Peace and Justice for Veterans brings peace for all of us

Veterans for Peace is meeting now in St. Louis. There are many groups made up of Veterans now working against the War in Iraq and for peace – which is not the same thing. Groups and individuals are gathered there to talk and work. Issues include the continued impact of toxic substances on the victims of war, Impeachment, ending the present war in Iraq, countering attempts of the Bush Administration to glamorize war to suck in young people, providing real help for the people of Iraq now and later.

A cessation of the present assault on Iraq will not bring peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence, it is a dynamic state wherein individuals stop using violence, coercion or deceit to obtain their goals.

After the War in Vietnam ended over there the war against veterans continued here in America.

There has been a continuous barrage of quiet war against both veterans and all Americans for generations. Like the photo of the little girl in Vietnam ravaged by Napalm, this continued war is not a single incident or a mistake. Think of it instead as a corporate strategy that uses war as a tool for profit.

And while corporations use our government to augment their profits using war to justify buying the death they rain around the world we must remember who is paying the bill. If you have any doubts look at every bill you pay and notice the tax.

We were taught that America was saved from the Depression by war. That is another lie in a long string of lies that leads back to the mercantilism that begot this world, shredded by violence, rage, and death. Taxation is theft. Grid corporations just get government to do it for them.

Peace is another matter. The corporate state despises peace because when we live in real peace there is no fear. People prosper, raising their children, building their communities, worshiping, loving, and realizing their dreams.

A peaceful people do not spend money on Napalm. They have time to look more deeply into the world around them, notice wrongs and right them.

Therefore peace is what government and corporations fear most. The cacophony of violence keeps us from noticing. When you are treading water in shark infested water you do not think about the fact the IRS put a lien on your home.

We have let peace slip through our hands by misunderstanding what peace really is.

Peace is justice because without the healing justice brings peace cannot take root in our hearts and we cannot forgive.

Peace is making sure that no one is left out because each of us matters.

Peace is living in community with others using honesty, persuasion and kindness and speaking a loud NO to deceit, coercion and violence.

As individuals we can choose to do that. The next step on that path is to stop letting government use deceit, coercion and force in our names. To do that we need to enact justice so peace can find a place in all our hearts.

Justice for our military is one step on that path. Both veterans and active military are desperately in need of simple justice. Benefits promised have been withheld to augment the profits of this administration and its cohort of greedy corporate friends.

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