Today is September 21st, the United Nations International Day of Peace. It is a day that dreams of marking a global cease-fire to ensure that for at least 24-hours, some people around the world will cease to experience warfare and one day experience the peace that too many of us take for granted.
When this day was conceived there were a number of goals. The two primary goals were to mark places where peace has been achieved and to celebrate the success of the dynamics that created order out of chaos, and the other was to ask that those powers who continue to wage war put down their weapons for at least one day. In this way, the world can observe, despite being somewhat artificial, a single moment of peace around the globe. From its inception this day has marked some phenomenal movements across the continents and has found that despite the headlines and despite the bad news that too often makes up our perception of global affairs, there are some incredible people who celebrate peace in the smallest villages and the most unknown locations.
Idealism and naïveté are two concepts that are often confused with each other. Informed global citizens often read the news and see only bloodshed and warfare, and then look to those people who dream of peace and believe in human goodness and consider them naïve. This perception is, some may argue, natural when one considers the state of global affairs today, but good news does not always fit into the parameters of what is considered popular news. Good news, which consists of progress, hope and often leaps of faith, does not find its place on front pages of newspapers or even the news ticker on the bottom of any CNN broadcast. Good news is often news witnessed by people who are so elated with what they have witnessed, that they are content sharing it with only those with whom they have experienced it. Good news is not reported on to the same extent as bad news, and it is for this reason that cynics believe that peace-hoping individuals are perceived as naïve, because cynics do not see the good that some of these idealists have taken the effort to find.
Today the good news that I am referring to is peace. Throughout the centuries people have attempted to define peace in a variety of ways. Peace is the absence of war, the time when everyone stands around reloading, the ability to cope with trying times, peace is justice lived (Mahatma Gandhi), the way we arrive at goals (Martin Luther King Jr.), and a process of changing opinions (John F. Kennedy). Peace does not however require definition, it requires proliferation.
An idealist is an idealist because they have seen potential. They have seen potential in an idea, and they believe that this idea is strong enough to take hold. Those, like me, who are idealistic about peace, have seen the good news that is peace movements despite how small they may be. My particular area has been a peace building project in Kenya, one that seeks to eradicate tribalism and ensure that youths will play a leading role in the political future of Kenya, one that sees tribes coming together and celebrating their differences, not warring along archaic stereotypes propagated by their grandparents. Other likeminded individuals have seen other African peace projects succeed in places like Ghana or Tanzania, or have seen success in other regions of the world. A documentary recently made showing the process involved in creating the International Day of Peace called Peace One Day shows hundreds of peace movements celebrating on September 21 all over the world. When you see people, specifically youths, celebrating in regions once plagued by warfare and hardship one should, one must, be idealistic about the notion of peace, and should hope that the same trends make their way to those most reported-on war zones like the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo that make people cynical about the prospects of any sort of peace.
As an individual involved in the creation of a peace movement, I think about the notion of peace every day. My mind changes daily and my attempts to understand how to make peace change with global events and new ideas and concepts that I learn about. The one idea that remains constant to me about peace however is the fact that peace is most easily understood either as a state-of-mind or a state-of-heart. Despite how cliché it sounds to ask people to look deep down inside themselves before they begin to create peace, this initial step is monumental because it will determine whether a lasting peace is realistically attainable. Unfortunately one’s state of mind or heart is not clear cut and cannot be put down on paper, but a good initial understand of one’s thoughts or feelings at the outset of an attempt to forge a lasting peace will determine whether such a peace can and will last.
So many countries and international organizations have created days that urge people to take action. July 18 is Nelson Mandela Day in South Africa in which citizens are urged to spend time doing something good for someone else; December 10 is International Human Rights Day when people are urged to speak to their political representatives to ensure that human rights are observed in every corner of the world; there are days devoted to fighting cancer or HIV/AIDS and days when people are urged to do any other number of good deeds. Today, September 21, does not have to be a day when you have to go out and DO anything. It is peace day, which requires that peace and the ideal of peace is found within your own heart and mind. This is all I ask you to do today: think about peace, think about how you can personally affect peace, and think about how peace can be spread.
To be an idealist means to believe in an idea. The idea that I ask you to believe in today is peace: peace within our hearts and minds, and peace in our time. Today consider that peace is always possible, and we hope that though we may not be celebrating an international peace today, there is peace today in many areas that did not see peace last year on this day, and this is an accomplishment we can be proud of. Peace is possible. What it takes is will, self reflection, and the acknowledgements of all the good that occurs daily in this tumultuous world.
On this UN International Day of Peace I ask you to seek out some good news. I ask you to spend some time looking at websites dedicated to peace movements, and I ask you to learn about what people are doing to improve their own destinies. Believe in human goodness and the achievements of so many decades of those looking for goodness in this world. I ask you to consider what you believe to be peace, and I ask you today to try thinking like an idealist. Witnessing war may lead you to grow cynical about world affairs, but I guarantee that witnessing a successful peace movement can make you feel confident that it is possible almost anywhere.
I want you to think about the peace that we in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other similar countries enjoy on a daily basis, and remember that all peace comes with a cost. Peace should not, it cannot, be taken for granted because once it is we instantly devalue the price that so many people worldwide pay every day when they take chances to ensure that they will one day enjoy the peace that we have today.
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