Dan Pallotta

11.05.2004

Friday, November 5, 2004

If "winning back the White House," or "winning back power," means that the right wing has to lose the White House - has to lose power - then we are all playing a losing game. We must find a way that everyone wins the White House, and everyone wins power. I have no interest in being on the winning side of a win-lose paradigm. I would just as soon be on the losing side. It matters not to me.

The only things that interests me is a context in which there are no losers - in which no one feels that the power of another comes at the expense of their own.

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11.04.2004

Thursday, November 4th, 2004

The philosophy that Jesus taught, and that Gandhi taught, and that Martin Luther King adopted, has validity, and we must not allow the tidal waves of militarism and fear to let us abandon them or forget them. Gandhi, Jesus, and Martin Luther King would be laughed off the O'Reilly factor, laughed off Dennis Miller, laughed off the Rush Limbaugh show, and laughed off the convention stages of either the Democratic or Republican party. The popular and political climate for a discussion on non-violence is non-existent right now. To even be considered for the Presidency John Kerry had to assure the nation that he would kill all the terrorists and flood the Pentagon with money. Dennis Kucinich, The candidate who recommended we establish a Department of Peace, was never considered a contender. He was considered a joke,

Let us not forget that Martin Luther King brough a new era of civil rights to America in less than ten years with a philosophy of non-violence. Let us not forget that Gandhi stood down the British Empire with a philosophy of non-violence. Let us not forget that Jesus ignited the very religion that now embraces violence with a philosophy of non-violence. None of these three men struck back. Each of them was willing to give their own lives for the sake of a larger vision.

Could non-violence work with respect to terrorsim? It has at least as much a chance of working as violence, but God have mercy on the person who suggests it in this era. I am well aware that if I ever run for office what I am writing today will be waived in my face as proof that I am unfit to defend our country. I'm not going to worry about that. For God's sake, if a man can't have an honest debate with himself, if reflection is treason, if the mere mention of non-violence forfeits your right to lead, then there's not a country left worth defending anyway.

These men and their teachings must not be relegated to the shadows now. They must be brought to the forefront. I don't want a President who is proud of his wars. I want a President like Lincoln, whose sorrow over war shown on his face. If bombs must fly, then I want a President who reads Gandhi and Thomas Merton and Nelson Mandela while they are flying, not one who comes up with boastful marketing slogans like "shock and awe."

It makes no sense to me that war could lead to peace. It is absolutely illogical on its face. It has not led us to peace yet. It has led us only to more war. Gandhi suggested to Churchill that England lay down her weapons when Hitler began to attack. He was ridiculed. Perhaps his solution would really have made World War II the war to end all wars. We will never know. But we know that his solution was not attempted, and we know that war persists. I don't know if I would ever have the courage to do what Gandhi suggested. But I know this - if we abandon completely what Jesus and Gandhi taught, the world as we know it will come to a horrible end.

These men had wisdom, and we need to find a place for that again. Even if it means that people will laugh at us. I can be laughed at. God knows I've been laughed at before. If it means a peaceful future for all humanity and for all of humanity's children - if it means that American children, and the rest of the children around the world will never have to face the prospect of their countries being destroyed by violence, we should be willing to be the laughing stock of the world.

We would be in good company.

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11.03.2004

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2004

And now the real work begins - the work of creating a vision so magnificent that it overwhelms all appeals to fear. The Democratic party as we know it is obsolete. The Republican party, despite the fact that it won, even more so.

I will try to write at greater length later in the day.

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11.02.2004

Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - ELECTION DAY - VOTE ! - VOTE!

I have come with some friends to one of the swing states in the elction to do get-out-the-vote work. It is wonderful to see all of the young people and all of the new people that are involved in this election. It is wonderful to see people participating in their democracy once again. As I have written many times before, I think that the current system has narrowed the context - constarined the breadth of choice - in a way that it is truly tragic. The end of the global AIDS epidemic, the end of world hunger, the end of war altogether, the development of the most marvelous new technologies, adventures, and explorations, are not on the agenda. They have been obscured to the point that people don't even know they COULD be on the agenda. But this is the system we have to work with. And if people will continue to participate and get involved and take personal responsibility for the world they live in, as so many are doing today, then one day we could expand the choices. If I have anything to do with it we will, I can tell you that. How about you?

What a beautiful world it is, isn't it? That we get to create it however we want it to be. That's what today is about, no matter how constricted the choices may be.

By the way, I want to expand the website over the next month or two - add in a section for comments, add in a section for some of you to offer your thoughts for everyone to see. I can't say exactly when the re-construction will happen, but pretty soon.

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Monday, November 1, 2004

I am as happy as I have ever been in my life. I have had times when the circumstances were much better. But never a time when I felt so good inside. I have learned a different definition of power. A different definition of wealth. A different definition of achievement. A different definition of self. I am much better served by these than by the definitions the world gives us.

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Sunday. October 31, 2004

Halloween. Not nearly as scary as the real world. This is the way with most things. The things we fear are never the things we really should fear. Trouble always comes from the place you least expect it. Could it be that this feeding of the fear of terrorism is the very thing that will make it materialize? Could it be that the fear that you will never amount to anything is the very thing that will make it come true?

Self-fulfilling prophecies. They are the way of the world.

Let us prophesize something beautiful then.

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Saturday, October 30, 2004

All things are relative, right? This is why I have never felt that hell could exist. Not hell as we've been taught about it, anyway - some place where you burn in eternity. Even in hell, you'd have good days and bad days, right? I mean, every once in a while you'd wake up and say, "Hey it doesn't feel as hot today." Same thing with heavene as an absolute. Heaven, as it was portrayed to me as a child - this desolate place in the clouds - seemed boring as, well... hell.

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