World Peace

Peace in my lifetime; its just not happening. I joined a banned of writers from all over the world and we wrote articles for peace. I wrote about traveling around the world and finding good people wherever I went. I concluded that are differences aren't with the people; they are with the differences themselves and how we deal with them. We have had an "Us vs. Them" attitude since the dawn of time. It is the instinct that allowed us to band together for common protection. The attitude always had the same rules. There can't be an "Us" without a "Them"; how many times have you seen fragmented groups band together in the face of an outside threat. What makes us proud to be "Us" is because we're better than "Them"; we have higher morals, we're better leaders, we are God's chosen people.

If there ever is to be real peace we must throw off this old notion of "Us vs. Them". We must be proud of ourselves because we know we have value not because we think we are better than someone else. We must realize different doesn't mean better or worse; it just means different. We must realize that our way is good, but it is not the only way. We must realize that our beliefs are true, but another's beliefs may also be acceptable to God. We must learn not to stereotype. If we need to say something about another culture; we must learn about it first. If we don't want to learn about it then we can't criticize it.

These are basic principles that people alive today will not be able to handle. The cast is set on us; we have too many ingrained prejudices to open our minds totally to these concepts. We've been harmed or seen harm done by one group against another and we can't see that the attackers could have any value as human beings.

The only hope for peace is to prepare to teach the not-yet-born of the world new lessons. We must set a target date and any children born beyond that date must be taught a different way. They must be taught pride in who they are and where they come from and they must be taught that children just like them are proud of who they are and where they come from. They must be taught about the everyday lives of people very different from them and the must be shown that these people laugh and cry and enjoy many of the same things that they do. They should also see how they are different and why the differences should be respected. Every child should have access; even it is just one in a school, to the Internet and an audio and video connection to others far different from them. Translation should be available to allow the children to talk to each other and to learn from each other.

Of course none of this can work if we allow children to grow up hungry while they see other six year olds in other countries talking on their cell phones and pecking on their own computers. We have to even the playing field just a bit as part of this effort. We need to take the selfishness level down at least one notch and put some of that computer and cell phone money into charities to help hungry children.

This would have to be done on a global scale, which means the UN would have to be involved. Here's the hard part; every country would have to allow the UN to set educational standards to support the effort. I'm sure the first country to balk at that will be the United States, but it must be a global effort with global standards. UN money should be used to protect the welfare of the world's children and support education in poorer countries where necessary and the richer member nations should provide the extra funds.

Only when the children with this new view of the world grow up will we have a chance at world peace. When the leaders of the world grow up understanding instead of hating will we finally bury the weapons of mass destruction.

OK, I'm dreaming. This would be a huge undertaking, but it is a way forward if only someone would listen.