The Power of Peace
Submitted by peacemaker - December 29, 2007 | Add a Comment
Osama bin Laden – or one of his mouthpieces – again demands ''blood for blood, destruction for destruction.'' Benazir Bhutto and dozens of others are killed by a suicide bomber intent on the destruction of the democratic process in Pakistan. And Pakistani people riot in anger, destroying cars, banks, police stations, setting fire to anything and everything. Over and over again the cycle plays out, ever more deadly, ever more despairing: “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.” Is this any way to effect a cause or solve a problem, however horrific? “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?” Have we learned nothing?
Yet we know there is another way. There is the Power of Peace that is greater than all the suicide bombers and madmen bent on perpetuating violence and suffering and death. There is the Power of People who come together committed to finding solutions to the enormous problems and radical disagreements of cultures, religions and politics. There is the Power of Persistence that is committed to effecting a workable compromise instead of another war, by allowing both sides to benefit, and refusing to give in until the violence stops…
We are that Peace, that Power, that Persistence. If we choose to be. Every deliberate Act of Peace we make – hour by hour, day by day – thwarts the voices of violence and revenge, the “blood for blood, destruction for destruction” mentality, in a real way. Every time we refuse to respond to anger with anger … to meet violence with more violence … to answer an unkind word with another unkind word … we become part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. We become Peacemakers. We take up the banner of “Peace at all cost!” and dare to carry it with the daily commitment of our lives.
It isn’t easy. Sometimes we do explode. But then, we can realize how our anger accomplishes nothing in the end. We can think of another way to express our hurt or pain or frustration. We can also ask forgiveness. We can also try to heal the rift created by us or by another … on the family or local level, just as we expect our leaders to do on the international level. And in so doing, we activate the Power of Peace in the world, big time. We set resonances in motion that reverberate around the globe.
As we come to the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, let us re-commit to three intentional Acts of Peace a day. To writing them down in a notebook to keep track of our efforts. To seeing them add up to One Thousand Acts of Peace in 2008. Imagine if everyone did this? We could start a peaceful revolution right from our own homes, workplaces and schools … a great movement of humanity toward Peace that no dictator or terrorist could stop. If only we dare.
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