Pray for PEACH?

Gee, all I did was say we should do what Jesus told us to do -- pray for our enemies.

Wow, did the comments pour in!!!!!!

If you are not a Christian, don't worry about it.

If you are a Christian, like it or not, you need to struggle with this mandate from Christ. I know it's tough -- it's taken me 4 years, 10 months and 26 days to even start to think about praying for Osama.

Prayer.

I would have thought that my post about sex would have had more comments -- but I really touched a nerve here with praying for Osama.

Before the war began in Iraq, I participated in a peaceful demonstration. I decided I needed a sign to carry. Hmmm, what to put on it?

"Pray for Peace." Simple, direct, and who could take offense at that. No burning the flag. No insults about the President. Just "pray for peace."

I bought a brand new poster board and slowly and carefully wrote each letter -- large and bold for all to see.

P - E -A -C -H

H?

Pray for Peach?

Must have been close to lunch time.

I've always thought that the dictionary is just "one person's opinion of correct spelling," but this definitely had to be corrected. I sure couldn't use the other side, because people behind me would see the error of my ways.

So I marched without a sign.

We sang as we walked, "God Bless America." We occasionally chanted, "All we are saying is give peace a chance." (Yes, I sang correctly -- I wasn't about to chant, "Give peach a chance.")

We didn't change anything -- the war still started a few weeks later. But what amazed me is that we seemed to give people permission to speak out against the war at a time when doing so opened you to attacks of being unpatriotic.

I never feel more patriotic than when I can enjoy my first amendment rights -- free speech, freedom of religion, freedom to peacefully assemble. It is a great country. I haven't protested many things -- the unfair firing of my high school principal, segregation, and this war.

Thanks to all those who enjoyed your first amendment rights in my blog's comment section.

It does not bother me that so many comments are in favor of this war.

What stunned me is there is so much opposition to peace.

Is peace really such a terrible thing?

I'm not going to say that all war is wrong, because I really don't feel that way. Perhaps I should.

I rejoiced the night we invaded Afghanistan. We were after Osama.

I rejoiced when Bush, Sr., invated Iraq. We were in a noble fight in a broad coalition to defend Kuwait.

I often interview Veterans of World War II in an oral history project for the Library of Congress and the National Archives. I'm proud of what our nation did then.

As a child -- or very young teenager -- I marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. OK, I admit, he was in the street, I was in the street, I was several blocks behind him and may have gotten a glimpse of the back of his head sometime during the day -- but hey, there I was marching with Dr. King :)

Was it King who said, "The road to peace is peace"?

If you have comments on this post, make them peaceful. If you behave, perhaps in my next post I'll share the story of the time my brother, wife and I went to visit Haulover Beach. For those who aren't from Miami, that's the beach that's... well, I'll tell you later.