If you missed the Peace Pledge Union's National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony today, you can still watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pzI_TX954

#WhitePoppies are worn in the run-up to #RemembranceDay every year by thousands of people in the #UK and beyond. They have been worn in this way for over eighty years.
The #WhitePoppy stands for three things. They represent #remembrance for all #victims of #war, a commitment to #peace and a challenge to attempts to glamorise or celebrate war.

You can buy white poppies through our online shop here. You can also find them in a number of shops, cafes and other outlets across the UK.

White poppies are at the heart of our National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony every year. On our events page you can find out about this and other alternative remembrance ceremonies around the country. You can watch and read about our 2020 ceremony here.

Remembering all victims of war
White poppies stand for remembrance of all victims of all wars. This includes #wars still being fought. It includes people of all nationalities. It includes both #civilians and members of armed forces.
In wearing white poppies, we remember all those killed in war, all those wounded in body or mind, the millions who have been made sick or homeless by war and the families and communities torn apart. We also remember those killed or imprisoned for refusing to fight and for #resisting war.

Today over 90% of people killed in #warfare are civilians.

We differ from the Royal British Legion, who produce red poppies. The Legion has traditionally said that red poppies are to remember only British armed forces and those who fought alongside them. In 2019 they shifted their position to say that they "acknowledge" civilian victims of war, but did not extend their remembrance to all nationalities.

A recent poll shows that 83% of UK adults believe victims of war of all nationalities should be included in remembrance, whilst 86% believe civilians should be included.

We want to remember #British #military dead, but they are not the only victims of war. We also remember the many civilians who have died or suffered in war, both in the past and today, in Syria, Yemen and many other places around the world. #Suffering does not stop at national borders, and nor should remembrance.

#peace #propeace #antiwar #pacifist #pacifism

Register for the Belmarsh Tribunal: Free Julian Assange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7rBuTphpcM
https://act.progressive.international/belmarsh-tribunal/

The #HighCourt will hear the #appeal on #October27-28 in #London, which will decide #JulianAssange's immediate fate. He remains #imprisoned in #maximum #security #Belmarsh #prison for two and a half years, despite #winning his #extradition #battle in the UK’s #DistrictCourt last January. For now all eyes must be focused on the appeal at the High Court at the end of October. #Public #pressure is the only thing that can end the deliberate, punitive #incarceration of #Assange. This is, when all is said and done, the most #important #press #freedom #case of the 21st century.

Just a few days before the extradition #hearing in Julian’s case (October 27-28) and inspired by the #Russell-Sartre #Tribunal that put the US government’s #war-crimes in #Vietnam on trial, we are bringing together leading #lawyers, #politicians and #journalists to put the US government on trial for its crimes in the 21st century — from #atrocities in #Iraq, to #torture in #GuantánamoBay, and the country’s huge #surveillance program.
Talking about the Russell-Sartre Tribunal, #Russel said that the tribunal “represented no state power; it had no capacity to sentence the accused”. But he added something important: “I believe that these apparent limitations are, in fact, #virtues. We are free to conduct a solemn and #historic #investigation, presented to the #conscience of #mankind”.
You are already part of the conscience of #humankind. Become part of the #struggle to #free Julian Assange and #protect other #whistleblowers and #journalists. Protect what is #right and #fight what is so obviously wrong.
Members of the Belmarsh Tribunal, named after the prison where Assange has been imprisoned for more than two years, include #DanielEllsberg, #YanisVaroufakis, #RafaelCorrea, #StefaniaMaurizi, #RenataÁvila, #JeremyCorbyn, #KenLoach, #TariqAli, #SelayGhaffar and many others.

#SrećkoHorvat, cabinet member of the #Progressive #International and one of the founders of the #BelmarshTribunal, said:
“After the #revelations about the #murderous #CIA #plans to #kill a #publisher and #journalist on #British soil, not only the current #US #government but also the #UK government must be held responsible for still keeping Assange in #prison.The #Biden administration should #dropthecharges against Assange and the UK government should #free him immediately and end the #suffering and #torture of a #courageous #man who has #committed #no #crime. In a #society in which telling the #truth becomes a crime, we are all #accomplices of crime as long as Assange is in prison.”

#join #mobilize #organize

#Organized by #TheProgressiveInternational the tribunal will hold its first #physical #proceedings in #London at the #ConvocationHall, #ChurchHouse, #Westminster at 3pm BST, #22October. #register #attend-online

“If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth." - Julian Assange.

#freejulianassange #diem25 #noextradition #weareallassange #23october-marchforassange

quite capitalism...

#suffering #capitalism #quit #feelbetter #tweet #screenshot

Pain Is Inevitable; Suffering Is Optional

When it comes to how we respond to physical and emotional pain, we have a choice.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
—Viktor Frankl

#pain #suffering #trauma #choice #freedom #resilience #psychology #ViktorFrankl

I was at a three-story building that housed many doctors' offices. I could not believe the number of people that did not have masks on or were wearing it improperly. This was in a suburb of NYC where the number of cases of COVID-19 are on the rise. It is also where this past weekend, there was also a 'rally' against public schools and universities mandating vaccinations (public schools are not permitted to mandate a vaccine, like the dozen a child must get before entering school as a young child) unless the vaccine has 'full' (not just emergency use) approval by the Centers for Disease Control. Private schools, and businesses, are under no such regulation. They were also rallying against mandated wearing of masks in schools.

A simple answer, a physician who has a five-year-old child said to me, is that if everyone that medically can get the vaccination did. Perhaps younger children are less likely to have serious effects (as we know at this moment) that does not mean that the people they may spread it to will have fewer serious effects. Now, imagine your 10-year-old is infected and passes it to an adult (whether they chose not to be vaccinated or not) and that person suffers long-term effects or dies. How do you explain that to your child? "We didn't want you to wear a tissue over your face" doesn't seem like it will be of much consolation.

I understand that people are 'tired' of restrictions-- I am also. I understand the fear of putting a relatively new vaccine into your own, or your child's body-- I was also. I understand the fear of long them effects of the vaccinations-- no one can say if it will cause problems down the line. The same is also true of contracting COVID.

I'm tired of people misunderstand that the right they have to swing their fist ends at the tip of my nose. Most of us live inter-connected lives and should, at the very least, want to avoid causing any more suffering. Even organizing one of these rallies causes anger (from both sides). I try to live my life trying to avoid causing others suffering or pain. (No. That doesn't mean I am a walking door mat or punching bag.)

For the majority of people, causing suffering does not bring happiness. Of course, we do not act thinking, "this will cause others to suffer"-- that is just the natural bi-product. Let us all try to spend tiny moments thinking about how we can cause others joy, which coincidently usually brings ourselves joy.

#suffering #joy #covid #children

Fela Kuti

Shuffering and Shmiling

#music #Afrobeat #Fela #Kuti #FelaKuti #religion #Suffering #smiling #1978