MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

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November 24, 2009

THE PEOPLE SPEAK: It’s better to believe in peace than bombs

In a trigger-happy state like Oklahoma, it is difficult to be a peacenik. But I take comfort in the company of these purple cows who believe words and deeds — not bombs and bullets — are the weapons of peace:

President Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

George Washington first expressed the idea of a U.S. Department of Peace.

The Rev. Martin Luther King lead non-violent protests.

India’s Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

President Wilson proposed a League of Nations. We now have a United Nations.

Oklahoma’s blind U.S. Sen. T.P. Gore voted against World War I and lost his seat.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, promotes a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Non-violence with a secretary of peace.

Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding.”

President Kennedy created the Peace Corps in Madagascar.

Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the only member of Congress to vote against both world wars.

Writer Grace Paley said, “Maybe we should send three tons of wheat, rye and rice to Afghanistan — they’re starving — and call it the big bombing.”

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”

Virginia Blue Jeans Jenner

Wagoner

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