BEYOND THE DECADE ...

The Peace Hour broadcast, as many of you know, is an initiative of the Decade of Nonviolence, when living Nobel Peace Laureates made their appeal to the world that we use this first decade to build cultures of peace for the children of the world. These last five years, I have started every show with these words. Next I say, "Many have heeded the call." And now I ask, "have they?"
The Call to Peace
As we head into 2010, there are many who feel that we've failed or at least are failing at building those cultures of peace in every day life. In America, we are struggling through a horrendous recession. We can't agree on ways to ensure that every American has health care or access to good health care. We fight over whether to stay in wars on the other side of the world--Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance--or whether to bother with conflicts in areas we don't think are important enough to warrant our time or efforts. The Republican/Democrat wars are legend. The wars around the world, many conflicts ongoing, don't seem to be abating. Every day, there is some conflict that results in the deaths and maiming of others. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program tells us that armed conflicts around the world result in 1,000 deaths a day! If we take a look at the world, we'll see that there is a conflict going on in almost every part of the world.

While this these violent conflicts include major and minor conflicts, they also include non-state and one-sided violence (UCDP Database, 2009). Still, this doesn't include the violence inflicted in homes, cities, states and nations, in families, in business, and in our "Peace" organizations.
     If I had to establish what hurts the most, I would say that the violence that hurts the most is violence perpetrated by those who are supposed to care and those who should know better. For the models of peace are there for us to use when conflict arises, but somehow, we don't always use them or maybe we haven't really learned how. When people that we love, respect and care about, resort to violence, our lives are shattered by that betrayal. When people fail to see that violence can happen without the use of a fist or a gun, that the weapons of hate, deceit, disinterest, disenfranchisement, disrespect and other types of actions more subtle, are as devastating to the soul, we'll never get this peace thing right. Weapons such as these can kill the spirit, the will and the heart of a people. It can make us jaded, cynical, but it can also make us afraid. Afraid to speak up. Afraid to venture forth. Afraid to use our gifts and talents for the good of humankind!
     Still, this is my heart talking. My brain tells me to look beyond the shadows. As one friend told me "Never attribute to malice what incompetence is sufficient to explain." Peacemaking is a lifelong endeavor. We have to get "good at it" in ways that make accomplishing it something like breathing. In. Out. Deep breaths. Exhale. My Yoga friends would agree.
   Another thought from this friend talked about the complications embedded in this world of peacemaking. He described them as "so many interlocking and overlapping, yet often competing, responsibilities" that we often drop the ball far more often than we admit. We too often focus on the one event that has been difficult rather than looking at the entire picture of events. My friend went on to explain it this way, "I DO think that [people] are often myopic and short-sighted (and redundant). There is a constant tendency to focus on the matter or issue or crisis that is right in front of a person and forget that decisions about the immediate matter affect other previous commitments, or even contradict stated principles and goals." In this, I found an answer that I think we must truly evaluate in ourselves. Am I so myopic or short-sighted that I'm concentrating on the immediate goal or problem? Do I only think of what is solved right now, rather than all the layers that it affects? I have to ask this question of myself because unless I reflect and evaluate my own purpose, I have no right to demand it from others.
The Vision
When a person is hurt, compassionate communication urges us to "listen to the need of that person" and that by understanding that need, acknowledging that need, we then are able to empathize. Empathy connects us. That's the "heart" part of peacemaking. We all need to listen to our hearts a little more.
     Besides the complications, we have systems that have been in place for centuries and these systems create disparities that resonate in different ways. We cannot create cultures of peace within these systems. It's a given that these systems must change. And here lies another problem. In order to change systems, many feel that we must use the same methods of these systems to vanquish that which we considered unholy, unhealthy or undesirable. This is defined as a takeover and takeovers are simply, to coin a violent analogy, simply "the faster gun." Instead, we must throw away these weapons and create models that mirror the best of our methods. Charles Edwin Markham talks about this when he says, "They drew a circle that shut me out--heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win; we drew a circle that took them in."
Who's In/Who's Out
I'm out! I took myself out of a situation for reasons that I won't go into. It isn't important. What is important is that it hurt. I don't do hurt well, mostly because I try to anticipate hurt ahead of time. I walk around with my hurt detector on, but it is not infallible. So, then I'm surprised (well, not really), or taken off guard, then I start second guessing myself and trying to deal with the current issues (or what is perceived as the current issues) and I'm trying to fix those and I am, as my friend so appropriately points out, "myopic and short-sighted." I start trying to change the system and it isn't my place to change anything. There are a number of reasons why this is true. The biggest reason is that I have not nor will I have power in these systems. These are systems that I cannot take over even if I wanted to. I don't belong and it gets harder and harder to participate in a system where I am not only uncomfortable, but also have no real say. The most significant reason I can't change these systems is that I-can-only-change-myself. We must, after all, be the change we wish to see. When we do that, I can leave a little residue of my intent to empathize and love the people within these systems and perhaps those in power or control can use that, when and if they choose. But it is not now nor was it ever my job to change another. And even if someone tries to say that it is, I decline the offer. Thanks, but no thanks.
     Instead ...
     I want to build an place that is the wider circle built on principles of the Decade, but also principles of my faith, a place that still holds hope and love for the world. I want to build a place where the energy of young people is harnessed and developed, giving their creativity, gifts and talents free reign in the world. I want to capture the wisdom of the elders. I want an organization that supports intergenerational relationships. As a storyteller, I want to gather the stories and share them with the world--my way of sharing the world's cultures with one another. I want to be free--free to be all that I can be and along the way, stop to make sweet potato pies for my family and friends. In essence, I want to live this life to the fullest as a peacemaker. That's the job I'm applying for every day of my life.
     Someone said that if you build it--they will come. So, you may ask--why do I think I can build it? That's easy! Because everyone has it in them to do it. Because--after all--I'm In! In this world to do good.
     Peace.

[The Peace Hour broadcast will be heard every week on the Think Peace Radio Network, on OhZone.org, with archives at www.thepeacehour.org starting December 7, 2009. For more information on the work of The Peace Hour and the Think Peace Media and Communications Cooperation Circle, email us at office@thinkpeaceradio.net. We're building it. Won't you come?]