Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within
Ourselves & the World

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Why Do I Write This Blog???

The easiest (and probably the most honest) answer to that question is: I don't know. It all started in the summer of 2005, when I went to Crawford, Texas ( a.k.a. the home of the prez's ranch, a.k.a. the home of Camp Casey) to support Cindy Sheehan. I wanted the world to know that, contrary to what one could read in the mainstream media, the peace movement was alive and well and large numbers of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. I wanted people to know that thousands of Americans were willing to travel to Texas and tolerate the heat, humidity, and bugs in order to support a grieving mother whose new purpose was to shine a light on the lies that led to the war and to bring home our troops so that no other mother would have to know the pain that she felt.

Over time, this blog has become more of an exploration of who I am, my spirituality, and how life works. I love life's complexities, exploring the shades of gray. I want to, as Rainier Maria Rilke said,

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Maybe my blog is just one big question about what is needed in order for people to take the time to love and cherish each other and our earth. Maybe someday, I will "live along some distant day into the answer."

In the meantime, thank you for joining me on my journey. I welcome you to share yours with me

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Trying to Simplify

I'm packing up my bags and will be living only at A Peace Carol. Unless I change my mind some day.

Be well.

Walk in Peace.

Labels: A Peace Carol, photography

posted by Carol at 2:56 PM 12 comments

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Same Story, Different President?

Once again, I can hardly stand to think about the actions of my country. It's beyond painful to know about the horrors that we are causing in Afghanistan (and Iraq - still).

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Life as 8-year-old Razia knew it ended one March morning when a shell her father says was fired by Western troops exploded into their house, enveloping her head and neck in a blazing chemical.

Now she spends her days in a U.S. hospital bed at the Bagram airbase, her small fingernails still covered with flaking red polish but her face an almost unrecognisable mess of burned tissue and half her scalp a bald scar.

"The kids called out to me that I was burning but the explosion was so strong that for a moment I was deaf and couldn't hear anything," her father, Aziz Rahman, told Reuters.

"And then my wife screamed 'the kids are burning' and she was also burning," he added, his face clouding over at the memory.

The flames that consumed his family were fed by a chemical called white phosphorous, which U.S. medical staff at Bagram said they found on Razia's face and neck.

It bursts into fierce fire on contact with the air and can stick to and even penetrate flesh as it burns.

White phosphorus can be used legally in war to provide light, create smokescreens or burn buildings, so it is not banned under international treaties that forbid using chemicals as weapons.

And I wonder...

When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Labels: Afghanistan, War

posted by Carol at 10:27 AM 10 comments

Saturday, May 02, 2009

I Love This Man

Barney Frank speaking in rebuttal at Wednesday's Hate Crime debate. (He begins by addressing the 2007 arrests of the Philadelphia 11 which had been brought up by the Republicans.)

Thank you to Thomas for the transcript of Frank's speech.

I just tried to email Barney Frank in order to thank him, but he's only accepting emails from his constituents. Bummer.

Labels: Gay Rights

posted by Carol at 9:11 PM 6 comments

Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within Ourselves & the World