Comments by Delphine Blachowicz Herbert at The Interfaith Alliance forum on war and peace, January 17, 2006, Druid Hills Methodist Church. Other participants included The Reverend E. McKinnon White, retired Methodist minister; Darrell Riley, adjunct professor at CFCC and Ocala Star Banner employee; and Jeffrey Askew, Director, Marion County Veterans Services.
Almost every morning I go out about 5 ‘o’clock to bring in the morning paper. I look up at the heavens and acknowledge my tie to eternity. I am very mindful that I see the same stars that the preacher/poet saw during the long nights when he sought out all that is known under the heavens.
King Solomon and his scribes wrote three thousand years ago when the world was still young. He expressed wisdom in simple dualities. A time for war, a time for peace, a time to love, and a time to hate. The earth’s then 50 million peoples learned by watching the stars and the wandering planets and from the mouths of the elders who passed on tribal knowledge through oral tradition. As agriculture increased men gathered into communities. The violent struggles between man and beast were less immediate. So as physical conditions became less harsh, some people were able to accept a gentler view of life espoused by a man born in Bethlehem a thousand years later. Love your neighbor as yourself became a concept possible of serious contemplation.
We now are six billion souls on this small planet. The stars have moved exponentially during the past three thousand years. So has technological change. But, for the most part, our ability to think has not.
We continue to see the world largely in dualities. Those who want to hold on to the past, repudiate change, while those who look to a future in which mankind’s capacity to expand the quest for a better life for all are chastised by those who say we don’t remember history. I would say this roughly defines the difference between conservatives and progressives.
The ever broadening availability of knowledge through the written word and thus the education of the masses should by now have made war an antique concept. With increase in understanding should come increasing civility toward one another and one another’s differing cultures. No one nation should seek to
Almost every morning I go out about 5 ‘o’clock to bring in the morning paper. I look up at the heavens and acknowledge my tie to eternity. I am very mindful that I see the same stars that the preacher/poet saw during the long nights when he sought out all that is known under the heavens.
King Solomon and his scribes wrote three thousand years ago when the world was still young. He expressed wisdom in simple dualities. A time for war, a time for peace, a time to love, and a time to hate. The earth’s then 50 million peoples learned by watching the stars and the wandering planets and from the mouths of the elders who passed on tribal knowledge through oral tradition. As agriculture increased men gathered into communities. The violent struggles between man and beast were less immediate. So as physical conditions became less harsh, some people were able to accept a gentler view of life espoused by a man born in Bethlehem a thousand years later. Love your neighbor as yourself became a concept possible of serious contemplation.
We now are six billion souls on this small planet. The stars have moved exponentially during the past three thousand years. So has technological change. But, for the most part, our ability to think has not.
We continue to see the world largely in dualities. Those who want to hold on to the past, repudiate change, while those who look to a future in which mankind’s capacity to expand the quest for a better life for all are chastised by those who say we don’t remember history. I would say this roughly defines the difference between conservatives and progressives.
The ever broadening availability of knowledge through the written word and thus the education of the masses should by now have made war an antique concept. With increase in understanding should come increasing civility toward one another and one another’s differing cultures. No one nation should seek to
posted by Delphine Blachowicz Herbert at 7:37 AM
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