Thursday, February 7, 2013

Beyond Guns or Government


Peace must be learned. If we want peace, we can't get it by outlawing violence. And neither is it peace, real, genuine peace, if we are merely protecting ourselves by threatening violence against others. We must imagine a world beyond this, envision it, and begin to move our reality past these old paradigms of fear.

Bob Koehler expresses this idea so well. He is one of the few I know that is willing to explore real-world ways of moving past relying on either guns or government to resolve violent conflicts. His latest post, on his website Common Wonders, is a wonderful case in point.  He contrasts the predictable response to a recent tragic shooting in Chicago against a non-violent conflict resolution program being used in a Chicago school. He tells the story of how this program was used to defuse a situation that could have turned horribly wrong, and instead led to a most amazingly positive result.

Please read Bob's full essay:
http://commonwonders.com/peace/lasting-peace/

And the original story by Robert Spicer, who was the leader of the program in the school:
http://ibarji.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-hand-shake-a-hug-and-basketball-our-journey-using-restorative

Some people have realized that if we want peace, we need to put a high priority on teaching children about peace. What a concept.



1 comment:

  1. I see gun violence as a barometer for measuring the morality, and mutual respect level of the Country. Address those issues, and gun violence will decrease. A good guy with a gun is the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, but the better solution is to raise more children to become good guys than we are right now. Guns are not the issue. Bad guys with guns are the issue.

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