Tag Archives: human-rights

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The Reason for Peace


Children deserve to live in a world where they are cherished, educated, loved and live in peace. We have the responsibility to give that world to them.

We have a world where some children will never even walk into a school. We have a world where some children will die of hunger in their Mother’s arms. We have a world where some children have no shoes or clothes. We have a world where some children die of smallpox, whooping cough, and malaria. They die because there is no medicine for them.

We live in a world where they live and die and no one knows or cares.

We live in a world where some kids go to posh prep schools, and some kids are bullied for being dressed differently. We live in a world where many bright kids can’t go to college.   We live in a world where no one really cares. 

We live in a world where we look for peace to protect our children and grandchildren. I look for a world where a grown angry man full of hate, with an automatic gun is his hand, isn’t the last thing that a child sees. I look for a world where we love the poor and hungry and homeless as much as we love our comfortable neighbors.

I pray for a world full of peace, not greed for money,oil, land, power and a world where people don’t die because they believe in a God/Goddess that is different than someone else’s.

I pray for a world where we put our arms around children and tell them how good and precious they are. I pray for a world where is doesn’t matter what color their skin is. I pray for a world where they will know only kindness and compassion. I pray for a world where we give love without restraint because we know we can never run out of love and it will only come back to us. I pray for a world where we can all hold hands and it is important that everyone on our planet has food and clean water. And that we will work to find solutions to make that possible. I pray for a world where everyone cares.

Beach 4; Presque Isle, Pa.;Photo by Barbara Mattio

Power of Peace in the World

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Stop the Violence. Stop the Wars


We can live in peace on this planet. We can move beyond hate and fear of differences to love and acceptance.

Well, we have a cease-fire. It has been violated but it is still a cease-fire. I pray for all of the people who have been injured or killed. I pray for those who have lost family and friends. The problem is this cease-fire is not peace. It could erupt any time and the horror would start all over again.

Now the Egyptian Prime Minister has declared he has absolute power for the next six months. What is going on? It seems as if we are as a species going quite out of our minds. The Egyptian people are protesting and I understand that. It is their God given right to speak up against this madness. My heart is with them and hopes that the protests will let the government understand they can’t steal power from the people.

I read a quote today, It was, “Don’t shoot. I want to grow up.” What could be a clearer message to the people of the world than the simple voice of a child declaring what he wants? I would add that we have an obligation to help children grow up without hatred and violence. To have a healthy safe world to grow up in.

We don’t know, which child lost in the recent attacks between Hamas and Israel, might have grown up to be another Abraham, or Einstein or another Ghandi. We might be killing the person who could bring permanent peace to this One Planet we all share. Think about the bottom line, think about what we are robbing the world of. Then remember, we are all responsible to promote peace wherever we are. Blessings to all.

Make music, make love, make solutions; not war.

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Living in Harmony


We Can All be a Light to Others

Thanksgiving is upon us. A day that Americans remember blessings and those who are no longer with us and…eat too much. This is also a time where we are watching a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. There are celebrations in the Gaza Strip. What will make this a true cease-fire?

Arabs and Jews must live together in peace. Easy to say. Easy to say when you live across the world from the site of this continuing conflict. Are we each living in harmony with those in our own sphere? Do we show love to those who are different? Will we give thanks to The One for all the people and acquaintances within our spheres?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my message for this day, here and around the world, is to look at others and not see different skin color, language, nationality or spiritual path, but to see another child of God. Another being created from Stardust, just as we are. I encourage people to look within and to find the Divine within and then to see the Divine in those around you.

They aren’t a mistake. They are as beloved by The One as you and I are. We need to accept each other as children of the Universe and live in harmony with all. Yes, there are people who have evil intentions, but the number of them compared to those who love the Divine are minimal and we need to send out love into our life sphere, not distrust or hatred.

For Thanksgiving, try loving everyone. Accept them and their differences. Remember they are loved, too, just like you and I are. Stop the judgement and criticizing of people for being different.

May we all live today, tomorrow and always in harmony.

May we Live in Peace and Harmony

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Another War is Taking Lives


Give us peace

We are now, once again dealing with another war on our planet. There is pain and death and blood and despair. Palestine and Israel are fighting. More accurately Hamas and Israel. Hamas has been shooting rockets into Israel. Now Israel is defending herself. This is of course, an over-simplification.

I am not writing to take sides. I am writing because Adonai’s children, Allah’s children, are killing each other again. Many women and children are being left homeless and injured or dead. Diplomacy and compromise is what will bring peace to our world. Not war. War teaches people to hate. It teaches people to hate who and what has hurt them.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization. They say Jews are the enemy yet they launch missiles from sites next to the homes of innocent Palestinian people. A returning missile could totally destroy this home, but Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields — a policy which is against both international law and all the laws of common decency.

Not that Israel is blameless.  There are those who believe that Hamas is defending itself, and all Palestinians, against what they see as an unjust occupation.  I am not going to argue that point, on either side.  That is not what needs to be done here; there are many who can argue either side more eloquently than I can.

What I am going to argue is peace.  We cannot continue to fight one another, to hurt one another, to kill one another.  We cannot continue to destroy each other, and this planet, with our hatred of the mythical “others”.  We must learn that we are children of this Earth. We are brothers and sisters, all children of Adonai, of Allah, of The Beloved, The One from which we all come. We are all the same, we are all One, like the One who created us, who watches over us, who gives us peace, and wants us to have peace.

Peace is in our power, but we have to want it and we have to work for it.  The most important work we can do is to just love each other, whatever our religion, appearance, language, or  national origin.

“Maybe it can change, only if you want…

Don’t blame yourself, don’t blame me

but we’re the ones

who can feed this ground

so this poison tree doesn’t grow again.”

—Point of No Return;  Duran Duran

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You May Say I’m a Dreamer…But I’m Not the Only One


Yesterday, I started to talk about chanting for peace, and the importance of chanting and music.  There is Spirit in Sound, and that Spirit takes us closer to the presence and love of The One.  You can chant alone, or you can look for groups, peace groups or chanting groups, within your neighborhood, church, temple or mosque, or you could start a group of your own.

Chanting is a way to bring more of the sacred into your life.  Chanting for peace is a way of putting that peaceful, loving energy into the world, where it can grow and be fed by others around you that you don’t even know are chanting.

Ecumenical groups chanting for peace can be such a beautiful experience, each person can bring a chant from their own path to share with the others.  This mixture of voices and thoughts and sounds lifting up together to the heavens, to the Beloved, work to help heal our World.

There are new wars starting as you read this.  I watch BBC News a lot to keep an eye on what is going on all over the world – American news tends to be self-centered, and while my own country is important, it is no more important than the rest of the world.  I’m filled with terrible sadness at the wars starting and continuing around the world; the people who would rather fight than talk; the innocent civilians who are being injured; and most importantly, the innocent children who are being injured, who are being maimed — blinded, losing limbs, and losing their faith in peace and hope.  I think about my nine grandchildren, and I can see their little faces if someone came up to them with a gun, or if they saw a bomb explode, and I ache for the grandchildren of others around the world.

Chanting for peace is an important concept, and is so easy to do.  You CAN do it by yourself, because the Beloved God does hear every voice, even the sounds of the old peace songs rise up and lift healing energy and spread it around the world, which is why I have included these two videos.

“Those who know Him cry with one voice; He is the singer, He is the song, and He is the music.  He speaks through every tune, He is manifest in every melody.”

–Nazir, Sufi Poet

I hope you enjoy these songs, and I pray that my chanting and the chanting of those who join me will help to save the lives of innocent people and children and will help to make this a peaceful world.

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A Problem in our Society


I have a worry and a concern about our society and its relationship with children. Actually, it isn’t just here in America. It is everywhere in our world. Here in America, we just don’t see it as clearly.

During the course of my life, which has been fairly long, I have seen a tendency in people to look away at the uncomfortable So many people feel they must turn away from what is shocking or what is painful to see or hear about. This is not a criticism and we certainly need to balance these things with beauty and spirit. Much of what people experience in life makes others so aware of their mortality, and people don’t have the skills to handle those sorts of thoughts. The thing is that turning away doesn’t change our mortality. The truth is we are all mortal and we need to accept that.

I am not saying that this is easy or that some people won’t need help to embrace their mortality. Life is a cycle and death or mortality is part of the cycle. It is not the end, though. Life never really ends. We just won’t need this body any longer.

The lives of children have been romanticized in literature novels. The truth is that a child is such a gift to parents, communities and the world. We love our own kids but tend to not want to be bothered when they are older and not as cute or sweet as they were. The statistics of child abuse and molestation show us a very “un-Hallmark” picture of the lives of children.

When I was little, being gone all day playing with the other kids in the neighborhood, it caused no stress. We slept out all of the time on front porches and walked around the neighborhood without a worry. We didn’t get into trouble and no one bothered us. We would make up stories and tell them by flashlight to scare each other. These “scary” stories were fairy tales compared to the true stories that happen every day to children here in America and around their world. We thought the monster in the dark was our biggest worry.

Today, in the twenty-first century our children face abduction, molestation, neglect, bullying, human trafficking and indifference to their dreams.

Children are pawns in divorces, abducted from their own beds, killed in school shootings, sold into human slavery. They are often confused and angry. Many are demeaned and verbally abused as well as physically abused.

I feel we need to talk to children more, and listen much more. We need to find out what excites them and encourage their dreams. Every child deserves to be totally sure they are loved. But not smothered with love. Children need to learn independence one step at a time.

Ethics and morality should be taught, but not racism and bigotry. We need to teach our children well, how to solve problems without hatred, bullying or violence.

We, as adults need to make this a safer, less violent world. A world that doesn’t give lip service to the importance of our children. We need to make a safer world, a less violent world, and a world that looks more like the “garden.” Children’s lives should be less like hell on earth and more like a glorious adventure.

We can do this, we must do this because the children are the future. They are the most important resource we have. Really look at the Amber alerts and missing children’s poster. Think of that child as one of your own and try to realize if you saw them. Don’t avoid stories about neglected and abused children.

Even if you have no children of your own, we, as members of communities, have a responsibility to the children. Education is so important and every child needs to have the best education possible. The Einsteins, the Mozarts, the Nobel Prize winners don’t just come from wealthy families. They come from all economic backgrounds. They will learn love and respectful living from us. So let’s show them how to live without violence, hatred and anger. Everyone will benefit and there will be peace and love and compassion in our world again.

Miller’s reserve Photo by Barbara Mattio

Hygrangeas, North Carolina Photo by Barbara Mattio

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Thanks to Feminist Men


Dalai Lama is a Feminist

One’s – Self I Sing

“One’s self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the
Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.

————–One’s-Self I Sing, Walt Whitman

While many of us women have been working to prevent the loss of rights, I believe it is important to thank all of the men, who over the last 40 years have believed in this cause and have become feminists. Men can pay a price for caring about the equality of the genders. A feminist man is a man who is very sure of his manhood and can rejoice in a strong assertive woman. He treats his female family members and friends as equals and partners.

The Feminist man is a man of quality in the eyes of Feminist women. They are still fairly rare in 2012, however they mean so much to women who have worked for decades to right injustices and speak out for the rights of women. 2013 brings us the next opportunity to win equal rights legally. Just as every woman needs to stand up and say she wants to be equal, we need our friends, the Feminist Men to stand by us in the coming fight.

I have had conversations with men who have actually laughed-deep belly laughs-when I mentioned legal equality for women.  Why would we want to be legally equal? The simplest answer is  because it would be much harder to take rights away from us and future generations of women.  If we would take away men’s legal equality, we would see how important it feels to them.

So, to every great man who believes in equality for all, including women, thanks for caring. Thanks for standing shoulder to shoulder with us, and thanks for having the courage to stand up and speak out despite how your male friends react. The bottom line to this entire question is that all human beings are equal. All humans should be treated with the same respect and justice. May we accomplish that ultimate goal.

Protest and March for Women’s Rights With Men of Equality

A proud man of Quality

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The Women’s Bible


Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902, was not only one of the women who worked to obtain the vote for women in the United States. She and Susan B. Anthony made a pair of women who were not going to quit until we had the vote. Elizabeth and Susan also put out a women’s movement weekly paper and there was the Women’s Bible Project. Susan was single and Elizabeth was married with eleven children.

Elizabeth felt that the Bible was not inclusive in its voice. She felt that the Bible excluded women. A committee was formed of ministers, Greek and Hebrew scholars, who devoted themselves to the project. There was a group of thirty women who worked on the revisions. The various books of the Testaments were divided and they reviewed all the passages which concerned women.

These passages were cut out and pasted in another blank book, and the new commentaries were written beneath. This was a huge undertaking in comparison to what it would be today, as it all had to be done by hand.

The inauguration of the women’s movement to emancipate the Bible began in August, 1895. The suffragets felt that the Bible had been used to hold black people and women in the “divinely ordained sphere”. The canon and civil law; church and state; all denominations and political parties have taught that woman was made after man and was made an inferior being.

Charles Kingsley said,  this will never be a good world for woman until the last remnant of the canon law is swept from the face of the earth.” Little did he know that the dogmas and teachings of all fundamental religions work to hold women in  place as second class citizens. Even now in August, 2012.

The Bible was used as permission from God to back the buying and selling of slaves and the ownership of women by the men in their lives. Women’s challenges to their status were referred back to this same Bible. The church determined that slavery and the right to vote only belonging to men was allegedly backed up by scripture. The mothers of the Suffrage movement saw the terrible misuse of these scriptures.

Women in America and England began this work with a large committee. They fought an uphill battle against the criticisms of their society. They proudly pushed ahead knowing that women’s political and social degradation were the results of women’s status in the Bible.

The only parts of the Bible that were edited were the ones concerning women. The Women’s Bible is still in print and available on Kindle also. It is a very enlightening reading experience.

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We Are Not Equal


 

Next year, 2013, women have another chance to be legally equal.  The Equal Rights Amendment will be before Congress once again. Frankly, I realize that men and many women don’t understand why this is an important piece of legislation. Congress, a majority of rich, white males will decide whether women and girls will receive equal treatment under the US Constitution. They will also decide  whether to ban sexual discrimination.  Next year is huge for the female gender.

This is not a new proposal. We worked very hard to obtain ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, We lobbied, marched and picketed in state capitals and Washington DC. We talked and explained and worked and yet the predominately male white Congress would not ratify this amendment.  We are now 12 years into the twenty-first century and we, women and girls, are not legally equal in the United States of America. This is an outrage and can’t be justified although many have tried.

Fifteen states refused to ratify this amendment in 1972. They resist efforts to change this unfair discrimination. Most of the states that did not vote to ratify the ERA, equal rights amendment, are Southern states. The female gender makes up 51% of the population of America. We are the country which is at the forefront of human rights and the majority of our citizens are not legally equal.

Our media reports about how women and girls suffer in other countries and we tell countries that they must not discriminate due to gender. We send money and officials to educate other countries and to better the status and lives of the country’s women and girls. Yet, here at home in the United States of America, women and girls continue to be discriminated against due to their sex and they continue to be the only citizens of the USA that are not legally equal under the Constitution. We are coming up to another opportunity to rectify this for the women and girls in our own country. The twenty-first century, and specifically 2013 is the year to right this wrong. Get involved. Write or email your congress people and tell them this is important to you. Find out what is happening with the ERA movement in your state.

Give us equality for all people in this world. Give us equality for women and girls in America!

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The Purpose of the Marginalized


Our society has two sections, the mainstream and the marginalized. What makes up the marginalized? Important components of our culture and country. Changes of thinking, prioritizing parts of American life, immigrants, artists, circus performers, writers, poets, photographers and anyone who pulls society screaming into new ways of thinking and living.

Initial reactions to accepting new ideas and priorities are often challenging to those who have walked solidly year after year, in the right way, the mainstream. In our age, we are still working on women’s rights, hunger issues, and the rights of people who disagree with the government. I am not speaking here of homegrown terrorists. just those who are willing to think outside of the box and disagree with the powers that be.

The edges of society call for justness and fairness. They won’t settle for less. History shows us the immense changes which have been instigated by the disenfranchised or marginalized. The edges of society eventually pull society forward into the place where they are more inclusive, more tolerant, and less willing to put up with dishonesty. The colonists who began the American Revolution were fringe, and yet they founded a new country based upon freedom and democracy.  In England, they were criminals. In America, they are heroes and heroines.

So as the fringe slowly becomes the mainstream, the artist becomes well-paid, the writer is finally published, the marginalized becomes the mainstream. New fringe elements appear to challenge the acceptable, the mainstream and so on and so on. A never ending cycle, in which the marginalized move us into our own future.  If we persecute the marginalized, then, we will cease to move forward.  This is why tolerance of ideas is so important.

” I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.  I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often painful process.”   –Diana Nyad