Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Sep 15, 2010 8:21 AM PDT
The final chapter of Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America is dedicated to the untold millions of people throughout space-time who have contributed to my understanding of the world we share by their tireless efforts to expand human knowledge. They have each contributed to the accumulation of wisdom that will allow us to collectively save our planet, our children’s future and our individual and collective souls.
Growing up, like many others I felt out of place among my peers and the world at large. While I tasted the pleasures of living in the modern world, I was also acutely aware that others were suffering so that Americans might enjoy the blessings of liberty and privilege that others did not. After living through the murders of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, I was depressed for decades by the continuing violence and hatred I encountered every day on the television and in my daily life.
Having been brought up in a loving home and being tutored by open minded priests in the teachings of Christ, I was convinced that Jesus was not going to return to Earth to save us from ourselves. He had already done all that needed to be done to enable the Christian world to abandon religious conflicts within and between the various sects of Christianity and other great religions. His command was not always easy to follow but was simple in concept: Love and care for one another and forgive those who have done wrong. This is the only way to peace within and in the world at large.
I was increasingly depressed to observe that the opposite was occurring throughout most of my life until I perceived that a new world was not only possible but inevitable as the American people began to awaken to their individual and collective responsibility to our neighbors and our children to act together to save the world from endless war, pandemic, mass starvation and environmental destruction.
I was increasingly depressed to observe that the opposite was occurring throughout most of my life until I perceived that a new world was not only possible but inevitable as the American people began to awaken to their individual and collective responsibility to our neighbors and our children to act together to save the world from endless war, pandemic, mass starvation and environmental destruction.
I do not know but believe that God is the collective consciousness of the better angels of our nature. To give up hope that we can save human civilization from self-destruction is the most destructive act we can commit. It is a betrayal of those who have died in the name of freedom.
More importantly, it stains our souls with the act of abandoning our children to the ravages of international corporate terrorists who are threatening to enslave us with endless war and the abandonment of the social contract. In the process, these severely disturbed psychopaths deny that they are destroying the environment we all share just so that they can continue to enjoy their privileged positions that they seem to believe that God intended them to occupy for eternity.
More importantly, it stains our souls with the act of abandoning our children to the ravages of international corporate terrorists who are threatening to enslave us with endless war and the abandonment of the social contract. In the process, these severely disturbed psychopaths deny that they are destroying the environment we all share just so that they can continue to enjoy their privileged positions that they seem to believe that God intended them to occupy for eternity.
I have long said that greed breeds stupidity and inbreeding breeds idiocy. The self-styled Masters of the Universe who engineer war for profit have gone a bridge too far and set themselves up for a dramatic fall when the Peoples of the United States and the world come together to take away their toys. It has been my effort to lay down a plan that will end the threat of worldwide fascism that would lead to the destruction of human civilization.
It is my hope that the world will first unite to save itself and then re-establish itself along cultural lines rather than political ones. If we succeed, we will preserve the distinctive cultural elements that make us unique and able to thrive in a world of marvelous contrasts. If you share my vision, let me be the first to welcome you to the world I have been trying to envision throughout this life and perhaps others.
In the words of Jim Reeves:
Welcome to my world.
Won't you come on in?
Miracles I guess
still happen now and then.
Step into my heart,
leave your cares behind.
Welcome to my world,
build with you and mine.
Knock and the door will open,
seek and you will find.
Ask and you'll be given
the key to this world of mine.
I will be waiting here
with my arms unfurled.
Waiting just for you,
welcome to my world.
Waiting just for you,
welcome to my world.
Rick Staggenborg, MD
Sawyers Rapids, Oregon
END OF BOOK ONE
This is so succinct Rick, perfect in exactly what Christ was trying so hard (and still is trying by his words) to teach us: "His command was not always easy to follow but was simple in concept: Love and care for one another and forgive those who have done wrong. This is the only way to peace within and in the world at large." It is the only logical solution to end war, to stop injustice. Although I would not consider myself a Christian (which sect? which teachings of dogma), if to be a Christian is to love and care for everyone and to forgive is the solution, then I am one by this definition. Thank you for your excellent writings, your exhausting dedication to trying to help everyone and to save our planet from it's inability to sustain our species if we continue to spew emissions, polute it, and drain our resources.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Linda. The way you define Christianity is the way I do and the reason I call myself a Christian. I believe that Christ was teaching a philosophy no different from Buddhism, Hinduism or Judaism at there most essential levels. Therefore I consider myself also a Buddhist and Hindu.
ReplyDeleteI would be as proud to call myself a Jew or Muslim but for one thing: Judaism says that to be a Jew is to be born a Jew and Islam states that if you do not accept Mohammad as the final messenger of God then you are not Muslim.
Such hard lines between these sects and humanity as a whole create artificial distinctions that keep us from understanding our essential common humanity.
I have wonderful friends who are Jewish or Muslim and do not see themselves as distinct from others but as long as they continue to separate their friends into "us" and "them" they are missing the essential message of all the great prophets: We are one people, descended from common seed in Africa.
If we want to save human civilization, we got to get back to the Garden.