Although my friends used to gather together after school to cry and pray for me, because of my supposed lack of religious beliefs, I never felt any absence of spirituality or religion. I felt absolutely comfortable in my beliefs, or lack thereof, and felt a deep spiritual commitment from an early age. My favorite UU principle was the interdependent web of humanity of which we are all a part—and being able to feel this connected-ness from an early age, helped spawn a growing urgency for social justice.

Today’s service is about “peace”. About this vague concept that most of us believe in but none of us can quite envision. Most of the world probably deep down wishes for peace, but none of us can fully clarify what that means. For me, the quest for peace started early on. It started with the prayer that I said every night before going to bed: for the health, safety and happiness of every person in the universe.

I attended Antioch College for my undergraduate education. Antioch is the “bootcamp for the revolution”—a school, which, my parents told me, was the place to go to rebel against your parents. But they were proud of my decision to go there. It was at Antioch, during a course on learning how to Interview, that I found my passion for peace. As the United States grew closer to declaring war against Iraq, my professor suggested that the time for dissent was NOW. As a class, we determined that all of our work would be dedicated to the anti-war movement. I took on this task with all of my energy and love. I organized protests, candle-light vigils, teach-ins, forums, anti-war plays, peace resolutions and workshops. I felt fulfilled.

The idea of violence has long been one that leaves me feeling sick to my stomach. It’s not so much the violence itself that bothers me; it’s the thrill that seems to exist within those involved with the violence. Growing up, there were often “fights” on the playground at school. It wasn’t so bad that 2 kids had a disagreement and were resolving it by throwing punches at each other, it was the fact that a crowd of 50 people would gather around the fighters – in a sense, enjoying the thrill they got from seeing violence.

I don’t assume that all people are like this, or that all types of violence can be compared to a playground fight in middle school, but the idea that our culture somehow encourages such an intrigue with violence, puzzles and scares me.

After graduating from college, I bounced around at several jobs that I enjoyed. But I felt as though something were missing in my life. My friends and family asked what I wanted to “do” with my life; what kind of work I wanted to do. I kept giving a vague response: I want to work for peace. But even though I knew deep in my heart that this was what I needed, I just could not figure out what that MEANT. You can’t make money being anti-war. How can I do this and make a living in the world?

Finally, one of my college professors emailed me and suggested that I check out a program that offered a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. I’ll admit, that even then, I was skeptical. We are so often taught that there are right and wrong ways of doing things; there are good and bad jobs; there are practical life goals and crazy goals;

Who gets a masters in Peace studies? What would we learn? What would I do with that???

I applied.

On September 24^th, 2005, absolutely terrified, and extremely excited, I boarded a plane for Vienna, Austria. I left my boyfriend, my family and my job and knew that I was making absolutely the right decision.

I tear up when I think about that day. My search for my passion and my truth has always been a deeply emotional and spiritual journey. The hardest part for me, was learning that I could move my passion from purely spiritual to practical and strategic. It has been extremely difficult to share that passion with skeptics, and to still feel confident in my decisions. Antioch college’s motto is, “be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity” and I have taken that to heart.

At the European University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies in the beautiful, tiny town of Stadtschlaining, Austria, in the shadow of our magnificent castle, I studied with 45 amazing individuals from around the world. I met brilliant people from Sudan, Palestine, Israel, Uganda, Cambodia, Ethiopia and elsewhere. I met real live peaceworkers in an overwhelming variety of different careers. And I felt for once in my life, that I was not crazy; that I was with people who held my same passion as deeply as I did.

Why is it that we can spend trillions of dollars teaching brave high school graduates how to fight well in military academies around the world, but when we speak about conducting similar trainings in conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, nonviolent communication, conflict mapping or any other peace-related strategies, we all start to get a little nervous?

During my education in Austria, I was amazed at the many nuances of peace-work. The many ways of working the concept of peace into our every-day lives. I learned that the concepts of peace work are extremely simple, but that implementing these concepts takes constant work. I was often amazed that however simple these ideals might be, the methods and strategies for reaching these ideals are not taught in United States culture, and are therefore a bit counter-intuitive at first. Here are a few of these lessons.

Lesson # 1: Peace is the absence of (cultural, structural and direct) violence—or is it?

Peace is not just the absence of war, so Peaceworkers do not just deal with stopping war.

Peace is about ending violence and helping people reach their basic needs.

Unfortunately, violence is complicated. It happens in three different ways: direct, cultural and structural. The most obvious is direct violence. This is easy to see, to report in the media, and to understand. War is a good example of direct violence. In the 20^th century, around 185 million people have died in wars, genocides and humanitarian catastrophes.

The other two types of violence are more difficult to conceptualize. Structural violence in its most basic form is when there is a lack of equality. It is when this inequality is built into the economic and political structure. We are taught from a young age what our basic needs are: food, water, shelter, clothing. For many, many people in the world, these basic needs do NOT get met on a regular basis. For some, the lack of basic needs, is done in a systematic and structural way.

To give you a sense for the enormity of structural violence: as we said before, in a century, 185 million people have died from direct violence.

In just one year, 20 million die from a lack of water, health, shelter, food and medicine. While WAR is clearly a devastating problem, it often starts from and results in, even worse structural violence.

The last form of violence is cultural. Cultural violence often legitimizes structural violence. It says that the systems and structures that are oppressing some, are ok—are legitimate.

However, “Peace” is really not just about stopping violence. “Peace” is the ability to respond to conflict with creativity, empathy and nonviolence. Peaceworkers often talk about “negative Peace” which is simply the absence of violence. And while, negative peace, one example might be a ceasefire --might be better than nothing it is not all that we can do.

When we talk about building Peace—we are talking about POSITIVE peace or the presence of that which we want to see in the world. The PRESENCE of equality, cooperation… a peace that is lasting and sustainable.

As Kai Jacobsen, a Romanian peaceworker explains, we are not “talking about ‘peace’ as the absence of direct violence, but also as the transcending and transformation of the much deeper violence built into our social, economic and political structures, and the cultures which reinforce and make these seem normal and acceptable”.

Lesson #2: Conflict does NOT equal Violence

One of the most basic lessons of peace and conflict work is that “conflict” does not equal violence. Conflict is simply a difference in opinion; a disagreement or a contradiction of understanding. In the peace world, we refer to conflict as “incompatable goals”. All human development has included conflict. It’s normal! But it is important to use conflict in a positive way, rather than resorting to violence.

In most newspapers, you will read an article that says something about ending the conflict in Sudan, or Iraq, or Afghanistan. In most cases, what they are trying to end, is the violence. Violence is an answer to a conflict—an inherent response that most people have an understanding of and access to. It’s easy to resort to violence.

In reality violence is a failure to find a more constructive solution. As peaceworkers, we must find alternatives to the violence; other options to transform the conflict.

We often hear the terms “conflict resolution” but in fact, oftentimes what happens, is that we are able to take those incompatable goals, and find a completely new alternative. One that reaches all parties needs. In this way, we actually transform the conflict itself instead of simply resolving it. Conflict invites us to get creative. Johan Galtung, arguably the father of peace studies, often says that in order to be a peaceworker, you must become a walking library of ideas. One must cultivate creativity.

By separating the conflict from the means in which the participants try to solve their conflict (ie. violence), we already begin to open doors to a different understanding of the solution or transformation of the conflict.

Lesson #3: Conflict is not Simple

So, conflict is not the same as violence, but conflict itself is complicated. It often involves multiple parties (although many people wrongly assume that we can consolidate a conflict into us versus them—2 parties).

Conflict can be broken down into several different phases and characteristics. This helps us examine what the real story is. It helps clarify WHY we are having a conflict, and to determine how to best transform the conflict.

Conflicts always have 3 characteristics. The attitude or opinions of those involved; the behavior or actions that those parties are taking; and the contradiction between those. …(even peace-workers have diagrams and charts). We break conflicts into these three phases which we call the “conflict triangle”. 

I have to admit that the first time I read a peace text books and saw these complicated charts and maps, I got a bit worried that maybe I had gotten into the wrong field…

But understanding the 3 phases of conflict, helps focus on each aspect of the conflict itself. WHERE the incompatability is and HOW it can be solved. Often a conflict seems so complex that it’s easy to resort to violence to battle out who “wins”. But by examining all of the aspects of a conflict, we can often help transform the differences.

Just as conflict can be broken down, the violence that it so often creates can be examined at three different levels: before, during, and after. The media most often focuses on the DURING. We hear about bloody car-bombings and suicide attacks.

But what is interesting about examining all aspects of the conflict, is that often the outcome of the conflict can be much different depending on WHEN we begin peace-work. For instance, one method for determining the likelihood of an outbreak of war is by measuring the “Relative Deprivation Gap” in an area. This measures what people want vs. what they think is attainable. If individuals in a town feel as though their dreams or needs will never be achieved, it is likely that there will be a growing sense of discontent—usually resulting in violence. Early warning systems such as this can help transform a possibly violent conflict and create new alternatives.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove to people that because you stepped in and helped manage the discontent in an area that you stopped a war from happening. There isn’t a lot of money in stopping violence before it starts… Peace is not just something that we need when we have war. What peace really means is training individuals in the methods and tools that they need to deal with CONFLICT.

Lesson #4: Building a Culture of Peace

Creating peace is hard work, but this does not invite us to become frustrated, overwhelmed and disempowered with the situation. More, it is a call for a new path. Peace workers have been asking ourselves what IS our vision for the future? What would we like the future to look like? And how will we get there? What structures, peace practices, and experiences, can we create? What type of world do we want to live in? and how do we get there?

If we feel that we do not have other solutions, we will resort to violence. This is why we need to teach our citizens these other tools. As Johan Galtung has said, if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you will use your hammer to fix every household problem. But if suddenly you are given a screwdriver, a whole new world of possible solutions opens. We HAVE these tools. But we don’t learn about them.

In a course during my graduate studies, one professor explained to us, that our current “war” discourse goes, “who is the evil doer? How can he/she be stopped?”. As we transform to a new culture of peace, our discourse will change to, “What are the problems? How can they be resolved?”.

To inspire you, I’d like to share some specific examples of peace work in our country and others.

Departments and Ministries of Peace

In countries across the world, citizens are beginning to understand the need for a voice for peace at a political level. The Global Alliance works to support initiatives to establish Departments or Ministries of peace in countries around the world. In the United States, the Peace Alliance and grassroots organizations in all 50-states, work to establish a Cabinet level Department of Peace in the U.S. This department will augment our current problem-solving options, providing practical, nonviolent solutions to the problems of domestic and international conflict. This month’s change for the world goes to supporting Colorado’s efforts to establish a Department of Peace.

Japans Peace Boat

The world Peace Boat, started by Japan nearly 25 years ago, has taken over 30,000 passengers to more than 100 ports in over 80 countries, with the goal of Building a Culture of Peace, by working to promote human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment. Peace Boat offers educational programs during a three-month around the world voyage. On board, passengers are given a lecture series, cross-cultural dialogues, interactive peace-building workshops and humanitarian aid projects. Peace Boat passengers have visited tsunami-stricken villages and helped with community reconstruction; initiated a fair-trade project to improve infrastructure in a refugee camp, and joined in Friendship festival. Peace Boat was founded by Japanese students who wanted to meet directly with people in the Asia-Pacific who had suffered during Japan’s past military aggression in order to build reconciliation and peace for the future.

Africa’s Ubuntu

Ubuntu can be translated as “I am who I am, because of you” or “I am human because I belong, I participate, and I share”. The concept of Ubuntu is that every person is connected to each other—whether they are victims or perpetrators. This means that every individual in a society is connected to every one around them. Thus, when a conflict evolves, every individual in the community is bound together and thus has a role to play in resolving the problem.

Somalia’s Shir

In Somalia, when a conflict arises, a council of Elders, called a “shir” gather to mediate the conflict. Elders are not necessarily authority figures, but more a delegate from different clans. Decisions are made by consensus and then approved by a “sultan” who is supposedly able to see “beyond the fight”. These mediations are not hidden but rather open to public opinion and negotiation. The clan culture is based on interdependence and inclusivity.

Hawaii’s Ho’oponopono

Ho’ oponopono means to set things right. Ho’ oponopono is a form of personal or family therapy in Hawaii.

It has been described as a practice whereby family members meet to try to "make right" broken family relations. Most ho’oponopono sessions include prayer, discussion, confession, mutual restitution, and forgiveness. Stories of this ancient practice have mentioned elders or “Kupuna” gathering the family for reconciliation and confessions.

An individual form of ho’ oponopono was developed in the 1980’s by Morrnah Simeona that can be practiced alone.

Conclusion

Peace is work. As we’ve seen, just ending the war, or any war, will not bring peace. We need to entirely transform our culture. We need to cultivate the skills, tools, knowledge, resources and institutions that will help us to transform conflicts.

We must add these textbooks to our school curriculums. We must change our history classes so that they teach our peace history as well as our war history. We must honor our peaceworkers as well as our troops. We must help our children learn about alternatives to violence. We must weave peace into our culture.

No matter what your position in life is, no matter what your career is, you are able to contribute to a new Culture of Peace. Develop YOUR view of a positive future and work towards it.