Mini-Topic
Chuck Overby 2007 Japan Trip
My Dream of Article 9’s Potential Magic for All Humanity
[1] Hello my dear Japanese Article 9 loving friends. As the famous 19th
Century British author, Charles Dickens, said at the beginning of his novel
on the French Revolution, The Tale of Two Cities, --
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of light, it was the season
of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …”
[2] Today as your Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lusts to destroy our “all
humanity’s treasure,” Article 9, with President Bush and his neo “con-men”
enthusiastically encouraging him to hurry up and get it done – it is difficult
for me to see “the best of times”, “the age of reason,” “the season of light,
or “the spring of hope.” I sense that we are in – “the worst of times,”
“the age of foolishness,” “the season of darkness,’ and “the winter of despair”
-- on a multitude of dimensions, including prospects for Article 9’s longevity.
[3] But, a sense of “bad times,” “foolishness,” “darkness,” and “despair”
– and the anger and anguish that these feelings generate within us – might
also be the “womb of hope” out of which dreams and creativity can lead us
to non-violently overcome our anguish and despair. After a brief elaboration
on a few dimensions of our “state of hopelessness” – I will share a couple
of kernels of hope and possibility with you – [1] a proposed US “Veterans
for Peace” (VFP) amendment to the United States Constitution modeled after
your Article 9, and [2] some of my dreams for a Japan that demonstrates world-class
leadership, with Article 9 as its badge of honor in non-violent, non-military
solutions of multitudes of contemporary species and Planet Earth problems
(most all of which have no military solutions what-so-ever).
[4] First, let me tell you how I was led by one of my favorite literary
artist’s, US novelist Kurt Vonnegut -- to the Charles Dickens quote with
which I began this presentation. Vonnegut cited Dickens “the best and worst
of times” in a speech that he wrote in February, 2007. Sadly he died on
April 11th, before he could present it. His son, Mark Vonnegut, read his
speech for him at a memorial program honoring this creative iconoclastic
United States literary artist. Here is a short excerpt from Vonnegut’s last
speech that pithily says much on our US culture – and perhaps more broadly
for cultures across the planet who now increasingly seem inclined to worship
at the shrine of an unfettered so-called, “free-market” god. Here it is.
“There is good news and bad news tonight. This is the best of times and the
worst of times. So what else is new? The bad news is that the Martians have
landed in Manhattan and have checked in at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The
good news is they only eat homeless people of all colors, and they pee gasoline.”
[5] The insanity of present times can be illustrated with multitudes of
examples, in addition to the one that mainly concerns us here -- Japanese
and US governmental attempts to destroy Article 9 – and the mind-boggling
consequences in Asia and around the world if Article 9 is emasculated.
[6] Let me start with some of the unhappy things happening in Japan and
then add a few other unhappy things about my culture that I have absorbed
from 81 years of “being” as an American citizen and veteran of two of America’s
wars – World War II and Korea (B-29 combat pilot in Korea.). Then I will
emerge from this [“foolishness”-- “darkness” -- and “despair”] milieu of
“bad times” -- with my dream and hope for what Article 9 might mean for all
of us on Planet Earth – if we as a species can keep your Japanese and my
US governments from Article 9 homicide. Along the way I will share some
references with you where you might go to read more. Unfortunately, all my
references are in the English language.
Some Abe Bad News
[7] Prime Minister Abe’s passion to change Article 9 and his current efforts
to pass a “referendum bill” to so as to pave the way for this eventuality
– leaves me as a gaijin, confused, fearful, and angry.
[8] I am confused because I have found it almost impossible to find, in
America, any information through our media, and even through our library
systems – on this “referendum
bill.” I have been scanning newspapers, weekly news magazines, and through
Ohio University Alden Library for some time trying to find an English language
version of the bill – so that I could read and try to understand what it
is all about. I have been able to read some of the pro and con commentary
in the English language edition of The Japan Times, but unfortunately the
bits and pieces that I have read leave me still being confused. I have tried
through some Japanese friends, both academic and non-academic ones and have
received “bits and pieces” from some of them – but they also have not been
able to produce an English language copy of this bill.
[9] Thus, my dear Japanese Article 9 loving friends I am poorly informed
about this latest step on the way to Article 9’s destruction – Abe’s “referendum
bill” and also about other of his chauvinistic passions, for example – to
dictate “patriotism” with the December 2006 revision of Japan’s “Fundamental
Law of Education.” Therefore, I plead with you to help educate me on these
very important matters here when I am with you in Japan. For more information
on my and America’s ignorance in these matters, please see my endnotes .
[10] I am fearful and angry because of the massive destabilization and
resurgence of an arms race in Asia and, elsewhere in the world too, that
will occur if and when Japan emasculates its promise to all those countries
that it invaded and occupied in World War II to “renounce war as a sovereign
right of the nation. That promise was Article 9.
More Bad News – US Brand
[11] The US government is presently pushing the Japanese government, directly
and indirectly, to kill A9 so that we can use Japanese soldiers to do our
killing in wars in that region of the world, and elsewhere too. Japan’s
new conservative Prime Minister, Abe, is war-experientially ignorant. He
was born after WW-II so he has no experiential understanding of what it means
to have all of Japan’s major cities flattened with fire bombing and of course
– Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclearly vaporized. Abe is presently lusting to
emasculate Article 9 so that Japan can more freely join the USA in using
its military fist around the world – sadly in situations that almost always
have no military solutions.
[12] Of course – we (the USA) stupidly assume that we will perpetually
be supervising things for Japan’s wars. Meanwhile all of Asia – is becoming
profoundly concerned about what is going on, and making preparations to increase
military spending so as to counter Japan’s potential destruction of Article
9. In many ways, as scholars like Chalmers Johnson have said, and with which
I agree, Article 9 was Japan’s hugely significant apology to all if its neighbors
– and to all humanity on Planet Earth for its war behavior in WW-II. This
Article 9 apology, something that no other powerful nation has ever done
for so long -- has been a significant contributor to stability in the region.
[13] Japan’s wish to kill Article 9, and the resultant new arms race in
Asia -- makes it financially wise to invest in US weapon’s manufacturer’s
stock. We have already enriched US companies like Raytheon who is significantly
benefiting from the Bush administration’s arrogant unilateral militarist
international behavior with North Korea. The USA has recently (summer of
2006) offered to provide Japan with 80 more of Raytheon’s Patriot interceptor
missiles for Japan’s so-called ballistic missile shield -- and Japan has
apparently agreed to buy them. Raytheon stockholders smile all the way to
the bank.
More US Bad News –Oil-Resource Wars
[14] The United States is currently engaged in a preemptive (and dominantly
oil resource) high technology “Shock and Awe” war on Iraq, enabled with the
aid of Goebbelsian like governmental lies and propaganda. This “oil-resource-war”
behavior” arrogantly fails to address the real problem – America’s and the
world’s immensely wasteful and poorly designed resource consuming, ecosphere
polluting, and global warming technology systems. We fail by not seriously
and strongly promoting -- research, development, production, and export of
massively improved technology systems, including clean alternative energy
sources – like solar with all its wonderful possibilities. Much of that
which we fail to do – I refer to as GTBD (Green Technology by Design.)
I also have another brief “Mini-Topic” paper with me on this trip, titled
-- “Article 9 and Resource War and Global Warming Prevention” -- that touches
on GTBD.
[15] Rather than clean up our own act and become less arrogantly profligate
– we with our “big-military-muscle” prefer to use military force to keep
the oil flowing. In so doing we also create a significant “free-market”
failure. The so-called “unfettered-free- market” does not reflect the huge
military fist subsidy for imported oil. Engineers draw erroneous conclusion
when they do their engineering-economy “calculus of pleasure and pain” (benefit/cost
calculations) without including this unrecognized subsidy.
[16] It is also difficult to adequately include “externality cost” in
engineering-economy calculations – that is, the negative long term, commons
, and “future-generation” costs in our choices of technology systems. We
“discount’ the future” – using compound interest methods called “discounted
cash flow, etc.
More US Bad News – RRW
[17] The US government is rightly concerned with the proliferation of
nuclear weapons around the world. We currently focus on North Korea and Iran,
conveniently overlooking recent “nuke” developments in Pakistan and India,
and forgetting that we did not find “nuke development” in Iraq. Nukes in
Iraq was one of the chief stated reasons for our current “shock and awe”
preemptive war there – reasons that we increasingly learn were based on intelligence
cooked to serve the ideological needs of Bush’s neo-“con-men.”
[18] Meanwhile the US prepares to further jeopardize international nuclear
nonproliferation efforts by seeking to improve its nuclear arsenal with some
things called the “Reliable Replacement Warhead” (RRW) – and “Complex 2030.”
[19] RRW refers to a new Bush Administration proposed program for designing
and developing replacement warheads for our current abundant stock of 10,000
nuclear warheads. “Complex 2030” refers to a long term $150 billion “upgrade”
for US’s nuclear weapons production system. 2030 is the proposed date of
completion.
[20] As the FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation) says, “The
U.S. cannot in good faith call on other nations to stop the production of
new nuclear weapons while U.S. scientists are spending billions to develop
a new generation of deadly nuclear bombs.”
More US Bad News –US National Security Strategy & Rogue Statedness
[21] These US behaviors and violations of international treaties remind
me of what the National Security Strategy of the United States of America
(NSS) says about “rogue states”-- those who violate international treaties
etc. If you have not looked at this short 31 page document, NSS, that was
published on September 17, 2002 a year after the 9/11 tragedy – I encourage
you to do so. It lays out the rationale for most of the Bush Administration’s
arrogant, preemptive, and unilateralist actions up to the present. You might
find it by typing its name into your web-browser – “National Security Strategy
of the United States of America.”
[22] Chapter V, page 14, the NSS discusses some of the attributes of “rogue
states” – those who wish to harm us. They are states who “… display no regard
for international law, threaten their neighbors, and callously violate international
treaties to which they are a party.” My goodness, this excerpt seems to
quite well define the United States itself. To understand this, let me list
just a few of the USA’s recent disregards of international law and treaties
to which we are a party. [1] The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (the US has
never ratified this treaty and is now planning to build “mini-nukes” for
preemptive deep underground strikes – a destabilizing act that may well unleash
a new round of nuclear testing); [2] The Mine Ban Treaty; [3] The Chemical
Weapons Convention; [4] The Bioweapons Protocol; [5] The Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty (Bush unilaterally withdrew the US from this treaty so as to push
ahead with missile defense systems); [6] The Child Soldiers Protocol; [7]
The International Criminal Court; [8] The Small Arms Action Plan; [9] The
Kyoto Protocol; [10] The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
More US and Japan Bad News – North Korea
[23] I know that you in Japan have some special concerns with respect
to North Korea that get you excited. Let me mention just two of them --
[1] a stupid abduction of a few Japanese citizens by North Korea many years
ago, and [2] nuclear bomb and missile developments in North Korea. I will
come back to these two issues shortly, but first I think we need to briefly
examine the nature of the instability on the Korean peninsula. I think that
a significant part of the instability problem with North Korea arises out
of US policy there for over a half century. Please see my web site, www.article9society.org
for an elaboration in other papers on this North Korea issue – especially
the papers for my 2003 and 2005 trips to Japan.
[24] The USA has been threatening this “economically very poor” country,
North Korea, for the past half century, including nuclear threats, while
it refuses to sit down and work bilaterally with North Korea on a peace treaty
to replace the July 27, 1953 truce. The USA has not been supportive of former
South Korean president Kim Dae Jung’s hopeful and creative so-called “Sunshine
Policy” of creative engagement with the North. Nor has the US been supportive
of Kim Dae Jung’s successor, Roh Moo-Hyun’s interest in continuing to reach
out to the North in creative engagement rather than with threats of violence.
With relatively few exceptions, the US’s policy with North Korea has been
one of threats of violence.
[25] One exception to this generally steady US policy of threats of violence
came in 1994 when former President Jimmy Carter (with some displeasure from
the Clinton Administration) brokered a deal with the North, called the “Agreed
Framework” in which the North’s nuclear ambitions would be set aside in return
for several changes in US behavior. Things were slowly working their way
toward some kind of a non-violent resolution of the so-called North Korean
problem – then in 2000 came a new President, Bush and his neo-“con-men,”
and President Bush’s appointment of John Bolton, a neo-con ideologue of the
fiercest kind as “Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International
Security Affairs.” Almost immediately there was a change in US policy when
in October 2002 the US accused the North of cheating on its obligations under
the 1994 “Agreed Framework.” There has been much discussion on this October
2002 charge by the Bush Administration that signaled a more militant approach
to North Korea -- with some feeling that it was based on shaky, perhaps ideologically
driven intelligence information, similar to the flawed intelligence argument
for our “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq to get Saddam’s nuclear weapons –
that turned out not to be there.
The Abduction Issue
[26] The abduction issue is a sad one for those poor people who were abducted,
and for their families -- and it was a stupid act by North Korea. Your press,
TV, and other media, as is also true in America -- find these kinds of tragic
stories helpful in selling newspapers and in attracting viewers in search
of titillation to fill a bit of the void in perhaps somewhat vacuous and
profligate consumption driven lives.
[27] Your government, also as in America, likes tragedies as means to
keep people distracted from other truly significant and genuine societal
problems and/or to keep them angry at and fearful of “an enemy” or a “potential
enemy” so as to make it easier to do other things – in Japan’s case, to help
make a case for emasculating Article 9 and/or to spend much money on worthless
missile defense systems that enrich US weapons companies like Raytheon.
The August 25, 2006 Japan Times, English language edition tells that Japan
is ready and willing to buy 80 more US made Patriot missiles. Raytheon stockholders
love the money – they clap their hands all the way to the bank.
[28] George Orwell in his book, 1984 so aptly illustrated these kinds
of media and governmental manipulations.
[29] The sad Terri Schiavo case in March 2005 – where a tragically brain-dead
Florida woman who had been kept alive on a machine – became a media frenzy
that sold many newspapers and glued many Americans to their TV sets. It
also helped President Bush, for a little while, to distract US citizens from
his disastrous Iraqi “Shock and Awe” war failure -- based on lies and ideologically
“cooked-up” intelligence information.
[30] It seems to me that reasonable and rational persons might relatively
easily resolve this sorry North Korea abduction issue quite easily, if there
was a will to do so. One must also put this abduction matter in perspective.
Surely it is not quite as serious as was Japan’s 35 year colonial occupation
of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 – an occupation that was blessed
by then President Theodore Roosevelt – in such a way as to have it earn him
an early Nobel Peace Prize. How incongruously strange things can be.
The Missile and Nuclear Weapons Issue
[31] Korean missile and nuclear bomb developments frightens Japanese citizens
so that it makes it easier for your government to emasculate Article 9 and
to buy worthless missile defense systems from America. My goodness, if I
were some kind of a “rogue state,” as the US characterizes North Korea, or
if I was just some non-national group like Al-Qaeda, who wanted to destroy
a city with a nuclear bomb – I surely not be so stupid as to try and do it
with a primitive North Korean missile like the one that recently flew across
Japan. Rather than a missile to deliver my bomb, I think I would choose to
carry it to my chosen site in a suitcase or some other unobtrusive kind of
container. Perhaps we should have our US Department of Defense (DOD) ask
US universities and colleges of engineering to submit research and development
proposals for a “suitcase bomb defense shield” (SBDS) rather than a “missile
defense system” (MDS). This could be a nice new DOD, R&D boondoggle.
Now for a tiny bit of “Good News” -- one item, and then my “Article 9
Dream.”
Some Good News – A VFP Proposed US Constitutional Amendment Based on Article
9
[32] In the above “bad news” that I have above presented to you, it is
difficult for me to understand how any leader of a major economic power such
as Japan could see it in his or her nation’s interest to align itself with
the incompetent bungling, stumbling, arrogant, militarist, and unilateralist
international behavior presently being demonstrated by my nation, the USA.
Why, I ask myself, could Japan’s leaders, wish to make themselves subservient
to a “rogue state” like the USA by seeking to become a so-called “normal
nation” once again. “Normal Nation” means – a nation that can go around the
world using its military fist as its chief means to get its way. I do not
have an answer to my question. Perhaps you can tell me why.
[33 It is also very difficult to find examples of “good news” to share
with you. Let me share just one thing with which I have personally been
involved -- my 16 year effort to get a new constitutional amendment introduced
in our US Congress, modeled after your great Article 9 Wisdom. On May 21,
2007 -- I placed in the US Postal Mail System, 535 letters to our Congress
(100 in the Senate and 435 in the US House of Representatives) asking them
to introduce an Article 9 type of war-renouncing clause for debate and for
reading into the Congressional Record, the official record of Congressional
business. This proposal was endorsed by a US veteran’s organization to which
I belong – Veterans for Peace.
[34] I have prepared another “Mini-Topic’ on the matter – a short four
page document that I hope will be available to each of you if you wish a
copy. It is titled, “VFP Constitutional Amendment Proposal,” and contains
[1] some discussion on how this came to be, [2] a copy of the VFP letter
to Congress asking that this be done, and finally [3] a copy of the proposed
amendment. I will briefly say a few things about this proposed amendment,
and read the amendment itself. Please note that I do not expect anything
significant to happen with this proposal to the Congress – but it is a beginning
at something that all nations on Planet Earth must come to do if we are not
to become as lifeless as Planet Mars. Now on to my Article 9 Dream.
More Good News -- My Dream of Article 9’s Potential Magic for All Humanity
[35] At the beginning of this paper before I unloaded much “bad news”
on you I said that a sense of “bad times,” “foolishness,” “darkness,” and
“despair” – and the anger and anguish that these feelings generate within
us – might also be the “womb of hope” out of which dreams and creativity
can lead us to non-violently overcome our anguish and despair. Now let me
share some of my dream for a kind of a Japan different from the one that
Prime Minister Abe and other current Japanese political leaders seem to seek
– namely that Japan become again a so-called “normal nation” – one that gets
its way in international relations with military force – and one that does
so under the USA’s wing.
[36] I have a dream that one day Japan might rise to the magnificent opportunity
that fate has tossed its way – and with Article 9 as its badge of honor creatively
demonstrate, as the only major economic power on Planet Earth with this wisdom
in its constitution – alternative non-violent and non-military means for
coping with the multitude of problems that we as a species face – almost
none of which have military solutions.
[37] I see Article 9 as not belonging to just Japan. I see it as most
all humanity’s cry for an end to that dominantly masculine brutal obscenity
called war. I see Article 9 as an ideal that our species must grow-up to
concretely and creatively embrace, so as not to eliminate ourselves and all
other life on our planet – either [1] with our multitudinous engineering
and scientific “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) creations,” or through
[2] ecosphere pollution and global warming as we profligately and mindlessly
worship at the shrine of our profligate “consumption” god.
[38] Neither of these dismal prospects need become reality, if somehow
we as a species can keep Article 9 alive with Japan as a living and working
demonstrator of what might be possible. What is wrong with all the other
nations on our planet – allowing Japan to demonstrate non-violent, non-military
solutions for most of the problems we face? What if somehow we could build
a consensus around the world that we must encourage and allow one nation
on that hopeful potential inherent in all that Article 9 implies.
[39] What is wrong with all the other nations on Planet Earth allowing
and encouraging Japan, with Article 9 as its badge of honor, to safely demonstrate
for the rest of the world what might be done non-militarily and non-violently
to cope with multitudes of earth’s problems. I use the words “safely demonstrate”
to indicate that somehow, all other nations must collectively guarantee Japan’s
safety as it is allowed to show the way. If a reconstituted and more democratic
United Nations can come to be, then the UN itself might be that guarantor.
[40] Until that time, as a starter -- can we imagine all or most all Asian
nations collectively agreeing to guarantee that none of them will attack
Japan, if Japan does not destroy Article 9, but rather embraces it and proceeds
to shift resources away from its SDF and into demonstrating non-military
and non-violent means to address problems on our planet? These problems
range from global warming and resource war prevention -- to leading the way,
as the only nation to have been assaulted with nuclear weapons, in using
and enforcing Articles 6 and 7 of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT). Articles 6 and 7 of the NPT read as follows –
[41] Article 6 -- “Each of the parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue
negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of
the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on
a treaty of general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international
control”
[42] Article 7 -- -- “Nothing in this Treaty affects the right of any
group of States to conclude regional treaties in order to assure the total
absence of nuclear weapons in their respective territories.”
[43] I expand a little on the idea of Japan as a leader in global warming
and resource war prevention in my separate, “Mini-Topic” paper titled – “Article
9 – And Resource War and Global Warming – Prevention.” This paper should
be available to anyone who wishes a copy of it.
[44] In our book, A Call For Peace, starting on page 137, I list and amplify
on many more kinds of activities that a Japan with Article 9 as its badge
of honor might do around the world as its non-violent, non-military means
for bringing peace and justice to Planet Earth. Here is a partial short
list of the multitudes of things that might be done in nonviolence –
[45] [1] experiment with and practice preventive diplomacy and other
forms of war prevention; work to -- [2] reduce population growth; [3] assist
social and economic development;[4] overcome world hunger and poverty; [5]
cope with massive refugee problems; [6] reduce human rights violations; [7]
reduce nuclear arsenals to zero; [8] stop international trade in conventional
weapons, [9] educate for non-violent action and conflict resolution; [10]
defend the nation with Civilian Based Defense (CBD) as outlined by Gene Sharp;
[11] preserve and conserve natural resources, reduce environmental degradation,
design, manufacture, and market “Green Technology By Design” – GTBD
[46] If we can find a way to move Japan in this direction rather than
the path that Prime Minister Abe seems to wish for her – most all people
on Planet Earth will rise in gracious “Wonder and Awe” at such behavior and
CRY -- “THANK YOU JAPAN FOR IMPLEMENTING YOUR WONDERFUL ARTICLE 9 GIFT TO
ALL HUMANITY.”
[47] Unfortunately, almost no one on earth has ever heard of your wonderful
Article 9 – even much less have they any idea what-so-ever as to the multitudes
of non-violent, non-military things that Japan might do so as to help bring
peace and justice to our planet.—with Article 9 as its badge of honor and
moral guide. Also, almost nobody on Planet Earth knows about the passionate
ways that Japan and the USA seek to destroy Article 9. Your government and
my government and most governments are so massively addicted to that age
old outmoded idea of a “national right of belligerency” -- that we are faced
with a humongous challenge – to educate the planet about Article 9 and most
importantly about all it might mean if only we can get many of the rest of
the nations to encourage Japan to keep Article 9 alive and let it be their
guide.
[48] Thus – I make a wildly magnificent proposal that we must find ways
and means to create a “something” whose objective will be to raise one billion
US dollars within the next two years -- to be used to educate Planet Earth
about Article 9 and all the wonderful non-violent, non-military things that
Japan might do for peace and justice – if she can be persuaded to take Article
9 as her badge of honor and demonstrate for all the other nations how we
might put an end to our love for “rules of war” in favor of Japan’s Article
9 “rules of law.”
[49] A billion US dollars is what it costs for six or seven F-18 military
fighter aircraft. I think if we can resolutely and seriously get our act
together – we can do it. I hereby start this fund-raising with my initial
offer of $5,000. All we need to do now is find another 200,000 donors with
$5,000 each, or a few with nice larger gifts -- to help us spread the Article
9 message around the world and generate some strong commitments by others
to keep it alive. Let us think about this.
[50] With these funds we need to hire a truly outstanding Public Relations
(PR) firm and have them creatively help us educate Planet Earth on this magnificently
beautiful and wonderful wisdom Article 9, and on how we as a species must
generate massive world opinion and energetic actions so as to keep it from
being killed by your Japanese and by my United States governments.
[51] Let me end this too long a paper with the hope that you all might
read what I have to say, beginning on page 37 of the new preface for our
re-issued book, A Call For Peace. Here I talk about some additional notes
of optimism – [1] our need to harness the creativeness and energy of our
youth in these endeavors to save Article 9, and [2] our need to reach out
in an inclusive mode so as to encompass the growing numbers of new Article
9 support groups that are springing up around Japan to protest its potential
destruction. I am especially interested in how we might capture and enlist
the creative artistry of youth across Planet Earth, in our efforts to save
Article 9. I am specifically asking for youth who are so gifted in their
use of computer and Internet technology and systems -- to bring their creative
minds and spirit (with feelings of exuberance) to help us inform and motivate
Planet Earth to demand that the US and Japanese government stop trying to
kill Article 9 – and to allow Japan to demonstrate world-class non-violent,
non-military means to prevent wars, ecosphere pollution, and global warming,
as its contribution to world peace and justice for this planet’s family of
woman and man.
It is so absolutely important that we save Article 9 -- we cannot let it
die.
Peace.
Chuck Overby