There was, once upon a much more real than proverbial time, what was called a "Peace movement."

Peace hippies held Peace rallies and love-ins, wore and exchanged Peace symbols, Peace beads and love beads and made silly demands of society at large, such as "stop the war, respect civil rights, respect women’s rights, and allow eighteen year olds to vote."

America seemed to be split between the war- mongering "hawks" and the Peace hippy "doves," although many hawks ironically claimed to want Peace too. Flower children used flower power to stop armed troops and even tanks. Miracles happened.

The war was stopped. Sweeping civil rights reforms were passed into legislation. Women’s rights were likewise brought more into line with the status quo. The voting age was even lowered to eighteen. Peace, at long last, no longer seemed like an unachievable goal.

Today, even the most rabidly militaristic war hawks pay at least lip service to elusive Peace. There remain, however, two major obstacles to the world of human beings ever truly knowing Peace.

The first obstacle to Peace is, as hippies told us long ago, the myriad warring factions of religious fundamentalists who are not only willing, but eager to murder and destroy whomsoever will not succumb to having the dogma and synthetic values of fear-driven superstition forced down their throat.

The second but more sinister of the last remaining pair of obstacles to Peace was similarly pointed out to us by the Peace hippies of the nineteen-sixties; the police. How can there ever be Peace when the Peacekeeping is left in the hands of poorly educated vicious thugs who fancy themselves above the laws they purportedly protect and enforce?

One might be prone to disregard complaints of police misconduct as either the paranoid delusions of a sociopathic loner or an anomalous rare occurance brought about by the occasional ‘bad apple’ being put under too much stress too many times. Those tired old excuses have worn far too thin to hold water any more.

Consider that the F.B.I. says that "Law enforcement corruption accounts for more than one-third of the current corruption investigations." There is no greater danger to the American way of life than our own police.

It might well prove easier to transform the minds of religious zealots than to weed the criminals out of our police forces, courts and system of political representation. Nonetheless, a concerted effort to do so must be undertaken to allow for so much as the mere hope for Peace to survive.

It cannot be an effort on the part of an individual, of small enclaves or of special interest groups; our entire population, all the citizenry together with the elected public servants whom many people mistakenly call our "leaders," as well as the corporate and industrial sectors of society have to unite this time. It is all or nothing now. A few million kids in the streets wearing tattered clothes and Peace symbols (singin’ songs and carryin’ signs) isn’t likely to work again.

There are only two choices available: Are we going to live in fear in a police state, being bullied and abused; or are we going to hold our public servants accountable for immoral, unethical, dishonest and even criminal behaviors?

To put it on a personal level, are you going to live in fear in a police state, being bullied and abused; or are you going to hold your public servants accountable for immoral, unethical, dishonest and even criminal behaviors?

To further remove the situation from the realm of rhetoric and bring it more into focus with everyday reality, the next time you see a cop speeding or using their light bar to blast though a stoplight - not for any official reason, but for their personal convenience - are you going to mutter your disapproval under your breath, or are you going to write down the time, location and license number of the police car you just saw violate the law?

It really is just that simple.

Make notes. Write down times, dates, license plate numbers and names if you can get them. List specific misconducts, abuses of authority or criminal behavior. Chronicle every deviation from acceptable behavior by your public servants that you are made a witness to. Then what?

Remember that Police Misconduct is high on the F.B.I’s list of priorities - well into their top ten. You don’t think that they might have a hotline for something that high on their list, do you? Hell, yes, they do!

The FBI, pursuant to guidelines established in cooperation with the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Civil Rights Division, requires each field office to initiate a civil rights investigation whenever information is received from any source not known to be unreliable.

For your own safety, please wait until you are safely away from the offending officer or - and this is very important - any of his "brother officers" (read: "partners-in-crime"), then call (800) 869-4499 and refer to your notes; think carefully and you'll realize that this is the only way to eliminate one of the two remaining obstacles to Peace within the entire human community.

You may also report police misconduct at the Department of Justice or you can get their snail mail e-dress HERE.

Having become aware of the pandemic proportions of the police misconduct problem in America, it is your duty to inform others as well. Make certain to expose the facts in personal conversations, business meetings, sporting events, even at church!

This is a problem that is going to take everybody to fix - so let everybody know about it!