Category Archives: Peace

A Peaceful Mother’s Day: Thoughts, Gift Ideas, and The Proclamation

In the US, Mother’s Day started out as a holiday about peace. Initially mothers of soldiers who died in both sides of the Civil War would meet to try to reconcile.  The most famous example of the peaceful intent of Mother’s Day is the Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe.  She is best remembered as the abolitionist, pacifist, and suffragist poet who penned the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The proclamation is at the bottom of this post. In between are some peaceful gift suggestions for your mother,

Let’s start with a peaceful way to wrap your present:

Flowering gift wrapping paper that can be planted after it wraps a gift!  Continue reading A Peaceful Mother’s Day: Thoughts, Gift Ideas, and The Proclamation

Remembering “Ohio” by CSNY is the Peace Song of the Day for 5/4

Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  is the Peace Song of the Day for May 4th. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the shootings of nonviolent anti-war protesters at Kent State. During the late ’60s, the music of CSNY (Chicago/We Can Change the World, Long Time Gone, Cost of Freedom) reported on the events of the day better than the TV news. We could use someone like them to write “Fallujah” and “Oakland” today.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJqFwCFeosg]  Continue reading Remembering “Ohio” by CSNY is the Peace Song of the Day for 5/4

“One Guitar” by Willie Nile is the Peace Song of the Day for 4/30

One Guitar” by singer/songwriter Willie Nile is the Peace Song of the Day for April 30th. Tomorrow, a thousand guitars, marching in the Occupy Guitarmy, will perform song as part of their set list. (There is still time to join. Info, schedule, and set lists at the Occupy Guitarmy website: here.)

Continue reading “One Guitar” by Willie Nile is the Peace Song of the Day for 4/30

If You Want To Be Free: Peace Song for 4/29/12

If You Want To Sing Out” by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) is the Peace Song of the Day for April 29, 2012. A video of this song was posted at OccupyWallSt.org in relation to the upcoming Occupy May Day/General Strike activities. So, we wonder if folks may be singing this one in the streets on Tuesday.

Continue reading If You Want To Be Free: Peace Song for 4/29/12

Norwegian people announce “Peace Song of the Day” for 4/27/2012

As royalty (in the most whimsical of senses), the Duke and Duchess of Peace envision themselves as proclaiming the Peace Song of the Day. If you look around the news today, you see that the people of Norway have made the choice: The Peace Song of the Day is Children of the Rainbow” by Pete Seeger.

In a compassionate, defiant, community response to the actions and words of the right wing, mass murderer, who killed 77 people last year, 40,000 people gathered in Oslo to sing Pete Seeger’s song about love and tolerance, “Children of the Rainbow” (“My Rainbow Race”, English title.)

You can see video from the scene in Norway below. And underneath, is a story from Common Dreams, and the song lyrics. The song, in English, appears in Rise Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook, the songbook which was part of the inspiration for our Peace Song of the Day project. We knew that the answer to world peace was somewhere between the covers of that amazing, inspiring, abundant collection of sing-a-long tunes.

Thanks to David Mitchell, for sending along the Common Dreams story, with the link to the authentic video, this morning.

Continue reading Norwegian people announce “Peace Song of the Day” for 4/27/2012

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme: Peace Song for 4/26/2012

Today’s post carries many messages and many layers.

Scarborough Fair” is the Peace Song of the Day for April 26th. It is a beautiful song of hope and longing. You can find lyrics for the old, traditional version at www.gardenerspath.com: here.

The version many of us hum to ourselves is the Simon and Garfunkel version. “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” takes the old song, and mixes it with an antiwar counterpoint (“Canticle”, based on Simon’s song, “The Side of a Hill”).


Mysteries and Meaning of the traditional, English ballad, Scarborough Fair… Continue reading Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme: Peace Song for 4/26/2012