Marianne Williamson: America doesn't just have a gun crisis. It has a culture crisis.

[sinkingfeeling]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/02/marianne-williamson-us-needs-department-peace/

It is not just our gun policy but our politics that fails to free us of this insanity. Until we override the nefarious influence of money on our politics, it will not be possible to break the National Rifle Association’s chokehold on our society. It is not the will nor safety of the people but the profits of gun manufacturers that is given primacy in our gun policies. Legislation that establishes public funding for federal campaigns should be the battle cry of our generation.

America does not just have a gun crisis; it has a cultural crisis. America will not stop experiencing the effects of gun violence until we’re ready to face the many ways that our culture is riddled with violenceOur environmental policies are violent toward the Earth. Our criminal justice system is violent toward people of color. Our economic system is violent toward the poor. Our enertainment media is violent toward women. Our video games are violent in their effect on the minds of children. Our military is violent in ways and places where it doesn’t have to be. Our media is violent in its knee-jerk shaming and blaming for the sake of a better click rate. Our hearts are violent as we abandon each other constantly, breeding desperation and insanity. And our government is indirectly and directly violent in the countless ways it uses its power to help those who do not need help and to withhold support from those who do.

Though gun-safety legislation should be fervently pursued, a political establishment so steeped in the ways of brute force is hardly equipped to be the purveyor of a solution to the problem of violence in this country. With a nearly $740 billion military budget but only $40 billion proposed for the State Department budget, our outsize commitment to brute force and ever-withering commitment to soul force is obvious. With the Air Force seeking 100 stealth B-21 Raiders, each with a price tag of $550 million and each equipped to carry both nuclear and conventional weapons, while 12.5 million children in the United States live in food-insecure homes — the idea of politicians who allow this to happen being the ones who are going to save us from the epidemic of violence in America is almost laughable.

We will not break free of dysfunctional realities until we are willing to embrace more functional ones. I propose a U.S. Department of Peace to coordinate and harness the powers of conflict resolution; restorative justice; violence prevention; trauma-informed education; mindfulness in the schools; child and family wrap-around services; social and emotional learning; and a world-class peace academy to train and to deploy thousands of peace-builders, plus national conferences and a presidential task force for peace creation. We will make every effort to promote a culture of peace both at home and abroad. We will address the root causes, not just the symptoms of violence in America. And in time, we will transform our culture from one of conflict to one of peace.

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While many of her ideas border on 'crazy', I have to agree with her on this.

[marybourg]

1. I find this is the second time in

recent weeks that I've had to agree with her..

[Newest Reality]

2. Regardless of a nomination...

She is the only candidate in my lifetime that expresses an understanding similar to my own, which has just come about from studying and reading about what's going on over the years in a deeper fashion.

So, aside from getting the nomination, at least her candidacy provides a platform for these points to be made because few people seem to be catching onto this or talking about it in the mainstream and THAT is a big mistake, especially if we want the train of horrors to stop on its tracks.

When you open the box of this cultural crises there are several factors you will discover and Williamson is just pulling up the lid right now. It's a, "Wait, there's more!" thing.

Oh, and I hear people talk about how they think some things she says are "crazy". Really, now? Have you looked around at what is not considered normal? Do we have a collective representation of sanity to refer to now, or are we just thinking its normal? If we are going toss around words like crazy, we might want to check into our standards more. Right now, things are extremely crazy and the illness is going largely untreated, (and you could write a whole article just about the symptoms) and we need to admit that before there is a psychotic break.

If we are so immersed in what has lead up to this overall miasma we find ourselves in and what has failed to adequately address the core, systemic problems that foment it, and we think this is normal, then who is the crazy one? It may be time for a checkup.

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
― J. Krishnamurti

[solara]

7. Hear! Hear!

I agree whole-heartedly

[Newest Reality]

8. Thanks for commenting!

It is good to know that

[solara]

9. I think it's important to address the prejudices

against Williamson that I have witnessed here on DU. I have said it before and I will keep saying it. She is a Democrat, and a woman and a human being who has very strong ideals about Peace and Love and Empathy, so since when does that give anyone, especially one of us Liberals, the right to disparage her. It infuriates me that there are so many on DU that see nothing wrong with laughing at her and putting her down.

&quot What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding"

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding

[Ptah]

3. Primaries - - -

[sinkingfeeling]

5. No, this is an editorial as it appears in the Washington Post this morning. Not related to primaries

[Ptah]

6. mmmmm Okay

[underpants]

4. ✅

[EarthFirst]

10. A glaring omission from this piece: unfettered white nationalism

If we’re going to discuss the cultural rift that exists in our country; it’s necessary to completely address what white nationalism has taken the forefront as an epidemic in the gun violence discussion.

Far too many wide-eyed domestic terrorists are using dog whistles to the white nationalist culture that has been so blatantly allowed to root itself in the mainstream.

Until we are willing to admit that this is part of the gun violence problem; we will continue to further embolden potential violence in the name of white nationalism.