Today’s post comes from Congressman Loomis Beechly, representing Minnesota’s 9th District – all the water surface area in the state.
Greetings Constituents,
You may have noticed the 9th District is getting mentioned in the news lately but if you haven’t been paying close attention I want to assure you that nothing is probably wrong. That blurry film clip of a young man losing his footing and falling out of the frame could have been caused by anything, and the suggestion that I intended for it to happen is only that – guesswork.
But then that’s the news business for you – you don’t have to literally do anything to get talked about these days. There are any number of mysterious reasons why the press might turn its spotlight on you.
For instance, they keep the contender’s names secret for 50 years after the voting ends, so there’s no way to know for sure if I have or haven’t been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. But since it came out yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is on this year’s list, I figure there’s hope for everyone – including me!
One of the greatest things about the NPP is that you don’t have to be a particularly peaceful person personally to win it – you only have to have done something to advance the cause. This is very encouraging for me because, as my staff will tell you, sometimes I can be rather short tempered! For example, I do admit to reacting passionately the other day when a junior aide failed to proofread my talking points and sent me out in front of the world’s press to denounce the Russian invasion of “Crimeany”.
Bryan, that wasn’t a “shove”. I was giving the reporters a physical demonstration of a valid defensive strategy against aggression. Actively and vigorously seeking arms-length distance from an unbalanced opponent is much more of a pacifist response than sending in unmarked troops or even bombs. The fact that you didn’t do anything to attack me doesn’t negate the usefulness of that relatively peaceful approach. And your concussion really says more about how unforgiving gravity can be rather than any kind of harsh attitude towards subordinates or overall lack of impulse control on my part.
And like I say, how you act on a personal level isn’t the point – winning the Nobel Peace Prize is all about the effect you have on the world. And to my knowledge I haven’t started any wars, which is something not everyone can say!
We won’t hear the name of this year’s winner for quite some time, but I’m content to wait knowing I have not been officially eliminated … yet. In the meantime, let’s keep the chatter down. Gossip is fun, but we have important work to do!
Your Congressman,
Loomis Beechly
What promotes peace?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning. What promotes peace? That is a very touchy subject as far as I’m concerned. It is alway too easy for our leaders to promote war and very had to find a way to stop them. There are always people trying to bring about peace. They are usually ignored and sometimes attacked as being unpatriotic, unrealistic, or some kind of crazy radicals. The people who get the Nobel Prize are not always truly peace makers. There is an alternative to the Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award. I think the people that win that award should be better know we should consider following the examples set by them.
LikeLike
Peace is a byproduct of a change in attitude.I don’t know how we can promote such a wide-based attitude change, though. Tough topic today, Dale. I am interested in the group Jim mentions and would like to know more about it.
LikeLike
The information about the Right Livelihood Award can be found on the internet. One of the winners is Amy Goodman, who hosts the daily news show Democracy Now, that can can be listened to over the internet. People who have received the RL Award appear on that show along with other people who should be heard by the public and aren’t very often covered by the mainstream media. There are some public TV and Radio stations that carry Democracy Now including KFAI.
LikeLike
I have had to do more mediation lately between divorced parents, in situations where there is no peace, and the only way it works is if the participants agree that no matter how odious and vile they find the other party, everyone has to use good manners and everyone deserve respect.
LikeLike
In my family peace was maintained by not talking about issues and stuffing one’s feelings. Clearly this is not a terribly healthy way of avoiding a fight. Pete Seeger believed in music, and especially singing together, as a way to peace. I think the bottom line on peace is acknowledging the other (your “enemy”) as a human being with needs and wants equally important to your own, whether it’s water rights or land to grow their own food or freedom to follow their own conscience. Then it’s up to you to start the negotiation for a fair balance among your needs and theirs. The problem is getting human beings to see the humanity in each other…and to control the primal greed that makes us clutch what we have and try to take more from those who may not have enough. Greed, I think, is the key to it all.
LikeLike
Innocence, by Irving Layton
How does one tell
one’s fourteen-year-old-daughter
that the beautiful
are the most vulnerable
and that a rage
tears at the souls
of humans
to corrupt innocence
and to smash butterflies
to see their wings
flutter in the sun
pulling weeds and flowers
from the soil;
and that all, all
go under the earth
to make room for more
weeds and flower
–some more beautiful than others?
LikeLike
What’s up today? Is everyone taking Dale’s -er, Congressman Beechly’s- recommendation to heart or is my computer just not finding comments posted since 9 a.m.? “In the meantime, let’s keep the chatter down.”
LikeLike
Or maybe everyone gave up the trail for Lent.
LikeLike
I don’t feel I have anything to say on this topic.
LikeLike
What promotes peace? Women who gave birth to the young men and women risking their lives for the neo con’s
never meeting a war they didn’t like. And a few men who dare to push back on the hawks of Congress.
LikeLike
The baboons are a microcosm of the world’s great thinkers, and, like them, we can’t arrive at a good solution for promoting peace either.
LikeLike
Go here and read the blurb and watch the 2 videos. It’s all about finding a connection:
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/2-videos-2-worlds-but-its-the-same-song-and-dance
LikeLike
thats a hoot holly thanks
LikeLike
Peace is easy
It’s those other guys who screw it up by not staying on the right track. They always do something to tick mr off right in the middle of the peace we are having… If you want to be peaceful quit ticking me off.
Gandhi was on over the weekend and it reminded us that when you let the bullies act like jerks by doing in peaceful stuff while you commit to not sinking to their level eventually you won as long as you have the eyes of the world on you. If you are willing to take a punch in the face and a kick I. The teeth on top of insults and antagonistic poppycock and remain on the higher ground you will win or be rubbed out. Either way the lack of fight is achieved eventually.
Family hot buttons. Political back biting, underhanded self promotion at all cost and no consideration for anyone else make a peaceful world hard . The Dahlia Lama is required to inhabit us in order to pull this off , even that will not help if Vladimir Putin or my sister is in the room
LikeLike
LikeLike
Isn’t it love and understanding?
LikeLike
Love, understanding and a good hard look in the mirror every morning while you say to yourself “Gees, don’t take yourself so seriously today!”
LikeLike
LikeLike
maybe my favorite
LikeLike
I remember once saying to a sister-in-law, “If we can’t come up with a way to be peaceful in our family, how can we expect the world to be peaceful? – it starts at home.” I still believe that, but I still don’t know how to get people to sit down and listen to each other. I used to believe love was enough, but people have to feel safe enough to express love.
LikeLike
An abundance of resources promotes peace. In times of scarcity, people start beating their ploughshares into swords again.
LikeLike
LikeLike
nice
LikeLike
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your website accidentally, and
I am surprised why this coincidence didn’t happened in advance!
I bookmarked it.
LikeLike
welcome amg. there is a daily blog posted either on this site or on its sister site at the baboondocks ( see upp corner link)
if you thought this was a good day for info you may be ready to slide into the group. newbies are always welcome
LikeLike
Hey amg…. visit us any time!
LikeLike
i think dale pushed the wrong button. he will discover it about noon and enter something. in the meantie we can contemplate the peace he had us focus on yesterday.
pjs back for the gloabal warming today. welcome back pj
LikeLike
Thanks, tim. Came back a little past nine last night. Lots of errands and chores to attend to today. Had deviate from my policy of not returning to shoes after I wear sandals in the spring! I’ll check in later if I get caught up. Peace.
LikeLike
Peace is not a lack of war, nor is peace a lack of conflict. There will always be conflicts – between family members, nations, ethnic groups, and those who feel that it’s okay to squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle and those who insist on squeezing it from the bottom up. It becomes a question of how you diffuse or work through that conflict, and that is a conundrum as each situation is different and has a different set of possible answers. As Crow Girl says, the first step is acknowledging the humanity of your enemy/opponent/toothpaste tube squeezer – and sometimes that is the hardest step (see Renee’s note about divorce).
LikeLike
In my lifetime the US has gone to war many times. I think wars start for three reasons. First, one group has to acquire hate or fear for another group. That happens because of stereotypical thinking and ignorance. Second, people promoting a war always miscalculate what it will cost. Third, people who beat the drum for war are always badly informed about the potential for colossal violence to accomplish good.
What I keep hoping for is more recognition of how awful wars are and how violence is likely to promote more violence, not put an end to conflict. But it almost seems like each generation that learns about the horrors of war ages and grows quiet, so that when younger people suddenly acquire a lust for military adventures there are not enough voices urging caution. I had hoped that the war in Vietnam would have proved the point once and for all, but it did not. It breaks my heart to see how eager some folks are to go to war thinking that good things will come of it.
LikeLike
I agree, Steve. Wars are never a good thing and we should not think that there can not be an end to war making. I think wars are tied into a failure of people to be good citizens in many different ways. When we don’t take care of our responsibilities as citizens we create the conditions that lead to wars.
LikeLike
Dale ust be flying to Oslo to accept his award.
LikeLike
“must be “
LikeLike
The poem I posted above–“Innocence”–is one of my favorite poems and it explains to me many things, like why peace is so hard to attain in communities. There will always be bullies and maulers, the self-righteous, the self-aggrandizers.
LikeLike
Morning all – I’ve been sporadic the past couple of weeks. Once again a brutal work schedule – ick. Anyway, did we ever decide what date in April for Blevins? I think we left it that tim was going to decide since he is hosting…. but I haven’t read the last couple of weeks really closely, so I could have missed it!
LikeLike
leave it to tim….that could be a problem with pre planning.
making an executive decision … heck i can do that.
4/20 sounds like a date. 2:00.
the theme is war.
ladies bomber squadron and the other selection is a little war ditty too.
camouflage shorts will be appropriate
LikeLike
Thanks tim. On my calendar. Not sure what kind of food to bring for a war them…. I’ll have to think on it!
LikeLike
If I remember, and if I have some Lyle’s golden syrup by then, I will bring Anzac biscuits.
LikeLike
Yum!
LikeLike
i think todays war folks are the worlds most unworldly kids being led to slaughter by the world fattest hogs. turns out putin wants ukraine because of oil gas and commercial dollars that russia has little opportunity to sell or cash in on from elsewhere. the us wars are all about the good old boys in the old white guys club trying to figure out how to bolster the future prospects for the corporations like haliburton to keep skinning the cat and slaying the us taxpayers while their buddies are still in office and accepting contributions. the iran iraq afghanistan pakistan conflicts are in countries where the hope for the future is running water and electricity. no wonder they hate us. can you imagine fgoing to the corner store in bumfork third world and seeing coca cola and the tv set to al jazeera telling the state of the world? it must be like being sentenced to live as a third class citizen on the planet with no prospect of ever getting higher on the ladder. and then to hear the bickering over here about the stupid ridiculous issues and arguments that the average 3rd grader would declare stupid. we are the guys telling them how to behave? revolution!!!
how do you find peace? let the ugly things that happen go on and try to make life better if you can. find a way to reward people who make the world better and fine people who dont. who is it that declares it is ok to pump the earths oil out of the ground and charge us for it. who is tit hat says its ok to pour tons of poison into the air rivers and fields of the planet and then declare it is not part of the deal to clean up the mess? how do you find peace? put your head in the sand and pretend you dont see all the problems and injustice that the other guy should be hung up by the thumbs for. i think peace is a fine goal, like fitness and weight goals. job placement and feeding the starving people of the world.
i believe my favorite bumper sticker is still “visualize whirled peas”.
that i can visualize.
LikeLike
Russia says they have a right to protect interests in neighboring countries. We in our history have never taken that attitude, except of course for Canada, Mexico, and Cuba.
I just read a book about a Canadian traveling across Canada. He talks about history, sometimes touching on how Canadians see the disputes the US has had with Canada since 1775, which is a far different point of view than ours.
LikeLike
Clyde – I think you know the rule… mention a book, tell VS the title. By the way, I think the book about the kids biking through Great Britain with no money was your recommendation, right (Free Country)? It was a hoot.
LikeLike
Not really very good.
LikeLike
I believe that good, dark chocolate can go a long ways in promoting peace. Heck, let’s not limit it to chocolate – good foods and potlucks go a long ways towards creating peace and goodwill.
LikeLike
Greetings patient Baboons,
I was going to say that patience is the thing that promotes peace. And to prove the point, I made you wait around all day.
tim predicted I would discover that today’s post hadn’t posted around noontime. Thanks for the vote of confidence, tim. Just add 5 hours and you’ve got me pretty well figured out.
I did have a post set to go in The Baboondocks this morning. I still don’t know why it failed to launch. Hmmm.
Though this rarely happens, let’s call this a post-less weekday and get on with our lives. Something will appear in Baboondocks tomorrow and here on Trail Baboon on Saturday, and we’ll not speak of this again!
LikeLike
My lips are zipped!!
LikeLike
speak of what?
LikeLike
Dale, how was Oslo?
LikeLike
Oslo? It was Norsky.
LikeLike
You went there today, remember, to pick up your Nobel Prize.
LikeLike
Stockholm, I mean stockholm. That is where you were today.
LikeLike
(Work with me here. I am trying to provide a distraction.)
LikeLike
No hard feelings, Dale, for that thing of which we should not speak. I hope you don’t beat yourself up too much when this happens…the baboons are pretty good at finding something to say, and, in my case, I often can’t figure out how to answer the question of the day until the day is over, so it works well for me.
LikeLike
Edith, don’t you remember? Dale wrote today about flying to Stockholm!
LikeLike
his arms are tired
LikeLike
huh?
LikeLike
I think that everything said made a bunch of sense.
But, think on this, suppose you composed a catchier post title?
I am not saying your information is not solid, however what if you added a post title that makes people desire
more? I mean Possibly As Qualified As Anyone | Trail Baboon is a little vanilla.
You should look at Yahoo’s home page and see
how they create article headlines to get people to click.
You might try adding a video or a related pic or
two to grab people excited about everything’ve got
to say. In my opinion, it might bring your blog a little livelier.
LikeLike
Right away I am going to do my breakfast, later than having my
breakfast coming again to read other news.
LikeLike