Today, Peace on Earth. Tomorrow, War on Iraq. A Christ-like
protester holds a sign reading, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”
Thou Shall Not Kill, commandeth God. But as thou celebrate
the birth of the Prince of Peace, thou might be opening a toy called “Forward
Command Post”, purchased from the JCPenney website. A New Mexico journalist/activist
circulated an email describing it as “a ‘pre-bombed’ home complete with a
soldier and an American flag to crown it with; all that's missing are dead
babies and their maimed refugee family.”
How is it possible that we can accept such dissonance,
talking peace while we run to war? Einstein knew “You cannot simultaneously
prevent and prepare for war.” But it seems we’ve let ourselves believe that we
can. Or that *this* war, unlike *all* the others, will be the last one. Or that
we somehow get used to living with perpetual war.
Sleep in heavenly peace, baby Jesus. This year will be the
first time there will be no Christmas lights or decorated tree in Bethlehem’s
Manger Square, where Israeli troops and Palestinians pause between blasts.
Truce is not peace. Local activists Gary Melrose and Elizabeth Stinson write,
"Peace is not the silence which comes after we kill thousands of people
and before we kill thousands more.”
We say it, we sing it, even President Bush said he’s willing
to try it. To “Give Peace a Chance.” But there is something about the P word
that diverts your thoughts into a dead end metaphor: how can I give peace a
chance if the bad guy is in my house holding a knife to my wife?
The problem with “Peace” is that it’s perceived as, well,
*passive*. Popular culture is much to blame. For every Raoul Wallenberg PBS
documentary there are a dozen Rambo cinema blockbusters. Conflict resolution is
taught in schools now, but who is telling children that these same approaches
and techniques could become the foundation of our national security, if only we
gave them a fraction of the resources we give to war preparation.
We could change that, you know. We could say, “for Christmas
next year, I’m going to give my family at least a day’s worth of peace
*activisim* over the coming year. We could start by calling the White House
tomorrow, at 202 456-1111, and telling one of the operators that the President
needs to do a better job proving he’s not faking the nuclear-terrorist threat,
not using fear to create support for a war designed to put Iraq’s vast
petroleum reserves under the control the US oil industry.
Next, we could write our members of Congress and ask them to
co-sponsor Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s bill to create a Department of Peace
(HR 2459.) The Kucinich bill would
give us peace- making power to match our war-making power. It would
“promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; strengthen
nonmilitary means of peacemaking; promote the development of human potential; work
to divert from armed conflict and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute
resolution; and take a proactive, strategic approach in the development of
policies that promote national and international conflict prevention,
nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict and
structured mediation of conflict.”
If you want to know what waging peace means on the ground,
study the work of Gandhi, or King, or Mandela, or Walensa. Read “Is There No
Other Way?” by local author Michael Nagler, a thorough treatment of practical
alternatives to violence. Get on the email list from www.moveon.org. They’re a great resource for the cyber-enabled
activist, and a portal to other organizations and information sources.
Does peace activism work? When I saw the Forward Command Post in
November I immediately sent an email of protest to JCPenney, and forwarded the
original message to my friends and family. When I checked the site last week,
JCPenney had removed the offensive picture. A small success. With your help,
we’ll do more. Some Christmas day, children will be enjoying their solar
powered Peace Corps schoolroom toys. And we will enjoy true peace on earth.