I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed right now, on the personal level. Yet I have this perpetual desire to never let the personal woes and difficulties overwhelm the big picture.
So, in an effort to keep things in perspective, I wanted to at least highlight = lift up for prayer everything that is going on down in Georgia right now, as human rights activists, Catholic Worker members, and really a whole bunch of folks (many of them Christians on discipleship journeys that take them to the gates of Ft. Benning after being with people affected by US foreign policy) from across the country gather to celebrate resistance to the school of the americas (WHINSEC) which has trained a number of people in doing the dirty work of US american politics through the last number of decades. check it out at: www.soaw.org .
Please pray for reconciliation and a decrease in militarism. And pass the world along about this celebration of resistance and mercy.
If you have any comments about lifegiving and motivational protests that you have been in, I’d love to learn about them. If you have any encouragement for the protesters there (some will be arrested) I will pass those prayers and messages of encouragement on to them there.
Many Ron Paul supporters were protesting the Iraq War in 2007 in what would become the modern tea party movement which was hijacked by the neocons.
His ideas live on and are changing the minds of many in conservative circles about the need for war.
Tell the protesters to embrace peace, there are many who support them throughout the political spectrum.
I wouldn’t say the Tea Party has been “Hi-jacked” by anyone. It still doesn’t have any firm leadership. People will use it, or use the name/catch-phrase “tea party” for their own purposes. Many people can see through Mrs. Palin’s (and others like her) intentions in being at events that bear the “Tea Party” name whilst not being officially sanctioned by any part of the “Tea Party” since it’s not even an organization. Sorry for the tun-on sentence.
I just came across this article talking about this question today:
Is the Tea Party a nonviolent movement?
Here’s an excerpt:
WOW! That article is all sorts of wrong. First, the question “Is the Tea Party a non-violent movement?” The answer is, No. It’s not a movement that resorts to violence, however, non-violence is not the key message. Dr. King’s goal was non-violence, Ghandi’s was non-violence. The Tea Party[s] doesn’t share that common aim.
Again, the accusations that Tea Party[s] are some sort of corporate conspiracy or product of Fox News is just false. Yes, people have co-opted “Tea Party” for their events in the same way that professional wrestling uses the term “wrestling” when it’s nothing more than a stage play. The accusation that the Tea Party[s] did nothing when Bush was in office are unfounded, the first modern Tea Party was in 2007, well before Obama was even the Democratic nominee and was a reaction toward the spending deficits that this country, it’s states, and it’s local governments continually seem to produce. The accusation that the Tea Party is racist is, again, without merit. Yes, there are racist people in the Tea Party just as there are racist carpet layers and racist tax attorneys and racist clergymen. But the idea that it’s a racist movement is lacking any evidence. I’ve been to tax day Tea Parties, heard the speakers, and seen the protest signs. It’s an eclectic bunch but the resounding theme is, or at least was, “Stop spending the money so frivolously. Balance the books. Stop asking us to give and give and give.”
Many people forget that the modern day tea parties began in 2007, under president bush, in protest of deficit spending and foreign wars of aggression.
You may want to read ‘A Tea Party to Nowhere’ by Philip Giraldi.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=907