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Peace Partnership
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| Dennis Kucinich's WPF Panel Remarks | | Print | |
Remarks at the World Peace Forum Panel on Creating National Departments of Peace Vancouver, Canada, June 25, 2006  Thought is conceptive, we conceive of the world and then the world becomes what we conceive it to be. I think it can be said that we are not so much victims of the world we see as victims of the way we see the world. When our leaders are in a position where they can share with us their hearts, and if their hearts are troubled and crowded with fear, they then help to create an architecture of fear.But was it 9/11 in and of itself, or was it our (meaning the United States) response to 9/11 which set us on a path of separation from the world? This is an important discussion because it really points to our presence here. If we come from an understanding of the undeniable existence of human unity, that we are all one, that we are interconnected, that we are interdependent, then those things that enforce the type of thinking of separation we can examine, but then, with the principle of human unity being the overarching claim on our dialogue, on our humanity, on our expression, on our social intercourse, we then bring that experience of separation to us, include it, but then transform it. On the other hand, if we look at a moment of separation, which 9/11 did clearly represent, and use that to reinforce pre-existing notions of ‘us versus them’, of the dichotomized thinking which truly exists in all of us, which we are qualified to challenge in our own lives - we all know it - if we yield to that dichotomized thinking, then we are left with the ultimate in dichotomies, the ultimate result of war. Now, the idea of a Department of Peace and Nonviolence is not simply about ending a war, or all wars; it's about our highest capacity to evolve, to be more than we are and better than we are, to look at, in the field of science, the evolutionary track and to see that evolution is progression, and there’s a point where there’s punctuation and then, in the punctuated equilibrium of the progression, a leap upwards. We recognize that as scientific fact in evolution. What about the evolution of human thought? What about our ability to literally leap forward and create that which we know, in our hearts, that which we know intuitively is possible, but to create it, to call it forth so we are here, in our presence, affirming the principle of human unity. We’re here from various countries explaining that we have the capacity to put this knowingness into a structure, and so now the type of thinking, which our president talks to, we too have the ability, through our participation in not just the collective unarticulated consciousness but through the articulation of a collective consciousness of peace, to create human unity once again where there was separation. The world is yearning for it as we know, and the Unites States is yearning for that – now there are 73 members of the U.S. Congress that have signed their names on legislation for a Department of Peace.  And let me say that that’s only the beginning. This legislation is certainly about our role and relationship with the world, but it is also about the violence we see in American society - it’s about domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in the schools, racial violence, violence against gays, police community relations conflicts, and it is addressing those symptoms with peace education. We are teaching our children pace-giving, peace-sharing, mutuality, seeing the other person as an aspect of oneself. We’re starting a big discussion in the United States because we realize the relationship between violence in the world and violence in the human heart, so when we address that directly and we do it with compassion – which is so important – because while many of us can, at any moment, be angry at what we see going on, we have to remember that that person who offends us the most is also ourselves, that person who offends us the most is also someone we need to extend compassion to and love for, because that is the practice of peace. If we want the world to be more peaceful, we’ll understand that the hymn “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” is not just a spiritual truism, it is a dynamic truth of the reciprocity of peace, when it begins inside, my peace I give and my peace I leave unto you, and then there is that movement, that flowing back and forth of peace. Peace is practical. When I first started this discussion about a Department of Peace and Nonviolence in the United States, people would say to me “how impractical that is…” or “please, we are talking about some airy fairy nebulous concept – forget it!” But then we spoke to the impracticality of war. And there was a challenge in advocating for peace, and that is to do it in a peaceful way because – we all want peace ... “we gotta have peace,” “peace or I’ll get you,” “Bring peace on” ... and so, if we are to become advocates of peace we must become exemplars of peace, and that’s a challenge. So here we are from all around the world, and what a wonderful moment it is, and how wonderful it is to be here and participate and let me tell you, even though my own country is going through a difficult period, I have real hopes that we will move forward and catch that evolutionary impulse, but we are not going to do it absent of our participation. What my wife and I are working on right now is something I call the 9/10 Forum, the day before, literally, 9/11, that causes us to go back and reflect on who we are, to have a discussion, to review the same principles that our friends in South Africa review. Nelson Mandela understood the need for truth and reconciliation, truth with compassion, reconciliation over the misconceptions that perhaps many of us held, and in moving on to create a new paradigm for the United States on which a Department of Peace and Nonviolence is fundamental – the heart. But this 9/10 Forum, which you’ll be hearing a lot about, is going to consist of conversations all over our country about "Who are we? What is the most beneficent role that we can play in the world? How can we reconnect with our fellow men and women around the world?" How can we loosen the bonds of separation that pinion us apart from one another, and re-engage with one another with open hearts, with love for each other? This is an important moment in human history, and we’re all so blessed to have the opportunity to participate, to be here to use our own thoughts to help quicken the impulse of human unity, to help with the recognition of our interdependence, of our interconnectedness, to understand how fundamentally we are all one. Thank you. * Dennis J. Kucinich, former mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, represents Cleveland in the U.S. House of Representatives and is the author of the legislation in Congress that would establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Nonviolence. |