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Teaching Peace
Recently I was
involved in a committee meeting that revolved around
September 11. Our school wants to do something to
memorialize on September 11, 2003, what happened on
9/11/2002. I think it is a good idea, with reservations.
I don’t want to simply memorialize the horror, revulsion,
anger and death. I would like to celebrate how far we
have come in one year. How we have banded together, not
just to defeat an ‘enemy’ or an ‘axis of evil’, but to
support one another as countrymen and patriots.
But can we
really do that?
 I
have to admit that I was behind the President 100% when he
first announced that he was going after Osama Bin Laden
for the destruction of the World Trade Centers, the
Pentagon, and Flight 93. I thought we should bomb the
heck out of Afghanistan, until we had either captured or
killed the mastermind behind the attacks. I still think
so. Now however, I feel as if I am speaking out of the
other side of my mouth when I encourage my son to resolve
his differences with words, and to use ‘gentle hands’.
How do you raise peaceful children in a violent and often
unforgiving world?
The author
Riane Eisler wrote a book called Tomorrow’s Children. In
it she calls for history lessons to not just include, but
to be rewritten to reflect, only the evolution of
societies on Earth. Instead of learning the dates that
the Spanish Conquistadors came to North America, we would
teach our children about their warring qualities, and the
fact that they had guns significantly altered the future
of this part of the world. I am not sure I can get behind
this as a justifiable method of teaching peace. Somehow,
I have a feeling that the human sacrifices of the ancient
tribes will be glossed over, while the atrocities
committed by the various European factions against the
native peoples in the Americas will be highlighted. In
fact, the Native American people warred among themselves,
and were equally, if not in the same fashion, as violent
as the Europeans. If we are honest, war is as old as
mankind.
 So
how do we teach peace? There is a flip side to the notion
of teaching peace. My Father was born just before the
Second World War. When I talked about teaching my son
peace instead of violence and intimidation, he said I
needed to be careful. He is concerned that “teaching
peace” needs to include knowing when to stand up and
fight. He brought up Hitler and Mussolini. Did I really
think that “peace” would have been effective against
them? Do I think that there is a peaceful solution to the
current situation with Osama Bin Laden? I can’t say that
there is any reasonable way to think non-violent or
peaceful means could stop any of these icons of violence
and hate.
Is it possible
to teach children to live in peace, and yet to know at
what point reason and right has to be backed up with a
show of force? For this country, we were willing to put
up with our international flights being bombed out of the
sky, our air force carriers suicide bombed and our
embassies destroyed. It took an actual attack on our soil
to mobilize our collective anger. How do we teach our
children to be peacemakers, not pushovers?
Next Week:
Teaching peace in application.
 
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