SCHOLAR ISLAND

"The good people of this wirld are very far from being satisfide with each other & my arms are the best peesmakers." (original spelling)

-Samuel Colt

"A gentleman armed with my invention can keep a dozen ruffians at bay"

-Samuel Colt

"The submarine may be the cause of bringing battle to a stoppage altogether, for fleets will become useless, and as other war materiel continues to improve, war will become impossible."

-Jules Verne The Future of the Submarine" 1904

"When all the powers have airships, I give you my word that no war will be possible."

General Baden-Powell

"I have always been against war, but at the same time I've always realized full well that the fear of nuclear war in a country's leaders can paralyze that country's defenses.

Nikita Khrushchev

"Never in history has mankind been given more reason to look forward to the future with hope. For the blast which blew nineteenth-century nationalism to pieces at Hiroshima may also have cleared the way for a new Renaissance-a new era of co-operation leading up to the twentieth-century Empire of the World."

-Lynn Montross (American author and military Historian), assessing the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,

War Through the Ages

"The primary purpose of our arms is peace, not war--to convince all aggressors that any attack would be futile. Our arms will never be used to strike the first blow in any attack. "

John F. Kennedy

"To have peace we should be willing, and declare our intention, to pay any price, even the price of instituting a war, to compel cooperation for peace.....(this) peace-seeking policy, though it cast us in a character new to true democracy-an initiator of a war of aggression-would earn for us a proud and popular title-we would become the first aggressors for peace!"

Francis P. Matthews (Secretary of the Navy Jan 25,1950)

"The power of the state, far from saving us from the attacks of our neighbors, on the contrary causes the danger of the attacks.

Tolstoy

"The fourth (essential human freedom) is freedom from fear-which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-anywhere in the world."

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

"We register our testimony, not only against all war, whether offensive or defensive, but all preparation for war;-against every naval ship, every arsenal, every fortification; against the militia system and a standing army; against all military chieftains and soldiers; against all monuments commemorative of victory over a foreign foe, all trophies won in battle, all celebrations in honor of military or naval exploits; against all appropriations for the defense of a nation by force and arms, on the part of any legislative body; against ever edict of government requiring of its subjects military service. Hence, we deem it unlawful to bear arms, or to hold a military office.

William Lloyd Garrison (1850) (Founder of the New England Non-Resistance Society in 1838)

"The most prolific mother of war in our day is preparation."

Andrew Carnegie

"Walled towers, stored arsenals, and armories, goodly races of horse, Chariots of war, elephants, ordinance, artillery, and the like-all this  is but sheep in lions skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout."

Francis Bacon

   "There are six hundred thousand assault rifles in Swiss homes. It is said that this is a very good thing, for while a father cleans his rifle at the kitchen table his son is watching, and "the boy gets close to the weapon." Communist Swiss soldiers keep rifles and machine guns at home. It is said that this is not dangerous for political purposes; it is dangerous only for the wife. Ammunition boxes are sealed. If the seal is not intact when a soldier returns to duty, serious punishment follows."

John McPhee

La Place de la Concorde Suisse

THE IDEA OF ARMS AS A MEANS TOWARDS KEEPING PEACE

"The primary purpose of our arms is ..peace, not war--to convince

all aggressors that any attack would be futile, Our arms will never

be used to strike the first blow in any attack."

John F. Kennedy

"*"*****

"So long as one wants to retain one's sword, one has not attained

complete fearlessness."

Gandhi

*****'**

"As a peace machine, the value (of the aeroplane) to the world will be beyond computation. Would a declaration of war between Russia and Japan be made, if within an hour thereafter, a swiftly gliding aeroplane might take its flight from St. Petersburg and drop half a ton of dynamite above the (Japanese war offices? Could any nation afford to war upon any other with such hazards in view?"

-John Brisben Walker (Publisher of Cosmopolitan Magazine, mar 1904)

"There has been no disarmament because the assumptions of the arms race have been almost universally accepted. Most people, including most people who favor disarmament, accept the premise that more weapons means more security, that alternative systems of security not based on making hostages of hundreds of millions of people are Utopian, and that the survival Of the United States as a sovereign actor in the world justifies mass murder, poisoning of the earth and the hideous mutation of the human species. We do not seem to be able to generate the moral passion to rid the world of arms because we ourselves are psychologically dependent upon them. The role of nuclear terrorism in our society is parallel to that of slavery a little over a hundred years ago. Like Slavery, nuclear terrorism is a monstrous evil that mocks both our religious pretensions and our civic virtues. Both are dehumanizing. Both make victims of the innocent. Both are justified by worshipping power. Both. support the comfort of the well-off and the aspiring. Both systems are addictive social drugs with a hold over society that cannot be broken except by the expression of extraordinary moral passion, courage and the will to break free. The moderate use of nuclear weapons, like the moderate use of slavery, is impossible for the same reason the Missouri Compromise failed. Systems have their own dynamics. Arms control-banning certain weapons while building others more efficient and more terrible-cannot succeed because it perpetuates, rather than challenges, the system of nuclear terrorism."

"To say you are for disarmament means-unless you are indulging in official rhetoric-that you renounce '"the war system. Disarmament is a way of conveying intentions and establishing social commitments that are completely inconsistent with the use of blackmail, terror, and brute force as instruments of national policy. Most of us are unwilling to reflect on how much we depend upon the war system for personal security and comfort. that was also true of slavery. And for that reason more than 200 years intervened between the first pangs of Quaker conscience and the Emancipation Proclamation. "

As with slavery, our economic dependence upon the war system is profound as well as anachronistic. Both once made Short-term economic sense; but the war system, like slavery, has outlasted its time because it blocks possibilities for much more efficient and rational use of resources and more effective means of developing power to solve political and social problems. Though the war economy has brought us inflation , technological backwardness , misdistribution of wealth a sinking dollar and un- employment. it is the economic drug we use to keep unemployment from becoming worse. (about 250,000 defense-related jobs were created in the recent recession through increases in the military budget) The war economy provides comfortable niches for millions of bureaucrats in and out of military uniform who go to the office every day to build nuclear weapons or to plan nuclear war; millions of workers whose jobs depend upon the system of nuclear terrorism; scientists and engineers hired to look for that final "technological breakthrough" that can provide total security; contractors unwilling to give up easy profits; warrior intellectuals who sell threats and bless wars.. Under girding the military-industrial complex is a series of myths about security. Real progress toward disarmament means confronting these myths on two levels. On the first level we need to demystify the arcane world of national security analysis by focusing on it the withering light of common sense. ,The nuclear liturgy of the Pentagon its acolytes in the Congress and its captive think tanks is conducted in a dead language for familiar reasons: It protects the priest-hood from troublesome questions. At a deeper level we cannot avoid probing the psychological and spiritual sickness within us which makes us so ready to accept the moral absurdity of nuclear war. Puncturing the myths at the level of logic is not difficult. But it is rarely done. The disarmament advocates are drawn into the debate on terms set by the warrior institutions: we find ourselves pontificating about yields , throw-weights and relative vulnerabilities. Or we launch crusades against individual weapons systems-the B-l for example-which disappear like the Cheshire Cat only to reemerge with a new name in some more expensive form. Yet the Pentagon's greatest vulnerability lies elsewhere. What the guardians of the war system are able to conceal from us when we debate on their terms is the Pentagon's inability to deliver its products. defense and deterrence.

Richard J. Barnet from article "The myth of power/the power of myth

See article: "Defenseless….The Military’s hollow ring. By Kate O’ Beirne, National Review/May 3, 1999

"The continuing arms race with the Soviets will strain the resources of both Countries. The winner in the end will not be the bigger spender but the smarter one. "

-Business Week editorial, Aug 11,1980

" "The waste involved in the overproduction of military de- vices. . . .is an act of aggression which amounts to a crime, for even when they are not used, by their cost alone armaments kill the poor by causing them to starve."

-statement by the Vatican to the U.N.

PEACE

"Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

Emerson

"To make peace-you must be peaceful!"

Peace Pilgrim

"A spiritual goal for the United Nations is practical. Without the least possible hesitation I venture to say that it's highly practical. It is not only practical, but also practicable: something more, it is inevitable. We have to know what the spiritual goal for the United Nations is. Its goal is to become ultimately the savior of the world's imperfection, the liberator of the world's destruction and the fulfiller of the world's aspiration. My heart tells me that the United Nations has a divine ideal. My soul tells me that this ideal is going to be transformed into reality. Soulful concern is the essence of the United Nations ideal. Truthful patience is the substance of the United Nations ideal. Supernal fulfillment will be the essence of the United Nations reality. Today's United Nations offers hopeful and soulful advice to mankind. Today's United Nations feels truth and light in its loving heart. Tomorrow's United Nations will offer fruitful and fulfilling peace to mankind. Today's United Nations feels truth and light in its loving heart. Tomorrow's United Nations will manifest truth and light in its all-embracing soul."

Sri Chimnoy

(who conducts meditation groups

at the U.N. )

HOW TO LIVE IN PEACE

lst

Mind your own business.

2nd

Keep your tongue from evil

3rd

Do not contend for trifles.

4th

If others neglect their duty to you-perform yours to them.

5th

Make your enemies see you love them

6th

of God for universal charity.

7th

Cultivate humility of mind.

(This is taken from the diary of a soldier of the American Civil

War. He had obviously given it some thought) .

THE NOBEL PRIZE

Alfred Nobel had stated the purpose of his Peace Prize very

simply:

"To the person who shall have done the most or best work

for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of

standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace

congresses. "

"By the time the judges were ready to act, Nobel's financial affairs had been settled and about eight million dollars made available to the Foundation. And on the fifth anniversary of his death the first prizes were awarded. The Peace Prize, awarded - at a ceremony in the Norwegian Storting, was split between Jean Henri Dunant , father of the Red Cross, and Frederic Passy, president of the French Society for Arbitration between Nations. They were distinguished gentlemen, indefatigable workers, and they deserved recognition. But they were not the "dreamers who find it hard to get on in life" whom Nobel had hoped he might help. Throughout its sixty-year history, the prize has continued to be given to the well-established and well-known."

Bradford Smith

Men of Peace

(actually Nobel wanted the first prize to go to Bertha von Suttner

who finally got the award after the urging of Alfred Nobel's

nephew-she received the award in 1905)

"There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men. This comes when men realize their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they know that the Great Spirit is at its center, that all things are his works, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. He watches over and sustains all life. His breath gives life; it is from him and to him that all generations come and go."

Black Elk

"We are amazed and saddened to find how much of your lives is

devoted to inventing and using destructive machines with which

you murder each other. We see you spending vast sums of money

pretending to bring peace on earth, when you should know that

the only way of obtaining peace is free-through Christ: Love.

There is no other way, so why waste your time and money?

(a message given to Arthur Matthews

by Venusians)

The Wall of Light A.H. Matthews

IDEAS ON PEACE

(This was written by H.G. Wells at the end of WWI)

"Personally, I do not think I would have bothered to come to Washington or to interest myself in this peace business, and to work and Plunder and feel incompetent and be worried and distressed here, if it meant working for just peace, flat, empty , simple peace. I do not see why the killing of a few score millions of human beings a few years before they would naturally and ingloriously die, or the smashing up of a lot of ordinary, rather ugly, rather uncomfortable towns, or if it comes to that sort of thing, the complete depopulation of the earth, or the prospect of being killed myself presently by a bomb or a shot or a pestilence, should move me to any great exertions. Why bother to exchange suffering for flatness. The worst, least endurable of miseries is boredom. One must die somewhere; few deaths are as painful as a first-class toothache or as depressing as a severe fit of indigestion; you can suffer more on a comfortable death-bed than on a battlefield; and meanwhile, there is a very good chance of sunshine and snatched happiness here or there. But what does stir me is my invincible belief that the life I lead and the human life about me are not anything like the good thing that could be and might be. I am not so much frightened and distressed by those wars and national clashes and all the rest of this stilly flag-wagging, bragging, shoving business as bored and irritated by these things. I have had some vision of what science and education can do for life and I am haunted by the fine uses that might be made of men and of our splendid possibilities. I do not think of war as a tragic necessity but as a blood-stained mess. When I think of my Europe now, I do not feel like a weakling whose world has been invaded by stupendous and cruel powers; I feel like a man whose promising garden has been invaded by hogs. There is the pacifism of love, the pacifism of pity, the pacifisms of commercialism, but also there is the pacifism of utter contempt. This is not a doomed world we live in or anything so tragically dignified; it is a world idiotically spoilt."

H.G. Wells 1918

"Gandhi's message is simple, direct and inescapable. Give what you have to the service of man-wealth, talents, energy, love-and receive it back at God's hands. Discover that truth is one, and that it is in the heart of the antagonist as well as in your own. Then meet on common ground. Never compromise on principles, but do not mistake a desire for personal or national advantage as a principle. Go out to meet your antagonist in love, humility and openness, and you will change him. Let your faith be in the truth wherever it leads, your armor nonviolence. Then you will find that the antagonist is a friend. And your truth and his will merge, and you will be at peace with one another. "

Bradford Smith

Men of Peace

"Peacemaking is an art. Like all arts, it must either be growing

or dying. "

Bradford Smith

"The greatest prayer of man does not ask for victory but for

peace. "

Dag Hammerskjold