Nonviolence and peacemaking

A talk delivered at Memorial Day for Peace, May 28, 2012

Have we finished with war -- yet?

You who have risked and yet recovered your lives from the ugliness of war know better than any of us that we can no longer afford to use force to solve the world’s conflicts and competing interests.  Together we will win the battle to shake out militarism from our culture.  We will proclaim that war is our enemy.

Some will say “We’re wired for violence.”  The spiral of revenge, an eye for an eye, is dynamic.  But is it inevitable?  What has revenge for the 9/11 attack on the US achieved?   Over the past five centuries, countries that initiated wars have ended up losing them over 25% of the time, according to historian Stephen Pinker.  We must find a new description for “winning.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, if not before, it has become clear that the US government isn't crazy about being at peace. We're nearly always at war with something: nations, drugs, even the abstract concept of "terror."  A country founded on the conquest of the Native American population is restlessly paranoid in the absence of real or perceived threats. We appear to be uncomfortable if we don't have an enemy within our sights.

Kathy Kelly, a Catholic peace activist and founder of Voices of Creative Non­violence, spoke at several events in the Boston area Nov. 13-15. I attended her talk at Simmons College on Monday afternoon, where she was introduced by Prof. Becky Thompson. It drew about 60 people, more than half of whom where students.

Kelly had just returned from Afghanistan.   Speaking of the recent Time magazine cover that showed a young Afghan woman whose nose had been cut off by her traditionalist father, she recalled the question which she was asked by a group of Bamiyan University students: "Do Americans care more about noses or fingers?"  The reference was to the Stryker Brigade soldiers who are charged with murdering Afghan civilians and cutting off their fingers as a trophy.

December 22, 2010

Dear Friends:

We are sending you the SANTIAGO DECLARATION-THE HUMAN RIGHT TO PEACE.
The Declaration is the culmination of years of discussion and debate among global peace activists to finally enshrine in international law the recognition of humanity’s centuries longing for peace and security.

This is a people’s initiative, another track in the struggle for peace. It lays the foundation for the continued demand to the end of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and the conflicts plaguing the world. It forcefully outlines the responsibilities of governance that declares the truism “peace is not only the absence of war”.