No War

Peace is Possible

Child of the Cold War

Growing up next to the largest military base in the US during the Cold War left an indelible impression on me. On any given day the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over us like an ever present spectre. From my house and classroom at school we could feel the vibrations and hear the noise of practice bombs exploding on base.

It all seemed so wasteful to me. Instead of blindly accepting this as the reality of the way things are, I had a lot of questions. What could be gained from hurting and destroying other people? The Soviets were human beings just like us, why did we villainize each other? Why do we waste so much energy, resources, money, and effort by focusing so much on destruction instead of health, education and creation?

We all suffer

These questions are important things to ponder. At the core of this maladaptive behavior is greed and the lust for power, domination, and territory. It is my deep belief that it is essential that we evolve beyond this and see our common humanity. While I am not a religious person I find where the bible says in Corinthians, “When one of us suffers we all suffer” to be a core truth and one we would do well to remember everyday.

No more eye for an eye

Witnessing the horror of genocide in Gaza unfold on social media for almost two years has been excruciating. The dehumanization at play to kill, maim and starve children and to shoot people desperately seeking food is hard for me to comprehend. No one is expendable, everyone has worth and value. One sin does not justify another. Someone has to be the one to make the choice that more violence is not the way to end violence.

Currently there is violence happening in many places around the world, Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of these places have experienced intergenerational violence, which is continuing. My country (USA) has had a hand in many of these conflicts, which my tax dollars have funded. This causes me great grief, and I have consistently spoken out about it to my representatives with little action.

How to get to justice

First the violence and cruelty must STOP immediately. Businesses need to stop profiting from endless wars. The people causing the violence need to held accountable. There needs to be acknowledgment by those who have caused harm, atonement for the suffering, commitment to healing, reparations, and restoring and creating connection for any collective justice and forward growth to be possible. This applies to all instances past and present of collective harm of one group towards another.

Move towards healing

The earth that sustains us is struggling. Now is the time for us to mature as a species and focus on healing. Our wanton disregard about how our actions affect other people, animals, and the very environment that makes our lives possible is leading us in a very dark direction. We have the opportunity to advance and stop perceiving each other as threats and competitors and instead come together as one community and start sharing and helping each other and restoring what has been damaged or lost. We need to stop treating the planet and other people as commodities to exploit and instead as partners in our greater well-being.

Believing it is possible

Together we must take a leap of faith, believe that this is possible and work towards making peace a reality. The harder we cling on to the destructive ways the more pain we bring on to ourselves. Change is inevitable one way or another. It is time that we focus on the greater good of all instead of enriching and empowering the few. We can steer this change in a better direction if we collectively commit to making it happen.