What If... ?

"We seek to preserve peace by fighting a war,

or to advance freedom by subsidizing dictatorships,

or to 'win the hearts and minds of the people' by

poisoning their crops and burning their villages

and confining them in concentration camps;

we seek to uphold the 'truth' of our cause with lies,

or to answer conscientious dissent with

threats and slurs and intimidations. . . . 

I  have come to the realization that

I can no longer imagine a war that

I would believe to be either useful or necessary.

I would be against any war."

- Wendell Berry, February 10, 1968 [cf., activism]

What If... ?

make love; not war.

We live in a world,
buried in hate and filled with judgement.
A world covered in fear,
fighting a war because of our greed,
or maybe to try and cure ourselves,
from the fear we feel inside.

Some days I feel so alone,
watching the war for something,
that we can only define as greed.
Some days it feels as though,
the world has forgotten compassion.
We can think of anything else,
but money, greed and our own happiness.

We make reasons,
that change like seasons,
to why we fight,
and why we kill.
First its safety, then change,
then its to help.
but all we're doing is destroying,
and watch as people lose faith.

The world we live in today is nothing simple,
we fear those who aren't like us,
we fear anything that's different.
We push people around,
make them hate themselves for what they're not.
Make them slowly fade away,
because they don't see things our ways.

Just because they're different,
sometimes even because of who they love.
Some days I feel myself losing faith,
wondering if this will ever stop,
wondering if people will just learn to love.

But some days I do find hope,
because not everything in this world is wrong,
maybe if we just remembered a little compassion,
and try ed not to judge so much,
the world would be a little better.

by one second regrets poetry

Bombs Away

Written by Jonathan Thulin and Rachael Lampa

1: The bombs have dropped and I've fallen on my face

I made my decision and I'm feeling disgraced

But I won't stop till it's done

My fire and glow will be fading out soon 

Cause my conscience broke and my heart's out of tune

but I won't stop till it's done, no I won't stop till it's done

Chorus: Bombs away, Bombs away to my heart

To my heart bombs away

2: The devil came knocking at the door of my dreams

I knew it was wrong but my mind felt so free

Now I won't stop till it's done, no I won't stop

Till it's done

Chorus:

Bridge: The battle of me and myself is exploding me

The fire is gaining on me and I'm letting it

I'm searching the heaven's and earth for the end of me

So here I am, here I am

Light the fuse cause my heart's gonna blow

Love Can Change the World

by Aaron Niequist

bridges are more beautiful than bombs are

bridges are more beautiful than bombs

listening is louder than a lecture

listening is louder than a shout

but Love – Love can change the world

oh do we still believe that

Love – Love can change the world

oh do we still believe in

Love – Love

God is Love, our God is Love and

Love can change the world

an open hand is stronger than a fist is

an open hand is stronger than a fist

wonder is more valuable than Wall Street

wonder is more valuable than gold

repeat chorus

may we never stop this dreaming

of a better world

may we never stop believing

in the impossible

Women: God is love

repeat chorus

©2005 AARONieq Music

Brothers & Sisters
A change has come

A change in the way
we look at people and things
a change in the way we feel
are felt
see
and are seen

To feel beautiful we must become beautiful

Loving ourselves more than we love the lie
You know the one you tell yourself
to feel secure

or the one you told,
just the other day to spare his feelings...
yeah that’s it,
(it didn’t have a thing to do with compromising your security)

the one that bought
a nations love
with terror

the one they sold us
to pimp our fear
to fuel tanks
the one that bought and lost your house
and sent your man to jail

To feel beautiful we must become beautiful
as a nation
as a nation within a nation
as family and community
as humans
not given to fight
until we know
and believe in
what we are fighting for
as lovers & friends
we must choose to
make love, not war

Jessica Holter

Make Love, Not War

You hear shouts “stop the killing”, 

Though people stay so violent, cruel. 

Is there hope for the healing? 

Our nature always has been dual. 

As someone gives you pretty smile, 

The other hides his drowned eyes. 

Where there was no place for guile, 

Now wars break out, heaven cries. 

Men take their homicidal guns, 

Drops of the rain are getting red 

And The Creator dooms his sons 

To strangle in the blood they shed. 

Forgotten of the sense of love, 

They get obsessed and then resigned. 

Eternal fight – it’s not enough, 

Their clemency is left behind. 

But we can love; do you remember? 

It is salvation, perfect cure. 

Frozen hearts get brittle, tender, 

Rid of ice cover that’s impure. 

This is enveloping your skin 

Like ocean caressing shore, 

When everything becomes serene. 

People, let us make love, not war.

by Den Khaustov

6 Products You Should Consider Abandoning

6 Products You Should Consider Abandoning

The price of buying disposable products is often higher than we think.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/6-products-you-should-consider-abandoning

by Jesse Carey

March 26, 2015

Every day, Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on goods, groceries, clothes and food, often with little thought to the environmental and social costs to our consumerism. Convenience and low-costs may be appealing as customers, but the price of buying disposable products is often higher than we think.

Here’s a look six costly everyday products that you should consider abandoning.

K-Cups

The single-serve coffee pods for Keurig machines are so popular that if you lined up every one sold in 2014 alone, they’d circle the earth more than a dozen times. The problem is that because of the plastic used to make them, they’re resistant to recycling methods, and a fully recyclable version is still years away. Even the inventor of the K-Cup told The Atlantic he thinks the product is a bad idea: “I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it … I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use. Plus it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make.”

Bottled Water

Bottled water isn’t just wasteful. It doesn’t really make sense. With the availability of filters for tap water (which is already held to high health standards; from the Mayo Clinic: “Tap water and bottled water are generally comparable in terms of safety”), purchasing individual, disposable bottles can be bad for your wallet and the environment. Every year, at least 17 million barrels of oil are used to produce the bottles—enough to keep gas in a million cars for an entire year. That doesn’t account for the amount of gasoline used to transport it. And, according to one study, 80 percent of the bottles never even get recycled. That means most of those clear plastic bottles end up in landfills, or worse, in the ocean.

Microbeads

Those tiny beads now found in many liquid soaps may be good at “exfoliating” your skin, but their environmental toll is so high, several areas have banned products that contain them. The problem is, the beads are so small that they get past water treatment filters and end up in bodies of water. That means animals—and people—who use those lakes and rivers for drinking water sources run the risk of ingesting them.

Cheap Clothes

Everyone likes low prices. But when it comes to fast fashion, there’s a big cost to cheap clothes. Many garment industry employees in countries like Bangladesh—where a 2013 factory collapse killed 117 workers—have often worked in unsafe conditions for unfair wages. Some of the makers of cheap clothes that are found in many American stores, also have terrible environmental records, especially in countries where loose regulations are easily abused. Though some improvements are being made, avoiding cheap, disposable clothes in favor of brands that have made a commitment to ethical working conditions and sustainable practices in their supply chains can help eliminate the trend of disposable “fast fashion.”

Non-Ethically Sourced Chocolate

Because supply chains are often so complex, even large, well-known brands may be using cocoa that was obtained through the use of unethical labor practices. Child labor, unfair wages and dangerous working conditions are common in the West African chocolate industry, where 70 percent of all cocoa is grown. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to make a difference. As we highlighted in a piece last fall, “Groups like Stop the Traffik and Food Is Power are working to educate consumers through fact sheets and even downloadable apps about how to purchase chocolate that was not produce by child or slave labor.”

Plastic Grocery Bags

From the Worldwatch Institute: “Every year, Americans reportedly throw away 100 billion plastic grocery bags, which can clog drains, crowd landfills and leave an unsightly blot on the landscape.” Those thin plastic bags you use to carry your groceries are made from petroleum-based materials that drain resources and wreak havoc on wildlife—especially when they end up in the ocean. Durable, reusable fabric bags aren’t just more convenient (each one can carry a bunch of groceries), they are also more cost effective: Many groceries stores now offer discounts to customers who use them.