In response to "The Peace Movement and Resistance in Dark Times” Joseph Gerson December 9, 2016
Moral markers have already been set for humanity. They were set over 200 years ago with the
Declaration of Independence and the words “we hold these truths to be
self-evident…” A profound marker that our
founding fathers and ‘we the people’ of the United States have never made good
on.
Profound moral
markers were set again in 1948 (exactly 68 years ago) after the horrors of
WWII, when the nations of the world unanimously approved the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Then
they/we failed to empower the United Nations with any system or structures for
enforcing them.
Today we
simply tolerate the sovereign rights of nations to violate human rights
whenever and however they desire as long as it is within their own borders. And, if they have nuclear weapons they can do
it anywhere they want if they are not cowered by the nuclear weapons of other
nations. And, ‘we the people’ of the US
… passively accept this immoral marker because we benefit most from it. The cost in lives of hundreds of thousands of
other innocent people and the quality of life of tens of millions more are
simply the price of maintaining our nation’s ‘freedoms’.
Earnestly “illuminating the threats to our nation”
would reveal far more than “the most important struggle for the soul and
identity of this nation.” It would
reveal a growing list of grave threats to our nations survival -- as well as
the threats to both the individual freedoms and security of every US citizen.
The most important thing we can do as any movement (Peace,
Environment, Social or Economic Justice) can be summarized in just four words Mr.
Gerson offered. “Addressing the root
causes.”
And in every case the root cause is injustice. That makes ‘justice’ the one ‘cause’ that
stiches all of these ‘movements into one.
Is there a downside of pledging “life, liberty and justice for all’? Only to powers that be, that resist such a
fundamental human desire.
If the Peace movement or
other movements are serious about moving the US Congress to block the likely
hood of catastrophic Trump consequences, please consider participating in a
‘global justice corps’. It is an
all-volunteer US campaign initiated early this year to build grassroots
coalitions within all 435 US Congressional Districts. It will take a local network of peace, environmental
and economic/social justice organizations working alone or together to document
the local benefits of global justice and the local harms from global
injustices.
As Mr. Gerson, said, “The
issues we address are inter-related.”
This fact, by its very nature, requires that our solutions be holistic
and comprehensive. In this context, the
only single issue we can champion to sustainably fill that order, is insisting
on “life, liberty, and justice for all”.
This was the summary of a recent report by the ‘Commission on
Global Security, Justice and Governance.’ Read the 8 page summery at the Commission
website: http://www.stimson.org/programs/global-security-justice-and-governance and decide if your Member of Congress should do
the same.
The best way for
this reality to be accepted by our Members of Congress is to document for them,
the self-evident truth that Martin Luther King offered nearly 50 years
ago. "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere."
This fundamental
principle is not foreign to our nation. Inscribed above the entrance to the US Dept.
of Justice in Washington DC are the words “Justice is the great interest of
man on earth. Wherever her temple stands, there is a foundation for social security,
general happiness and the improvement and progress of our race. “
It is not a new idea! A few hundred years before Jesus Christ,
Plato the Greek philosopher said "Justice in
the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the
hearts and souls of the citizens."
After the horrors of the last World War Justice
Robert Jackson gave us our marching orders in his Nuremberg address. "The common sense of mankind demands
that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people.
It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make
deliberative and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home
in the world untouched."
A Trump administration will likely exacerbate harmful
events already in motion. Events that
will leave no American family or any family in the world, untouched.
Together we stand. Divided we fall. This
is no longer an American truth. It is
global. A serious look at the array of
threats we face (war, genocide, pandemics, climate disruption, loss of our
antibiotic arsenal, economic instability, WMD proliferation, and the evolution
of weaponry) and how they are all interconnected should suggest there is only
one moral marker we need to remember. “Liberty
and justice for all’.
In the end it will be justice for all…or
security for none.
For more information on how one can get involved
in the 435 Campaign, contact chuck@igc.org
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