submitting isn't peace

wow- what a week! and it's only tuesday. guess it still feels like last week when the world's economy is up in the air. and the farce- i mean election- here in america still drones on. apparently, and i missed this, there was a debate between candidates last friday. at least i think it was last friday- who even knows? i mean really, why would you hold a debate in the middle of an economic crisis? oh right... :) so, my posts lately at my blog have been a bit doom and gloomish and here too- and really not much has changed that outlook. actually, it's a bit disheartening when the research i started almost 3 years ago- turned out to be right on. it's scary. but, onwards and upwards...

so, i started thinking about peace- as i do every monday night preparing for posting here at the peace tree- and i read through the google reader for inspiration. yep. sigh. not much good news out there. i read lots of blogs and there are a few that pique my interests- lately the focus for me has been about right versus left. i am having a really hard time with people who are right of center. really hard. i cannot fathom how much the rightwing hates the left, but apparently, it's enough to get them to vote against their own best interests rather than vote away from the iceberg. and i began to realize that i will most likely never reach anything close to enlightenment in this lifetime.

because i won't forgive the rightwing and the bevy of corporates and the christian zealots for destroying this planet and this country.

one blog i read questioned whether right versus left was counterproductive. of course it is. any conflict that resorts to violence is counterproductive. and believe me- some folks on the right would love to open hunting season on anyone from the left. anytime you put opposites in a competition, it gets ugly. which is why the tragedy in iraq is so.... well, there aren't words for ethnic cleansing. the tragedy is compounded by the greed and lies that started it and is now ruining millions of lives here and there- as well as helping to kill the planet.

and still people vote republican. i cannot wrap my head around it.

we have to stand against the coming fascism. voting isn't enough anymore. the deck is stacked and the good guys don't win. we must pass on the seeds of activism and freedom so that it doesn't die with us. it is probably the very least that we can do.

"Peace is not the absence of conflict; it's a way through it. Because we humans are always going to be in conflict in some form or another, making peace means actively addressing conflict and injustice – not running away from it — using nonviolent methods."

how to get at peace

I, personally, am trying to working my way around this question, "how to get at peace?" What would be some of the first steps to even coming to a table to talk about peace?

We hear on the news about all the conflict in the world, which is why I don't watch the news, but we rarely hear about how people are solving their conflicts. Like this one that made it to TIME but Amerika has decided to poo-poo.

So, in a Mediation class I took last week, we learned about different conflict styles. We also learned that in knowing your own conflict style, you could better communicate with others around you and their conflict styles. This maybe one of the reasons why we get along with some people, first off and why we can't stand others.

Take this short, online test to find out your conflict style!

I guess all I wanted to say in this post was, if we could figure out how to get-a-long in our own homes and communities ~~ how to sit around a table and communicate with each other resolving our conflicts in an alternative way ~~ that peace building could then trickle out to our townships, counties and states. Maybe even as far as Washington DC ~ eh?

peace my friend peace!