The Peace Report, Issue #11

By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.

Welcome to The Peace Report, an occasional set of reflections on world and national affairs in these times of change and challenge, as seen through a peace lens.

Peace Gratitudes

With the Thanksgiving season upon us, despite the increasingly gloomy headlines, I’d like to simply explore what pieces of peace I am grateful for in these days rather than follow the usual format of these Peace Reports.

First, I find myself particularly grateful that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is on the planet as a shining light and role model for peace. Bearing the burden of the profound suffering of the Tibetan people, land, and culture since the brutal Chinese invasion over 50 years ago, His Holiness nevertheless has consistently refused to respond to Chinese aggression with violence, hatred, or anger. Indeed, he continues to hold his hand out in friendship, even as he cares for his endangered people as best he can. 

The Dalai Lama travels the world teaching compassion, non-violence, and religious tolerance. He embodies and exudes compassion, humor, and loving kindness while carrying the enormous responsibilities of his spiritual and political duties as well as global prominence – all in an environment in which it would be so easy to succumb to bitterness and despair.

In these days when our own leaders are all too ready to beat the war drums against any and all enemies, real or imagined, we are blessed indeed to have the Dalai Lama as a shining example of what true courageous, nonviolent, principled, and compassionate peace leadership can look like. He may or may not succeed in softening the hardened hearts of the Chinese government in his lifetime, but he has succeeded beyond measure in giving us a living testament to our potential as enlightened emissaries of peace. For this I am profoundly grateful. (www.dalailama.com)

Second, I am grateful for the thousands of men and women who have sought peace in Israel and Palestine – some at official levels but many in various sectors of civil society. This festering wound has caused uncounted suffering and generated deep animosity, not only with Israelis and Palestinians directly, but throughout the world.  Hostilities between Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been at play for centuries, and the ground on which this is still being acted out is saturated with blood and devastation.

Yet countless peacebuilders, from the region and from all over the world, have refused to give up hope. Every day they carry on, convening dialogues, exploring new directions, and seeking policy changes. They build bridges of understanding, craft new educational materials, offer interfaith prayer services, demonstrate for justice, work for human rights, explore joint opportunities for mutual gain, and practice multiple forms of nonviolent conflict resolution.

Some of these people are names in our headlines, but most are nameless and faceless to many of us. I think, for instance, of Gershon Baskin, an Israeli Jew living in Jerusalem, who co-founded and co-directs IPRCI (Israeli-Palestinian Center for Research and Information), a joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think tank, which has probably done more behind the scenes to bring people together for creative thinking on this conflict than anyone I know. Gershon has always worked with a Palestinian co-director, modeling and embodying the kind of partnership that a true peace process demands. (www.ipcri.org)

I think too of Zoughbi Zoughbi, a Palestinian from Bethlehem, who has lived through the years of Israeli occupation with an abiding commitment to nonviolence and conflict resolution. At his Wi’am Center he blends his knowledge and skill of western peacemaking practices with traditional Sulha methods to help bring peace within his own community, while fostering various projects of citizen diplomacy, human rights, and democracy and supporting civil society and the needs of the people. (www.alaslah.org)

Both Zougbhi and Gershon are courageous, effective, and tireless in their commitment to peace. In the face of personal hardship, through countless cycles of violence and despair, when I often think it can’t get any worse there and still it does, Zoughbi and Gershon, and their organizations, just keep on going. The ‘energizer bunny’ can take a lesson from their dedication. Because I believe that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical to the well-being of the entire world, I am especially grateful to these two men, and to the thousands like them whose names we will never know, for devoting their lives to Middle East peace in the midst of this seemingly endless violence.

Third, I am grateful for the exponential growth of the peace community. The proliferation of peace-related organizations, degree programs, initiatives, blogs, and conferences is testimony that people in all sectors of society are choosing to put their energy into the way of peace. 

For a long time, working for peace in the eyes of many meant primarily one thing: protests against war, weapons, and human rights abuses. Although activism is and continues to be important in the overall picture, there is now a noticeable rise in what we can call the pro-peace movement – those seeking a better world by building new institutions, bringing peace principles into the mainstream of society, and actively practicing peacemaking skills.

Long a believer in a systems approach to peace, I find myself feeling great appreciation in these times for the artists, the scientists, the educators, the researchers, the practitioners, the journalists, the mediators, the meditators, the grass-roots leadership, the the religious leadership, the business leadership, the writers, the diplomats, and all others, from whatever walk of life, who have joined their flow to the rushing waters of peace, for it is from this growing current that we will see the transformative changes we yearn for, to turn our world to the ways of peace.

Fourth, I am grateful to those who fund the efforts of those who work for peace. Foundations large and small, individuals, and organizations dip into their pockets for $10 here, $100,000 there, to insure that this mighty stream of peace flourishes. That said, I know of few if any peace-related organizations that have enough funds to operate successfully. With an estimated $1+ trillion for the current war on terrorism, every dollar for peace is an act of courage and commitment, and I am grateful to each person who chooses this path of generosity.

Finally, I am grateful to be teaching again. I’ve learned so much in my years as a global peacebuilder, business leader, author, and educator. As we face the challenges of global warming and global warring (thanks to Dennis Kucinich for that language pairing), with the specter of 2012 and its many related prophecies before us, I feel fortunate to have much to share for those who would lead us through these times. How to Change the World, the master class in social change I am offering, is a small contribution I can make to the big shift – in consciousness and in practice – that we are seeing now on the planet. I feel blessed to be able to share in this way. [Click here for more information]


My friends, I am grateful for each and every one of you reading this. All that you are and all that you do for peace is welcome, is needed, is a gift to the rest of us. Thank you; thank you.

Peace galore,
Louise

In this Issue:

  Peace Gratitudes

   Archived Issues