Tag: national unity

North Carolinians extend huge welcome to “Walk for Peace”

The Buddhist monks on their Walk for Peace received a huge welcome at the Capitol, NC. Their message of mindful peace is one we could really use these days.

Thousands gathered in freezing weather at the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina. They were there to witness what peace looks like. North Carolina Governor, Josh Stein, was also there to present to 19 Theravada Buddhist monks a proclamation declaring the day, January 24, Walk for Peace Day.

The monks are on a pilgrimage from their base, the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington DC. Their mission is to ask Congress to officially recognize Vesak as a national holiday. Vesak celebrates Buddha’s birth and enlightenment.

Theravada Buddhism teaches that to end suffering one must practice non-violence, mental discipline, and compassion towards all beings. That does not mean talking about peace or signing peace treaties in front of news cameras. It means developing mindfulness, tolerance, compassion so as to think peacefully. There can be no peace within ourselves, our family, our world unless we develop peaceful mindfulness. Some today call this doctrine the Non-Aggression Principle.

Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, usually the Walk for Peace main speaker, delivered a straight forward and down to earth talk, as the thousands present listened appreciatively. One of his admonitions was,

“Look [around] now. We have different backgrounds, different faiths and beliefs, different skin colors, different languages. But we are able to come here together in this weather in front of this Capitol, just to support the mission of peace. It means there’s no difference between all of us.”

We could certainly use some peaceful mindfulness these days, instead of the mindless violence at present happening daily.

Picture: The Daily Tarheel, 01/25/2026, Buddhist monks visit state Capitol during ‘Walk for Peace.’ This article has a gallery of beautiful pictures of the event.

What happened to “domestic tranquility?!”

The Preface to the US Constitution mandates that leaders “insure domestic tranquility.” Not happening. The Constitution mandates a balance of power among the 3 branches of government. Not happening either. So don’t expect the rest of the mandates: unity, justice, security, well being, and liberty..

Do y’all feel tranquil these days? Like, waking up each morning confident your job is pretty secure, your children are learning essential skills in school, your savings are safe from devaluation and/or seizure, you are sure to return home safely after your day’s work, and WWIII is nothing but a conspiracy by negative people?

If the answer to such cogitation is “yes,” then our leaders are doing a good job abiding by their mandate as set forth in the Preamble of the US Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The key mandate in this Preface is “insure domestic Tranquility.” Without cool heads, capable of understanding challenges and picking best alternatives to fix them, union, justice, security, general well being, and most certainly liberty become difficult to achieve.

But, can the answer to the question be an honest “yes?”

Unfortunately, given our daily news, an honest answer should be “no,” we are not enjoying tranquil times.

Ideological polarization is ingrained, and therefore, radicalization is tainting our choices and our actions. We are confronted daily with demonstrations, allegations, judicial revenge, and violence. Our leaders are taking
extreme actions, not in response to foreign aggression (like Pearl Harbor or 9/11), nor in response to dire economic conditions (like the 1930s Depression). Extreme actions are being taken in attempts to quick fix ordinary problems that have been festering unattended for decades, and to satisfy wet dreams of imperialism.

Such radicalization often rises from an erosion of balanced powers.

The US Constitution dictates separation of powers, with the three branches of government possessing equal power. The legislative branch makes laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws.

Founding Father James Madison described separation of powers succinctly in Federalist No. 47:

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

In this quote, Madison simply described human nature – power corrupts. Such corruption is not necessarily unlawful or unethical, but might be corruption of thought processes caused by intoxication with power.

The executive branch has enjoyed slow mission creep.

For decades, Congress has been slowly abdicating its powers. First by not standing firm in requiring Congressional deliberation before sending our young to die in foreign wars, like Korea or Vietnam. Then by accepting barrels full of presidential executive orders and pretending they carry the weight of laws. Lately by failing to collaboratively deliberate alternatives, simply voting by party affiliation instead.

The citizenry, the media, think tanks, and sundry talking heads have also contributed to the imbalance of powers. These days, we often hear about the “RINOs impeding the President’s agenda,” referring to members of Congress who dare to question a presidential edict or action. On the other side of the aisle, we hear accusations of “stab in the back” when a Congress member breaks with his party and votes to curb some aspect of government spending.

Our current leaders are especially blind to separation of powers.

The current heightened power of the presidency has rendered the presidential agenda sacrosanct. The agenda has good objectives — cut government’s unsustainable spending, increase domestic manufacturing, grow the economy, ensure domestic security, prevent undocumented aliens from entering the US, deport criminal aliens.

However, implementation of the agenda has effaced the crucial Constitutional mandate of insuring domestic tranquility.

This is not to say that domestic tranquility was not seriously disrupted in the recent past. Particularly disturbing events were the race riots of the 1960s, and the Vietnam War riots that culminated in 1970 with National Guard members opening fire on student demonstrators killing four.

It is also not to say that the US has not engaged in executive foreign adventures and regime change in the recent past. A notable US invasion was that of Panama in 1989, ordered unilaterally by then President George H.W. Bush, resulting in the capture of Panama’s military leader Manuel Noriega under charges of drug trafficking. Notable recent regime change via support of coups occurred in Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, and Chile 1973.

But today’s turmoil feels different, deeper, given Congress’ particularly evident inertia in the face of a particularly forceful President.

In the past, presidents have deployed military personnel to quell violence arising from disturbing events like the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Presently, heavily armed personnel arrive in cities first with a mandate to round up illegal aliens; and then come the protesters and the violence. Congress could have prevented such topsy-turvy turmoil by passing credible, effective immigration-related legislation.

Congress is also largely missing in action when it comes to the executive branch’s daily pivoting on tariffs, running Venezuela, acquiring Greenland, and threatening sundry countries with military action. All such actions made in the absence of clear and present dangers to the US, and in the absence of deliberation of alternatives.

Support for “the agenda” will be measured in the midterm elections.

Hopefully, during the coming midterm elections, races will be relatively free of irregularities, voters will be thoughtful of candidate qualities and value of issues, and blind partisanship will not dominate voters’ choices.

If all those wishes come true, the midterms can serve as a report card of the current administration. A report card is always a useful tool to determine one’s path – doing good, so continue on the current path; or not doing so good, so adjust the path.

Picture: From the Guardian, Thousands protest against Trump’s war on immigrants after Ice raids, February 9, 2025. This article regards ICE raids in Denver, Colorado, 11 months ago. Note that no adjustments in policy to prevent further violence has happened.

John F. Kennedy at Rice University: a call for excellence.

September 12, 2023, is the 61st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice University. His was a call not to “founder in the backwash of the coming age of space.” Thus a call for a national expectation of excellence.

61 years ago, on September 12, 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, stood at a podium at Rice University, under a searing Texas sun, and delivered his iconic “We choose to go to the Moon speech.” His was a call for the expectation of excellence. Not just from a few brave souls that chose to be launched toward the unknown lunar territory, not just from politicians and engineers. Kennedy called for an expectation of excellence from the entire nation.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it — we mean to lead it.

Kennedy regarded the expectation of excellence as a state of mind, in which dangers, uncertainties and costs are considered and freely chosen. He did not mince words or embellish sacrifices.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, all of this costs us all a good deal of money … Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority — even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.

He also regarded excellence as a national commitment to explore space – the Moon, the planets, and beyond – in peace, freedom, and a spirit of sharing discoveries.

For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

It only took seven years.

Seven years after Kennedy’s speech at Rice University, a nation glued to television sets and radios heard Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong’s message to NASA Mission Control Center in Houston,

Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.

The Saturn V rocket, developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama: the Columbia command module built by North American Aviation in Downey, California; and the Eagle lunar module, built by Grumman Aerospace in Long Island, N.Y., safely landed Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the lunar Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969. On July 24, 1969, aircraft carrier USS Hornet picked up the command module that had splashed down on the North Pacific Ocean with all three astronauts safely on board.

By that time, the inspiration for the lunar landing, John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated. Lyndon B. Johnson, who to his credit continued the Apollo Space Program, had served his term as president. And President Richard M. Nixon welcomed the three astronauts home.

Although Johnson and Nixon continued and supported the Apollo 11 Space Program after Kennedy’s assassination, the Moon landing would not have occurred when it did without Kennedy rallying the nation. He set great expectations, and as is always the case expectations pretty much determine outcome. Expect much, achieve much. Expect little, achieve little.

Since the Apollo 11 mission, six more lunar missions were successfully conducted by the United States, with 12 astronauts making lunar walks.

The New Frontiers of discovery and cooperation continue.

Space research and exploration thankfully continues in the spirit of peace, freedom, and cooperation envisioned by John F. Kennedy.

The International Space Station main construction was completed between 1998 and 2011. Members of the first crew that arrived at the station November of 2000, were NASA astronaut William Shepherd, and Russian Aviation and Space Agency cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei K Krikalev. Since then, the station has been continuously occupied by rotating crews of scientists, engineers, and researchers from 18 countries. The principal partners are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

NASA, along with six major space agency partners from the E.U., Germany, Japan, Canada, Israel, and Italy have been working since 2017 on the Artemis project, a Moon exploration program. Artemis will establish a habitat on the Moon by the end of this decade in preparation to establishing one on Mars.

In June, 4 volunteers entered a simulated Mars habitat, where they will remain for a year, in preparation for a Mars landing.

Just in case some would wonder why spend effort and money traveling to space, John F. Kennedy offered the obvious reason during his Rice University speech: “Because it is there.”

Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

As we celebrate the 61st anniversary of that speech, we might wish to practice expectations of excellence. Perhaps ask ourselves if leaders of our nation, heads of our institutions, and certainly educators of our children expect excellence or merely survival.