace among religions who have for the last two millennium foisted the most horrid of atrocities on the godless of other religions.

As Joshua was ordered to enter the land of Canaan and kill everyone, the Christians have in the name of God, committed genocide on all the Indian Nations. From the North Pole to the South Pole we have wiped out the non-Christian peoples, destroyed their cultures, killed their holy men, razed their homes, raped their women, enslaved their children. And Mohammed seeing the Jewish and Christian example brought to his people the Book, like the Christian Book and the Jewish Book. And in the name of Allah made war equally as fierce and horrendous as the Christians and the Jews.

All these religions have boiled and fermented for two millennium and despite that we have created a high civilization upon the ruins of others who were less advanced. We have killed peacemakers, like Lincoln, Dr. King and Jesus, Gandhi and Rabin to mention a few of the better known lights in society.

So maybe here we have a peek into why WorldPeace is not so peaceful at times. Human beings for the most part do not have an integrated coherent philosophy. They pray to Jesus, but target others in order to increase their own wealth. They put God on their money but refuse to allow children to pray to God in the schools. We refuse to apologize for the enslaving the Blacks or the genocide foisted on the native Americans because someone may ask for money after we admit our guilt. 

We mourn the death of our own and discount the death of foreigners and non Christians. We pray for peace as we vigorously pursue war. (War is in fact an admission that we are so intellectually bankrupt that we know no other way but guns and bombs; that a nation that can go to the moon can't resolve its social problems without war.)

Into this turmoil and confusion enters a single man named WorldPeace who must not speak too loudly about peace lest he be written off as a dreamer, not speak to firmly about one God lest he be considered godless, not speak of religious peace when God has always sanctioned religious wars, not speak the naked truth about political corruption in an unpeaceful way, not speak of police actions against terrorist when the rank and file demand soldiers letting blood.

Things have changed. They were already changing before 911 and yet even in the new millennium we have determined to rely on the ways of the last century. When we can photograph galaxies millions of light years away, we can't find one little man on the ground. With all our technology, and all our genius, and with all the tools of our high civilization, our only solution is to smoke bin Laden out with bombs. Interesting. Paradoxical but it does satisfy the need for blood and revenge, and any blood will do in these times. 

Society is presently evolving through millennia of years in decades of years. Our science and technology are expanding geometrically but our social and spiritual philosophies are imprisoning us in our violent past. Society's most immediate and compelling need is for a workable foundation for WorldPeace.

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

November 19, 2001

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A changed world, but still one family

By Janet Jacobs

American-Statesman Staff

Monday, November 19, 2001

The annual interreligious Thanksgiving service always carries a message of faith and understanding, but this year, it took on a new urgency in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes and subsequent war in Afghanistan. 

The 17th annual interfaith unity service was conducted Sunday at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Austin. About 1,000 people attended, from faiths as diverse as Baptist and Baha'i, Sufi and Scientologist. It was the largest ever, according to Susan Wills, executive director of Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, which sponsored the event. 

"This is a day of celebration," said the Rev. Jim Mayfield, president of the group's board. "Things were not the same on September 11 as on September 10. We have changed perspectives and changed priorities." 

In the round sanctuary, with the stained-glass panels swung open to catch the humid late afternoon air, the audience hummed a steady note while Cantor Neil Blumofe sang, "Behold how great it is and how pleasant for a community to dwell together in respectful unity." 

There's a resurgence of people seeking to reach out since Sept. 11, said the Rev. Sam Hose, pastor at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Round Rock. 

"September 11 points to how our differences can tear us apart and destroy us," Hose said. "So much more can bring us together." 

It is the first year that the Church of Scientology has been a member of the interreligious organization, and the reason for participating was the same as for other faiths: better communication, said the Rev. Jeff Fischer of the Church of Scientology. 

"We believe communication is the way to handle things in life, to understanding each other and pulling together," Fischer said. 

Austin's new mayor, Gus Garcia, took the podium briefly to talk about his first week in office. The city suffered deadly flooding, but rescue workers performed heroically, he said. 

"You're here because you fundamentally believe that together we can make a better society," Garcia said. 

Following the service, attendees followed the children's choir across the street to the Family Life Center, where they snacked on ethnic foods and watched music and dancing presentations from the Sikh Community of Austin, Chittamani Buddhist Center and Barsana Dham Hindu temple. 

"I think it's important to do these kind of activities more often," said Mohsin Lari with Muslim Community Support Services. "We have to talk to each other and understand each other." 


You may contact Janet Jacobs at jjacobs@statesman.com or 445-3698.