Daniel Moeck
07-08-2004, 06:19 PM
greetings everyone,
fran, the lucky unicorn wrote:
>i am sorry we are in iraq. i did not back the action in any way. i ask
>the people of iraq to forgive me, and my country's people for our
>participation, destruction, the killing of their people, and the abuse
>and occupation of their country. i write this not to get me off the
>hook, but to invoke forgiveness and help stop the karma.
>
>in love and light,
i hope it is o.k. if i shift this topic a little more toward the topic of
the u.s. occupation of iraq. i think it has been very hard for most
americans to come to peace about this whole situation. more understanding
of karma, forgiveness, and personal vs. national responsibility could
restore some of the unity we, as a nation, have lost over it.
my son had just entered the army hoping to get some vocational training,
and i had just started a new love relationship when it was announced that
the u.s. would invade iraq. i have had to consider all sides of the
situation very deeply and yet, after all these months, am still quite
unsettled about it. the new girlfriend was radically opposed to the war
because she opposes absolutely all violence without exceptions. i wrote
letters to my representatives voicing my opposition, but once we were
committed i supported it, half-heartedly. i tried to reason that even
though many iraqi civilians died (9436 according to:
http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html) in our invasion, that in the
long term we were saving more of their lives by stopping saddam who is
thought to have killed over 100,000 during his reign. i agree with jim
holmes who just posted: "defense of the innocent is not bad karma. even if
it is, i will choose to act and accept the karma rather than stand and
watch." the girlfriend and i soon parted ways because she could not answer
me when i asked if she would have me run away if we were walking through
the park together and a mugger attacked her. she could not admit that she
was at odds with her own vehement opposition to all violence, including
defensive violence.
so, knowing my peace-loving son as well as i do, i know that he is serving
his country with honor and bravery, even though he never expected to see
action, and he believes in the mission he is on. he is fighting to make the
world safer for his own wife and children, and i pray that our government
has not tricked him into serving a larger agenda of nation building. every
day i have asked god, "what would love have me personally do to help end
this conflict?"
now i ask any of you who wish to respond, "what would love have you do
about it?"
i don't think i know the best answer yet. but here are a few thoughts and
possibilities:
1) if our leaders' reasons for the invasion were a lie but we all united in
supporting it because we actually believed, as most of our service members
seem to, that we were doing the noble and loving thing for the people of
iraq, then wouldn't the outcome have to be positive anyway?
2) the love we demonstrate in our own immediate circle of influence here at
home actually steers the collective mind of the world toward love more than
any political lobbying we could do hoping to change our leaders' minds.
3) karma is mutable to gods who can truly forgive themselves (i just made
that up). i can't find it now, but i'm sure i read in the first few
chapters of "the shift of the ages" that karma is generally always finished
in one lifetime or less. in other words, the tyrants who killed 1000's or
1,000,000's of innocents do not come back that same number of lifetimes to
suffer the same fate they inflicted on others. does this not suggest that
self-forgiveness, or acceptance of grace/atonement nullifies karma?
4) here is a concise list of tyrants of the 20th century and the numbers of
people they murdered: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/dictat.html
is it hard to accept the possibility that some of them may have already
served their karma and are living normal lives amongst the rest of us now?
5) i know many good-hearted, loving americans today who support the ideals
of communism and socialism and vote accordingly. if you had helped to elect
someone who turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing like some of the
murderous tyrants on the above list would your sense of guilt condemn you
to share their karma, and would you then be happy you could wipe that
karmic slate clean in just 1 lifetime? or, how much of their karma would
you share if you had the power to stop them early in their campaigns, as
pres. bush claims he was doing with saddam, but you elected to stand by and
watch the carnage from a safe distance because you were afraid to kill
anyone in the process of stopping the tyrant?
i guess that's quite enough to get my point across. thank you all for
reading this.
daniel moeck
----------
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fran, the lucky unicorn wrote:
>i am sorry we are in iraq. i did not back the action in any way. i ask
>the people of iraq to forgive me, and my country's people for our
>participation, destruction, the killing of their people, and the abuse
>and occupation of their country. i write this not to get me off the
>hook, but to invoke forgiveness and help stop the karma.
>
>in love and light,
i hope it is o.k. if i shift this topic a little more toward the topic of
the u.s. occupation of iraq. i think it has been very hard for most
americans to come to peace about this whole situation. more understanding
of karma, forgiveness, and personal vs. national responsibility could
restore some of the unity we, as a nation, have lost over it.
my son had just entered the army hoping to get some vocational training,
and i had just started a new love relationship when it was announced that
the u.s. would invade iraq. i have had to consider all sides of the
situation very deeply and yet, after all these months, am still quite
unsettled about it. the new girlfriend was radically opposed to the war
because she opposes absolutely all violence without exceptions. i wrote
letters to my representatives voicing my opposition, but once we were
committed i supported it, half-heartedly. i tried to reason that even
though many iraqi civilians died (9436 according to:
http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html) in our invasion, that in the
long term we were saving more of their lives by stopping saddam who is
thought to have killed over 100,000 during his reign. i agree with jim
holmes who just posted: "defense of the innocent is not bad karma. even if
it is, i will choose to act and accept the karma rather than stand and
watch." the girlfriend and i soon parted ways because she could not answer
me when i asked if she would have me run away if we were walking through
the park together and a mugger attacked her. she could not admit that she
was at odds with her own vehement opposition to all violence, including
defensive violence.
so, knowing my peace-loving son as well as i do, i know that he is serving
his country with honor and bravery, even though he never expected to see
action, and he believes in the mission he is on. he is fighting to make the
world safer for his own wife and children, and i pray that our government
has not tricked him into serving a larger agenda of nation building. every
day i have asked god, "what would love have me personally do to help end
this conflict?"
now i ask any of you who wish to respond, "what would love have you do
about it?"
i don't think i know the best answer yet. but here are a few thoughts and
possibilities:
1) if our leaders' reasons for the invasion were a lie but we all united in
supporting it because we actually believed, as most of our service members
seem to, that we were doing the noble and loving thing for the people of
iraq, then wouldn't the outcome have to be positive anyway?
2) the love we demonstrate in our own immediate circle of influence here at
home actually steers the collective mind of the world toward love more than
any political lobbying we could do hoping to change our leaders' minds.
3) karma is mutable to gods who can truly forgive themselves (i just made
that up). i can't find it now, but i'm sure i read in the first few
chapters of "the shift of the ages" that karma is generally always finished
in one lifetime or less. in other words, the tyrants who killed 1000's or
1,000,000's of innocents do not come back that same number of lifetimes to
suffer the same fate they inflicted on others. does this not suggest that
self-forgiveness, or acceptance of grace/atonement nullifies karma?
4) here is a concise list of tyrants of the 20th century and the numbers of
people they murdered: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/dictat.html
is it hard to accept the possibility that some of them may have already
served their karma and are living normal lives amongst the rest of us now?
5) i know many good-hearted, loving americans today who support the ideals
of communism and socialism and vote accordingly. if you had helped to elect
someone who turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing like some of the
murderous tyrants on the above list would your sense of guilt condemn you
to share their karma, and would you then be happy you could wipe that
karmic slate clean in just 1 lifetime? or, how much of their karma would
you share if you had the power to stop them early in their campaigns, as
pres. bush claims he was doing with saddam, but you elected to stand by and
watch the carnage from a safe distance because you were afraid to kill
anyone in the process of stopping the tyrant?
i guess that's quite enough to get my point across. thank you all for
reading this.
daniel moeck
----------
---
outgoing mail is certified virus free.
checked by avg anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
version: 6.0.716 / virus database: 472 - release date: 7/5/2004
[non-text portions of this message have been removed]