The fact that there is not a bomb crashing through your window does not mean that the world is at peace. There is conflict every day around us, and it is not remote.
Consider the common conflicts that surround us and sooner or later must reach into our own living rooms and offices:
It is more than time to begin to make peace and to affirmatively struggle to shun violence in all its many forms. These pages contain further reflections on how we need to view our world and how to begin to build peace into our homes and lives, brick by brick and step by step. It will be a long process to refashion our lust for violence. Let it begin today. Let us start each day by saying and meaning the watchword of a new outlook on life:
This day know peace. This day do peace. This day make peace.
Making peace means helping others reduce conflict in their lives. We can all help with this by feeding the hungry, by using only the resources we actually need and struggling for environmental justice. Doing peace means actively working for peace with our government and with our families. Knowing peace means finding time in our lives to truly celebrate peace in our homes, schools, factories and lives and to enjoy the common good that we can find around us.
Consider the common conflicts that surround us and sooner or later must reach into our own living rooms and offices:
- More than a million people have fled from the civil war in Syria to Jordan, Turkey and the United States;
- The United States bristles with guns, and there is one pistol or rifle lying in closets and drawers for every man, woman and child living in the United States. We have let these instruments of death creep into our homes and schoolyards, and every year thousands of our neighbors will die from them;
- The US has engaged in "contained wars" many, many times since World War II. Our men and women in uniform have been serviing and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than ten years;
- Bullying and schoolyard violence is epidemic in our society, and it is fueled by violent videogaming and vicarious violence on television and in our stadiums.
It is more than time to begin to make peace and to affirmatively struggle to shun violence in all its many forms. These pages contain further reflections on how we need to view our world and how to begin to build peace into our homes and lives, brick by brick and step by step. It will be a long process to refashion our lust for violence. Let it begin today. Let us start each day by saying and meaning the watchword of a new outlook on life:
This day know peace. This day do peace. This day make peace.
Making peace means helping others reduce conflict in their lives. We can all help with this by feeding the hungry, by using only the resources we actually need and struggling for environmental justice. Doing peace means actively working for peace with our government and with our families. Knowing peace means finding time in our lives to truly celebrate peace in our homes, schools, factories and lives and to enjoy the common good that we can find around us.