“War is terrible, it leads to death, damage and dismay. War is destructive. It devastates all life, land, and culture. It does not ever solve any conflicts, situations or problems. Even so, we, the people, choose to make war.” – Mattie Stepanek
With these simple words Mattie, a 13-year old poet and peace activist, captured the need to create a culture of peace. Born with fatal muscular dystrophy, Mattie’s wish came through in 2001 when he met on the set of Good Morning America his real-life hero, President Jimmy Carter – a moving story told in “Just Peace: A message of Hope.” Mattie is gone, we have his legacy and books (he was almost 14) but President Carter and other peacekeepers are tirelessly working on world peace.
The time for peace is now
There is little talk about peace in regular conversations. It seems an impossible dream for grown-ups, something only children may discuss. Why? Without peace, we don’t stand a chance to deal with the threats of abrupt climate change. There is no time to wait, the Earth Charter preamble makes it clear: “We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise.”
The benefits of peace
Most people do what they do for money. It turns out there is a lot of money to be made by investing in peace, and there is no money to be made going to war. The Cold War, the Arms Race, home bunkers, Mutual Assured Destruction and other ideas of the past based on fear are obsolete.
Today, terrorist threats are based on violence and hopelessness. Severe heat, drought, floods and homeland destruction caused by global warming will increase the threats of desperate violence and economic devastation. Our best hope to deal with human suffering is to learn to care with compassion, respect, and tolerance. Disaster preparedness and prevention are the best strategies.
The U.S. Federal Government last year spent more than a trillion dollars. Over half of this amount, $596 billion, was spent on wars, nuclear weapons, activities of the Department of Defense, international military assistance, and Pentagon expenses. Only six percent were spent on Medicare and Health Care, and six percent on Education. Is this the best way to spend our money?
Investing in peace
Some countries, like Costa Rica, do not have a standing Army. After a bloody civil war over disputed presidential elections, on December 1, 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer abolished the military and decided to invest in public health and education. In 2015 the Costa Rican education system was ranked highest in Latin America, and their health system is excellent. They have public security to remind everyone to behave.
A culture of peace
The University for Peace, an intergovernmental United Nations organization, has its main campus in Costa Rica. Its mission is “to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress.”
We need to promote not only peace, but a culture of peace, the result of many efforts involving everyone: inner peace, peace between people, peace between nations, and peace with Mother Earth.
What nature gives us is not resources or services we own, but nature’s gifts for all. Clean water, clean air, temperate weather, forests, wildlife, fertile soil, and healthy food, are finite and meant to be cared for, taking only what we need to survive so that all people have some. Public health is linked to a healthy ecology. We are taking the gifts of nature faster than nature can renew itself.
The daily choices we make determine our future. Our nation has great people of different cultures and backgrounds. Crisis, like fire, brings new ways of thinking, our best strategies to care for future generations.
Dr. Luis Contreras
A good friend asked about something I said: “there is no money to be made going to war.” I think it is true.
How much money did we make invading Iraq in 2003?
According to a Reuter’s 2013 study, “the war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest.”
Reuter’s math is way off, the total cost is much higher, some hard to quantify. The guilt of killing over 150,000 people and the terrible devastation based on lies, the hate and violence we created, the harm done to U.K. and other allies joining forces with the U.S., …
The 2003 – 2016(?) Iraq war may be an extreme case, but unlike Peace, I can’t think of a “Just War.”
From an environmental perspective, all wars are wars against Mother Earth, our common home. The carbon footprint, over 600 million metric tons of CO2e, the pollution, and the destruction are real.
Like Mattie would say, “nothing was solved, great harm was done, we are worse today than we were before.”