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Before Gandhi, there was Tolstoy
When Leo Tolstoy was 54, he wrote a book about the ethical teachings of Jesus as revealed in the Sermon on the Mount. For the rest of his life, Tolstoy advocated the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change.
Gandhi – the person we associate with peaceful, non-violent resistance – was 12 years old when Tolstoy’s book was published.
Martin Luther King – the man who popularized peaceful, non-violent resistance in America – would not be born for another 45 years.
In 1854, during the Crimean War, a British light brigade was ordered to charge the cannons of the Russian Empire.
A “light brigade” carried only light weapons, such as sabers and pistols.
Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote about this famous headlong charge toward certain death:
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred…
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian artillery officer in that war and was forever changed by it.
That war – the first modern war – led Tolstoy to the Sermon on the Mount and convinced him of the truth of Jesus’ words.
“Blessed are the peacemakers… blessed are the meek… blessed are the merciful…”
Tolstoy was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 3 times, but each time he wrote to the committee and asked them to remove his name from consideration.
When the public grew angry that Tolstoy never received the Nobel, he confessed that he had privately rejected it and wrote,
“First, it has saved me the predicament of managing so much money, because such money, in my opinion, only brings evil. Secondly, I felt very honoured to receive such sympathy from people I have not even met.”
Tolstoy was loved by everyone except religious leaders.
Remember that book he wrote in 1882 about the ethical teachings of Jesus? It did not appear in Russia for 24 years because it was blocked by the Orthodox Church, the leaders of the Christian faith in Russia. They were worried that Tolstoy might have been talking about them when he wrote,
“I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means – except by getting off his back.”
The religious leaders became angry again when Tolstoy wrote,
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Mark Twain, a contemporary of Tolstoy, may well have been making a joke about religious leaders in America when he wrote,
“By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.”
Tolstoy saw Jesus and his teachings as gold surrounded by the mud of religiosity. He said,
“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.”
This reminds me of Michelangelo’s description of how he carved an angel from a block of marble:
“I just removed everything that was not angel.”
I will leave you now, to consider all that you have been told, and wash the mud from the gold, and remove everything that is not angel.
Roy H. Williams
Facebook
Crimea
Another billion dollars transferred from taxpayers to the military-industrial complex oligarchs in Biden's wealth transfer program
Pentagon announces $1B in ammunition, weapons aid to Ukraine
By Adam Schrader
At least one man was killed during the attack, the chairman of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Oleg Sinegubov said. Photo by Vasiliy Zhlobsky/EPA-EFE
Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The United States announced Monday it would provide Ukraine with $1 billion in ammunition and weapons systems -- the largest lethal aid package provided to the country since Russia invaded in February.
Todd Breasseale, the acting Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the package put together by President Joe Biden under his presidential drawdown authority is needed to help Ukraine meet its "critical security and defense needs."
"It is the largest single drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment utilizing this authority," Breasseale said.
"This package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons, and equipment -- the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country."
Since August 2021, the U.S. government has now approved around $9.8 billion worth of military equipment and supplies for Ukraine through 18 such packages.
The latest package includes additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems.
It also includes 1,000 Javelin missiles and hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems, 50 armored medical treatment vehicles and medical supplies, Claymore anti-personnel munitions and C-4 explosives.
Additional ammunition includes 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition as well as 20 120mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition.
Of course, none of this will save Ukraine, but it sure keeps the inventory of war moving in the good ol' USA.
U.S. will send another $775 million in weapons to Ukraine
By Doug Cunningham
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pictured in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. The United States will send another $775 million in weapons to Ukraine soon, bringing the total U.S. weapons assistance to over $10 billion, a defense official said.
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The United States will send another $775 million in weapons to Ukraine, including missiles, drones, and vehicles, the White House said Friday.
President Joe Biden authorized the State Department to send up to $775 million in defense materiels and training on Friday, according to the White House.
The weapons package will include 16 howitzers and ammunition for them and AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles known as HARM, senior Pentagon officials told The Hill, CNBC and Defense News.
Armored vehicles, 15 Scan Eagle reconnaissance drones are also included in the latest weapons package.
With this latest weapons assistance package, the United States will surpass $10 billion in military assistance for Ukraine. Ukraine appears to be putting the weapons to effective use.
Overnight Thursday and into Friday morning, explosions occurred again in Russian-occupied Crimea and in Russia's Belgorod Oblast. The explosions hit a Russian ammunition depot in Belgorod.
Those strikes followed an Aug. 9 attack on the Russian Saki airbase in Crimea that destroyed Russian Black Sea Fleet warplanes.
"Crimea is the sovereign territory of Ukraine," Ukraine National Security Council head Oleksiy Danilov tweeted Friday. "The issue on the agenda is the step-by-step demilitarization of this territory with its further de-occupation."
Earlier this month, a $1 billion arms package for Ukraine was announced that included more Javelin missiles and hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems.
In May, U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said 20 nations agreed to donate critically needed weapons to continue to enable Ukraine to defend itself from Russia's invasion and continuing attacks.
Of course, the Russian invasion was provoked by NATO and the US - a 7 year project, and now Deep State is reaping the benefits in moving their war inventory at a spectacular rate. Tax money going to the military-industrial oligarchs.
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