Just in case you have just started your Blogrolling for the evening, today is a warm fuzzy day on the internet. Mimi has spearheaded a campaign to circulate this graphic and thoughts of peace to blogs all over the globe. I just checked in with her blog and from the looks of things, this has been a very successful effort. Congratulations on a job well done!So, now its my turn to pontificate on peace. First a little bit of biographical information about me. I am a seeker of peace. I am an Orthodox Jew. I am an American. I am an educated woman. I have three children. I live in an urban area and I don't have a car. I have my groceries delivered and I send the kids on the bus to school. I seldom leave my house. I don't bother anyone. I like my peace and quiet. Don't I deserve a little peace and quiet?
Somewhere in the world, there is a guy sitting in his house who hates my guts. He may not know me personally, but he knows I'm out there. My very existence is an insult to him and his very way of life. I have no worth, my children are just as bad. I am an infidel. He can't rest, he can't get on with his life. As long as I exist, he can know no peace. Doesn't he deserve a little peace?
Me and this guy will never meet over a cup of joe at the local bagel place to hash out our differences. Neither one of us is interested in understanding the other. He hates me and I hate him because he hates me. What is my obligation as a seeker of peace?
He seeks peace and he can only find it by destroying me. I seek peace, but I put self preservation ahead of that. I can only find peace through the destruction of he who wishes to destroy me. World peace is impossible while both of us exist. Its either him or me.
In the middle east, two peoples lay claim to the same piece of land. Jews and Arabs die daily while seeking a little peace on what they feel is their rightful homeland. The Jews offer the Palestinians portions of the Jewish Holy land. Jews expelled Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip to provide the Palestinians with a place to begin the formation of their own state. The Jews did this with the hope that finally they could live in peace on their land. Don't they deserve a little peace?
The Palestinians do not want to share the land. They have used the Gaza strip to smuggle in stockpiles of weapons to use on the Jews. They want the entire land of Israel as their Palestinian homeland. This is not political rhetoric, this is clearly stated in the Hamas charter. The Jews must be wiped from the land in order for the Palestinians to find any peace. Don't they deserve a little peace?
A great many Blogs have mentioned John Lennon today. John Lennon who told us to all stop what we were doing and just "Give Peace a Chance." How is this possible? He told us to just imagine. Imagine a world without the religions that give multitudes strength and direction in their lives. Imagine a world with no borders where people of widely different cultures could mingle and try to make a go of it. Imagine a world without the government who provides us with education, food stamps and law enforcement. One needs to only look at how long it takes the looting to start during a blackout to "Imagine" how this solution would work out. I may say that John Lennon was a dreamer, and unfortunately he is far from the only one.
So what's the point of my rant. Peace cannot just be obtained through imagination. Sometimes and I'm afraid most of the time peace can only be obtained through a period without peace. We cannot feel peace while our very survival is threatened by another. Being a seeker of peace does not obligate us to sit in our houses and chant while our enemies are coming to kill us. Being a seeker of peace means standing up and destroying those who can know no peace until we are destroyed.
The Jews will never be at peace in their homeland while they seek to make peace with those that want to push them into the sea.
I fear this world will never know peace until the arrival of the Jewish Messiah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said in prophecy that the time of our Redemption has arrived. The Lubavitcher Rebbe encourages us all to hasten the arrival of the redemption by doing acts of goodness and kindness.
If all that isn't enough - Britney and Kevin are calling it quits. Time to declare Marshall law.
16 comments:
Another wonderful globe posted for unity's sake. Woohoo! Wishing you and your loved ones peace and joy that never ends! c",)
lol@Britney but in a peaceful way...
You right but you are wrong. Peace begins with each individual taking the risk that makes for peace. Ye4s there is danger in that. If you forgive the man who hates you it is likely he will keep hating you and someday even kill you. But by your act there is less hate in the world and the world is a little better place. There i s no peace without risk. Kill until they stop killing never brings peacer only more killing.
I submit my contribution to peace day!
A. John Lennon was an idiot.
B. The only good arab is a dead one.
C. Death to arabs and their liberal supporters.
D. Democrats are moronic, socialist, communist pigs.
E. Illegal aliens should be shot.
Peace feels good! :] ROFL!!!
PS: I think I heard on Zoey 101 (Brit's sisters show) a subliminal messaging that kept repeating, "My sister's husband is a jackass." LOL
Eh.
Peace is overrated anyway. ;)
Steve~
Britney, Britney, Britney... what the hell were you thinking when you said I Do?
I don't think peace will ever exist, unfortunately. The human species is programmed to be suspicious of each other. It's biological. You can't legislate something that is programmed into our genes. What we have to do is accept that fact and learn to live with it somehow, sad as that is.
I live in a city that has become "multicultural". All that means is that there are pockets of various peoples, and they don't mix with each other. There is no unity. There are only more and more obvious divisions. And I have learned that in my own country I realize that there are people who hate me and have derogatory names for me and for my race and my culture. I have never experienced that before, and it is truly frightening. And it is never going to go away, sadly.
Like Ireland, it's a tough problem, maybe impossible to solve. I do think that specific land is about as important as private possessions -- secondary to our individual lives, which are truly sacred. We are all mortals, and the Earth will be gone some day. And then what?
Wow. I was extremely drawn to every word of your post. Thank you for writing about your views as they are not something I get to hear about often being raised Catholic. I however, want to wish you and your family peace and contentment.
We'll all get over the Britney thing, it'll just take time ;-)
World Peace, that would be so wonderful. But I don't believe I'll ever see such a thing. There has been war since the dawn of time and that is not likely to change, But one can dream.
I too am a mother, wife, employee, right wing fanatic and I have to say the only peace I get is when my husband gets frisky!
JB
I wish the world was a peaceful place no fighting and falling out but I would have to wish pretty hard for that.
The odds of there ever being peace, so long as a single muslim is alive, is about as good as The Daily Mail printing an accurate article this week. :] It just isn't going to happen.
I dated Marshall Law for a bit. He's sexy and all, but we couldn't work it out.
I just found this Peace Globe today! This is awesome! How did I miss it? I will put it in the gallery this weekend and add you to my blogroll. Thanks and have a great day!
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