Tag Archives: voting

Voting Peace

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Right after I write this, I’m taking out the trash (trashday never stops!) and walking down the street to the polls. I get to walk to vote. My friend went to another town 4 hours away so she could watch her baby, dressed in white carrying her baby, vote before catching the train home so she could vote.

I’m dressing in white because I’m a woman and I get to vote. And I honor that right.

My feed is filled with voting. Neighbors, with differing views, being Americans. Yay!

And when the fog is lifted, we will still be neighbors. Let us commit to this: we will still be friends. Because voting is as American as apple pie. Hatred is not. Let us Peace as best we can.

everydaypeacetuesday45nov8

May the Peace of the Sun Shine Upon You

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This is a great pic. There’s the Sun, falling out of that tiny hole in the clouds, falling on you.

It seemed a gift, this picture from Trish. This little bit of the Sun, with the cooperation of the clouds, has chosen us. Our work is to say yes; to choose back. You know me, what I think we’re to choose back, what I think we’re to say Yes! to is Peace. Our world, and specifically our country, is in deep need of Peace.

What to do? Well, here’s one place I think each and every one of us can make a huge difference. As many I know, I’m disturbed by the people, young and old, who think that opting out of civic responsibility is a choice. Today I’m really talking about voting.

Voting is a gift of the republic. It is also a gift to the republic. We are to vote in the best interests of the republic, not simply based on our hopes and disappointments.

If people are put in harm’s way as a result of our actions, we are responsible. Are people safe? Are they fairly paid? Do they have insurance? Do they have enough to eat? These are things we cannot put in jeopardy. Or perhaps farther in jeopardy.

Not getting what we want in an election is a call to be involved in the long term, rather than notice to abstain.

Voting is just one thing where we need to be involved over the long haul to make a difference, or to make the difference we want.

I keep reading that good, responsible, caring people, when it comes to voting, fail to cast our votes in ways that will protect the people most in need.

This means that we must wake up. We are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers. We are our mothers’ and our fathers’ keepers and our aunties’ and our uncles’ and all our children, and they are all our children.

We do not stand apart. People’s lives depend on our actions. The Sun shines on us… we are responsible for Peace. Let us lift our faces to the light. And let us do what is just. Peace is all about Justice.

EverydayPeaceSaturday32Aug6

Voting for Peace, Voting Peace

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In this country, scarcely more than a third of us vote. There are all sorts of reasons for it — some are merely excuses — but we don’t use what we have available to us. And of course some people go out of their way to ensure that people don’t get the chance to vote.

Voting must be easy. Voting must be encouraged.

And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had Peace as our goal? That when we entered the voting booth (and even before, as we prepared to enter the voting booth), we pondered on Peace… considering who cared about it, who would work for it. Not just peace and quiet. Peace. Equality. Justice.

What would this world look like if we were to care about Peace. I can tell you it’s going to have to come from the bottom up. Peace isn’t sexy, it’s not a big fund raiser. Yet what a difference it would make in our lives. Some of those differences, we can’t even imagine. We’ve never lived with Peace, Equality, and Justice. To many have lived with inequality and injustice and as Marley told us: “no Justice, no Peace!”

It all swirls around, doesn’t it. What we have before us to do. Some days it feels my hopes for Peace are so ridiculous, so unreachable. Other days, I can see the edges that have to be mended and think oh, here’s a fix for this one little piece.

But what matters, i think, is that I keep my eye on it, that I encourage my heart and maybe yours. And voting really matters. It matters that we vote. It matters that we vote for Peace.

It’s not simply about the Presidency, it’s voting for all the little offices that make our country work. The town councils and school boards, the director of parks and rec, the municipal services board — these all make a difference.

Voting for them makes a difference, it starts building Peace at a fundamental level (when we do it right). Running for those positions also makes a difference. Both the voting and the running require good preparation. What does Peace look like? How can I help in bringing that about?

So, my friends, vote and vote well. Vote for Peace. Get the Peace of having voted for Peace. It matters, don’t waste it. Every vote matters. Every day, Peace for Everyday Peace.

EverydayPeaceTuesday14Apr5