The Peace Tree

words and photos by C.A. Matthews

I have a thing for Christmas trees. I love to decorate them and collect ornaments from all over the world. Come the twelfth day of Christmas (Epiphany) on January 6, I’m compelled by the “social norm” to take down my tree* and store it and the decorations away until next December. (Who is this “Norm” and why is he always raining on my parade? Not very “sociable” of him.) The empty space in my living room where the Christmas tree once stood makes me sad, so I began a new tradition.

I put away the tall tree and put up a shorter, table-top sized tree* in its place. I decorate it with ornaments symbolizing love (after all, Valentine’s Day is in February) and peace. The past couple of years the little tree has become not a mere Christmas tree substitute but a “Peace Tree” dedicated to world peace.

I leave the Peace Tree standing as long as there is conflict anywhere on the planet. You guessed it—the Peace Tree hasn’t been put away for quite some time now. In the summer, I move it upstairs where I stand it on top a short bookcase in our bedroom. We put a window a/c unit in the downstairs window, and the little tree could get blown over if it stayed put, but it isn’t taken down. I see it every day, a reminder that humans are still warring with each other somewhere on the planet. We need world peace, and we needed it yesterday.

This holiday season I decided to give the Peace Tree a makeover...

 

To see more photos of the Peace Tree--and to read a poem excerpt by Maya Angelou and the rest of this article--please click on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com. There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can also subscribe and receive the weekly blog post in your email box. 

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today! Power to the people!

 

Happy Holidays—Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice and a good Kwanzaa and peace to you and yours. May we all plant “Peace Trees” and together reap a harvest of goodness some day soon.

 

Heavenly Peace

 Heavenly Peace

by C.A. Matthews

Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright.
‘Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!

There’s nothing in any classic Christmas carol about “Shop until you drop!” There’s nothing about spending tons of cash on gifts, food, travel, clothing, or general rabble-rousing. There’s nothing about “He who dies with the most toys wins,” or how great it is to send billions of dollars in weapons to a proxy war and drone bomb civilians, either. Carols tend to emphasize qualities such as “silence” and “peace.”   

How did we ever find ourselves in the mess we find ourselves in today? To understand where we are now, perhaps it’s best to unravel the string of events that led us here.  

Let’s travel back in time and see where our Christmas celebrations took a turn away from silence and peace and landed us in a pit of noise and turmoil. What wrong step did we take? How can we get back on the path of peace and stillness, away from this madness that calls itself “Christmas” in the 21^st century?

The idea that Christmas was about going broke every December buying numerous superfluous presents for loved ones, friends, co-workers and bosses is a relatively recent invention. Most place the blame on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s shoulders. Albert and Victoria (both of German descent) introduced the tradition of Christmas trees to the English-speaking world. 

 

Of course, being tremendously wealthy, the royals lavished tons of toys and other gifts on their huge brood of children. The British middle class was coming into its own in the mid-19th century, so they had an overwhelming urge to copy the customs of their young and spendy queen. Hence, the yearly mad rush to the toy and department stores began.

To outdo your middle class neighbors, you had to have the biggest tree with the biggest pile of gifts under it. Competition was not only encouraged in Victorian times, it was practically mandated. This competition started near the beginning of the industrial revolution, and mass-produced items were becoming the “in-thing” to give. Simple gifts of food and drink were seen as inferior and only for the poor and disadvantaged to share with each other on Christmas Eve.

The burgeoning middle class had to have the best their money could buy from the best stores and manufacturers. To aid these not-quite-as-rich-as the-queen folks and guide them toward where  they could purchase the latest mass-produced gift items, a new art form was developed. “Advertising” told the middle class exactly what was the in-thing that year and, more importantly, where it could be purchased and for how much. 

“Be the first family on your street to own this wonderful consumer item!” advertisers shouted, bursting the peace and silence of the beautiful snowy skies.

This is where the Western celebration of Christmas took that big wrong turn.

“Okay,” you say. “Materialism is bad. Unselfish giving of our time and talents is good. We all stop purchasing useless mass-produced goods we never wanted or could use and end this stupid competitiveness, and everything will be hunky-dory, right? We'll start now, and the world will be peaceful before you know it."

But it isn’t, and you know it. We still have hatred, violence, and endless war. What wrong turn did we take there? 

Would you be surprised if I told you it was the same one? 

The same mass production and keeping up with the neighbors and allowing the elites to dictate how we ordinary beings should live our lives has led us into this mess. There can be no “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Humankind” when there’s money to be made creating billions of useless disposable items—from $1 plastic do-dads to $1 billion bomber aircraft.  

By creating an insatiable need to have more and use more via advertising, we perpetuate the modern myth that Christmas is a holiday for commerce. Because what’s the use of having stockpiles of anything—including weapons—if you don’t have the means to deplete them before next year’s big rush to the “toy” store? Ka-boom!

 

Capitalism depends on endless growth in order to make capitalists (the elite) endless profits. Endless resources are needed to produce ever more mass-produced products for consumers to buy (as they're instructed by advertising to demand more and more) year after year. When the natural resources are depleted at home, capitalists must go abroad and take them. 

 

Sure, capitalists could offer others money and a fair trade, but bombing another country to smithereens and destroying their economy is much more fun, isn’t it? Once you’ve destroyed another country's economy via either a "hot" or "cold" war, you can assume all its resources and use its people as cheap/slave laborers. They have to work for you now, or they don't eat. More profits to be made for the "winning" capitalists. Yeah!

To reiterate, advertising drives the middle class into a frenzy of crass materialism each December, which then leads corporations into destroying our environment in search of the raw resources needed to manufacture these items while also making these corporations vast profits, and these resources are being obtained more and more via endless warfare. Rinse and repeat.

 

A holiday to honor the birth of a man of peace has been co-opted by capitalism and endless wars for resources. Totally and completely co-opted.  

Now that we know how we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, how can we get out of it? Could it be all we have to do is ignore the propaganda that capitalism is the best economic system ever? (Propaganda is simply another name for the advertising put out by our governments to prop up private corporations destroying our earth in their race to obtain natural resources.) Could it be that all it takes is to stop billionaire CEOs and the endless warfare and sue for peace throughout the world? Could it be that simple?

“Sleep in heavenly peace!” By following words of peace and not those of capitalist warmongers, we will find ourselves surrounded by the beautiful silence of Christmas, where only the celebration of the gift of love is needed.

Related pieces:

The Madness of Nuclear War is Alive and Well in America https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/16/the-madness-of-nuclear-warfare-is-alive-and-well-in-america/ 

Raytheon and Boeing Can't Be Voted Out (video) https://revolutionaryblackout.substack.com/p/raytheon-and-boeing-cant-be-voted

 

 * * *

 

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Thank you and a Happy New Year to you and yours! 

  * * *

Seen on Twitter:

It's the final stage of socialism. This ⬇️ but an entire nation, eventually the entire world. pic.twitter.com/LGmjY5koNn

— ♿☭ Nakama Toni 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@bamabulldog21) December 12, 2022

20 million killed in WWI is peanuts compared to the stakes in Ukraine proxy war. With 2000 nukes on hair trigger alert and looming risk of nuclear winter, we're all in the cross hairs. #PeaceNow https://t.co/skq1YiCDLO

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) December 15, 2022

A Ukrainian Embassy reception was sponsored by Northrop, Lockheed and Raytheon, reports @mideastXmidwest. (Not The Onion) https://t.co/U89y7gER8v pic.twitter.com/fNzika6utb

— Eli Clifton (@EliClifton) December 16, 2022

pic.twitter.com/f9Hvecmohb

— We can have a society that honors life🌲🍄🌻 (@TimOnTheTractor) December 20, 2022

All I Want For The Holidays Is...

 All I Want For The Holidays Is...

         by C.A. Matthews

All I Want For The Holidays Is…

…Peace on Earth.

Seriously. The US spending trillions of dollars on death, destruction and mayhem over the last decades doesn't fit into my--or anyone else's--definition of peace. I don't believe for a moment that the war in Afghanistan is over since our mercenaries and weapons are still pouring into that beleaguered country. I don't believe for a moment Biden won't start a conflict with Russia and/or China over Ukraine and/or Taiwan. Our military-industrial complex can't stand to be left out of the action when there's so much money to be made. We won't have peace on Earth until every single last military contractor is shut down--permanently.

And for the planet and all its inhabitants--human and otherwise--to be at peace we need to start treating it respectfully and reverently. This means an end to fossil fuel production and use. It means we outlaw concentrated animal feedlots (CAFOs) and other polluters of drinking water. It means we stop chopping/burning/disintegrating forests, jungles, plains, savannas, wetlands, and other wildlife habitats. It means we pick up and recycle all the kajillions of plastic bottles, wrappers, and other worthless jetsam contaminating our oceans and lands. 

If we continue to allow the Earth to be treated like a toilet to house all our messes, the temperatures will rise, the oceans will rise, and the threat of war and civil unrest will rise. We can't have peace without a planet and vice versa. Get it?

All I Want For The Holidays Is... Goodwill Towards Humankind.

 My idea of goodwill means that all human beings have a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs, health care when they're in need of it (both mental and physical health care), and to be freed from the suffocation of massive debt owed to billionaire capitalists who try to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the working classes and those trying to better themselves through education. Access to free education for all from Pre-K through college and access to health care and food and shelter should be a right--not a privilege. 

Goodwill also means that we no longer protect make-believe lines in the sand and call them "our borders" and tell people that they're not welcome on our side of the make-believe line because we're prejudiced against their race, religion, ethnicity or class. This should be true of communities both large and small. This may sound crazy, but I believe equal rights should be distributed equally to all.

No longer should the US tell refugees and asylum seekers to go away under the guise of Title 42, a directive in direct violation of the 1967 UN Protocol on Refugees that we signed. No longer should we force those seeking a better life for the families to "Remain in Mexico" where they're preyed upon by kidnappers and drug cartels.

Goodwill is just that--good, not evil and selfish. Any questions?

All I Want For The Holidays Is… The Right to be Treated with Dignity and Respect.

If this statement needs further explanation, this must mean you've lived in a "golden bubble" all your life. You are one of the few that have never been hungry, homeless, or harassed simply because of your race, age, gender, gender identity, or perceived economic class. It's hard to explain to rich dickheads how demeaning and cruel it is to be on the receiving end of their bigotry. We really should do them all a favor and return their callous treatment of others unlike themselves. Maybe then they'll get a clue. 

If you don't have the empathy to walk a mile in another person's moccasins and experience the pain they feel when they're not treated respectfully and understand where they're coming from, then just shut the f*** up. I also recommend giving all your money away to charitable organizations before we roll the guillotine up to your front door and ask you to step out for a close shave.

All I Want For The Holidays Is… For The Means of Production to Be in the Hands of the Working Classes.

This is a related statement that explains itself. The workers should profit from the fruits of their labor. They aren't wage slaves who exist solely to be exploited by billionaires and other capitalists who leech off their workers' labor. 

As money is the root of all kinds of evil, perhaps it is time to eliminate the filthy lucre and replace it with a society based on plenty for all instead of artificial scarcity that forces cash into the hands of the relatively few. Read up on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) if you don't understand how the US can afford a $780 billion plus military budget year after year but somehow can't give everyone free health care which costs less.

All I Want For The Holidays Is… For People to Actually Read This Blog and Have Intelligent Discussions with Their Friends, Family, and Neighbors.

And to donate a couple of bucks toward keeping the blog going for another six and half years. Or until the fascists come and cart us off to jail--whichever happens first. The choice is up to you. Which will it be? You can donate at:

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Happy Holidays! May you have a happy and healthy New Year. And as always: Workers of the World Unite!

 

Also read (and watch the video): How Capitalism Stole Christmas and Killed the Planet Along the Way https://www.rsn.org/001/how-capitalism-stole-christmas-and-killed-the-planet-along-the-way.html 

***

We cannot – and will not – let him off the hook.

President Biden campaigned on seeking justice for families separated by Trump’s cruel Zero Tolerance policy, but his administration just walked away from providing victims with the resources they desperately need to heal.

We can’t let Biden go back on one of his central campaign promises by sweeping the consequences of one of the cruelest, most inhumane policies under a rug. Take action today: email the White House NOW to demand immediate justice for separated families.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Even President Biden himself has publicly called family separation under Trump “criminal behavior” and “a historic moral stain on our country."

He’s now going back on his word with this decision and inaction. He’s walking away from the more than *5,500 children* separated from their families at the US-Mexico border. He’s walking away from the babies, as young as 6-months-old, stolen from parents who had no idea where they were going or if they would see them again.

Sweeping this bigotry under a rug is a disgrace. Every single person in this movement, and in this country, should be appalled. Dropping the plans to get the support families need to heal sends the clear message that the Biden administration thinks family separation is okay. 

We cannot let that happen. 

Send the White House a message right now to demand they give separated families the support they deserve to heal from the traumas our government caused them.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Trump’s “zero-tolerance” scarred toddlers, children, and families that were forcibly separated for life. It’s egregious that the Biden administration is now defending officials culpable for tearing babies from mothers’ arms. President Biden promised to address the emotional and physical abuse families experienced due to negligence, torture, and crimes against humanity, and we’re seeing everything but that. We need to stop playing politics with people’s lives.

We cannot stop fighting until all families are reunited and receive the justice they deserve. 

President Biden must keep the campaign promises he made us and deliver justice to families. This cruelty ends by all of us taking action right now:

TAKE ACTION NOW

Today, almost four years after being separated, over 270 children are STILL separated from their parents. If you had asked me years ago if this is where we would be today I never would have imagined it, but we will not rest until every last child is reunited.

There will be no justice until every child is reunited with their family, until we right the wrongs of Trump’s four cruel and racist years, and until we build a system that stops this inhumanity for good.

Thanks for all you do,
Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

***

The 2022 Indigenous Futures Survey is now live! Native peoples are invited to participate in the survey before January 31, 2022.

Native Organizers Alliance (NOA), IllumiNative, and Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity (RISE) have launched the second annual Indigenous Futures Survey (IFS), a Native-led research project designed to highlight the authentic experiences, systemic challenges, and priority issues of Native peoples today.

Take the Survey

The inaugural Indigenous Futures Survey was the largest and most comprehensive study ever conducted in Indian Country.

Native and Indigenous peoples all across the United States are invited again to participate in the survey and voice their perspectives and opinions on critical issues our communities face.

Data gathered from the IFS is being used to make policy changes by elected and tribal leaders. The 2021 reports and research data were shared broadly across Indian Country and were used to inform Congress on the impacts of COVID on Indigenous communities and on a broad spectrum of issues including civic engagement, identity, and culture.

The 2022 IFS will continue to be a tool for social change.

“Native and Indigenous peoples deserve to be seen and heard,” said Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee), founder and executive director of IllumiNative. “For so long, we have been forgotten or worse, deliberately excluded from research and data collection. But we have taken back the power to control our own visibility and future through the Indigenous Futures Survey.”

“The 2020 survey was the first opportunity for Native peoples and communities to share the challenges they face with a national audience,” said Judith LeBlanc (Caddo), director of Native Organizers Alliance. “The results gave us a platform to advocate for change at all levels of government. We were able to take a step towards reclaiming our collective voice, showing that Native people are politically engaged and actively challenging the narrative. We proved that our voices matter and that we will organize for meaningful change.”

"For too long data, or lack thereof, has been used to silence and render Indigenous Peoples and experiences invisible. The majority of scientific research omits Indigenous Peoples, including research on bias, prejudice, and discrimination. In the rare cases when Indigenous Peoples are included, our data is most often owned by and interpreted through the lens of non-Native researchers. Ultimately, this keeps people from understanding who we are and seeing us as fully human,” said Dr. Stephanie Fryberg (Tulalip), director of Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity (RISE) Center.

Amber Torres, Chairman of the Walker River Paiute Tribe said, “This also showed our strengths and weaknesses, and where we can continue to build for the next seven generations. The results in 2022 are very important for the fact that we need to see if we have made a dent in any of the issues that were brought up and where we need to continue to advocate for. Native voices have to be at the table.”

Our non-Native relatives, please help spread the word about the survey by sharing on social media and lift up the importance of Native-led data collection.

To learn more, please visit: https://indigenousfutures.org.

Take the Survey
Thank you. Hawwih.

Judith LeBlanc

Director

 

Celebrating Subversively

 

Celebrating Subversively

by C. A. Matthews

With the number of holiday seasons I've experienced, you'd think by now I'd have figured a few things out. But I'm a slow learner, and some lessons in life need repeating until they're finally stuck in your head.

The holidays are not about giving presents.

The holidays are about receiving a gift.

There is a difference.

Commercialism/capitalism tells us that the holidays (whichever ones you celebrate, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, etc.) are all about buy, buy, buy! Supposedly the only way to profess your love for others is by purchasing lots of material things for them. And the more you buy, the greater your love is, or so says Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

It's an endless guilt-o-rama. Once you've climbed into that hamster wheel of consumerism, it's a difficult ride to come off of. Fortunately, some of us get thrown off the wheel--by losing our jobs, our incomes, our homes, our health, and/or our loved ones--and then we realize just how dizzying and soul-destroying that materialistic take on the holidays truly was and is. We begin to appreciate the things that last, and the pursuit of stuff is not one of them.

So, this holiday season I want to encourage you to celebrate subversively. Don't buy into anything the capitalists tell you to. Do the opposite. Give as much of your stuff away as you feel comfortable giving to others who are without and then give a little bit more. I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. Getting past your hoarding instincts can take some effort, but once you open your heart to the concept of gifting material possessions away to others, the more open you'll be to receiving the love and peace that is what the season is supposed to be about in the first place.

No, it's not a contest, and you won't "win" anything by doing so, except possibly the very necessary peace of mind gained from not equating the capitalist concept of accumulating wealth as the end-all and be-all of life.  You will "win" by simply being able to enjoy the season without the burden of trying to outdo your neighbors in the crass commercialism and orgy of endless trips to the shopping mall.

Remember, by staying out of big  public spaces you'll be less likely to catch or spread the coronavirus. And who knows? You might find yourself being gifted by others of a like mind. Thank them profusely and receive their gift in the generosity of spirit that it was given to you.

This year in particular, we all really do need to hear again the message of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All People."

In no culture's traditions does it say that peace and goodwill only come about by purchasing numerous consumer items that nobody really wants, needs, or can use when they're stuck on a ventilator gasping for oxygen. Nowhere does it say that destroying the planet we share and denying health care to others on the basis of an evil economic system will bring about peace and goodwill. Just the opposite.

So, relax and skip the gifts and open your heart instead. It's all hands on deck in 2021 to straighten this mess up, so let's help each other stay healthy, sane, fed and warm so we're all up for the task.

Have yourself a merry little Subversive Celebration this holiday season and a Healthy New Year.

 

Related articles to enlighten your season:

Jesus Was A Victim Of Empire

 https://truthout.org/articles/jesus-was-a-victim-of-empire-acknowledging-this-should-transform-christianity/

Dr. Cornel West interview where he talks about how Jesus stood up to the establishment (and how we should, too).  "It's never the wrong time to do the right thing."

https://youtu.be/VHLX2kH9_7k 

Concrete Liberation Narratives

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2020/12/concrete-liberation-narratives-advent-part1/

Ads All Tell Us To Kill Our Future (Ethical Consumerism?)

https://scheerpost.com/2020/12/22/lee-camp-ads-all-tell-us-to-kill-our-future-worth-discussing/

*** 

 Don't Get Your Mouth Washed Out With Soap!

Speak Out, Act Up, and

Support The Revolution Continues! 

Send donations to http://paypal.me/camatthews 

 (Little Ralphie sends his thanks. Keep fighting in 2021 and stay well!)

***

From Faithful America:

On January 20, Donald Trump will leave the White House, and we thank God for that -- but our work as social-justice Christians is far from over.

We must remember that Trump was a symptom, not the actual disease. Yes, he lost, but with a whopping 74 million votes. The forces of white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and the religious right are still as strong as ever.

The past week tells the story. On Saturday, Catholic Archbishop Carlo Viganò and Bishop Joseph Strickland spoke to a right-wing rally in D.C., spreading QAnon theories in a desperate, ill-fated, final effort to undermine democracy and steal the election.

After the rally, the racist Proud Boys tore down and burned Black Lives Matter signs at two local Black churches. Yet instead of speaking out for the "religious freedom" of these churches like he does for anti-LGBTQ businesses, Franklin Graham wrote yet another lengthy Facebook post in praise of Donald Trump.

Make no mistake: The leaders of the religious right are enabling white supremacy, just as they are trying to enable Trump's failed attempted coup. But together, we social-justice Christians can do something about it.

Add your name: I pledge to spend 2021 putting my faith into action, standing for justice and reclaiming Christianity from the religious right

Where there is darkness, there is also light. Despite all of the religious right's lies and Republican attempts to stop people from casting their ballots, voters -- including social-justice Christians -- turned out in record numbers and sent Trump packing.

COVID-19 vaccines are finally becoming slowly available, with most faith leaders encouraging people to get one.

And just this week, Faithful America helped organize 45 organizations and 12,000 people of faith to loudly condemn racist attacks on the Black church in the Georgia Senate runoffs.

From stopping Trump's hateful nominees in the Senate to supporting asylum seekers and taking dangerous COVID-19 misinformation off the air, 2020 has been a year of big victories for this movement. We should never underestimate what we can accomplish when we stand together -- nor should we let our successes lull us into complacency, or the religious right will erase everything we have gained.

Pledge to keep taking action with Faithful America in 2021

Thank you for everything you have done and will keep doing to love your neighbor and reclaim your faith from the right wing!

In peace,
Rev. Nathan and the Faithful America team

 

"When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers." - Proverbs 21:15

 ***

From the GPUS:

After months of devastating delays, Congress' paltry new COVID relief package is a slap in the face of suffering Americans.

A $600 check won't get many families through the month, much less the winter.

Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats are shying away from promoting Medicare-For-All.

We. Will. Not. Stand. For. This.

Contact your representatives in Congress now using our action page if you want real solutions that can't wait! Tell them:

• We demand bold, decisive COVID relief to kick off the desperately-needed Green New Deal
• We demand bold support for Medicare-For-All, including floor votes, without delay. #ForceTheVote!
• Stop spending money on tax cuts and subsidies for billionaires and corporations, stop dumping money into our bloated war machine. Invest in the health, safety and future of our communities!

Then make sure you share the action page so Congress can't ignore these demands!

TAKE ACTION NOW

Like most Greens, you probably never had high hopes for what the Democrats would do with a Biden Presidency, but even we are taken aback by just how quickly they are trying to smack down any hope that their control of the House of Representatives and the White House might lead to some real relief from the ravages of capitalism.

That makes it even more important for the Green Party to reach the year-end goal of 100 new Monthly Sustainers. This pandemic has exposed our country's brutal inequality on a scale we haven't seen in a long time and the parties of War and Wall Street are carrying on with business as usual. And their "business" is selling you out.

Please become a Monthly Sustainer today at whatever level you can afford so you can support our Green candidates and campaigns throughout the whole year!

Monthly contributions from people just like you are the most powerful grassroots fundraising tool we have, since our political independence requires financial independence from corporate lobbyists and PACs.

If signing up for monthly contributions doesn't work for you right now, making a one-time contribution today will still go a long way toward fueling our grassroots campaigns for real COVID relief, a Green New Deal and an end to militarism and oppression in all its forms.

Michael O'Neil
Communications Manager
Green Party of the United States

DONATE

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org/