Peace preparedness, in the Capitol or the rose nursery, takes foresight and work. And persistence. It’s 2008 all over again. We could use Ron Paul.
(Originally Published: HFP August 2, 2008)
Ron Paul, libertarian Republican, has not been our most favored candidate to be the next U.S. president, but his has been the clearest moment thus far in the campaigns. At a debate of Republicans in June 2007, Wolf Blitzer of CNN asked: “What’s the most pressing moral issue in the United States right now?”
Ron Paul answered without hesitation:
I think it is the acceptance just recently that we now promote preemptive war. I do not believe that’s part of the American tradition. We, in the past, have always declared war in the defense of our liberties or to aid somebody, but now we have accepted the principle of preemptive war. We have rejected the just-war theory of Christianity. And now, tonight, we hear that we’re not even willing to remove from the table a preemptive nuclear strike against a country that has done no harm to us directly and is no threat to our national security!
Paul was referring to the ongoing Iraq War, of course, and to the threat of war on Iran. From bizarre rumblings last year, there is now legislation soon to come before the U.S. Congress that would demand that the president initiate sanctions against Iran. House Resolution 362 also calls for—
“Prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.”
These acts constitute a blockade. And “according to a letter from three retired Pentagon officials,…unless sanctioned by a (U.N.) Security Council resolution, would constitute an act of war.”
Ron Paul was right: For many people in this country, and at least 248 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, preemptive war has become “acceptable.” Here’s the list of the resolution’s co-sponsors (as of June 20 – since then, some have backed out): Is your Congressional rep among them?
But today (August 7, 2008), in 87 cities, many others are speaking out against preemptive war on Iran…
Lest you think that peace is passive, consider this:
Mary Ann Roser befriends a giant Peace rose, Whidbey Island, Washington
Photo: Ted Thomas
Our friends Mary Ann Roser and Ted Thomas, traveling in Washington state, came upon this wonder in an alley on Whidbey Island. It’s bigger than Mary Ann’s hand! Lori White of the Seattle Rose Society has confirmed it is indeed a Peace rose.
Rosarian Francois Meilland bred the Peace rose in 1935
Photo: Meilland
You rosarians out there know the story well, but we were unaware of this beautiful flower’s history. It was first pollinated in 1935 by Francois Meilland at the family’s famed rose nursery outside Lyon, France. Meilland used some of the eyes for grafting the following summer and in October 1936 enjoyed the first buds of this amazing flower.
In June of 1939, an international conference of rose hybridizers gathered in Lyon. “When it visited the Meilland firm, this was the rose that everyone noticed,” a hardy plant with shiny, deep green leaves and a huge, fragrant bloom, 50 yellow petals tinged with pink. Meilland had named it “Madame A. Meilland,” for his mother.
In 1939 Hitler’s preemptive invasion of France was on the horizon. Knowing his nursery, along with so much else, was in jeopardy, Meilland sent away “three parcels of budwood” to Italy, Germany and the U.S.
Pennsylvania rosarian Robert Pyle received the precious eyes, propagated them, and sent buds on to other nurserymen across the U.S. for testing. The rosarians proved Meilland had triumphed — this was a lavish, strong, superior plant.
Delegates of 49 nations at the San Francisco Opera House approved the United Nations Charter, June 1945; each delegate received a Peace rose
Photo: U.S. Diplomacy
Pyle “chose the name ‘Peace’ for the name-giving ceremony at the Pacific Rose Society Annual Exhibition on April 29, 1945, the very day that Berlin fell. That same year, Dr. Ray Allen, secretary of the American Rose Society, sent each of the 49 delegations at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco a single, long-stemmed ‘Peace’ rose with the following note, ‘We hope the ‘Peace’ rose will influence men’s thoughts for everlasting world peace.’”
According to Rosalinda Morgan, “as of 1974, one hundred thousand (Peace rose) plants had been sold in Europe and America, but after that, nobody seems to have kept count.” This was certainly the first rose we ever knew by name: our neighbor Frances Leach had a spectacular one, the pride of her rose garden in Louisville.
Thanks to all those who are gathered today (and any day) working for preemptive peace.
Protesters filed through Downtown Boston February 28, 2026, opposing the latest war in Iran. The march for peace goes on.
Photo: WGBH
Francois Meilland wrote in his diary, “How strange to think that all these millions of rose bushes sprang from one tiny seed no bigger than the head of a pin, a seed which we might so easily have overlooked, or neglected in a moment of inattention.”
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