Little riles me. Underestimation of my employment worth, potential and economic contribution. Personal confrontation necessary to meet my personal needs--perceived on my part. Rhetoric. Political confrontation. I work to dissipate such feelings before I succumb to the temptation of nervous obsession. I strive to be at peace with myself--with the world. Do not be mistaken. I am passionate. I am animated. But...I choose the issues, and people in whom I will invest and share my passion.
War and peace are at the core of my passions. I work against war, and strive for peace.
War. Military action. The position of conflict--be it liberal or conservative--matters none. The means do not justify the ends.
War. War monger. Enemy. Hawk. Play book. War games. Show of strength. Win. Lose. War.
War of words. Rhetoric. Negotiation. Mediation. Compromise. Treaty. Peace.
Peace. Pacifist. Ally. Dove. Diplomacy. Tact. Pacifist. Conscientious objector. Pacifist. Peace.
Words matter. Civil society matters. Reconciliation matters.
Diversity of thought, beliefs, culture, and ways of living need not be the price we pay in order to nurture a civil society.
Yet, time and time again we find ourselves at the precipice--we find ourselves willing to jeopardize the peace we claim as our national aspiration. Within my lifetime--since April 1960--we have succumb to single words.
Vietnam. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. The Taliban. Saddam Hussein. Moammar Gahadafi. Al Qaeda.
I am too young to remember World War II. Korea preceded my conception.
However, I have witnessed the lingering effects of World War II and the Korean War. In 1972, I was 12. I took extreme statements literally--the hallmark of a young mind with a narrow prism through which I saw and understood the world.
In 1972, I visited Dachau--the first World War II concentration camp opened in Germany. More precisely, I visited the grounds of Dachau. I sheltered myself behind the safety of our car.
Mom and Dad told me that the concentration camp had gas chambers in which many--countless--human beings had been killed. I understood that it was important to visit Dachau, to see it. But, I thought that I would view physical remains--bodies rotted by time, but, kept in place to be viewed such that that piece of history would never be replicated.
I knew that I did not have the inner strength to go into the Dachau Concentration Camp. I waited outside while Mom and Dad spent time inside.
That was World War II--my narrow prism into a human atrocity.
Korea.
The prism through which I view Korea--the war that preceded my conception--was slightly broader, not much, but slightly broader.
My dad. A forward observer in the Army. A man entrenched--literally entrenched--in the most destructive human action imaginable. My dad. A man who used his love of photography to document his experience, so that he would remember it clearly--so that he would not glorify the human destruction he had witnessed. It took me many years to understand that. I could not reconcile those pictures with the advocate for peace I knew.
Korea.
My mom. A young housewife--a homeowner--a woman left to wonder whether she would ever see her husband again. My mom. Not yet a mother. My mom. A witness to the other side of war--left alone to continue her life in limbo wondering what the future would bring. A witness to the forgotten side of war. Just as many men, who were war veterans, did not want to talk of that time of their lives, she too did not want to return to that time.
Vietnam. Seven years older than I, my brother came too close to being a part of that war. Conscientious objector status. That was his saving grace from his draft number--30. Draft number 30, and posters in our kitchen with monthly tallies of the men killed in Vietnam--men on all sides of the war. That was my witness to Vietnam.
2013. North Korea.
I pray we may change the language of war we speak. Words matter. Lives matter.
War. War monger. Enemy. Hawk. Play book. War games. Show of strength. Win. Lose. War. War of words. Rhetoric. Negotiation. Mediation. Compromise. Treaty. Peace.
Peace. Pacifist. Ally. Dove. Diplomacy. Tact. Pacifist. Conscientious objector. Pacifist. Peace.
Words matter. Civil society matters. Reconciliation matters.
May the Peace of Christ be with you. May the Peace of Chris be with us all.
