The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
19 October 2011
18 October 2011
Wise words unheeded…
—Martin Luther King, Jr., (from Beyond Vietnam)
2 October 2011
Speaking of Gandhi…
Porbandar, India
Today is the birthday of the great Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), now celebrated around the world as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Although I have not been able to find verification that the “Seven Dangers to Human Virtue” attributed to him were actually stated by him (this could, admittedly, be an Internet meme—the airwaves are filled with chatter about him), from what I know of the man, they seem to fit with his character and worldview.
The illustration is from a Russian postage stamp issued in 1969 in honour of Gandhi’s 100th birthday (illustrator unknown, copyright free through Wikimedia Commons).
1 October 2011
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
26 September 2011
We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessing of peace.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)
23 September 2011
15 September 2011
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germs of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few…. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
—James Madison, (1751-1836), Political Observations
13 September 2011
In this short span between my fingertips and the smooth edge and these tense feet cramped to a crystal ledge, I hold the life of a man.
—Geoffrey Winthrop Young (1876-1958), climber, poet, educator, author, and conscientious objector
Geoffrey lost a leg during World War I… though he continued alpine climbing for years thereafter, using a specially designed artificial leg that accepted a number of attachments for snow and rock work. He even climbed the Matterhorn in 1928. Following is a poem he wrote that references his struggles over his loss…
I have not lost the magic of long days:
I live them, dream them still.
Still I am master of the starry ways,
and freeman of the hill.
Shattered my glass, ere half the sands had run,—
I hold the heights, I hold the heights I won.
Mine still the hope that hailed me from each height,
mine the unresting flame.
With dreams I charmed each doing to delight;
I charm my rest the same.
Severed my skein, ere half the strands were spun,—
I keep the dreams, I keep the dreams I won.
What if I live no more those kingly days?
their night sleeps with me still.
I dream my feet upon the starry ways;
my heart rests in the hill.
I may not grudge the little left undone;
I hold the heights, I keep the dreams I won.
9 August 2011
Turn, turn, turn…
(original source unknown—passed on from my friend Gustavo Machado)
6 August 2011
Lest we forget… Hiroshima.
Hiroshima, Japan
This is a day that weighs heavy on the hearts of pacifists and peacemakers every year… 66 years ago today, at 08:15 on Monday, 6 August, 1945 the first nuclear weapon ever deployed on human beings (a bomb named Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay. Several days later, at 11:02 on Wednesday, August 9, Nagasaki was the target of the world’s first plutonium bomb (named Fat Man) dropped by the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, flown by the crew of 393rd Squadron.
In 2005, I was one of 24 designers invited to contribute posters to Lest We Forget: Canadian Designers on War, an initiative marking the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (I’ve posted on that previously, here).