Old, impressive beech tree, next to a track. Island of Usedom, near Sellin.

I DON’T BEND MY KNEE Hans drummed his pen on the notepad, frowning. He needed to do this. He needed to be very clear about this. They all had to — or wars would never end. Hans inhaled and began to write. I don’t bend my knee to anyone. Ever. But I do bend my knee in recognition of the horrors my ancestors inflicted on this planet. Holy wars Colonial genocides Colonial land robberies Colonial exploitations Colonial slavery Slavery In-fighting Exploitations by kings and aristocrats and two world wars. My ancestors inflamed the planet — twice. Nations are suffering the consequences to this day. In order to move forward, I bend my knee acknowledging the devastations my ancestors brought to this planet and its people.

I still have a lot to learn. But I am ready to do whatever it takes to end all wars. In order to move forward I look back I recognise The millions of lives my ancestors deprived of everything. In order to move forward I don’t ask for forgiveness I take a step towards building a world that has rid itself of wars that finally learns to come together to grief the past atrocities to weep. To come together to build and shape to heal and thrive. I DON’T BEND MY KNEE

I DON'T BEND MY KNEE

I don’t bend my knee to anyone. Ever.
But I do bend my knee in recognition of the horrors my ancestors inflicted on this planet.

#mihsENDWARS #Gaza #worldwars

THE END OF ALL WARS Wars come in many guises. The silence between two people, the competition for the ultimate answer, the trading of insults, the self-righteousness that divides, the violence of words and fists in what might have been a home, the polarisation of groups who cage themselves with strangling views, the gullibility and elitism of politicians who rather go to war with nature and the people than disappoint their profit-seeking whisperers, the wars glorified in movies, games, by the weapon’s industry. The wars in songs about heroes and saviours. The wars that are based on the believe in good and evil. The wars that are enabled by people who are told that arresting, torturing, starving and killing fellow humans is their duty. The wars made possible by nations who supply weapons to those who slaughter their fellow humans. The wars kept aflame by every worker in the weapons industry, an industry who justifies its own existence by claiming in provides important jobs. Jobs which provide some with an income and others with the means to commit genocides. Wars. They are everywhere.

But wars can end. All of them. The ones in our minds. The ones in our homes. The ones in our streets. The ones in our communities. In our regions. On our continents. It isn’t going to be easy. It will take effort. It will take most of us. It will take a lot of thinking — because change starts in our minds. These are the steps we need to take: Find the seeds of war in our own minds. Rethink our economic systems and build new ones. Rethink our political systems and build new ones. Be bold, daring, thorough — because this is our world. It doesn’t have to make us, our fellow humans or our planet sick.

Find ways to connect to ourselves. Find healing. Find ways to open our minds. Find ways to connect to each other, to come together, to learn to communicate. Together we are invincible. Find ways to connect to our planet. Build a world that doesn’t try to fix what is rotten and what brought us to this point but a world that starts over and ignores the interests of those who have messed with us long enough. Begin to focus on restoring our communities and our planet together. A world that is about profit is doomed to fail. A world that is about all that is alive thrives. We can end all wars. And we have no time to lose. Every day we indulge in doom and complicity (silent or active), is another day where our fellow humans needlessly suffer and where we allow a handful of people to destroy our planet, our communities, our chances of enjoying our short life, our amazing planet, our rich and wonderfully diverse fellow humans.

A GUIDE to ending all wars

'Wars come in many guises. The silence between two people, the competition for the ultimate answer, the trading of insults, the self-righteousness that divides, the violence of words and fists in what might have been a home ...'

#Gaza #Iran #mihsENDWARS #peacenotwar

planet 26 Music Yes, we really did it. We pressed pause on heartbreak and dissing songs, and created the songs we needed to save ourselves and our planet.

MUSIC
testimony, planet 26

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

planet 39 Language (2) We all thought it was a joke and none of us was inclined to pay much attention to this challenge. But challenges have a way of prodding us. And at some point we were so annoyed by the constant repetition of the challenge that we accepted the it - just to silence the culprit and to demonstrate how wrong the challenger was. I think, it’s a wonderful mechanism that humans tend to react to challenges like this. It’s what saved our planet from total destruction. Here is the challenge, and it makes me smile to imagine how you will reject it, just like we did, or maybe you are wiser than we were. This is the challenge: Let’s drop every word and phrase that brings up our defences. And then let’s have an actual conversation about content. And whenever we are in danger of starting to label each other, our conflicts or our convictions with new (or old) words again, let’s push them aside and continue to actually listen and talk. This was the end of throwing around labels, slogans and accusations. And it was the beginning of finding common ground and visions for our planet.

LANGUAGE (2)
testimony, planet 39

'We all thought it was a joke and none of us was inclined to pay much attention to this challenge.'

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

Love is treacherous – and we loved the weapons we built. Not just that. We were obsessed with building ever more sophisticated and ever more deadly weapons. And we were good at it. Superior. Have you ever broken with a love? It hurts. A lot. But at the end of the day, it was a question of whether we wanted to live or suffer. Our weapons, beautiful as they were, only caused suffering. Now we live and have found new loves. But it wasn’t easy to get there.

WEAPONS
testimony, planet 4

'Love is treacherous
– and we loved the weapons we built.'

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

We had created a world so far removed from what our species needs to thrive that we were hardly humans any more when the call to rethink our stories and narratives came and with it a call to reshape our world. Being human is quite amazing, full of surprises, full of discoveries, full of wonder and joy. How much we had missed out on when all we knew was competition, performing, escaping our dire reality and hoarding riches.

WE BECAME HUMANS AGAIN
testimony, planet 19

'We had created a world so far removed from what our species needs to thrive that we were hardly humans any more-'

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

planet 34 Arrogance Our scholars read all the amazing testimonies published by the universe alliance of how the people of other planets ended all wars, and our scholars remarked that one particular root of war was missing in most testimonies: arrogance. Many centuries ago, the people of our planet nearly destroyed everything because their arrogance didn’t allow them to empower each other. Instead of recognising what every single citizen has to offer, how rich every person’s mind is (or can be if used), how many solutions are already on offer, instead of recognising all of this, our ancestors kept the circle of those who whined about the state of the world small, and instead of shaping the world, they sank deeper into the conviction that only the thoughts of a few must ever have value. Unfortunately the thoughts they favoured were those of doom and complaint instead of being bold and shape a world that that allows us to thrive. On our planet, every child knows this story and learns to value each person’s mind and ideas. This is the story of how our ancestors overcame their arrogance.

ARROGANCE
testimony, planet 34

'Many centuries ago, the people of our planet nearly
destroyed everything because their arrogance didn’t allow them to empower each other.'

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

planet 11 HEROES The fact that the people of our planet loved being heroes was sometimes praiseworthy. In other times, it was a curse. This is the story, how we found a way to be heroes without resorting to violence without needing a saviour without belittling ourselves without leaving taking action to others.

HEROES
testimony, planet 11

'The fact that the people of our planet loved being heroes was sometimes praiseworthy.'

The end of all wars collection #mihsENDWARS

TOPIC HASHTAGS - use only for edited contributions after marathons + later additions.

#mihsENDWARS – for THE END OF ALL WARS

#mihsFAILINGGOVS – for THE END OF FAILING GOVERNMENTS

#mihsENDOIL – for THE END OF CRUDE OIL

#mihsRESTOREPLANET – for THE BEGINNINGS OF A RESTORED PLANET