on non-violence and peace

today was another very full day filled with more editing at work, a fabulous dinner at khalil's II, a wonderfully authentic middle eastern restaurant where i could fill my stomach with humous, olives, feta cheese, rice, and of course lamb. After dinner the thomas merton center was screening a film entitled "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" which was extremely enlightening about the issues surrounding the privitization of war (not only logistics but everything up to fifty percent of the interrogators at abu ghraib were private) with companies like halliburton, titan, c.a.c.i, and many others. it stands to reason that with private companies the control of such sensitive subjects as intelligence and interrogation would be lost. as well it seems like a conflict of interest; in my opinion the close ties between the heads of these contracting companies and the supposed leaders of our country would cause a conflict of interest to doing what is best for our country and our soldiers and that is ending the war. instead the companies don't want to forfeit their multi-billion dollar contracts and of course our country doesn't want to upset corporate america.

another topic which has been of increasing interest involves the greater peace community in the city of pittsburgh. i am, first of all extremely impressed by how active and tightly knit their peace community is. i have already been involved in nearly a half dozen meetings, dinners, or other activities and it has only been a week here. but what has been making me think is an ongoing conversation which has arisen among the community concerning social change and the justified means to getting there, as well as what does it mean to be "non-violent". a few months ago at a protest, from what i understand, in the moment some activists threw a rock through a store window to send a message about the inclusion of corporate america into the protest. i guess not too much was said publicly at that time but i think that the discussion was started with personal conversation. this led a lady by the name of dei'anna colgiuri to write an article in the "New People" thomas merton activist publications september issue (if you access the link earlier in the sentence you can find her article in the september issue on page 22). her article supporting and defending the use of property damage sparked a rebuttal from four other peace movement individuals whose statements then caused another to again respond to their comments (october issue page 21 and 22 as well as november issue page 18 respectively). needless to say i have read the articles as well as other background information and i am intrigued. i am trying to start and hopefully soon finish some writing about my thoughts in connection to this discussion...so will post expediently there after.