War and Peace
What will it take to have the latter without the former?
Ever since the latest atrocities in Israel occurred last Saturday, Edwin Starr's iconic 1969 song "War" has been going through my brain. And in case you aren't familiar with it, here are the opening lines:
"War, huh, yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'."
And then yesterday I read an essay by Dr. Naomi Wolfe, another Substack author I greatly admire, entitled "Please Calm Down: The Importance of Staying Centered in a Global Crisis."
In it she writes: "It is an especially difficult time in which to feel or express anything but horror and grief. ... I don’t think anything that claims synthesis right now, or a unitary point of view, is honest or even sensitive."
I thought about that statement and ... disagreed. Which is why I posted a comment on her substack page saying, that while I shared her horror and honored her perspective, I felt impelled to give an answer to the current Middle East crisis that would be, by its very nature, simplistic. Perhaps insultingly so. And I apologized in advance for that.
Since the topic was already on my mind, I figured I'd share what I wrote to her with you, and then expand a little.
A commentary on war
I do not (that I know of) have a friend or family member currently subject to all the atrocities. I haven't stood in the streets and beheld the spilled blood of a friend, neighbor, child or lover, nor witnessed first-hand the dismemberment of peace, hope and yes, bodies of those known and unknown. If I had, I honestly don't know if I could say what I'm about to say or not.
But ... when will it be enough? When will humanity rise in its humanity and say, "Stop!"
I am not an expert on Middle East politics or any politics. I'm a human being who is done with all the endless, needless, heedless bloodshed and carnage worldwide—and not just in Israel and Gaza.
When will we refuse to be cannon fodder for elites who fund both sides of every war—indeed who plan, initiate and profit from them? When will we "get it" that we have been deliberately driven into conflict over and over to suit globalist agendas?
When will we get that skin color doesn't mean anything? That every culture has unique ethnic traditions and, "Hey. Isn't that cool? We can learn stuff from each other!"
When will we get that opinions over what god said what to whom and when simply don't matter? That beliefs are only that? Beliefs not truth. Like elbows, everybody's got them. And they all look slightly different.
I mean, ask five people who witnessed an accident and you’ll get five different perspectives on the police report. And we expect people to agree about GOD?
When are we going to understand that intolerance, lack, and a dog-eat-dog mentality are not our natural inheritance? That we have been programmed into these negative perspectives to keep us in fear and competition with each other?”
There is more than enough land and the world is still brimming with resources for all once we get past the petty convictions we were trained to believe are important enough to kill and die for.
There are opportunities for all, amazing discoveries and creations for all once we see through and then abandon the Taskmasters with their cruelty and greed, cold indifferent agendas and Not-So-Great Reset.
A new world is waiting for us—the one we pray and yearn for—when we come together, despite everything, to create peace and take the responsibility for building it.
An ages-old desire
In 1870, at the end of the devastation of the American Civil War, suffragette Julia Ward Howe wrote a Mother's Day Proclamation and spoke words that still lie waiting to be acted upon—sentiments buried in the hearts and minds of every man, woman, and child on this earth for ages—words I have quoted here after altering them just a bit to bring them up to date and include men in the equation:
"Arise, all humans who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands and wives and lovers shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons and daughters shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women and men of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons and daughters to be trained to injure theirs.
"From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession.
“Let us meet first, as human beings, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let us then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, man as the brother of man, woman as the sister of woman, each bearing after his/her own kind the sacred stewardship of Earth, and in the name of humanity, without limit of nationality, promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace."
Stepping up
These are frightening times. And in frightening times it’s just human nature to look to powerful people to lead. To stand back and hope and pray for salvation by someone else’s hand. To shy away from responsibility and think “Other people know better than me. I need to trust them to make things right.”
But the thing is, our “leaders” do not know better than us. Our “leaders” are not leaders. Most in high places are opportunists. Certainly they are not the ones marching into battle getting blown to bits as we do the bidding of the elites.
Despite pious words to the contrary, our leaders do not care if we live or die. They never have and they never will—not as long we’re living in a world that equates leadership with power and power with force and control.
Might and brutality are tools of domination, not peace. And war? War is simply good business.
So, enough with waiting for self-interested politicians to hammer out another peace accord that never provides peace. They aren’t intended to.
Peace, if it’s to be birthed for real, has to happen within each and every one of us.
Remember the peace movement that happened in the 1960s during Vietnam? Thousands refused the draft. Millions marched. Artists, writers, musicians like Edwin Starr, protested through their individual mediums. The world was on fire with the idea of brotherly love and rebellion against the machinations of “the Establishment.”
Apparently that was the practice round, because here we are again.
As the young people (who are old now!) knew back then, it’s up to all of us—the people of all colors and ethnicities and backgrounds—individuals, families, neighbors, states, and nations—to insist on peace by not participating in violence any longer.
It’s time we came together to talk about ways to heal. Ways to communicate. Ways to settle old scores and inequities and find justice together. Ways to work together. Grow together.
It’s time to talk. In restaurants and bus stations, airports and bars. On the airwaves, in taxicabs and Ubers, in schoolrooms, online, and yes, in legislatures.
And these conversations have to happen with safety.
Agreements have to be made to ensure authenticity, respect and boundaries. Elders, psychologists, healers, ministers, mediators, shamans, medicine men and women—all those who can maturely and in a non-partisan fashion help hold space—need to offer to help guide the talks.
And then we need to talk!
Much love and aloha ~
Cate
PS - And any suggestions on how to proceed towards global peace, I’m all ears!
In the meantime, I've recently posted a couple of podcast conversations I’ve had with soul alchemist and healing facilitator Robin Duda and two other amazing women about what it might take to start the peace ball rolling. I'm posting both conversations again below. Please, listen and, if so inspired, pass the links on!
Bringing the rainbow tribe together — a conversation about what it takes: PART 1
A video podcast conversation with Robin Duda, co-founder of Sustainable Love Transformation & Training Center, Maya Cordova and Claire Ku'ulei Wilkins
NOTE: Even with your email “show content” preferences on, you might just see a black square below instead of a video thumbnail. Either way, CLICK ON THE BLACK SQUARE or the VIDEO THUMBNAIL. You will be routed to this article’s online landing page.
Then just scroll down and hit PLAY on the online video versions!
Bringing the rainbow tribe together — a conversation about what it takes: PART 2
A video podcast conversation with Robin Duda, co-founder of Sustainable Love Transformation & Training Center, Maya Cordova and Claire Ku'ulei Wilkins
Check out the book:
Cracking the Matrix: 14 Keys to Individual & Global Freedom
For thousands of years, every culture on Earth has described a hostile, invisible Intelligence bedeviling humanity, dragging us down. The Archons, AshShaytān, wetiko, windingo, e'epa, antimimos, Satan ... the names are legion.
Cracking the Matrix explores the astounding history and nature of what humanity has erroneously labeled "evil" on this planet, helping people finally see the very real, negative, interdimensional influence that exists behind historic and current global events and our social decline.
The book outlines how to break free of this Force's ancient controlling agenda and how people can stand up in the power of their true spiritual nature, ready to create the New Heaven and the New Earth that have so long been prophesied.
About Cate Montana
A professional journalist specializing in alternative medicine and health, Cate is the author of several other books, including Unearthing Venus: My Search for the Woman Within [Watkins 2013], and The E Word, Ego Enlightenment & Other Essentials [Atria 2017], and a spiritual novel titled Apollo & Me. She has a master’s degree in psychology, and is a highly informative and compelling speaker and guest on radio and TV shows and podcasts. She is very grateful to be able to say she lives in Hawaii.
For more information www.catemontana.com