[Sosfbay-discuss] Michael Berg says break the cycle of violence

[JamBoi]

I was very pleased that at least one other SCC GP member made it to the
Berkeley talk and press conference that I'd set up for Michael Berg. 
Really appreciated Tian's presence and support!  I'll forward the press
release we did for the press conference.

A Million Votes for Peace!

Drew

--- Tian Harter <tnharter at ispwest.com> wrote:

> Yesterday afternoon Michael Berg gave a speech at the UU Church at
> Bonita
> & Cedar in Berkeley. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it takes two
> hours 
> to get
> there by transit on Sunday afternoon until I was well on the way. I 
> missed the
> first part of the speech. When I got there a couple of dozen people
> were 
> listening
> with rapt attention to a gray haired man in a T shirt with a large
> pink 
> peace sign.
> He was explaining that the CIA had locked up his son, Nicholas Berg,
> for 
> twelve
> days during the time the news of Abu Ghraib. When they released Nick,
> they
> warned him that their sleepy war had been radicalized by the news,
> but he
> apparently didn't get the news on a visceral enough level.
> 
> Michael Berg said that the last contact he'd gotten directly from his
> 
> son was
> an email saying Nick was leaving Iraq soon, but he didn't know how
> just yet.
> Then he told us of a vision he had soon after that. Michael saw his
> son 
> being
> kidnapped on a bus, which he later found out to be about what
> happened.
> The next thing he knew, he was finding out his son had been beheaded
> by
> people that were taking revenge on America for our prisoner abuses
> and
> other crimes. He indicated that a lot of people had seen Nick's
> beheading
> on the Internet.
> 
> Michael Berg then talked about restorative justice. He told us that 
> after his
> son had died he had taken a course in theology, and they had
> explained that
> revenge for revenge was not the way. Bush's war was wrong, and
> Zarquowi
> (if that's who it was) had been radicalized by news of prisoner
> abuses. The
> time to break the cycle of violence was now. The Sister who taught
> the 
> course
> explained to him that if the person who had wronged him wasn't 
> available, he
> should find a proxy to talk out the issue with. He talked about
> talking 
> to an
> empty chair, asking "why did you do it?" Finally he realized that 
> revenge has
> to stop with himself. He sees President Bush as a deeply wounded man.
> 
> Michael Berg didn't really talk much about running for Congress as a
> Green
> Party Candidate in Delaware. He mentioned being in favor of single
> payer
> health care, but mostly his talk was about the spiritual aspects of 
> restorative
> justice. After the speech there were a couple of questions about it,
> but he
> didn't want to jeopardize the church's 501.c.3 status by answering
> them.
> 
> After he sat down, somebody asked people to donate to his campaign,
> and I
> did. I also saw several people writing checks. It was the softest
> pitch 
> I can
> remember. A few minutes later he ran off to a press conference at the
> BART
> station, where the sound bite he put out there was "My son's death
> was
> wrong, but Bush's war is worse. We need to bring the troops home
> NOW!"
> 
> -- 
> Tian
> http://tian.greens.org
> I went camping a week or so ago. Looking at the stars,
> I got to thinking that reading words about them probably hits
> the eye with way more light then they actually send us.
> 
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> 


JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cows Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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