The Process of Peace

From Gandhi: "Non-violence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and the bravest"

So many visionaries, Gandhi included, spent considerable energy working to bring about a world, or at least their country, as a place of sustaining peace. They worked forever it seems, untold hours, many lost everything they held dear, reaching for that unreachable star of peace and tranquility as a people.

I’m not sure such a peace can hold. I’m not sure there are enough peace-loving folks in the world who would actually be able to stand for peace, in a way that would stop those who corrupt our governments and manipulate our people from foisting yet another of their insane wars on us.

Maybe that can’t ever happen, I don’t know. In some ways, it’s discouraging.

But I find another possiblity inspiring. And it’s a possibility, a potential that takes far less to accomplish, and far more results that can be predictable, workable, and measurable.

I’ve come to believe that we can create a process of peace, if not absolute peace itself.

What is a process of peace? It is a way to engage those who are engaged in war, or attacks, or manipulations toward war, into working with each other to find a way to live together. It is a trust-building process that offers the path of getting to peace as a way to create lasting relationship. And, it is a process that honors and protects the interests of all sides, and sees all of the people involved as the same, with the same human desires for living a fulfilling life free of strife.

The Process of Peace holds these above tenets sacred. It is a process with a foundation that all people are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. With these principles as touchstones to this process, fears, worries, wants and needs can all be addressed with equality, respect and understanding.

And in such an atmosphere, even friendship can blossom among former enemies.

All people are created equal. What we see with the corruptors here in America is that they haven’t even offered any path toward peace with the people fighting against our occupation of Iraq. Their intent clearly seems to be to hold Iraq, through killing and fighting only, and to protect the oil fields until their multi-national corporations can secure them for themselves. They seem to have accomplished this aim this past week, in their immoral negotiations with Iraq.

The United States must feel ashamed of this empire-building and colonization of Iraq. We have been in many ways a good and just people. We have also been the most aggressive warring country on Earth, with never-ending wars to secure resources across the globe. This ‘process of war’ is all too familiar, and it’s end must come, and come soon.

We can engage in a process of peace. We can find a way to reach the hearts and minds of those we are fighting, and to offer our own capacity for toleration, understanding, and yes, even our ability for friendship to blossom.

We must find the process of peace. And we can begin with our own lives, and find such a peace-making process within our own relationships, family, friendships, workplaces and communities.

Let’s dedicate ourselves to this process of peace, and do so starting now, today.

After all, it’s our Process of Peace. It’s way too precious to leave to war-mongers and war-profiteers, such as the corruptors who are running our U.S. government today.