The goal toward which all history tends is peace, not peace through the medium of war, not peace through a process of universal intimidation, not peace through a program of mutual impoverishment, not peace by any means that leaves the world too weak or too frightened to go on fighting, but peace pure and simple based on that will to peace which has animated the overwhelming majority of mankind through countless ages. This will to peace does not arise out of a cowardly desire to preserve one's life and property, but out of conviction that the fullest development of the highest powers of men can be achieved only in a world of peace.
--Robert Maynard Hutchins
It is a good moment to repeat that a war is never won. Never mind that history books tell us the opposite. The psychological and material costs of war are so high that any triumph is a pyrrhic victory. Only peace can be won and winning peace means not only avoiding armed conflict but finding ways of eradicating the causes of individual and collective violence: injustice and oppression, ignorance and poverty, intolerance and discrimination. We must construct a new set of values and attitudes to replace the culture of war which, for centuries, has been influencing the course of civilization. Winning peace means the triumph of our pledge to establish, on a democratic basis, a new social framework of tolerance and generosity from which no one will feel excluded.
--Federico Mayor
As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
--Gandhi
Stand near me fiery dragon,
Stand close by my side,
Witness the oncoming weight.
Fiery dragon come to devour harmony,
Echoing death in your folds,
Shrieking sorrow aloft,
It is time.
Can you sense it?
There! On the horizon!
See her lights rising over the mountains?
Come!
Stand near me!
Read her manifesto!
Mother Theresa,
Fuller, Nader,
Rosa, Whitman,
Maathai, Sakharov,
Lama and Black Elk!
It is time for you to witness,
Still in your endeavor of war,
Stilled of thy bloody lips fresh kill.
Hold still thy grotesque talons!
Quiet now!
Quiet.
Quiet.
Quiet.
Listen.
Coretta and Martin,
Naser, Lennon,
Malcom X and Santana!
Hear the distant whistle?
Heed the rumbling ground?
Quiet.
Quiet.
Quiet.
Listen.
John and Jackie,
Aristophines,
Mutombo, Baez, Muller,
Hutchins, Neruda and Banks!
Can you not hear her thunder?
Her prayerful toll?
No! Tis not clanging death
You miscreant of fraud!
Indira and Mahatma,
Tolstoy, Gelder Bono,
Bono and Tutu,
Einstein, Nobel and Rabin!
Tis but a train;
A full on synthesis of dreams
En route thy despondent armor,
Transporting the old and new;
A collection of travelers,
Passengers in quest of the truth;
Rosalynn and Jimmy,
Dylan, Kravitz, Ul Haq
Gibran and Maya Angelou!
Look!
On the horizon!
Heed The Peace Train!
Eleanor and Franklin,
Buddha, Zerbo,
Yusupova,
Emerson and Earhart!
Stand near me, fiery beast!
Center track,
Witness the oncoming weight
Of peace!
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
A feature poem on The Peace Train...
