LIVING WITHOUT CRUELITY

1. Every human being, regardless of political or economic persuasion, is worthy of love. If one cannot love the neighbor one has seen, how can one love the God one has not seen?

2. Nuclear weapons represent the greatest potential for death ever devised, and the most profound evil ever performed by humanity.

3. The United States and the Soviet Union are two disparate organizations with a combined nuclear arsenal equivalent to four tons of TNT for every man, woman and child on the crust of the earth.

4. While we love Americans as people, we think that the nuclear arsenal of the United States proves that this nation is an organization prepared to extinguish all life on Earth in an attempt to spare its political or economic existence from having to change.

5. We also agree that it is not possible for us to serve our God of life while contributing to or participating in an organization that considers the potential elimination of life from the planet to be a viable option under any conceivable combination of circumstances.

6. Therefore we have all decided to devote our lives to the promotion of Peace on Earth.

To our minds, the Earth is a big ball of dirt hurtling through space. We believe that the Earth was created by God. We believe that the Earth is functioning precisely as God intended it to function, and, at least in that sense, it is perfect.

We further believe that the Earth is composed of a finite number of elements, and that those elements join in various combinations to form every thing in nature. Rocks, trees, and elephants are merely combination of these elements. To our understanding each of our bodies contains traces of every one of these elements.

To us these elements, this Earth, are reality.If words have any meaning there is only one Truth, only one reality. Although we are each presently perceiving reality from different perspectves, there is a difference between a perspective of reality and reality.

In our minds we draw a firm distinction between the Earth and the world.

As we see it, the world is not reality, nor is it perfect. Rather, the world is a construct built upon the Earth. The world is the sum of the elements, the ideas of humanity, and humanity's ability to manipulate the elements.

From our perception, the ideas upon which humanity founds its world fall into three basic categories: technological, ideological, and mythological. Not all of humanity's ideas are reasonable, logical, sane, or constructive.

Ideological ideas produce institutions like governments, religions, economic theories, etc.

Mythological ideas produce fantasies like national boundaries, money, and ego-centric whimsies like ethnic or cultural superiority, which often result in war.

We believe that harmonious change may be brought about only by fostering understanding through communication, and that attempts to achieve or prevent social change through force or violence can only result in long-term destruction.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword.

We also believe that, down through history, many individuals have failed to recognize that the principle of Action/Reaction is absolute. Because of that failure in recognition many individuals have viewed Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword as hyperbole. However, technology evolved the novel concept of Live by the Bomb, and humanity has moved a great step closer to Absolute Death.

We still think the Earth is perfect, so we conclude that crazy ideas can really mess up a perfect reality.

We do not believe that violence can ever bring peace. Only through patient and honest communication will we ever be able to realize stronger unity and a more objective picture of reality.

If our perceptions are correct the issues we seek to communicate in front of the White House are of crucial importance to humanity.

Yet some people doubt the validity of what we're saying or dislike the manner in which we're saying it. We try to remain objective. In effect our writings and our symbolic actions say: this is the way we see things, and ask: if you see things differently please explain your perception. It is our hope that by working together through communication we may all draw closer to a clearer understanding of reality and the resolution of all our errors, insanities, problems and discomforts.