PEACE IS ALL THERE IS
Recently, one of the leaders of our current war(s) quoted Dwight D. Eisenhower, saying, “People do not understand war.” He made it sound like a bad thing! Andthe implication was, since we do not understand war, we should just shut up, and leave war to those who, like him, understand it so well! Right!
I do not believe that anyone truly understands war, even those who insist it is the answer to our problems. If they did, if they truly understood war and the horror and futility of it, there would be far fewer wars—and perhaps more effort put into exploring the alternatives. Israeli General Moshe Dyan, who probably understood war as well as anyone, , said, “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
Another successful General, the American Omar N. Bradley, who led our forces in the D-Day invasion of 1944, liberating Paris from the occupying forces of Germany, said, “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”
I believe that most of us understand the necessity, in a world of hatred, misunderstanding…religious fanaticism, greed and political machinations, for us to sometimes defend ourselves from those who would threaten us, our loved ones, our country, our way of life—our religious freedom. And I know that most of us, even while regretting war, weep for those brave souls who are being used to fight our wars, and honor them for their bravery and dedication. But war is not the way to peace—as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The past….asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” That’s all we need to understand about war.
The problem is that we don’t understand Peace!
“Peace”, Emerson said, “cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”
There is no God anywhere which approves of war, or which is going to favor one side over the other. Waging war over which God, or religion, is the one and only right one is insanity! There is no God who is going to swoop down and lay peace upon us in answer to our prayers. In the Mind of God—Peace IS! We have been given the intelligence and self-
determination to make the choices that will allow it. Peace will BE, as soon as we humans learn to make it! “Peace is not God’s gift to his creatures.. It is our gift to each other.”
We live in the same world with many people—and we are all part of the same Life. If any part of our world is at war, we’re all at war! When we decide together—as ONE--to learn to understand Peace and how to make it—and re- solve that we will “stay the course ” toward peace instead of war, then we will see peace on earth. |
“The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies.”