Peace

There is little doubt that anyone who bothers to read these submissions will have had some peace from this blog over the last few months! However, as it is International Peace Day, it is a perfect time for me to speak up again. The key to peace is education because  it is only through education that we can hope to avoid the ignorance and fear that have been at the heart of so many conflicts throughout history. It may well be idealistic to assume that we are all motivated by the notion of learning about each other or respecting each other, but that very idealism is key to the success of any peace movement. Until we can respect and maybe even celebrate our differences, we will not achieve peace, but, more important, until we see every individual as a person who has dignity, self-respect and feelings, we will fail in our quest to avoid war as anything other than the very last of the options we have to solve problems. Just as violence never produces a satisfactory outcome, war represents failure of the worst sort, so why wouldn't we want to pursue peace and celebrate it where an when we have it?