International Peace Day and the White American Girl

I'm kind of at a loss...

I'm shaking my head so damn hard that I'm going to need a neck brace pretty soon.

Something has to change. Future generations are depending on us and I fear we are leaving them with severely inadequate tools and visions.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Today is the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 and formally adopted in 2001, it is day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. On this day, non-violence and cease fire are requested.

You may not have known about this, but here in 'Merica, we're a-celebratin'. No, we're not putting down our guns or setting aside our unfounded fears and hate for one another. Instead, in an unprecedented move to banish all the horrors of war, genocide and violence that is occurring daily all over the world, five of our national fast food joints have teamed up to created the Peace Day Burger, complete with hashtag #peacedayburger.

Don't worry that over 200,000 people (including children) have been killed (included point blank executions) in Syria. Of those, about 18,866 were by their own government in air attacks, which attacked public places and hospitals and involved chemical warfare like chlorine and mustard gas. (Yourish, Lai and Watkins. "How Syrians Are Dying." New York Times 14 Sept. 2015)

It's okay, Syria. We won't make any exception to our refugee policy to accommodate you and give you safety in our country. And we also probably won't stop air bombing in hopes of taking out ISIS, despite the civilian casualties (oops, that was supposed to be a secret.) To show our sympathies, however, here's a gigantic factory-processed burger. Enjoy and you're welcome. Love, 'Merica.

I honestly fear for the future of my children and this country.

 Even forgetting about the atrocities that are happening in other parts of the world, we ourselves have had a very violent and not-so-understanding past. Forget that we forced roughly 70,000 Native Americans from their homes and onto reservations, many of them dying in the process; Or that as many as 127,000 Japanese-Americans were also taken from their homes and forced to live in internment camps for years.

That was just within our own nation. Do I even have to mention the devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Child labor in third world countries just for a pair of expensive and therefore social setting shoes? And someone explain to me how the war on terror and oil prices are connected, because I'm not an idiot and a little bit of a conspiracy theory nut.

Even today, violence plays on our news every day. We have racism, sexism and segregation of every degree. We find reasons to hate each other and lash out, using our "beliefs" as excuses to be assholes. We are no longer one nation and indivisible. Instead we are individuals, hungry with our own ideals, all scrambling to sit at the top of the totem pole and not giving one flying fuck about who we climb over in the process.

And why? So we can be the greatest country in the world?

I don't know if you've watched any world news in the last ten years, but that sounds about as great as being the roundest the cowpie in the pasture.

It might sound like I hate my country. I don't. I think the United States is a powerful, influential and inspiring nation. I realize how fortunate I am to live here and how easy I've had it. And, in true American fashion, I believe we could always do more. I'm seeing it happen. I'm seeing people standing up for other people and using their voices to help instead of hurt. I'm seeing a movement in this country that makes me proud to be an American. We are realizing that we have a greater responsibility, not just as a nation, but as individuals and human beings. 

Slowly, as we climb the totem pole, we begin helping others up with us, forming a human stair case and climb together. It's a slow climb, but we're still climbing.

"I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one's own family or one's nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival, it is the foundation for world peace." ~ Dalai Lama

"Your job is not to judge. Your job is not to figure out if someone deserves something. Your job is to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to heal the hurting." ~ Joel Osteen

"If you're helping someone and expecting something in return, you're doing business, not kindness." ~ Unknown

 

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

So what do we do? How do we stop this cycle?

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” ~ Edward Everett Hale

DO something. Stop judging. Take responsibility. Show kindness. Help others, regardless of why or what or how or who. Don't preach to others about what they should or shouldn't be doing. Just do and let them watch. Teach your children love instead of hate and to think instead of react.

This is my plan. No, I probably won't change the world. But the little bit of light I intend to shine might be the day break that someone else needs. And that might be the sunlight that shines through the rest of the world.

That's really all that one can hope for, that they spread a little light along their journey and that they leave this place a little better. I've never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch, but I have seen churches overflowing with the people and their kind words of sympathy over someone that left radiance in the world.

International Peace Day. There will be no cease-fires. Violence will still occur. But let's just take a moment to stop and think about what impact we have when it comes to peace. And then tomorrow, let's think about it again. And the next day. And every day until it becomes habit and that habit is seen in our actions and heard in our words.

I might just be a simple white American girl, born and raised in the Midwest. I've never lived through the nightmares of war, I've never been hungry or cold or forced from my home. But I do care about others, and this is what International Peace Day means to me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a casserole to put in the oven...