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 Imagine Peace—A Ray of Light in Dark TimesPosted on Oct 16, 2007By Amy Goodman John Lennon would have turned 67 years old last week had he not been murdered in 1980, at the age of 40, by a mentally disturbed fan. On his birthday, Oct. 9, his widow, peace activist and artist Yoko Ono, realized a dream they shared. In Iceland, she inaugurated the Imagine Peace Tower, a pillar of light emerging from a wishing well, surrounded on the ground by the phrase “Imagine Peace” in 24 languages. The legacy of Lennon is relevant now more than ever. The Nixon administration spied on him and tried to deport him, all because he opposed the war in Vietnam. Parallel details of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretap program and the Pentagon’s participation in domestic spying, with mass roundups of immigrants, are chilling, and the lessons vital. Ono conceived the peace tower 40 years ago, at the outset of her relationship with Lennon. She grew up in Japan, surviving the firebombing of Tokyo. She told me, “Because of that memory of what I went through in the Second World War, it is embedded in me how terrible it is to go through war.” She continued: “I thought of building a light tower, and John loved that idea, this light tower that just emerges once in a while. And so, he actually invited me in 1967, the first time that he invited me to his house. I thought it was a party or something, but, no, it was a very quiet day. And he said, ‘Well, actually, I invited you because I wanted to know if you can build the lighthouse in my garden,’ and I said: ‘Oh, dear, no, no. It’s just a conceptual idea. I don’t know how to build anything,’ and I was just laughing. But that’s when he wanted this light tower, and that was 40 years ago.” Forty years ago, the young couple became increasingly active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. The FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, spent tremendous resources targeting critics, most engaged in perfectly lawful dissent. This was later exposed as COINTELPRO, the FBI’s counterintelligence program, which for decades spied on, infiltrated and disrupted domestic groups. Lennon was a pacifist in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. As the anti-war movement was growing in militancy, Lennon and Ono got married, and used their honeymoon as a public appeal for peace. They decided to spend a week in bed, as a “Bed In.” Knowing their action would attract the global news media, the newlyweds ensured that their call for peace was heard and that all photos included the word “Peace.” They launched a poster and billboard campaign, using the phrase “The War Is Over—If you want it.” The actions were creative and lighthearted—but clearly threatening to the Nixon administration. They developed a closer connection to the U.S. anti-war movement and, by 1971, were planning a massive get-out-the-vote concert tour to help defeat Nixon. Nixon and Hoover stepped up their campaign to neutralize Lennon. The FBI increased surveillance and harassment of Lennon, followed by an attempt to deport him. Lennon’s activities were also tracked by the CIA, as revealed in recently declassified documents. Arch-conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond wrote a secret memo pushing deportation to then U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, and the effort moved into full gear. Lennon beat the deportation attempt, and by 1980, with the release of the “Double Fantasy” album, was back demonstrating his creative brilliance, only weeks later to be slain. Today, revelations about current government wiretaps and surveillance continue. Verizon has just revealed to Congress that it supplied customer records to the government more than 94,000 times since 2005. The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered collusion between the Pentagon and the FBI in circumventing the law to obtain financial and credit information on people in the U.S. I asked Yoko Ono to compare the Nixon and Bush administrations: “I’m not that concerned about professional politicians. I always believe that we can change the world by grass-roots movements. It is a very important thing to do. It is the first time that I realized that I respect America so much because there are so many Americans trying to shift the axis of the world to peace.” With major anti-war demonstrations set for cities around the country on Sat., Oct. 27 (see oct27.org), John Lennon’s legacy lives on, from the illuminated sky above Iceland to the heavily surveilled streets here at home. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America. © 2007 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate TAGS:
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By GrammaConcept, October 19, 2007 at 2:16 pm #
Regarding post….#108155…..... by Michael
Your entire post is an inspiration filled with meaningful food for Real Thought…Thank you.
The following words, in particular, contain infinite fertile seeds:
“... I dont know if I have anything worth adding here? Its just that I see people talking about peace and I want in..”
“On the upside, finding people willing to talk about peace is getting a little easier, dont you think? Not peace contingent upon the enemies defeat, but peace as a philosophy, method and goal….”
”...agents of darkness whos sole purpose, nature and desire is to seek the light and snuff it out. Conveniently manichean and difficult to maintain in a population that is in the process of waking up.
Come on, morning. Bring it on…..”
“Agents of darkness” is conceptually highly significant….Endless heartbreaking questions are everywhere regarding the mysterious shifting and abandonment of professed committments on the part of so many in government…vulnerable humans, all….....The agents of the dark forces which ‘make offers they cannot refuse’ are to be deeply pondered and understood for what they are in this, or any, context….We really do know that there is more to the current madness than ‘meets the eye’....There always is…...
Compassion is inexorably incubated within the blood of suffering….The birthing, though laboriously long, and painful is, however, taking place…..one awakening individual after another .......
..........Come On, Morning, Indeed!..............Strive On, All!
Report thisBy Leefeller, October 19, 2007 at 12:00 pm #
Michael,
Great post, trying to explain the insane is a very hard task, you covered it very well.
Since peace is absent to those directly affected by it, sad fact that those in power, would choose war over peace without reason considering they have never experienced it, is mad. A mad man having experience war and who would still would discard peace is even more insane.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 19, 2007 at 11:24 am #
108155 Michael Great post! You know what else comes to mind is that while our government trots along doing things they deem as important, 23% of the polar ice cap just melted in two short years. Drought is everywhere and worse than any in recorded history. Wild fires are burning out of control and communities are running out of drinking water. Now we have this super virus floating around that is resistant to antibiotics. Meanwhile Bush chirps about the threat of an Iran with nukes. This planet is dying and no one is addressing it. All this crap they deem as important isn’t worth a pile of cow manure. We should be devoting all of our time, money and efforts into saving the planet,(if it isn’t too late)and figuring out how humans can survive as a species.
Report thisBy Michael, October 19, 2007 at 1:56 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I like John Lennon both the man and his music. And I’m a fan of the indomitable Amy Goodman. Still, I don’t know if I have anything worth adding here? It’s just that I see people talking about peace and I want in. On the upside, finding people willing to talk about peace is getting a little easier, don’t you think? Not peace contingent upon the “enemies’” defeat, but peace as a philosophy, method and goal. We no longer believe in force as a tool to get our way. And there are more and more people questioning our way. Ironically I think it’s down to the current administration abandoning the covert ways of a century, under the impatient, arrogant influence of the neocons, and adopting similar methods but without the comforting hidden-ness. People are begining to see what it took to get the US to where it is and they don’t like it. It’s at odds with the national myth of American exceptionalsm; we are a good people - as though others aren’t.
Report thisIt’s all so slow though. And those who talk about peace are still easy targets for the self-appointed “realists” who somehow know that the hated other don’t want peace. They can’t be reasoned with and aren’t amenable to negotiation. They’re not like us. “They don’t hate us for anything we’ve done, we didn’t do anything, they hate us for what we are; free and Democratic”. An unlikely notion which posits entire nations of violent reactionary idealogues, agents of darkness who’s sole purpose, nature and desire is to seek the light and snuff it out. Conveniently manichean and difficult to maintain in a population that is in the process of waking up.
Come on, morning. Bring it on.
By Roger Drowne EC ( Earth Citizen ), October 18, 2007 at 8:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
See below PEACE SITES - IDEAS OK 2 COPY
PASS em ON ... also see Earth Citizen - Hand-Shake and Hand-Sign
http://www.RogerART.com
http://www.OneGlobalCommunity.com
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http://www.EarthCitizenNEWS.com
http://www.PresidentOfPlanetEarth.com
some R under construction, now
HELP WANTED
E-us 2 add your ideas 4 sites
OF - Earth Citizens…
BY - E.C. s
FOR - All - Citizens Around OUR Earth…
&
Coming soon…
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a University of Earth Citizens
Report thisWhere All R Teachers & All R Students
Sharing Knowledge With Each Other
All Around OUR Earth
By Michael Shaw, October 18, 2007 at 12:11 pm #
Give Me Some Truth
I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
I’m sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama’s little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now
I’ve had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It’s money for dope
Money for rope
Ah, I’m sick to death of hearing things
from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
I’ve had enough of reading things
by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth now
Report thisJust gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
By Christie, October 18, 2007 at 2:01 am #
Thank you, Mr Canning. Well put. And what made it such a scary song for some who can only imagine god and nation as reasons to live.
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 18, 2007 at 12:50 am #
Claire, John Lennon went beyond just “religious freedom.” His lines included, “imagine there’s no heaven, above us only sky.” He asked that we “imagine there’s no country.” In placing this within a song that called for peace, Lennon was rejecting both religion and nationalism as a valid basis for human conflict.
Report thisBy Claire W, October 17, 2007 at 11:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
John also stood for religious freedom. I think he’d be disappointed to see how extremist Christian and Islam groups are rising up and inserting their doctrine into governments worldwide.
Maybe this monument will help spread a new awareness of what he stood for as a human being.
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, October 17, 2007 at 7:19 pm #
#107826 Voice of Truth, I suggest that, if you want good seats, don’t give out your birth date when you go to buy tickets.
Report thisBy voice of truth, October 17, 2007 at 6:12 pm #
Since JL was killed on my birthday (also Jim Morrison’s birthday, Duane Allman’s, and I believe the same day Hendrix died) I have long been thinking that is why I do not get good seats at concerts.
Report thisBy GrammaConcept, October 17, 2007 at 12:20 pm #
Thank You Very Much for this coverage…..
Those who waste themselves sitting in foolish judgement of a woman who raises a pillar of light in honor of peace, and of her murdered husband, are joining the ranks of bullies with no purpose that they can yet embrace other than to denigrate and ignorantly undermine that which they cannot understand…...To such unfortunate, immature, and embarrassing fellow humans I offer this concept for consideration:
.....Fear of the unknown can be healed through conscientious gratitude….
John Lennon, himself, admittedly and publicly, went from being a perpetrator of violence in thought, word, and deed (“Run For Your Life” and “Getting Better All The Time”, are examples) to a committed man of Peace…....Decisive Change Is Possible…
.....................John Loved Yoko…........................
...............God Is (still) Love; (all) war is (always) hell…...................
Dear Friends,
.................Yearn For Peace….......This WILL Help….....
As we think, so we become.
Wishing All Courage and Warm-Hearted Commitment,
GrammaConcept
Report thisBy mary, October 17, 2007 at 11:28 am #
Great reminder. Things have gotten so bad, I sometimes need a reminder. Are we going to survive this latest assault on our liberties, it’s not looking too good right now…...
Report thisBy Grappa, October 17, 2007 at 8:23 am #
The young turks,the grandchildren of the anti-war movement and civil rights coalitions need to be active, its a rough battle out in the streets and the young must step forward to save this culture from the bigots and fascist oriented leaders who have put policies in place that will rip this country apart if not changed. John was a great musician and I would leave it there.
Report thisBy William Lee, October 17, 2007 at 7:43 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Nice article - we must forever remember John Lennon and what he stood for. But the article misquotes the posters that John and Yoko plastered every major city with back in those dark days. They read “War Is Over…If You Want It”. Not “The War”, but “war”...and that includes the present one! Were he alive today, John, at 67, would be the antiwar leader we so sorelyneed and sadly lack.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 17, 2007 at 5:58 am #
John Lennon was always my favorite Beatle. He was also an inspiration to anyone who believes in world peace. What the FBI did to him, Dr. King and countless others, is a testimonial to the underlying and secretive elements of fascism in this country who promote war, unfettered capitalism(corporatism), abuse human beings around the world, support fascist regimes and who would have us believe the war in Iraq is for democracy.
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 17, 2007 at 12:46 am #
What a country we live in. Those who advocate peace are considered dangerous subversives. Those who support war are rewarded with no-bid contracts.
This piece reminds me of the speech Howard Zinn gave in November 1970: “I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation….I start from the suppositioni that we don’t have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down. Daniel Berrigan is in jail—a Catholic priest, a poet who opposes the war—and J. Edgar Hoover is free….The men who are responsible for the My Lai massacre are not on trial; they are in Washington serving various functions, primary and subordinate, that have to do with the unleashing of massacres….At Kent State University four students were killed by the National Guard and students were indicted. In every city in this country, when demonstrations take place, the protestors…whatever they have done, are assaulted and clubbed by police, and then they are arrested for assaulting a police officer.”
The central point of Zinn’s speech was that when the issue of “civil disobedience” is address as a problem, the very topic was “topsy-turvey.” Our “problem” is not civil disobedience but civil obedience. Perhaps one of best slogans to emerge from that turbulent period is “Question authority!”
Report thisBy THE MANGEMEISTER, October 17, 2007 at 12:03 am #
Something coming out of the mouth of Yoko,oh no!
Report thisBy Christie, October 17, 2007 at 12:02 am #
In attacking Yoko Ono, I do not think you realize that you attack John’s judgment. It is a long-drawn-out racist smear campaign. She had had a long career as a respected artist before she even met him- which is part of what attracted him to her.
If she were truly a media whore, she’d be doing this to gain attention for herself alone, not for the cause of peace. As someone who has endured the scrutiny of the FBI, among other entities, I think continuing to speak out is rather brave on her part.
Take also her contributing a shot in the pro-gay marriage cause, (complete with chart-topping single) and you have someone who is willing to speak out for those who are still marginalized even in many leftish circles.
Consider also her donation of John’s solo catalogue to Amnesty International’s “Instant Karma”.
She uses her position to draw attention to some very worthy causes.
Report thisBy rowdy, October 16, 2007 at 11:41 pm #
PLEASE. John is an iconoclastic hero for millions of us tired old hippies. yoko is a media whore. without john she would not even be known as a mediocre artist.
Report thisBy thomas billis, October 16, 2007 at 10:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
If you really want to see what America is all about compare the death of two singers.John Lennon an important part of American history we have to be reminded of anniversaries and a drug riddled Elvis Presley who was Nixons toadie has become a national icon.Small wonder we are where we are.
Report thisBy Douglas Chalmers, October 16, 2007 at 10:10 pm #
From 1898 - “the eagle’s wingspan of 10,000 miles”! That was hardly ever motivated by peace, uhh.
Report thisBy Leefeller, October 16, 2007 at 9:00 pm #
It has been so long, Peace is but a glint in the minds eye, to have a feeling of peace again, oh please. What is wrong with our nation?
Report thisBy G.Anderson, October 16, 2007 at 8:26 pm #
Thank you very much…
Report thisBy Christie, October 16, 2007 at 8:19 pm #
Excellent article.
Report this