Monday, 21 January 2013

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh

When these two amazing peace activists met, it had a profound impact on the course of the Vietnam war. Both men were facing violence and injustice in their homelands, and had come together to end the bloodshed.

Here is the letter Dr. King sent to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee:

1967 25, January


The Nobel Institute
Drammesnsveien 19
Oslo, NORWAY

Gentlemen:

As the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 1964, I now have the pleasure of proposing to you the name of Thich Nhat Hanh for that award in 1967. I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam.
This would be a notably auspicious year for you to bestow your Prize on the Venerable Nhat Hanh. Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world.

Because no honor is more respected than the Nobel Peace Prize, conferring the Prize on Nhat Hanh would itself be a most generous act of peace. It would remind all nations that men of good will stand ready to lead warring elements out of an abyss of hatred and destruction. It would re-awaken men to the teaching of beauty and love found in peace. It would help to revive hopes for a new order of justice and harmony.
I know Thich Nhat Hanh, and am privileged to call him my friend. Let me share with you some things I know about him. You will find in this single human being an awesome range of abilities and interests.
He is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. The author of ten published volumes, he is also a poet of superb clarity and human compassion. His academic discipline is the Philosophy of Religion, of which he is Professor at Van Hanh, the Buddhist University he helped found in Saigon. He directs the Institute for Social Studies at this University. This amazing man also is editor of Thien My, an influential Buddhist weekly publication. And he is Director of Youth for Social Service, a Vietnamese institution which trains young people for the peaceable rehabilitation of their country.
Thich Nhat Hanh today is virtually homeless and stateless. If he were to return to Vietnam, which he passionately wishes to do, his life would be in great peril. He is the victim of a particularly brutal exile because he proposes to carry his advocacy of peace to his own people. What a tragic commentary this is on the existing situation in Vietnam and those who perpetuate it.

The history of Vietnam is filled with chapters of exploitation by outside powers and corrupted men of wealth, until even now the Vietnamese are harshly ruled, ill-fed, poorly housed, and burdened by all the hardships and terrors of modern warfare.
Thich Nhat Hanh offers a way out of this nightmare, a solution acceptable to rational leaders. He has traveled the world, counseling statesmen, religious leaders, scholars and writers, and enlisting their support. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.
I respectfully recommend to you that you invest his cause with the acknowledged grandeur of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1967. Thich Nhat Hanh would bear this honor with grace and humility.


Sincerely,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice... No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out"
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Sunday, 20 January 2013

Third Design of Statue of Freedom

Third approved Design of Statue of Freedom
Sculptor Thomas Crawford's third design for the Statue of Freedom was approved by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis in April 1856.
This design features a classical female figure with long, flowing hair wearing a helmet with a crest composed of an eagle’s head and feathers. The helmet is encircled by nine stars. She wears a classical dress secured with a brooch inscribed “U.S.” Over it is draped a heavy, flowing, toga-like robe fringed with fur and decorative balls. Her right hand rests upon the hilt of a sheathed sword wrapped in a scarf; in her left hand she holds a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the United States with 13 stripes. Ten bronze points tipped with platinum are attached to her headdress, shoulders, and shield for protection from lightning. She stands on a cast-iron pedestal on a globe encircled with the motto E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one).

Original Design for Statue of Freedom
Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
Third Design of Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom
The United States Capitol dome

Second Design for the Statue of Freedom

Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
In his second draft for the design of the Statue of Freedom Thomas Crawford sculpted a graceful figure in a classical dress wearing a liberty cap encircled with stars, holding a shield, wreath, and sword, which he said represented Armed Liberty.

It was sent to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who was in charge of the overall construction at the Capitol. Davis objected to the liberty cap, the symbol of freed slaves, because “its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and should not be enslaved.” Davis suggested a helmet with a circle of stars, which Crawford incorporated in the final design.

Original Design for Statue of Freedom
Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
Third Design of Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom
The United States Capitol dome

Original Design for Statue of Freedom

Original Design for Statue of Freedom


The original by sculptor Thomas Crawford for the Statue of Freedom was not approved.

This design featured a female figure wearing a wreath of wheat and laurel and was described by Crawford as, “Freedom triumphant—in Peace and War.”

However, when he saw the drawing for the Capitol Dome, Crawford realized that his statue needed to be taller and stand upon a more prominent pedestal.

Original Design for Statue of Freedom
Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
Third Design of Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom
The United States Capitol dome

West Front Fountain at the U.S. Capitol

West Front Fountain at the U.S. Capitol

The fountain in Bartholdi Park at Night

The fountain in Bartholdi Park at Night




Bartholdi Park serves as a home landscape demonstration garden and showcases innovative plant combinations in a variety of styles and design themes. The U.S. Botanic Garden Administration Building and the Bartholdi Fountain is located in the park. aoc.gov

Bartholdi Fountain

Across Independence Avenue from the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory

The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom

The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom
The Statue of Freedom - also known as Armed Freedom or simply Freedom—is a bronze statue designed by Thomas Crawford (1814-1857) that, since 1863, has crowned the dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Originally named Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, official U.S. government publications now state that the statue "is officially known as the Statue of Freedom". The statue depicts a female figure wearing a military helmet and holding a sheathed sword in her right hand and a laurel wreath and shield in her left.




Original Design for Statue of Freedom
Second Design for the Statue of Freedom
Third Design of Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom - Armed Freedom
The United States Capitol dome

Official portrait of President Barack Obama

Official portrait of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office

Official portrait of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Dec. 6, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

White House P.O. Box 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500 United States.

The United States Capitol dome

The U.S. Capitol Dome

The United States Capitol dome is the massive dome situated above the United States Capitol which reaches upwards to 288 feet (88 m) in height and 96 feet (29 m) in diameter. The dome was designed by Thomas U. Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol, and constructed between 1855 and 1866 at a cost of $1,047,291 wikipedia

The history of the United States Capitol Building



Statue of Freedom

Giant Red Daisy Flower macro Photographed on Black Background

Giant Red Daisy Flower macro Photographed on Black Background
Giant Red Daisy Flower macro Photographed on Black Background

Bryophyllum Crenatodaigremontianum

Bryophyllum Crenatodaigremontianum Many children

Bryophyllum 'Crenatodaigremontianum' (family: Crassulaceae) at Fukuoka City Botanical Garden.

Fall Foliage Photography

Fall Foliage Photography
Nature Photographers love the fall foliage photography season.

Guzmania at Chiba Floral Museum.

Guzmania


Guzmania (family: Bromeliaceae) at Chiba Floral Museum.

Nothofagus menziesii

Nothofagus menziesii  In deep forests Nothofagus menziesii

Two Girls on a Cliff

Two Girls on a Cliff

Lemmaphyllum microphyllum

Lemmaphyllum microphyllum by Kiwibu

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo biloba

Maple Leafes - Fabulous Foliage, Follaje Fabuloso

maple leafesby Per Ola Wiberg

6 year-old Magnetic Child Croatian Ivan Stoiljkovic

6 year-old Magnetic Child Croatian Ivan Stoiljkovic

The Taj Mahal - Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

The Taj Mahal - Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Wikipedia

Svasti Śrī Gaṇanāyakam Gajāmukham Moreśvara Siddhidam Ballalam Murudum


Svasti Śrī Gaṇanāyakam Gajāmukham Moreśvara Siddhidam Ballalam Murudum
Vināyaka Maham Cintamanim Thevaram | Lenyadrim Girijātmājam Suvaradam
Vighneśvara Ojhāram Grāme Ranjananamake Gaṇapatiḥ
Kūryāt Sadā Maṅgalaṃ


तदेव लग्नं सुदिनं तदेव ताराबलं चंद्रबलं तदेव ।
विद्या बलं दैवबलं तदेव लक्ष्मीपतेः तेंघ्रिऽयुगं स्मरामि ॥
tadeva lagnaṁ sudinaṁ tadeva tārā-balaṁ candra-balaṁ tadeva ।
vidyā-balaṁ daiva-balaṁ tadeva lakṣmīpateḥ teṁghṛ'yugaṁ smarāmi ॥!