2011 Peace Message to Doukhobors

Note: This message is being sent simultaneously to the Canadian Doukhobor communities in Verigin and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Cowley, Alberta; and Castlegar, British Columbia, where at the end of June the annual Doukhobor Peace Days will be celebrated. Formerly known as Peters Day or Petrov Dien, the event commemorates the 1895 Arms Burning by Russian Doukhobors in three scattered communities of Transcaucasia, Russia on the night of June 28-29, 1895 (July 11-12, 1895 New Style).

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The 116th anniversary commemorating the June 29th, 1895 Arms Burning of the Doukhobors on the steppes of Caucasian Russia deserves to be remembered as an important event in human history. Our ancestors argued that because we humans have the spark of love in each of us, it is wrong to kill another human being. Their vision, popularized and articulated by Lev N. Tolstoy, was to create a compassionate world without wars.

Today that vision is more important than ever. Almost $2 trillion is being spent yearly worldwide on the military resulting in millions of deaths and injuries in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other places around the world. Humanity is being broken on the excuse of fear coming from the 'enemy' in general and 'terrorism' in particular. This makes the military industrial complex the single most dangerous threat to our civilization.

As Spirit Wrestlers, we ought to stand up and proclaim that the most important human right today is the right not to kill or be killed. That should be our message of the day. Our path is one of love for all brothers and sisters on planet earth.

Let's persuade our politicians to reduce military spending to a trickle and use the public resources to fund human needs. Let's remember that human survival cuts across political, religious and economic boundaries. We cannot remain silent, nor can we remain neutral. On this Annual Peace Day, let us recognize that it is time for a change. Let us speak loud and clear for universal nonkilling peace!

— Koozma J. Tarasoff and Kristina Kristova