Stunning Snapshots of Peace in Times of War

Songs of Peace | Kiev, Ukraine: "The 2013 protests were shrouded with violence from both sides, including 200 protesters who commandeered a digger and attacked the presidential palace. The protests and riots followed the Government’s decision to side with Russia rather than the European Union."

 A rose among thorns | Bangkok, Thailand: A rose is passed form an anti-government protestor to a solider on the other side of a barbed wire fence.

Hug it Out | Bogota, Columbia: During protests for education reform, a peaceful protestor extends a little love to the riot police

Mirrored Reflections | Georgia, USA: "The young child in KKK attire became famous when this image hit the presses because of the way that it showed the innocence of children. Although the child is only known by his first name, Josh, the photographer and trooper met in 2012, 20 years after the image was taken."

Happy Birthday | Brazil, 2013: Protesters bring a cake to an officer who had to work on his birthday. Instant BFF status.

Clean the Streets | London, England: Citizens partner to clean up the streets of London after the riots in 2011.

Make Love Not Riot | Vancouver, BC: After hockey fans took to the street after their home team suffered a loss (to the tune of $5 million in damages), an injured woman's boyfriend stops for a kiss before helping her up and out of there.

If your enemy is hungry... | Columbia, 2013: Protestors feed the riot police with crackers after a long standoff between the two sides.

Defender of the Weak | Bolgota, Columbia: Unarmed woman de-esculates angry rioters, averting violence against cornered police.

The prayers of a people | Cairo, Egypt: Christians surround devout Muslims as they pray, while the revolution wages on around them. The favor was later returned.

A truce, of sorts | Cairo, Egypt: Countrymen grasp hands after soldiers refuse commands to fire upon unarmed civilians.


War and violence are universal, but so is the beauty of peace.

[For more on these and other inspiring photos, visit this link. Hat Tip to PFC Fighter, Jeff Partain for the link.]

GUN WORSHIP

What Jesus Did

"He did away with eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life. And this is key I think, in that this wasn't ceremonial law: his eye, his tooth, his life would "fulfill" the morality of that, freeing mankind from it, and rather, to be loving enemies instead. This is huge, isn't it?" - Rhonda Pruitt Hafley

WHY DID MY FRIEND HAVE TO DIE IN IRAQ?

"Everything’s OK mom, don’t worry about me," he told his mother two weeks before. "I think I’m going to make it."

But for Sweger, Dec. 16 would be the last day to fight. "He was the one who was kicking in the doors and going in first," his father Frank Sweger told MySanAntonio.

Along with his infantry platoon from 1st Battalion 3rd Marines, he was going house-to-house, kicking in doors as he had likely done since the battle had started on Nov. 7. But as he entered one room, friends told me later, he was shot and killed by an insurgent lying in wait.

He was on his last deployment and would've gone on to college. He was funny, a good person, and just 24 years old. Why did he die?

"The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history," he wrote. "It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure."

I'll never know why they died. It wasn't to stop the "mushroom cloud" or to defend the nation after 9/11. It sure wasn't for freedom, democracy, apple pie, or mom and dad back home.

The only reason they died was for the man or woman beside them. They died for their friends.

I'm just not satisfied with that.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/iraq-war-reasons-2014-1#ixzz2pksAzt36


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JACKSON BROWNE: REBEL JESUS

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
They'll be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all god's graces
And the birth of the rebel jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace
And they call him by the savior
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worshipped in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel jesus

But please forgive me if I seem
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel jesus.

Lyrics by Jackson Browne.

VIOLENCE: A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE?

Physician Gary Slutkin spent a decade fighting tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS epidemics in Africa. When he returned to the United States, he thought he'd escape brutal epidemic deaths. But then he began to look more carefully at gun violence, noting that its spread followed the patterns of infectious diseases. A mind-flipping look at a problem that too many communities have accepted as a given. We've reversed the impact of so many diseases, says Slutkin, and we can do the same with violence. (Filmed at TEDMED.)

Could our culture have misdiagnosed violence? As the director of the initiative Cure Violence, Gary Slutkin approaches gunfire on neighborhood streets as a contagious disease, looking to science and public health for strategies to stop it.

Forgiveness Over Hate

DENVER (AP) — The father of a 17-year-old girl who was fatally shot at her suburban Denver high school said Wednesday that he and his wife have forgiven the killer, and he asked others to do the same.

Michael Davis said at a memorial service for his daughter Claire that the killer was blinded by anger and didn't know what he was doing.

"The young man that shot Claire had a name. His name was Karl Pierson," the father said at the memorial. "For reasons most of us, or all of us, will never know, Karl allowed himself to become filled with anger and rage and hatred.

"That anger, rage and hatred blinded him. He blindly followed a path that led him to do something that no one should ever do. He took an innocent person's life. He took our daughter's life," Michael Davis said, his voice cracking.

"My wife and I forgive Karl Pierson for what he did," Davis said. "We would ask all of you here and all of you watching to forgive Karl Pierson. He didn't know what he was doing."

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