I forget who it said that, "Your right to swing your arm ends at another man's nose." I agree that at the heart of hate is fear. Why do people fear each other? Because they have seen someone of another group hit someone like themselves in the nose. There is a whole history of atrocities that serve to justify that fear. Somewhere along the line it was decided that, to protect your own nose, you should hit somebody else's first.

Fear is a substitute for enlightenment in many spiritual beliefs. It is what turned me away from Christianity and towards Zen.

I think the best way to counter-act such fear is to live one's own life in peace. Except for the very deranged, I think a common desire in all people is a peaceful mind. When people see a man (or woman) of peace, they are inspired to be peaceful themselves. It may be a slow process, but we need to reach out one person at a time.

Fortunately for me, I have not seen the war and horror that you have seen. I think you may have gotten a concentrated dose of it. Perhaps I am naive, but from my little understanding of history, the world is becoming a better place. I doubted it for most of my life, but the Dalai Lama seems to think we now live in the best of all times in history. Given what he has had to deal with, this statement impressed me. Another man of peace, he has influenced me positively, just as you are doing, too.

Here, I found the quote from the Dalai Lama: "We're definitely better off now than we were in the past, and I think the spirit of nonviolence, the spirit of reconciliation, is in the air."

Robert,

The monks sat in the street, poured gas on themselves, and set their ownself on fire to stop the war.

The most Enlightment Men are forced to violence, too.

What was driving that war IS the same which created this war in Iraq. That is the truth untold!

The confusing part for Tony is why he was driven into withdrawing into seclusion. I can explain, but what is the point? One should have clear reasoning, before resorting to violence.

Today, war is happening, and the explanations of reasoning are amiss! Finally, people are turning to Tony for his wisdom of having war experience.

I am a Disabled American Veteran, and I am here to help Tony to understand.

Tony,

Absolutely a most beautiful write up Tony for the question of violence. I, too, believe if we humans arrogantly proclaim a brain, then non-violence should be a no brainer.

Space and Nature which you have so elegantly described can be looked at for a reality check. Space is something to all life, a very enlightened observation of yours. So, take another look and begin to explain why there is no life forms in the empty space. Under the shade of the first and bigger tree, a latter small budding tree dies out. Continue with this kind of observation of Nature, and explain the space between the trees. For example, the angle of the slope in the environment may underlie a not so obvious explanation this summer of a space between trees. But in winter it may be cleared of trees by regular avalanches.

Life, itself, means the tenacity to stay living. And yes, life lives not just off of inorganic matter. From hot vents on the ocean floors, some microscopic animals live off the energy of the heat and inorganic matter. Then life is built upon the death of other life in myriad layers across the planet. For example, did you know that petroleum does not come from swamps and dinosaurs? No, the largest animals in the world live off of microscopic animals in the seven seas. Whales are filter feeders, and have access to the majority of organic matter in the world. Yep, total land vegetation is less than the mass of red tides. This floating organic matter that dies and is buried in the newly created layers of soils from erosion on the ocean floor, later is buried and under the energy of heat and pressure changed into petroleum.

---break--- JAVA time!

Tony,

When I open onto your Internet site, I see your picture of two soldiers walking amid the war devastated landscape. Awesome! Someone took a can as a vase with a few remaining twigs of leaves and placed it back onto the bare stump. That is humanity trying to re-establish Nature, a feeble but noble attempt after we humans leveled such destruction. Thank you ever so much for the reminder.

What do I want to say to you? Too much. Why do I want to say anything? The same as you, the World is screaming for help. While I believe I have answers that would help you understand, I have long hair telling my view, and have learned influencing others is an odd endeavor. You asked, so I will try to cut to the short and quick. But, basically I want to encourage a wonderful writer to rally to the World's need.

One of the important aspects of a country to enjoy a long history in our nation world has been determined to be the re-incorporation of it's veterans of war back into society. The last 30 something years you have experienced the opposite. Why? If I could explain the reasoning behind that, would it then help you to get back into the fray?

Well, you already did. For example, Tony, you asked about: why one poor individual would kill himself in violence to otheres? This is my point, other people have let that question slide, but your war experience says wait a minute I want to bring it up again. That is the leadership which was manipulated and removed from this country, so that this war for 20% of the World's oil resources would be fought.

Where you find the most money and power is where you will find the world's biggest assholes! It is part of America's balance of power, which has allowed us to become so great. It is out-of-whack and you know it. Continue speaking out, and VOTE.

Yes, 50 year plans have been put into effect in our lifetime which relates Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraq by a small group here in America. There are more powerful and richer people in America, who do not speak up because when the scam fails then they pick up all the spoils. That is why there are so many odd questions laying around unanswered. And only a war veteran like yourself who knows to resist war at all costs, says stop I want some answers about our own role first. (Time for another break, later.)

Tony,

You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.
ATTRIBUTION: Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), U.S. president. Quoted in “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, p. 184, Alexander McClure (1904).

The famous aphorism has also been attributed to the showman Phineas T. Barnum
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Our World War II veterans came home, stood together, and voted together which created the 'Happy Day's of the 50's'. We remember those days, when it only took ONE person working a decent trade job to support a whole family of 6 to get the Great American Dream. Most remember the yearly Union and Big Business contract disputes, and their parents on strike for weeks or months every second or third year. Most states remember the 30 year term veteran lawmakers they put into government and kept them their in order to pull the power needed to battle the Rich Man's Republican party. A cohesive group stuck together and worked hard to force the Rich to share a fair wage for the workers piece of the American Pie. And the Corporations remained healthy, too, imagine that.

Well, Lincoln also said something about Divide and Conquer. He represented the born-again small church Christian group and the Rich (not having enough in number to elect themselves) combined with his group around 1850. Lincoln was the first Republican President.

When in VA hospitals I met 21 World War I Veterans, and found that I got along with them perfectly. They explained to me that the WW II kids were the original 'Yuppies'. Yes, they wanted everything for themselves. As you know, us Baby Boom generation had our differences with the Silent Majority. And that is what allowed the Rich an angle to Divide and Conquer since the 1960's.

Vietnam, black's rights, women's rights, welfare, drugs, and etc. were all used to Divide and Conquer the Baby Boom population. The Silent Majority did not stand with us to build the American economy for expansion to include the huge influx of population of their kids. On top of that, we doubled our work force by putting women to work; and today it takes 2 professional jobs with kids on hold for later to even get a start on the American Dream -and nevermind the debt beyond common sense. That gain to the Rich was worth by far more than anything Vietnam had to offer. Guess who was Ambassador at the time? (Answer: George Bush, Sr.)

Many people talk about Big Brother, and knowing about the Old Rich is one of the hardest things to acquire knowledge of in America. George Bush, Sr. served as head of the CIA to make sure he acquired the information his plans required. Actually, it is better to think in terms of not one Big Brother, but rather let's say 20 Big Brothers. Normally the Old Rich do not want to run the government. However, sometimes one or a group will use the power of the government to move up on the richest of the Old Rich. They don't mind, because Number One is so far ahead that they can put the World in a Great Depression and come out still Number One. This is also the reason why a Black Market will always exist in any system.

This is not a conspiracy theory, it is how our system works. In fact, the class called New Rich (like Rockerfeller, Kennedy, Carneige, etc.) take these lessons and try to implement their own plans. We the Baby Boomer's have been Divided and Conquered. What does this mean? Well, take for example instead of one person like Bill Gates in the Working Class Rich there should have been 1000 more. This is hard to believe for the average middle class common American, and it is a fault of their own making.(Break)

Tony,

The Fall of Saigon and World Trade Center
____________________________________

Even more successful manipulation by the same group of the American people, was the exit from Vietnam. Shock and shame was so great that people never realized to ask questions. And the focus was directed at affecting your life, Tony, putting you in exactly this situation::: removal of those with war experience from future war decisions.

When are the Headquarters removed last in history? NEVER, before.
About 2 1/2 million soldiers were removed from Vietnam between the borders and Saigon, and still the Headquarters were not vacated.
For 6 weeks the advance into border towns and onward toward Saigon were reported, and still Headquarters not vacated.
Not until they were on the outskirts of Saigon did Headquarters finally commence evacuation.
And there were cameras a plenty to broadcast the fiasco.

Divide and Conquer, and remove the influence of war veterans. That was planned to make sure the influence of war veterans was looked down upon, not valued, not promoted into a valuable component of our power structure, and unable to speak out against changing this country into a pre-emptive war machine --- ready to capture whatever world resources they desired.

Today, with the World Trade Center there are a lot of questions that don't make sense. It does if you consider how a rich guy came to devoting his power to the poorest people in the world --- give his American partners an excuse to capture 20% of the World's oil supply. Get real!!!
A rich guy with hundreds of millions of dollars goes off to live in caves and support the poorest people in the world battle world powers with nuclear weapons. What TV cartoons have Americans been fed?

Enough said.

Good luck in finding the answers you seek in your new book.
Watergate taught us to "FOLLOW THE MONEY!"
It is the oil in Iraq, and drugs in Afghanistan --- sold and profiteered here!!!