"Peace and War - and Peace Poles," column by Dan O'Rourke

| Submitted by admin on October 12, 2008 - 10:07pm.

CPJ member Dan O'Rourke writes a regular column for the Dunkirk Observer.  The following, "Peace and War - and Peace Poles," was published on October 9. 2008

A few weeks ago I participated in a peace walk and rededication of the peace pole on campus of the local university. A peace pole is a handcrafted monument carrying the multi-language message and prayer: “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”  There are more than 200,000 Peace Poles on every continent in different countries around the world.  They link the human family with one another and are reminders to work and pray for peace.

Peace poles can be found in town squares, parks or places of worship. There is, however,  no more fitting place to erect one, than at a university which fosters studies bridging the human family.  The university teaches foreign languages, history, philosophy, political science and psychology. Wherever the location, however, the pole makes it a holy place dedicated to peace.

Peace poles have been planted at the Pyramids in Egypt, at the Magnetic North Pole in Canada, in places of conflict like Sarajevo and the Allenby Bridge between Israel and Jordan.  President Jimmy Carter and Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa have dedicated them, but so have many ordinary people interested in world peace.

Let’s think about the peace to which the poles point -- and conversely to the wars they seek to prevent.  I write here about war not wars. I want us to reflect about peace and war itself and what down through history some insightful men and women have believed.

Let’s start with Jesus. When he said to Peter, “Put your sword back into his place: for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52), he was also speaking to the nations.  George Bernard Shaw agreed.  He warned that, “Nations are like bees; they cannot kill except at the cost of their own lives.”

Moreover, the wonderfully versatile author Wendell Berry, has observed, “Wars never end, really.  “The Crusades aren’t quiet over yet.  Our Civil War certainly isn’t over.” Berry is right, of course, wars continue long after the surrender documents are signed and the ceasefire enforced.  The two wars he cites are powerful examples for in subtle ways they still continue.

Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, the first woman elected to the US Congress wrote, “"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."  Many will disagree, but a careful reading of pre and post war histories will tell us that she was on to something perceptive and astute.  As was Thomas Mann, the German novelist and Nobel Prize recipient when he wrote, "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."  Or listen to Mahatma Gandhi, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
Consider too the words of President John Kennedy who with realistic insight told us, “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”  Kennedy said that almost fifty years ago but that day sadly is still distant.  Kennedy’s wry insight echoes the words of the war historian Paul Fussel, who has written vigorously against the popular romanticizing of war.  Dr. Fussel believed, “If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.”

This is not to denigrate the contribution of our military men and women, but as the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick said in the exclusive language of his day, “The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst.”  Listen too to Rev. Martin Luther King. "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." Hasn’t history given us many depressing examples of that?

Lao Tzu, a philosopher of ancient China probably wrote this in the 4th Century BCE, but like all great truths its wisdom is eternal.
  
“If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.”
If you don’t cotton to the insights of clergy or politicians, then listen to the words of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. His insights are as true today as when he uttered them – and if our world can survive, they will still be true in ten thousand years.  “I know war as few other men know it, and nothing to me is more revolting, because I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friends and foe has rendered it useless as a means to settle international disputes.”
Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel, would agree. “A man who does not hate war is not fully human.”
Finally President – and General – Dwight Eisenhower, “I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments.  Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
That’s the wisdom of the ages on war and peace, from Lao Tzu to Eisenhower, from Gandhi and Fosdick to Martin Luther King and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  But what do these insights from spiritual masters, clergy, politicians and Generals say to you and me?  They call us back to the message on the peace pole:  “May peace prevail on earth.” 
It is that for which we should be praying and working.
Daniel O'Rourke is a married Catholic priest. Retired from the administration at SUNY Fredonia, he lives in Cassadaga, NY.  His column appears in the Observer in Dunkirk, NY on the second and fourth Thursday each month. He has published "The Spirit at Your Back," a book of previous columns. You may purchased it or send comments to orourke@netsync.net.