Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Buddha
Excerpts from an article written by Mark Steigenga
for the October 14, 2002 edition of the Ludington Daily News
"As I watched our retaliation to the events of September 11, 2001 unfold, an ethical issue began to stir in my heart. I started to think of all the innocent victims of our bombs and realized that those familiies were feeling as bad as we felt over our 2,000 victims. That old proverb started making sense: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves us all blind and toothless.
Diane Boulais
"A month ago when I realized that Congress was going to give the President the extraordinary powers he wanted to wage war, I was horrified. I knew then if I didn't speak up I would fail to honor my personal integity."
Judith Dila
"As Christians and as Americans, if we find the actions of our government no longer represent the teachings of Jesus, then we have a responsibility to get out our drums and drum global peace into existance."
PJE
"There is an irony here that those who are standing as proponents of peace are in a global majority. In Ludington our grassroots group may look small, but in reality we represent the will of most of the world community."
David Nixon
"I cannot back a policy that begins to look like a global manifest destiny
with the United States as sole beneficary."
PJE
"Regardless of how terrible Saddam Hussein is,you cannot really rid the world of that evil through armed force. To end evil requires changing minds, and that can never be done with bombs. We only bomb people because that's the easy way out
-- if I don't like you, then I'll kill you."
John Wolff
"Coming together to share idea and to formulate action is all that we can do. Grassroots movements, like this one here in Ludington always begin small.
But if we act powerless we will continue to be powerless."
George Dila
I am a Buddhist...at the core of Buddhism is a tenant called 'ahimsa' which stands for non-harming. This is something we try to practice to the best of our abilities in our daily lives. Buddhists do not engage in warfare. We do not kill human beings. We believe that peaceful dialogue is always to be chosen over armed conflict."
John Wolff
My decision (to not back the Bush administration's plan for a preemptive strike on Iraq)is based on the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ. In the Gospels I see an ethic of peacemaking. Jesus' agenda was not about political positioning; it was about an inner disposition to heal the world."
PJE
"It seems to me that all religions teach this same thing; it's just that no one seems to want to really believe them. Jesus says that to get to the kingdom one has to give up all that one has, even cherished opinions, prejudices, and preferences.
Peace requires a change of mind."
John Wolff
"How far do we go? Where do we stop? That's when fear set in - a fear that things were happening that I, as an American citizen, was losing control of. Then, as I started to share my concerns with others, I discovered, to my surprise, that many of those people were thinking the same way I was. I wasn't alone."
Diane Boulais
Speaking Our Peace- Gallery II ||| Speaking Our Peace - Gallery III
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