1917- Robert LaFollette: “Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. … If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another.”
1917 – Eugene Victor Debs: ‘”Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder… . And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.” [Woodrow Wilson then put him in jail.]
1917 – Norman Thomas: A very long speech in behalf of conscientious objectors.
1964 – Martin Luther King: [T]his award [The Nobel Peace Prize] which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts…………I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
A Whole Life – Mahatman Gandhi: Peace, Nonviolence, Social Justice, Equality, Human Rights, Courage, Compassion, Commitment, Integrity.
2009 – After less than one year in office and solely on the promise that he would create a world without nuclear weapons, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, he presides over several wars and maintains internment camps for those he cannot trust. Meanwhile, he refuses to endorse gay marriage because his religion won’t permit that. Meanwhile, he presides over a federal prison system which houses over a million men and women living in conditions that make Guantanamo seem like a picnic ground. [He has the power to pardon but won't look at individual cases.] Meanwhile, he has not a clue as to what health care reform is about, wrongly supposing it is mainly about insurance for those who cannot afford hospital care. Meanwhile, he says nothing to rogue nations like Norway and Japan for their routine violations of CITES [Convention on Trade of Endangered Species,] frightened as he is to antagonize his “good neighbors.” Meanwhile, he lashes out at those who carry handguns but endorses the red-blooded American sport of hunting with rifles. No point in antagonizing the NRA. Meanwhile he creates no Office of the Ombudsman with powers to look into the thousands of daily abuses that ordinary people suffer without knowing where to turn.
And through it all, he says that as commander-in-chief of this great nation he does not have the luxury to adopt the nonviolence methods preached by Gandhi, King, Debs, La Follette, Thomas, de Leon, Rachel Goosen, Patricia McNeil, A.J. Muste, David McReynolds, David Dellinger, Alice and Staughton Lynd, Lawrence Wittner, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and one thousand others who believe they do not have the luxury and time left in their lives to preach “THE WAR TO END ALL WARS” Instead, they preach
…………………..THE PEACE TO END ALL WARS
