Peace Partnership International - A War's Wakeup Call to Look Inside

A neighbor, friend, Viet Nam vet passed away last Friday night. Smitty called me Miss Peace, even though he didn’t have a lot of confidence that this peace thing could take hold. I’d like to think his soul has a different, perhaps purer or less pained perspective now. These thoughts are for you, Smitty.

I do not hate war. I am saddened by it. More in a way that it represents where we are collectively and that if we do not change the way we perceive how war happens (and address the root causes of violence everywhere), it will happen again. There is no doubt in my mind. Simply saying no more war is not enough.

One can argue (and, of course, many do) whether we should have been in this current war in the first place, whether we should be in it now, and who all the individual “culprits” are. I believe, however, that such concerns, while certainly understandable, just take us away from looking at ourselves (our society, our parents, grandparents) and how our collective inaction for decades -- our funding and participating in atrocities in other lands, atrocities that are very well known by other countries’ citizens and yet relatively little known amongst our own citizenry -- has contributed to creating “large groups of desperate people” around the globe.

I also see this war as a wakeup call, including in our own country, especially among the youth. We in the U.S. Department of Peace Campaign are poised to spread the message of hope and of the need for citizen education and action, of looking at the root causes of violence and war and addressing them. Educating ourselves and moving forward with the knowledge that is already available to us today can ensure an end to war -- maybe we’ll have one more, maybe not. It’s up to us.

To me, our current war is a message that we who are alive on the planet right now, at this point in history, we who are aware of the cycles and escalating tendencies of violence -- we have some work to do. Many veterans of war can and do embrace the goal of reducing the likelihood of the outbreak of future wars. Many are warriors for peace, now, even as they serve proudly in their uniforms on foreign soil.

Karen Johnson
Illinois State Coordinator
U.S. Department of Peace Campaign
March 3, 2008