"I am not working for world peace, I am working for individual peace all over the world." from "Your loved Ones, Your Self", by Wil Langford

Who the heck doesn't want peace? Well, maybe a couple of international arms dealers, a few neo-cons and that kid that used to pull your hair in third grade. But ask almost anyone else if peace is a good thing, and they'll say it is. So why don't we have peace?

We don't have it in the world. What with Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinians, there ain't no peace nowhere, no-time in the Mid-East. Africa is up in arms (thanks largely to the world's biggest arms dealer, the USA, by the way). Russia is rattling its sabers at Europe, because America's "just protecting its borders" from North Korea and Iran by planning to put missiles in Eastern Europe. We're still fighting in Afghanistan and now our gunships are shelling Somalia in an attempt to kill an Al Qaeda warlord that we think is there. Maybe.

For a change of pace from war, there are riots in Germany at the G-8 Summit, where a few malcontents think that the 8 wealthiest countries in the world shouldn't be shaping the future for the poorest countries. What do they want? Socialism? Hey, let those other countries pull themselves up by their bootstraps. No bootstraps, you say? Well, we'll sell them some and in return we'll just take all their resources, especially the oil and minerals.

Even in that bastion of peace and all that's good and patriotic, the US, all is not peaceful. The crime rate is rising and more and more people aren't getting a peaceful night's sleep, because they can't pay their mortgage. Well, they can pay their mortgage. It's just that they can't pay their mortgage, health insurance, car payments, their taxes, childcare, cable bill, Netflix bill, credit card bills, and save for retirement and their kid's college fund on the three jobs they're working. You see them with their calculators out and papers spread all over the table at Starbucks, trying desperately to figure out where to cut corners, as they sip their fourth macho-latte with extra caffeine.

Even my life, which takes place in a part of the country where an international incident is more likely to involve smuggling cigarettes or poaching blueberries than shooting people, is not peaceful at the moment. I am not by nature a worrier. If there's a problem, I think about it and decide if I can do anything about it. If I can, I do it. If I can't, I leave it to resolve itself and get on with my life as best I can. Almost always, that works. Once in a while, it doesn't.

I'm having a really hard time letting the Iraq War resolve itself. It's not that I haven't tried to help that along. I've been active in the peace movement since the 60's, although lately only in the sense that I send letters and emails, call my congress critters and sometimes demonstrate against the war. I'm not on a par with Cindy Sheehan or some of my friends who are Friends and are spending most of their time working to end the war. But I've tried. I've been trying for over four years now and I'm weary and I'm depressed and I'm disheartened.

My brother, Wil, who is my spiritual advisor (not easy when your sister is an atheist, but he does a heck of a job), says that this is the Peace Century. On his blog, Wil's Blog, he writes about how he's received a message from his Loved Ones - who are really part of his Higher Consciousness - that this century will be a century of peace, but maybe not because good things happen to bring it about. Deep woo, I know, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he's right.

You don't have to be a spiritualist or psychic to see that this world is headed for trouble. The people of the world, and I include myself in some of this, for the most part, aren't focused on peace. They're focused on getting more stuff, having more fun, proving how tough and "out there" and edgy they are by flipping off people in traffic. They don't know what's going on in Washington, because they're too busy reading about Paris. Hilton, that is.

So many people know the point spread for all the games and the price of every item on the menu of the chains where they (and I) eat out way too often, but the fact that millions of people are living sub-standard lives in Asia, Africa, Mexico and here in the US, is news to them. So is the fact that millions of kids die everyday because their parents can't afford simple things like $3 shots for diarrhea.

And let's not forget that, according to Fearless Leader and his cronies, this is a Christian nation, and Christ, as even atheists know, was the Prince of Peace. (If you don't think this is a Christian nation, just look at any night's TV lineup. From WWE Smackdown wrestling to Faux News to the Sopranos, it's definitely WJWW - What Jesus Would Watch - don't you think?) That's what a good portion of the G-8 world is focused on every night. Call me crazy, but I just can't see O'Reilly, Malkin and Coulter as harbingers of peace.

Then there are people like me who couldn't find anything to watch even when we had over 200 Dish channels, so the three we have now sure aren't gonna make it. So do I spend my time changing the world instead? Nope. When I'm not reading, mostly fiction, I'm wasting way too much time playing games, reading blogs and blogging. Somehow, when I'm doing that, I manage to forget about the rest of the world and what I can do to make it better. It's a knack.

So, that's why I'm weary, disheartened and depressed about the state of peace in the world. I know there are a lot of good people working for peace. I know many of them personally. But what scares me is that some of them are getting a little raggedy around the edges and frazzled at the seams. We've been fighting this fight (pardon the choice of words) since we were teenagers, some of us.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus said he came in peace and look what happened to him. Before him and after him, there were many, many other people who came in peace and went out in flames or on a cross or under a pile of stones thrown by people who weren't focused on peace. Probably just wanted to get back to their bread and circuses.

I could use a little reassurance here, so if you have something optimistic to say about the peace movement or the state of the world, please comment and make my day. It seems to me that if a dyed in the wool atheist like me, and a guy who sees beings of light in clouds, like my brother, can manage to be best friends for over 50 years, then the rest of the world should be able to get along. Right? I hope so. Peace.