Peace Without and Peace Within
The arguments against peace are numerous: Our species is violent by nature. Greed and evil are part of the human condition. Peace advocates are naive. It's one thing to admire Gandhi's principled stand of nonviolence against the very proper British, but quite another to imagine how he would have fared against Hitler and his ruthless Nazis. War is necessary for self-defense. Peace movements are pawns of sinister forces with ulterior motives, "dupes of leftists who seek to destroy America." Wars are inevitable because, while it takes only one aggressor to start a fight, peace has to be unanimous....
Perhaps human nature makes isolated outbreaks of violence inevitable. Perhaps. Still, it takes a formidable effort by governments to raise armies and mobilize the forces of mass destruction. Leaders know this, so enemies are named and children are taught very young how to hate and whom to fear.
While excuses for war abound, the desire for peace lives on in the hearts and minds of ordinary people everywhere. If only young mothers could be generals, how many would march their children off to war?
One war at a time, let's stop the killing. Let's change leaders. Let's choose peace.
Now, we realize that true peace is not just the absence of war. Peace without social justice is submission to slavery, death to the human spirit. To create a lasting peace we need to invest in education, the arts, and social programs which celebrate life, not destroy it. Instead of building bombs and selling arms, we could be building bridges and exploring the stars. Instead of war games, peace games.
Our society glorifies competition but undervalues cooperation. We measure success in dollars, while friendships are truly priceless. To build this vision of peace we need to change our culture from the inside out. Or maybe just a hug and a change of heart.
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