A New Year of Peace, Prosperity, Hope

[The Sushi Bandit]

Passing this on From: Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich

Dear Friend,

A New Year of Peace, Prosperity, Hope: All possibilities exist prospectively as we look forward to 2007.

Each one of us holds transformational capabilities to engage the world constructively through the images of the future we hold in our mind. Our thoughts have power. The power of intent together with action transforms our lives and our world.

We invite you to join with us on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, wherever you gather with family and friends, to hold fast the intention to create structures of peace in our society by inviting everyone with whom you come into contact to join this intentional effort to make a practical reality our dynamic vision of peace.

The Kucinich Campaign is a race for the Presidency, and much more. It is about helping every person reach his or her own highest potential as citizens of America and the world. It is about empowering ourselves and each other in a joyous realization of our highest aspirations.

Of course peace is possible. Peace is already the practical, overriding existent reality of our lives; it describes our loves, our joys, our dreams and we rely on it for our future. Some would have us buy into war as the fundamental, inevitable perpetual condition of the world. This is a lie which we buy into at our greatest peril. We are called upon to respond with courage and with truth from the wellspring of our humanity.

The world is in a situation of urgency on many levels, but we still have a window of opportunity around which we can rally to enable great transformational changes. The situation in Iraq is salvageable with the right leadership and a change in approach. The damage to our global climate can be repaired, if we are willing to pursue new directions, new technologies and a renewed commitment to individual action to protect our air, our water, our land.

Let us, in this annual celebration of our humanity, call forth the buoyant, expectant energies of the New Year and harness them to quicken the impulse toward positive change. The economic stability of our communities and the physical and spiritual health of our nation depend upon our commitment to practical paths toward renewal. That is the power which stands behind all New Year's resolutions.

Let us resolve, then, to join in a collective effort to create a new world. The Presidency becomes the catalyst for powerful, transformative change, a new American evolution, spiraling upward along paths of clarity, strength, vision, determination and action.

Let us collectively have a bright encounter with the energies of the New Year and make 2007 the year of which future generations will say: "That is when the change began. That is when we began to create with courage a new nation and a new world."

We wish you a joyful New Year!



Dennis and Elizabeth

[Peace Patriot]

1. Excellent! Counter the Hangman image with image of Hope and Peace!

That is, we need to reject this image of The Hangman, consciously, and replace it with an image of love, hope and peace, and of rebirth of our democracy in the coming year. Although there is reason to believe that the Bush Junta may have had ulterior motives in silencing Saddam Hussein (what he knew about them could be one; some kind of deal with the Saudis could be another--the Saudis being religious nuts, Saddam having been a symbol of secular Islam), still, I think that this hanging was a conscious effort by the war profiteers who are running things to destroy the hope Americans may have felt for the New Year, as the result of the Democratic election victories in November and other events, and to re-orient us back to Death, Destruction and Despair. I really do think that the Dark Lords are playing mind-games like that. They have utterly failed in the matter of propaganda aimed at specific policies. 70% of Americans oppose the Iraq War! 70%! And other stats indicate huge rejection of the Bush Junta's fascist policies across the board (and have for some years now). But their one success has been to make the great American progressive majority think that we are the minority, and to demoralize and disempower--and, above all, disenfranchise--us. The hanging of Saddam furthers that success--makes the great majority who reject the war and all fascist policy--feel bad. Feel despair. Feel that there is nothing we can do to change this Culture of Death.

But there IS something we can do. It takes a conscious effort, but it IS possible to re-image our culture and our future. I wrote about this a few days ago, in a thread called "Death = Bush," about countering The Hangman with our own images. The thread and comments, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3034424

And as for positive action combined with positive imaging, try http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando . This site is about Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" and lists what you can do in your home to solve the problem of global warming, for instance...

---Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If every family in the U.S. made the switch, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation.

---Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.

---Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models. If each household in the U.S. replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we’d eliminate 175 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year!

These are very simple things that can substantially reduce global warming. All we have to do is do them ourselves and spread the word among family, friends, neighbors, community. Americans tend to be very cooperative when we know what needs to be done, in any crisis. We are a people who likes to help and likes to feel that we are doing good in the world, and we are very organized and industrious about it. It's part of our national character. Our problem right now is that there no leadership at the top--zero, zilch--and the leaders who could influence this situation don't get air time from the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. We have to do it ON OUR OWN. Just DO IT. Don't be passive about it. Don't wait for leadership. Make it happen in your small pool of influence (or your big one!), and imagine your action rippling out to everyone. We can act democratically--and get something big done at the grass roots level--without national leadership! Imagine!

--------------------------------

Another inspiration can be found in the huge democracy movement that is sweeping Latin America. See...

Real news from Mexico: www.narconews.com
Real news from Venezuela and the Andes: www.venezuelanalysis.com
Real news on Bolivia and other places: http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/
And today at DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3013712&mesg_id=3013712

From the grass roots UP!

[LWolf]

2. Hard to oppose that vision in anyway.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I can join them in that resolution.

[The Sushi Bandit]

3. I hope we all can!