Epigenetic Peace is the proper name of the peace we seek together as human society. The potential of epigenetics for producing lasting human peace is staggering and very real.

Physically, people have not changed in at least a million years. Our DNA, the basic blueprint of our bodies, and the physiology of our bodies have not changed while people

• acquired agriculture
• created complex social hierarchies
• established cities
• outfitted conquering armies
• received great religions
• built empires
• conceived of nations
• launched the industrial revolution and
• invented the information age.

All in the last 10,000 years. Archeologists can find early evidence beginning about 100,000 years ago but what has happened in the last 10,000 is remarkable.

And what we have done in the last 1,000 years is breathtaking.

It can only be psychological changes, profound new mentalities and different ways of using our heads than can account for these remarkable and breathtaking accomplishments. We did it all by thinking differently.

We, as a people, are increasingly thinking differently faster and further all the time. And this is not even the best part. I’ll get to the best part in a little bit but first lets get a grip on epigenetics.

Epigenetics studies non-genetic factors that cause our genes to behave (or “express themselves”) differently. Epigenetic changes are behind everything we now consider our human birthright, a massive mental construction in its own right.

Think about this.

Something besides our genetics has (and still is at a relentlessly increasing pace) deeply and profoundly directing what kind of human being each of us becomes.

It takes a very small appreciation of human history to begin to grasp the scope of what epigenetic influences have wrought upon human society. Even if you only know some of the stories out of the Biblical Old Testament you have to be impressed with how far we have come.

The best part is that a singular epigenetic influence has recently been identified and confirmed so we now know what it is.

We are the epigenetic influence.

The way this all works gets down to the specifics of how different kinds of people, including all kinds of violent people, appear and reappear throughout human history and how to stop it from happening anymore. That is what I reveal in our special report.

I really think this is important. I really think this has the potential to move the human race forward, past the need to commit violence

• upon ourselves
• upon our fellow creatures and
• upon our environment.

And that is why I am going through all the work of making it into a special report. So you have to excuse me if I look over everything very carefully before I release it.

When it is ready you will hear about it first here. And it will come soon.

Until then, peace in all things.

Kyle Andrew Scott created the milestone #200 video of A Peaceful Solution. It sure is nice of Kyle to do this for peace, especially since no one we knew thought this project would last so long or get so many people involved.

Be we did.

We knew there we lots of people out there that were totally into peace. If you just look at how small a segment of musicians it is who have the skills and resources to produce a version and get it to us then you must realize that this represents thousands of other people.

We knew that.

Now, when our leaders seem to abandon us to financial predators and all of human civilization appears to be threatened by epidemic libertine excesses at every level we must step back and look at it all from the perspective of human progress through the millenniums.

The human species has come a long way and now we can see a Germany and Austria, which once launched one suicidal world war after another, in 2 generations lead Europe in humanitarian reforms. We can also bare witness to a once peaceful Palestinian people who cared little for nationalistic hubris produce suicide bombers in 2 generations.

As the old guard passes on, who shall replace them?

In 2 generations we can have the world we want.

Will we have peace?

Kyle Andrew Scott knows it is worth a shot and so do we. Are you with us?

Willie Nelson, Liz O’Garvey and Jay Greathouse collaborated in writing Our Mission for the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute in April, 2007. We launched this blog to represent our efforts toward peace and to reach out to the greater community of peaceful people by offering a platform to share news of peaceful activities around the globe.

This blog is one area that is most visible to the world but remember this is the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute and our mandate as agreed to by Willie Nelson, Liz O’Garvey and Jay Greathouse is to research and discover the way for “…Peace on Earth in Our Lifetime.”

Now one thing you might not know about working with Willie Nelson is that he is a hands off kind of person. Deals are sealed by a verbal agreement and a handshake and he sets you free. I figure and there is no way for me to prove this but like all good managers he chooses the most qualified people for the job and then leaves them alone to do what they do best.

Believe me that is a rare gift in this world and I can attest to that as Jay and I have worked with lots of micro managers to our great dismay. Willie Nelson is not a micro manager and for some that might be a reason to slack and not live up to your full potential that got you the position in the first place but not for Liz O’Garvey and Jay Greathouse.

Our greatest asset is our ability to research and assimilate vast amounts of information. Yes, we have high functioning autistic tendencies which we exploit to the max. We might be awkward in public and say inappropriate things but we are good researchers and understand the human condition from a perspective few ever consider.

And more importantly Willie Nelson chose the right people for the job. Now we have to deliver what we promised Willie. Most of you know Willie Nelson is 77 years old and to live up to our mission we need to deliver a plan for “…Peace on Earth in Our Lifetime.”

We have the answer and at this moment are finishing the report that will finally show the world exactly what we need to do to achieve “…Peace on Earth in Our Lifetime.” And we’re talking Willie Nelson’s lifetime or anyone else that will live at least 2 more generations. Yes, that’s right, we can have peace in 2 generations, guaranteed! Other folks know this already and have real world working models that are rarely seen.

So stay tuned here as we deliver our promise to Willie Nelson, all of you and future generations who deserve to live in a world of love, happiness and peace. Then we can watch as all the individual issues that the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute supports resolve as we act on the root causes that generate all the anger, rage, violence, war, frustration, pollution and inequities that reduce us to animals. It’s time for a true rebirth. We have the answer.

Noam Chomsky initiated  the “cognitive revolution” in his 1959 “A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior“ critique of behaviorism and empiricism in general. Further dissatisfaction with the behavioral approach in its simple emphasis on external behavior, rather than internal processes, grew with the development of better experimental methods.

In his book The Blank Slate (2002), psychologist Steven Pinker identified five key ideas that made up the cognitive revolution:

1. “The mental world can be grounded in the physical world by the concepts of information, computation, and feedback.”
2. “The mind cannot be a blank slate because blank slates don’t do anything.”
3. “An infinite range of behavior can be generated by finite combinatorial programs in the mind.”
4. “Universal mental mechanisms can underlie superficial variation across cultures.”
5. “The mind is a complex system composed of many interacting parts.”

By emphasizing mental processes, the cognitive places itself in opposition to the behavioral, which largely ignores mental processes. However, the widespread use of the computer metaphor for the human mental process introduced its own limitations.

Computers, being simpler and better understood than the human mental process, provided useful tools in the exploration of cognition that could be modeled by machine processes. As powerful and attractive as this approach seemed, it possessed 2 deadly faults:

1. reductionism loses the detail that exemplifies human cognition
2. the machine metaphor ignores biology

While the cognitive revolution led to advances in both understanding human motivation and computer sciences in its time, today many of those breakthroughs can seem dated and quaint. None the less, ideas from the cognitive revolution continue to surface in the everyday understanding of psychology.

The cognitive approach views human violence as a product of irrational thinking that can be changed by rational thinking. Rational arguments for peace proliferate in abundance with no visible effect.

For example, it appeared tempting to extend the computer programming principle of GIGO (garbage in garbage out) to lay the blame of escalating violence upon popular music, public media and video games. The cognitive approach not only contends that garbage in results in garbage out but also that garbage in also contributes to the corruption of the operating system, the mind itself.

All we needed to do, it seemed, was to maintain good programming principles and input only safe content in order to overwrite the corrupted programming. As facile and naive as this sounds, I have been guilty of this myself.

I’ve read, written, published and distributed a small library of books, videos and essays making rational arguments for peace. I’ve met, debated, combated and rationally defeated every argument insisting on the necessity of human violence in the name of peace.

I have not been alone. Literally, millions of people have or are at least prepared and willing to do the same.

Rational thinking seems little valued by people using irrational thinking to defend their way of life. Those who promote irrational ideas make their own arguments and show no patience for rational ideas getting in their way.

The irrationality of violence does not yield to rational arguments. In an irrational state, violence may appear to be the best or even the only solution.

Violence is never the best solution.
Violence is never the only solution.

Aggressive arguments appear poised everywhere to combat those opposed to peace. Is it just me or is there something really wrong with this logic?

Unfortunately, irrational violence and rational thinking are not even given equal consideration in the public media. At best, we seem to get mediocre rational morality defending rampant irrational violence.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) hopes to change false beliefs and expectations about the world by repeated exposure to events that trigger mental disorders and logical discussion revealing the illusionary power of the triggering event. Obviously, a person must first be open and receptive to logical discussion and then possess the capacity to understand the logic of the discussion for CBT to work at all.

Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) attempts to use reason and rationality to recognize self-defeating mental processes and practice controlling inappropriate emotions. The idea that subconscious destructive behaviors can be consciously acknowledged and redirected towards more constructive behavior has achieved very limited success.

Fortunately, insights revealed by re-examining history in the light of new knowledge of human biology expose the roots of human violence. If we are willing to give up closed and obscured views a new understanding awaits us.

With this new understanding, people are already building programs proven to reduce violence. But these programs do not function according to the cognitive approach.

And many people know why and how.

I’m just so excited about all of this. All of this and more is tied together in the special report I’m finishing right now.

As soon as we have the newsletter in place and the special report finished, I will announce it here first, this time. Because all of this seems so new and different, further developments will be announced first in the newsletter.

Gideon Shalwick opened registration for his Rapid Video Blogging Program for One Week Only. If you have yet to download his 3 Free Videos and Free Report:

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The biggest names in Internet Marketing (IM) promote this program to the 100s of thousands on their individual email lists and to 10s of millions of their blog visitors. These techniques already changed the use of video on hundreds of influential blogs across the Internet.

Heck, even me, one of the smallest names in IM, felt it important to promote this program to you, not because of my possible affiliate commissions but rather because of the benefits they hold for you. I sincerely hope you use those techniques to your benefit already.

Eventually, all the rising New Leaders on YouTube will be using these techniques. Sure, the Dinosaurs of YouTube may not see the need to change.

At least not until they see the rising popularity and growing profits possible with these techniques.

The Rapid Video Blogging Program opened yesterday. When registration closes, within less than a week, do not have remorse because you slacked on downloading his 3 Free Videos and Free:

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Also, Do Not Have Remorse Because You Slacked On Enrolling In The Rapid Video Blogging Program.

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and if it makes sense for you, enroll in the Rapid Video Blogging Program, now.

According to most behaviorists, looking at overt behavior seems the only way to know what is going on in the mind. They assume the mind is a mysterious “black box” that we cannot see into.

The term “learning theory” is often associated with the behavioral view. In this context, learning can be defined as the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice.

Behavior modification applies behavior analysis concepts and principles in attempting the systematic or programmatic changing of behavior. From this point-of-view, human violence is a bad habit that can be changed by conditioning.

Instrumental Conditioning

assumes a connection between behavior and its consequences, reinforcement or punishment, that changes the probability of the behavior reoccurring. Apparently, recidivists do not receive adequate conditioning, there can be no other explanation in their view.

It seems the entire criminal justice – police state apparatus dedicates itself to changing the bad habit of human violence by oppressive conditioning techniques dating from the medieval Inquisition or earlier. It did not work then and it has not worked since.

Behaviors Rewarded Or Punished

Not a terribly complicated view of people:

1. One stimulus will involuntarily cause an inborn emotional or physiological response.
2. Another stimulus will cause a different response.

Aversion Therapy

Aversion therapy just seems to follow from the behavioral approach. Stanley Kubrick showed us what aversion therapy could look like on a personal level in his adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange.

We also see this acted out on a national level in the theater of war, punishing

• bad people with
• bad governments for their
• bad habits.

The behavioral approach uses threats, fear, terror and retro-active punishment attempting to deter human violence. Anyone whose current livelihood does not depend upon the criminal justice – police state apparatus can see that it does not work as advertised and therefor does not deserve continued tax support.

Likewise, The United States of America seems to possess a foreign policy that strives to provide adequate conditioning through violently destructive and deadly stimulus. Apparently, they have yet to find the correct stimulus because globally, things only seem to get worse.

Indeed, violent behavior seems to reinforce violent behavior. This appears understandable even on an international scale.

In the end, it appears that regardless of how or with what you beat people into submission, the behavioral approach to stop human violence becomes part of the problem of violence, not a solution. In fact, this nationalized violence is produced by the same mental drives that once had people throwing their children into the Fires of Molech.

At the Grove, a private 2,700 acre redwood retreat on the Russian River in Sonoma County, California the Bohemian Club still worships Molech. The most famous ritual that occurs at the Grove every year is the “Symbolic Pagan” Worship of Molech – the ‘god’ of Child Sacrifice.

International elites have been gathering in the Grove redwoods for over 135 years. Regular visitors include the Bushes, Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, David Rockefeller, Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and former Presidents Reagan and Nixon.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama are convincingly rumored to have been in attendance at one year’s “Bohemian Grove” gathering.

But I now understand why people do this. I understand the source of the frustration, anger and rage that demands the sacrifice of children, especially among groups of men, little different now than it did among the Old Testament Israelites.

And it can stop within the lifetimes of most people alive today. But it cannot be stopped by a behavioral approach.

Just as not everyone feels compelled to kill, not every country feels compelled to war. The mentality of entire countries has changed, for better and worse, in as little as 2 generations.

And many people know why and how.

I’m just so excited about all of this. All of this and more is tied together in the special report I’m finishing right now.

As soon as we have the newsletter in place and the special report finished, I will announce it here first, this time. Because all of this seems so new and different, further developments will be announced first in the newsletter.

Help yourself out now and maybe help us out in the future.
Here is the link to the Gideon Shalwick Free Report:

“Rapid Video Blogging: The New Way To Easily Dominate Your Niche Through YouTube”

You can’t ignore video. It’s online everywhere these days – but are you using it well?

I know you have never seen the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute promote a free resource like this before. Here is the reason why I am doing it now.

(And no, it is not just because we receive a payment if you buy something that is not even for sale yet.)

If you did not know by now, the Internet changes very quickly and when something good comes out it gets around fast. This is your chance to get in on this at the very beginning.

This is so big it will change the face of YouTube.

To make it all easier, in addition to the eBook, Gideon’s put together 3 videos to go with it. The first 2 videos are available right now.

I believe that our visitors here at the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute blog are some of the best people in the world. I believe that your empowerment online will lead to a better and more peaceful world.

As the face of YouTube changes, why cannot peace, human rights, health, family farms, animal rights, environmental issues, art and appropriate technology be right out front?

YouTube is one of the biggest search engines on the Internet. Almost every product launch these days has accompanying videos. Bloggers embrace video more and more as a way to communicate with their readers.

This Free Report covers:

• 7 steps Gideon has used to dominate niches with video
• How to create high quality videos – fast
• Tips for Setting up a YouTube Channel
• Why Video is better than Just Text or Audio
• How to Optimize Your Videos for Maxmium Impact
• Tips on Videos
• How to Monetize Videos

All this in a FREE 92-page, easy-to-read, report he just put out for you and me:

“Rapid Video Blogging: The New Way To Easily Dominate Your Niche Through YouTube”

Go get it now.

“It took me a while to realize this, but more than anything else,
the things you believe in are what make you the person you are.”
-Willie Nelson

Liz O’Garvey wrote the first post here on April 19th, 2007, and since then we have published 715 posts (not counting this one) in 10 categories while receiving 2,622 comments from well meaning folks like you. Clearly we have been reaching out through this blog.

With a Google Page Rank of 5 and an Alexis Rank of 629,847 out of the millions of blogs out there, people have noticed.

What you have not seen is all the emails we sent out to peace organizations large and small. Believe me when I tell you I was more than a little frustrated when all we received back were requests for money if we were not just totally ignored.

So then we just went ahead and started to build a grass roots peace group around this blog. The A Peaceful Solution project, which still continues to this day, showed us peace was not just for a few dreamers.

As of today, we have had 199 music videos and 62 mp3 versions of A Peaceful Solution recorded by the most conscious musicians in the world. And I have no problem with saying they truly are the most conscious musicians in the world.

Unfortunately, I was more than a little frustrated again when no celebrity musicians bothered with sending us a link to their recordings of A Peaceful Solution even though I knew first hand that they know all about the project. But we went right on working with musicians and groups that felt it was at least OK to be named in an article on the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute blog.

We kept right on going. For over 3 years Liz O’Garvey and myself continued to research what was going on regarding the lack of peace in the world.

Finally, I strongly feel that we have discovered the cause of human violence, exactly what is required to have peace in our lifetimes and that is the subject of a special report we are preparing right now. I will be writing more about that report before we release it but for now just let me say we are very excited about it.

The Next Level

The next level represents our movement off of the Internet and into the real world with projects that have proven ability to create more peace in the world. We will still be active online, this blog will keep on and we will be creating a newsletter to track real world progress.

There has been more progress towards peace than mainstream media has been reporting. There have been important discoveries and real world peace projects providing proof of concept.

We want to be part of that.
We will be part of that.
And so can you.
Watch for the announcement of our newsletter.

Now there is one more element we will be putting into play. That would be our own efforts to generate funding for our real world peace projects.

Liz O’Garvey and myself have been reading every email sent to us and a good number of them have mentioned a desire to become more effective video bloggers. No real surprise here since so many of our community already produce video.

I have located a tremendous new free video resource created by my friend Gideon Shalwick. I just have to let you know that I signed up as an affiliate of Gideon’s in order to offer you this free resource.

So, while there is no requirement to eventually purchase Gideon’s upcoming new product, if you do then we will receive a portion of your payment. All I can say about that is to give you my promise that every cent we receive from this will go towards our real world peace projects.

And in the meantime, please do download and profit from Gideon’s free information. All you need is an email address to download the good stuff!

Gideon has spent the last few months working his  butt off to create what I believe is the best training you can get on how to truly leverage online video for traffic, leads and money. Best of all in the spirit of providing value before asking for anything – he’s giving it away!

Think about this.

How many videos have you watched today?

How about YouTube videos?

If you do ANYTHING online, you cannot help but watch at least a few YouTube videos daily. But did you know there’s a way to make money off of YouTube?

And NO – you don’t need a channel with millions of views every month, and get into YouTube’s partner program. My friend and probably the #1 online video expert in the world, Gideon Shalwick, has it all figured out.

And he’s telling it ALL in a 92-page, easy-to-read, report he just put out for you and me:

“The Rapid Video Blogging Report”

I sure thought I’d heard it all before. After all, I have a degree in media production and have been online since the first days of the Internet.

But after reading Gideon’s hotly awaited report I realize this is a Whole New Game! After you download Gideon’s Rapid Video Blogging report, also check out the video that comes up.

Gideon has literally spent weeks working on some amazing resources, including this incredible report and a series of content-rich videos. The report and first video are available now.

If you plan to do anything with online video, this is must-download content, so do not skip it.

Because I just bet it opens your eyes to how ANYONE can succeed online without having to bow down to gurus. In fact, doing it Your Way is the KEY to this system:

“The Rapid Video Blogging Report”

Check out the report that got the industry buzzing about it even before it got out! I’ll be publishing more posts in the near future as we ramp up our own newsletter but I wanted to tell you about this because it was just released.

Gideon has fine-tuned his method over years of experimentation, and it’s all in there, at zero cost. So if you’d rather ditch outdated methods of making money online, this is the place to be:

“The Rapid Video Blogging Report”

And after you check it out please come back here and leave a comment so other readers will know what to expect. Heck, even if you are not interested in video blogging at all, at least leave a comment below so we know what you think about us taking this to the next level.

Gary Block sent this to us and never got back to us, as far as we can determine. Thank you, Gary Block, where ever you are.

A Peaceful Solution might just keep the middle class from joining the poor people in the United States of America. Make no mistake, the United States Armed Forces represents the largest portion of the government debt.

The money spent on war and other politically motivated violence could otherwise be spent to change:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

22 Stats The Prove The Middle Class Is Being Wiped Out

If you’re new to Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute, first let us welcome you to Willie Nelson’s personal website dedicated to the multiple causes Willie supports. And this A Peaceful Solution video today by Jan Verner-Carlsson (JVC) in collaboration with Calz represents another creative and powerful contribution by folks just like you from around the world.

Now in it’s fourth year the A Peaceful Solution project which began April, 2007 by Willie Nelson and his daughter, Amy Nelson contains a library of 300 or so original multimedia productions dedicated to spreading Willie and Amy Nelson’s dream of A Peaceful Solution.

One important element these 300 productions don’t show you initially is the sheer numbers of dedicated individuals who gave their time and resources behind the scenes over many months to finally contribute one finished project. Nor does it show international collaborations, new alliances formed and connections that survive to this day which had their births at Willie Nelson Peace Research Institue.

The 300 number also doesn’t show all the personal attention and correspondence everyone receives personally from Jay Greathouse and myself, Liz O’Garvey. As artists Jay and myself  intimately understand that the creative process for each artist varies considerably. Through conversations by  email  we can guide each person individually if necessary.

We enthusiastically support everyone through personal emails. We always say “We couldn’t do this without you.” And we honestly mean it. Truer words have not been spoken.

Jan Verner-Carlsson (JVC) and Calz are from Sweden and Denmark and their collaboration demonstrates one of the revolutionary aspects of Willie Nelson’s grassroots peace efforts.

New friends who came together in peace for peace now collaborate regularly on artistic projects to improve life for themselves and others around the world.

If you haven’t clicked on any of the links in the article, please scroll to the bottom of this page and see a button dedicated to Willie Nelson’s A Peaceful Solution project. That button is on every one of our 720 page web site.

When you get to the individual web pages, you can click on any song, video or feature article to see and hear Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute’s growing chorus for A Peaceful Solution.

Willie Nelson gave 5 versions away that you can hear and borrow for your A Peaceful Solution project.

You can also hear and borrow other mp3s from the artists who gave their work freely for distribution and attribution.

Your name can be a link on Willie Nelson’s A Peaceful Solution project and we give you you’re own personal web page with your feature article which includes your personal unedited artist statement written by you. The statement is not a requirement for publication. It is an option if you choose to add your voice in print for your peace project.

Can you see yourself being featured here?

Willie and Amy Nelson wrote the A Peaceful Solution song and gave it to the world as a gift of peace. And folks just like you from around the world have become messengers who personally and collectively create magnificent calls for A Peaceful Solution which travel around the world.

These testaments to peace live here at Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute  for all to see, hear, share and hopefully be inspired to participate in Willie Nelson’s A Peaceful Solution project.

Will you join us?

We promise you we will feature your work if you participate in Willie Nelson’s A Peaceful Solution project and contribute your personal version of A Peaceful Solution.

Thanks again to Jan Verner-Carlsson (JVC) and Calz for their continued involvement, friendship and dedication to A Peaceful Solution.

Hear “Lend A Hand To The Farmers” by Michael Deneau

Michael L. Deneau certainly seems to have a large grasp on both music and U.S. history. I believe it is essential for artists to have an education somewhere in the social sciences just to understand something about people.

It is heartening when an artist, like Michael L. Deneau, demonstrates the ability to think. When he also demonstrates the ability to put it all in a pleasing form there seems little more anyone can ask for.

If more thoughtful intelligent artistic people stood up and shed some light on out current situation a clear way forward toward peace would be illuminated. You can join the company of thoughtful intelligent artistic people everywhere just by sharing your thoughts in a pleasant manner.

It doesn’t get much more peaceful than that.

Lend A Hand

A Farmer in his field stands for something real.
He plants the seeds of dreams into the ground.

And for generations now,
this Farm has been passed down.
It’s been a grand tradition for all these years.

But, corporations hedge their bets
And seldom with regrets
Leave in their wake heartache and tears

For all his toil and his sweat
They haven’t beat him yet
But the farmer needs a hand to save his land

Lend a hand and help the farmer save their lands
Lend a hand, lend a hand
Lend a hand, lend your hands
Lend a hand a help the farmers save their lands

From Waterloo to Saint Louis
Salina to Sioux Falls
Perrier to Amarillo
The Farmers road is long
California’s central valley
And across the great divide
The family farmer’s future
Is hangin’ on a vine.

Lend a hand and help the farmer save their lands
Lend a hand, lend a hand
Lend a hand, lend your hands

Lend a hand a help the farmers save their lands

* * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

Well my statement goes something like this… Looking back at history can tell us where we may be headed as a nation.

The farmers were “depressed” economically before the rest of the nation, as a result of the Great Depression. There was no plague or famine among the farm communities, but many Americans were perplexed that while American factories remained as capable as ever of producing goods, they stood still and closed because no one could afford to buy the products produced. The same with agriculture. Farms were producing food in abundance but hungry people could not afford to buy it.

The 1920′s brought the collapse of the farmers and the financial markets. The dust bowl that followed just added insult to injury. In 1992 I was having a conversation with an employee who happened to be a student at Oregon state university. He was a very proud self proclaimed Newt Gingrich conservative. I posed the question if he thought that an event like the great depression could ever happen again. Not to my amaze, he quickly answered “No, we can shape our own destiny and we have mechanism’s in place to prevent that from ever happening again”. I however disagreed. Unfortunately we may both get to see how this all plays out.

They say that all politics are local. Well in the modern world that old saying may not apply. We as a nation need to be mindful of multi-national corporate influence. The truth is that we really need to have leadership that acts in our best interest. As highlighted in the State of the Union speech Jan 20th President Obama declared that the Supreme Court had over reached in its recent decision to allow  the corporate funding of elections. Ask yourself a question. What if the corporations that are donating to a particular campaign or candidate have terrorist ties? Perhaps the corporation is BP and they want to make sure they skate out on their responsibilities in the Gulf? I think this is genuinely slippery slope.

“Multi-National Corporation” is the phrase that should send a shiver down the backs of the same folks that talk about “Big Government” the great boggy man. Yes, I’m speaking of the Tea Party. I think that these folk might have the right idea but the wrong leaders. It’s not just big government but Big money and the sway that it has. I guess I’m saying is that the little guy seems to have a heck of time getting ahead in modern America and it’s no accident.  It’s either government not doing enough or too much or its big money squashing the competition before it starts by tilting the playing field.One thing is certain though…if we unite together in the common cause of doing what is truly in our best interest, outside influence  can’t tilt the table. Can we finally now get beyond the divisive nature of modern politics and work together? We better cause the alternative is laid out before us in warnings from the past.

So lend a hand to your local Farmer. Buy local Meat and Produce. Avoid Chilean produce and imported Beef. Family Farmers have provided a harvest that gives us the health and nutrition that keep us strong. Buy American grown and the nation will prosper.

Michael L. Deneau

Ps. Listen to Out Of The Blue, formed by Blue Note Records to showcase some of its top young talent

Out Of The Blue by Out Of The Blue on iTunes

Out Of The Blue on myspace

PPs. Learn some U.S. history

American Experience, TV’s Most Watched History Series

A History of the Farmer’s Revolt from the Homestead Act of 1862 to McKinley’s Assassination on September 6, 1901.

Hear “Lend A Hand To The Farmers” by Michael Deneau

Human Rights and the Dignity of Life in the movie LIKE IT OR NOT!

by Patty Ann Smith

Human rights is a subject much larger than the one we frequently imagine it to be. Human rights issues extend into almost every area of life, and are often denied on all levels of society from that of Government, Religion, Industry, the family and even individuals.

Every day, people who are terminally ill and suffering with excruciating pain and discomfort are denied the peace and comfort that would come to them if they had the right to choose to die with dignity. Laws are in place to prevent and even prosecute anyone involved in helping relieve the pain they are experiencing.

In Ronald Sokolís New York Times 2007 Essay: The Right To Die, he states: “Within the next half century, perhaps much sooner, the right to choose to die with dignity will be as widely recognized as the right to free speech or to exercise one’s religion. It will cease to be called euthanasia or mercy killing. It will not be viewed as killing, but as a fundamental human right.…At present, the law focuses on the act of the physician or nurse, and not on the rights of the patient. As that focus shifts so that the right of the patient to die with dignity becomes paramount, one can expect to see the law proclaim it a fundamental right.”

The inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family are the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world….disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind….a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, ~ from the first few lines of the Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Unfortunately organizations, religious institutions, industries, governments, and even families obstruct human rights every day. Too much lagging bureaucratic red tape and legal decisions, either deliberately or unknowingly, play a big part in obstructing human rights. Bureaucratic rules and regulations as such are in some way no different than common prejudices (pre-judging) only on a higher level.

So many of us take human rights for granted until we realize that what happens to one of us, can happen to any one of us.

People all over the world are suffering due to rules imposed by other people. And the injustices that the suffering endure, often cannot be expressed for fear of their lives. The oppressors take away the dignity of their captives, break down their self worth, cripple their natural movements, and diminish their health. For some, it is even far much worse than that. There is no hope for permanent peace for them until they can have their own inner peace.

Upholding Human Rights is intricately entwined with peace all over the world. That ís why it’s so important for all of us to learn more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and take it wherever our heart leads us.

In this movie titled “Like It Or Not!” Laura, a young married woman, has a terminal illness. In this film, her family acts as one body to help her. In her terminal condition, Laura is not physically strong enough to get the medicine that will be effective for her, and asks members of her family to assist her in her struggle.

In the US and elsewhere, terminally ill people are being denied the right to have peace and comfort and be able to die with dignity.

One of my original songs,”I Guess You’re Everywhere,” from my MYSTIC DREAMS album, is featured in the movie “Like It Or Not!”(Ob ihr wollt oder nicht!). The movie was released on April 30th, 2009 in Germany where it was produced. It ís already on DVD in Germany and available with English subtitles for distribution elsewhere.

This is a warm-hearted movie about a terminally ill person’s right to die. The film-makers, cast, and other participants in this film are from internationally mixed backgrounds, and I’m proudly part of this mix. I’m the American singer-songwriter whose whole original song,”I Guess You’re Everywhere,” in my original English recording of it is in this movie. I truly believe that this film will bring more compassion and understanding for those who need it.

“Like It Or Not!” is a movie about a woman with terminal cancer and how she chose to handle it. To get an understanding on an issue like this, it has to come from the people and families who have gone through it. This film was inspired by a young woman and her family who did. In the film, each member of her family personally struggles to come to terms with her choice, and it becomes a chance to heal old wounds between each other.

Up until my song was in this film, I really hadn’t thought about the right of a terminally ill person to choose to end his or her life. But after I saw the movie, I realized that in some cases the right to die is a human right, too….just like a woman’s right to choose, the right for people to marry who they wish, the right to health care, and the right to choose to use a natural substance, like marijuana, for health and well-being.

It seems to me, every person with regard to the pursuit of happiness has the right to choose what happiness is for them at different times in their lives.

“Like It Or Not!” is a good movie, and Americans need to have the opportunity to see it. We need this topic to be discussed more here in the US. It’s about our humanity and how humane we can be to each other, our earth, and all creatures great and small. I believe with all my heart that this film “Like It Or Not!”can make a difference on so many levels for so many people. Within this movie there are sub-topics worthy of discussion, also.

In many ways, Europe is quite a bit ahead of things like health care, human rights, and planetary environmental issues. I think this film “Like It Or Not!” is a significant way for us Americans to compassionately and lovingly have discussions about this topic. As far as I know, though, no one has picked up “Like It Or Not!”for distribution here in the United States….which means, unfortunately, US citizens aren’t able to go and see it, yet! I am looking forward to the day that this beautiful film from Germany is released in the United States.

Peace and Love ~Patty

Producers: Anita Elsani (Elsani Film), Werner Wirsing (3L Filme).
3L Filme was also a producer for the following three US films(to mention only a few): King of California – Michael Douglas; Adam Resurrected – Jeff Goldblum; Cleaner – Samuel. L. Jackson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0cjTqrPys
http://www.udhr.org/UDHR/udhr.HTM
http://www.globalissues.org/article/138/human-rights-for-all
http://tiny.cc/NYTimes-RightToDie
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights
http://www.amnesty.org/