PeaceWay Dedication Speech

Peace is healthy for children and other living things
by Lynn Oberfield, Head, Media-Providence Friends School
(Transcript of talk at PeaceWay dedication)

The statement, “Peace is healthy for children and other living things” seems crudely ironic given many of the situations across the world – Darfur, Baghdad, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland. It is certainly ironic in this part of the world after the events of last week, as well.*

Could any statement be more obvious? Isn’t it clear that peace is better for children? Isn’t it true that children who grow up in peace have a better chance of maintaining peace? Isn’t it clear that violence breeds violence in an ever painful cycle? If we plant a mango seed, we will get a mango tree? If we plan for war, we will get war.

Our military spending precludes money for health, education, housing – and peacemaking. These are primary needs of children. They are most hurt in times of war and suffer most when spending is misdirected. Most vulnerable, yet the most important investment.

And what would peace mean for children throughout the world? It would mean that they could attend to the things of childhood – exploring, learning, making sense of the world – developing their psychological, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual selves. And they could do it because they wouldn’t have fear. If there were a lasting peace, the milieu for children would change - there would be a chance for social justice, stability, development of civil law, and an opportunity for a deeper kind of teaching. Parents would experience hope for the future. They would transfer this hope to children. And there would be fertile ground for planting the seeds of peace. We would wish this for all children.

Of course, researchers notice that children who don’t live in peaceful situations suffer in many areas of development because of trauma and loss. They are less trusting, have a hard time concentrating and developing academic skills, and feel less purposeful in life. These deficits decrease the chance for reaching potential and therefore for accepting the potential of others. Children should live in peace.

For Quakers, the conviction that there is a divine light in each person means that there is capacity within each to come towards truth. We can’t kill someone with this divine capacity.
We are compelled to work for peace.

And right here, every day, what do we do? Our children, who will inherit the consequences of how we live our lives, need us to show that actions speak louder than words; that we accord them respect through limits and through listening; that we do not accept the popular culture of violence, nor the idea that a person is measured by material possessions; that we can solve conflicts amongst ourselves; that our talk is plain. Can you imagine their horror when they find out that “collateral damage” and “high value targets” really means human beings?

Peace takes work. We should tell them that it is not easy, lest they get discouraged… We don’t have the responsibility for peace across the world, neither can we give up working toward it. We should tell young people non-violence is not passivity, it is not wimpy. Peacemakers are courageous and determined.

Peacemakers can’t allow intolerance. That is hard work. When we are vigilant, we catch subtle and not so subtle manipulations of our ideas in the media or by politicians. We rant against racial, ethnic, religious, or gender prejudice. We don’t abide the portrayal of people as less than human, for doing that makes waging war easy. We strive for our children to know other people through travel and study, work camps and poetry. We study science to see that all humans are genetically 99.9% alike, and we proclaim our alikeness and rejoice in the 1% difference.

If our country believed that peace is healthy for children, we would demonstrate it by showing an unequivocal commitment to reason, trust, conflict resolution, and justice.** We would embrace light, not darkness.

* Last week a lone gunman killed five school children in a Lancaster county Amish school
** words taken from a statement by the Friends Council on Education Board of Directors in their preparation of a minute on peacebuilding, which was affirmed by the Heads of Friends Schools on October 6, 2006.