Rational Nation USA

  Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous - an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering. War is like a fire in the human community, one whose fuel is living beings. I find this analogy especially appropriate and useful. Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous w...

  “Our guns will not lead to our liberation,” writes Zenzele Isoke following the May 14  mass shooting  that killed 10 people and injured three in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Here, she calls on practitioners to challenge gun culture and “bring the precept of non-harming back into the very center of our ethics and our mindfulness practices.” Lion's Roar -  On Saturday, May 14, 2022, eleven  African American people went to Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York fully expecting to go home. Maybe they went to pick up a couple of fresh onions and garlic to season the Sunday dinner, buy some milk, cereal and snacks for the kids, or get a pound of butter and real vanilla extract for a fresh-baked dessert. Or maybe they were working at the grocery store part-time to  eke  out a living. Three of those people died in the parking lot before they ever reached the store, six of them were killed in the aisles, and one was killed in a s...