Category Archives: Nonviolence

Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

Stand Beside Us: Peace Song for 10/1/2011

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“Rhymes and Reasons” by John Denver is the Royal Peace Song of the Day for Saturday, October 1, 2011.  You can find the lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook on page 31. Duchess Susanna requested I post this song today.  I cannot think of lyrics that could be more timely.  There is an overbearing “sadness” from the constant and senseless killing the US perpetrates.  One must be continually reminded not to turn away from love and turn to the culture of ‘fear” created by the corporate media.  We must constantly battle our emotional climate as we try “clear a cloudy day.”  I worry about the overnight vigillers as the season turns cold with ‘the coming of winter.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPpRyjTP0a0] Continue reading Stand Beside Us: Peace Song for 10/1/2011 →

Nonviolence, Peace

Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club

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The Duke realizes that this has been a very taxing week for social justice advocates.  The killing of Troy Davis was filled with the hope of repreive for a few hours, and then an overwhelming mourning for the US justice.  At the same time, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been giving a voice to the discontent 99% of Americans feel. Yet with all this going on,  I beg of you to take a few moments to support the #AfghanistanTuesday movement for an immediate end to the war.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MidwestAntiwar/status/116508587915886592″]  Continue reading Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club →

Music, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

This Land is Your Land: Peace Song for 9/26/2011

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“This Land is Your Land” is the Peace Song of the Day for Monday, September 26th. The song was written by Woody Guthrie.

This song has also become a favorite of the Occupy Movement. It’s been sung a lot at Occupy Wall Street in NYC (see story: here) They also sang it at Occupy Albany (see the video: here), at Occupy Burlington (see the video: here), and many other occupations.

“This Land is Your Land” has become a true folk song, with many verses. You can find extensive lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook, on page 5. Though, don’t hesitate to make up your own words. In the video below, Father Bill Brisotti adds one verse about unjustly pushing Native Americans on to reservations, and another verse that asserts, “This land is your land. This land is my land. It’s not the bank’s land…”

More about this choice: Continue reading This Land is Your Land: Peace Song for 9/26/2011 →

Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Power of Nonviolence Mighty Penn: Peace Book Chapter 2 of the Week 9/26/11

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The Power of Nonviolence Writings by Advocates of PeaceWe continue with the second chapter from the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace This week we discuss the second chapter of the book which is an excerpt from a 1693 essay by William Penn entitled Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe.

This chapter is in the Pre-Twentieth Century section of the book . Last week we discussed the first chapter which contains the writings of the the Buddha, which was entitled Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love.

Even though one would expect a Duke to be conversant in dense, prosey writing, I must admit to this few page excerpt from Penn’s essay being rough going.

Penn starts off by arguing against the Latin proverb of the time that “Peace is Sought through War.”  He argues instead that peace is found through justice.  This quickly brings to mind Dr. King‘s response to the charge that the Montgomery Bus Boycott was disturbing the peace: Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Mighty Penn: Peace Book Chapter 2 of the Week 9/26/11 →

Music, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day, Video

Occupy Wall Street…Peace Song for 9/25/2011

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The Peace Song of the Day, as chosen by Duke Augustus and Duchess Susanna, The Duke and Duchess of Peace, is “Occupy Wall Street (We Are The 99%)”. “Occupy Wall Street” was written by Long Island singer/songwriter Jeremy Gilchrist, who used to play music at our favorite Cafe (now a victim of the economic downturn.) You can see the lyrics to the song in text at the bottom of this post.

For more information about Occupy Wall Street, please visit the website where they first called for the demonstration: Adbusters.org

*********************** Continue reading Occupy Wall Street…Peace Song for 9/25/2011 →

Nonviolence, Peace

What I did on #AfghanistanTuesday

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Duke Augustus walking to the podium 09-13-11If you have been following along on this thread, then you know that #AfghanistanTuesday is a social media based weekly vigil to quickly end the costly Afghanistan War.  It is primarily to protest the inaction to Congresspeople, but it also protests the inaction of US Senators and the President.  It is designed to use Twitter as the forum for protest, and to spread to all peace people and budget hawks on that service, but will eventually be spread to the other social media outlets.

Last Tuesday in addition to spending the daylight hours reigning in shock doctrine capitalism, the Duke took part in the following #AfghanistanTuesday activities:

1.  Tweeted a blog post entitled Will your Rep Join @BruceBraley on #AfghanistanTuesday ? which explained that Bruce Braley was the first congressperson to answer query on whether they are willing to end the Afghanistan War quickly, and asked which Congresspersons would join him: Continue reading What I did on #AfghanistanTuesday →

Music, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

Some people do what must be done: Peace Song for 9/19/2011

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“What Must Be Done” is the Peace Song of the Day for Monday, September 19, 2011. This is a song about recognizing the need to help, and recognizing the need for change. This song could help inspire more people to become like Rosa Parks, Gandhi, or Julia Butterfly Hill. What is your work to do?

Continue reading Some people do what must be done: Peace Song for 9/19/2011 →