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March 20, 2006

Heroes

Often, when I read the newspaper I cut out articles about people who have shown courage in their lives and I keep them in a Heroes folder that I can visit from time to time when I need models to muster my own courage.
One such clipping was about Tom Fox, the American peace activist who was kidnapped and slain in Iraq where he had gone with a peace group. He was a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that opposes the Iraq war and has criticized treatment of detainees in U.S. and Iraqi jails. Reports said that he had apparently been tortured by his captors before being shot multiple times in the head and dumped on a trash heap in western Baghdad. Such a terrible way to die.
A young man, Sean Wilner, who knew Fox recalled words that Fox had said during a trip back to Virginia last summer about why he wanted to go back to Iraq. ''He said there were plenty of people out there willing to die for war but few willing to die for peace,'' said Wilner. You can read the blog that Tom Fox kept at www.waitinginthelight.blogspot.com
How many of us are prepared to die for peace?

Posted by billz at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2006

Releasing Caged Birds

''Over the centuries, Buddhists in Cambodia and elsewhere in Asia have released the sorrows born of sickness, hunger and war through the simple, cathartic act of budying caged birds and setting them free, sometimes with a kiss.''
This is the lead paragraph of a recent article in The Washington Post written by Alan Sipress.
As I read these words, I kept thinking of the idea of releasing beautiful birds into the air and mumbling a prayer as they soared free. My prayer would say, ''God, stop the war in Iraq. Bring peace in the Mideast. Stop the spread of nuclear weapons which threaten to blow up the world. Stop the suicide bombers. Make people live in peace. Bring love to all; help us overcome our aloneness. Bless us with leaders who seek peace and seek to bring good to the world. Stop the rampant selfishness which threatens our society. Let us be happy with simple things, such as beautiful little birds that offer song and beauty as they fly in the sky. Let us be loving to one another, rather than be filled with hate and fear.''
What prayer would you utter as you released your tiny birds to ease the sorrows you feel? WRITE US.
P.S. The article, while containing this beautiful idea of releasing caged birds, also says this tradition, in which devotees seek blessings for this life and next, could become a curse. ''Animal health experets warn that the practice of capturing wild birds, holding them in confined quarters and then turning them over to human hands could spread avian flu among birds, across species, and on to people.'' So what is beautiful now threatens to turn into something terrible. How tragic. How sad for us.

Posted by billz at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)