December 8 was the 27th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. His legacy and his dream of imagining and "Think(ing) Peace, Act(ing) Peace, and Spread (ing)Peace. " is alive and well on line. Yoko Ono has created the imaginepeace.com website. "John worked for it all his life. He said, "there's no problem, only solutions, "she writes.
Yoko did design the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland, which was dedicated on John Lennon's birthday in October.
"Let's not waste the lives of those we have lost. Let's, together, make the world a place of love and joy and not a place of fear and anger. This day of John's passing has become more and more important for so many people around the world as the day to remember his message of Peace and Love and to do what each of us can to work on healing this planet we cherish," Yoko Ono Lennon posts.
In a world with war and continued gun violence, one wonders if we dare to imagine. Or is that dream left for imaginary world's?
4 comments:
As Ernest Hemingway said, "That old marlin cannot ever be caught, but I think you should fish for it into retirement anyway." You can't change human nature. Violence is in our DNA. It's how we survived. That said, we've made some strides in reaching world peace. Wars aren't as big as they used to be, and we're beginning to get a handle on our WMD problem. Appeasement never works against a determined enemy. Again I must quote The Fog of War: "To do good, one must be prepared to engage in evil." If we have some Hitler-like nut on our hands, we may have to go to war to stop him in order to have peace and happiness in the future. But hey, it's still worth it to keep trying for peace via negotiation.
If we want to strive for peace we need to believe in the true possibility of it, not submit to its illusiveness. We must believe in the goal of peaceful coexistence, and have real faith in the fact that diplomacy can be just as strong a tool as a gun. I believe that to do good by ones own perspective, one may feel justified by using evil, but to do true justice we must act using the same values that we demand from others. Evil does not bring peace, it only perpetuates further strife and division.
**************
Wasn't the final study guide supposed to be on the blog?
**************
Complete world peace is very much like that Hemingway quote (not that I'd usually go to someone suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome for a rational quote about war). But, to use a cheesy metaphor, fighting fire with fire doesn't actually put out the fire - it just makes sure that the other guy gets burned too. And, if we're going to talk about Hitler, remember that multiple incidents of bad diplomacy played a huge role in the start of WWII. I agree with Lauren that you need to believe that conflicts can be resolved peacefully. We can't be so cynical that we don't even consider letting the UN exercise more power, or being more creative in our interactions with other countries.
Also, the attitude that anything other than a machismo-rich attack = appeasement just adds to the problem. Besides, creating "peace" by dominating your opponent in war is only asking for a future war in which the opponent will try to strike back (e.g. WWI - WWII). And even if you could hold someone down forever, there's no way to create peace by scaring someone into submission: that's just oppression.
Plus it's not really peace if everyone is too scared to fight because of weapons their opponents might or might not have.
Also, by opening the door to discussion, we can let people feel like they can have control over their country's future without having to arm themselves to the teeth. It is in human nature to gravitate towards power, but that doesn't mean that violence always need result.
What Garrett said about smaller and fewer wars nowdays is so true. Sometimes we complain about what the world has come to and how corrupt, dirty, materialistic, and arrogant it is, however, when we actually think about the human history and how worse the condition of humanity has been, we all are heading in the right direction. Slowly we're heading toward peace, and I believe peace would come some day; however, it is a mistake to assume that peace would come automatically after a long period of time. Peace can be achieved universally when peace is achieved individually. Peace can be widely spread when we as individuals believe that the small changes we make through our behaviors are significant. A few students would actually reach a position of a high government official or an ambassador to directly bring significant influences to the world, however not everyone gets to do that. As citizens we rescue the world. As a family member we rescue the world. As a doctor, as a teacher, as a friend, and as anything we can possibly be, we rescue the world with peace in our mind and action.
Post a Comment