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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (50868)	10/10/2002 2:00:18 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

<<...As the U.S. war machine is being lubricated for another go-round in Iraq, this is another chance to liven my class discussions and to stand with other pacifists who keep saying that if military violence were effective we would have had peace eons ago...>> Comments by Colman McCarthy... [Colman McCarthy is Director of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. and author of "I'd Rather Teach Peace."] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Baltimore Sun Violence, in all its forms, is the planet's most pervasive blight -- 1.6 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. So the odds against creating the peaceable society are long, and ending war won't be happening in any of our lifetimes. Nor will we be seeing an end to domestic violence, environmental violence or any of the other kinds. Given that, I suppose you could say my pleasure in teaching peace comes in being a lover of long shots. I've been a peace teacher since 1982. Few schools, at whatever level, actually take peace education seriously, so I have been especially blessed to teach courses in high schools, colleges and even a law school. My students learn non-violence as practiced by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and they reflect on the wisdom of Jeannette Rankin, who once observed that it's no more possible "to win a war than to win an earthquake." Of course, many of my students tell me I live in a fantasy world. Perhaps. But if this is the real world -- where some 59 wars or conflicts are raging today, and where the United States spends $900 million a day on military programs while 40,000 people die a day from hunger diseases -- then I'm sticking with my fantasy that another way can be found, and will be found. As the U.S. war machine is being lubricated for another go-round in Iraq, this is another chance to liven my class discussions and to stand with other pacifists who keep saying that if military violence were effective we would have had peace eons ago. Maybe that's a long shot. But I've chosen an exciting life, which is something that can't be found by playing the sure-shots. Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun sunspot.net