Peace and Abolishing "The Other"

Peace, it’s a word that has been redefined over the centuries to meet the needs of the cultures that seek it.  Peace through strength, peace through protest, peace through conquest, and peace through the struggle to compromise have each had multiple turns upon the world stage.

Inner peace has been sought through retreat, meditation, visualization, the quest for insight and service. All worthy pursuits that add to the totality of the human experience.

Peace in our time, however, depends on an inner journey that confronts the closely held beliefs, privilege and prejudices that permeate the human condition. Directly stated, peace depends upon the individual human potential to abolish the concept of "the other” from our daily lives.

Until the day comes, for each of us, that there is no individual beyond deserving respect, human dignity and a voice in their own destiny there will be no peace in our hearts, in our society or upon the face of Gaia herself.  Sounds like a simple process to achieve such a lofty goal doesn’t it?  Not really, for each of us there are those beyond being acceptable in our society.  What I am referring to is not simply the political, religious and socio economic divides that separate us but something deeper.  It is confronting the idea of “the other” in the most extreme ways. Coming to a place where the most heinous of criminals, terrorists, religious fanatics and bigots are seen as a part of the greater whole, fully human, deserving of human dignity and engagement in social discourse.

Peace dies a violent death when discourse is shoved asunder in favor of judgment.  Wide abscesses are created that fester and manifest hatred, isolationism, and entitlement.  Our human need to consistently classify, sort and establish boundaries in our application of compassion is a sickness that has infected the entire human race.

So today, I call on you my readers, to begin the inner journey to peace.  Learn to value all human life, even those lives that are dedicated to opposition to your way of life and personal ethics.  We can embrace and value the humanity of the individual without approving of their actions, thoughts, or ideas.

 Set the example; see those who oppose you as people with dreams, aspirations, families and hopes of their own. Focus on our commonalities rather than what separates us.

Join me in laying the bricks of compassion along the road to peace, one brick at a time.