We have been worried for several years about the effects of the civil war in Nepal, where we have done business since 1993. (Click on "Our Parent Company: A World of Good, Inc." for more on that story.) We have taken some comfort in the fact that none of our friends or associates in Nepal has been physically hurt or killed during that conflict. Still, the impact on the economy and on the daily lives of people in that very poor country has been disturbing to watch.
We are also concerned when we hear the news, day after day, about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the unending bitterness between Israel and its neighbors, and attempted genocides in several parts of Africa. What may have been most crucial in bringing this idea to life, was the 2004 Presidential campaign here in the United States. The campaign presented a daily barrage of statements about the necessity of war or the lack of any alternatives to war. We and many of our friends and family found those statements overwhelming, depressing, and often untrue. For us, the sense of depression comes from two things: First, we meet far too many people who have accepted the idea that violence is the best solution to many conflicts. Second, we often feel like there's nothing we can do to change an entire culture of people who think that peace is only the goal of cowards or dreamers.
But there are things we can do! When you take a step back from all the conflict, it's easy to see that peace is the ultimate goal of every sane person on the planet. Every major religion emphasizes the need for both inner peace and peace with one's neighbors. Every war has always been tempered with truces and attempts at peace. So, the main thing that needs to change, in our opinion, is the misconception that peace is something for other people to work on. We don't need to leave it up to politicians, or diplomats, or clergy, or soldiers to define the terms of peace. There are things that all of us can do to change the culture of armed conflict to a culture of peace.
It starts with education. We believe peace is a way of life and not just an end that justifies non-peaceful means. We believe it is a moral imperative. We believe that it requires effort and sacrifice--especially one's own sacrifice, not sacrificing someone else in a far away land. We believe it cannot be achieved through silence, any more than it can be achieved through violence. Ultimately, we believe that it requires understanding. Without understanding, there is no sense of common ground, no shared notion of justice, no trust, and no real peace.
So, on January 1, 2005, we are proud to be launching A World of Peace.com as our effort to reduce misunderstandings about peace. We hope to help thousands of people make a clear statement to the world that they support peace and to get many more people talking about their shared goals and values related to peace. The more we get people talking about creative ways to achieve peace, the less likely we are to be ruled by our more primitive impulses to fight every time we feel threatened.
And we look forward to hearing from you. We welcome your input about peace organizations, peace projects, and any peace work that you do. We can make that information available on our "Links to Peace Organizations" page.
Peace to All!
Wayne Hall & Jennifer Gerard
aworldofpeace.com
A World of Good, Inc.
(a wholesale-only site)