Did you know? February 23 is Global Day of Action to Close Bases. I didn’t. Until I opened an email that somehow arrived into my Inbox a few months ago. It was from the Peace Alliance, a wonderful group of international people concerned about the militarization of this delicate planet.
In 1992 I participated as an independent citizen in the UN Earth Summit’s parallel non-governmental Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro. Following this I was privileged to be in the Amazon, in a small group with the Suzuki family. “Wisdom hangs thick in the air” is the only way I could describe the indescribable biodiversity of this sacred jungle.
When I returned home to Vancouver where I then lived, I knew to convene the Post Earth Summit Conference, including an Indigenous Elder holding space with me, to open the day with a Talking Circle with 108 people. It was a day that transformed and enriched many people’s lives.
This led to meeting with many founders of climate and human rights organizations, including one of the founders of the world’s largest Peace March, in Vancouver. When I shared the focus of my work, she said, “What you’re doing is so much harder than what we’re doing. We’re fighting against what we don’t want. You’re visioning what we do want, and taking the steps to build it.”
We need to do both, now. Did you know that the nonviolent protests that became a global swell, drawing millions of people around the world, strong enough to evoke the end of the Cold War, were begun by four young mothers in discussion around a kitchen table in Wales?
Charlie Angus highlights this and other truths in his recent release Dangerous Memories: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed. And did you know that humanity is not, at its core, a warring species? Rutger Bregman reveals this through insightfully deep research in his book Humanity – A Hopeful History. Both are brilliant and mind-opening reads.
We need to find creative ways to de-escalate differences and disagreements. Meeting might with might is not an option. It’s time for our species to grow up.
In a recent Zoom gathering, I was shocked to discover that Sweden, without its elected citizens’ agreement, is no longer a neutral zone. Seventeen US military bases have been built there in the past two years.
Speak. Discuss. Stand. Use your voice. Say No. Love. Connect. Care.
No. More. War.