On September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the tragedy on September 11, 2001, all I can say is that it was strange not being in New York. However, being in Chicago during this time gave me a perspective I feel I could have only gotten from being away from it all. I was able to read amazing articles in Time Magazine's special edition and see some great documentaries through iTunes (free might I add). May we never forget those who we lost or those that were affected.
On Tuesday, September 6th, I was able to attend one of Dominican University’s Siena Center Program and Lecture Series entitled: “Peace is Possible. Peace is Practical.” In the light of the ten-year anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, this talk is still obviously relevant in our world. Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, whose credentials are too many to name, talked to us about her experience on September 11, 2001. She was on her way to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. to teach her off-campus Catholic University of America class on terrorism. Luckily, her car stalled and she did not make it to work that day when a plane flew into the Pentagon a few inches away from her classroom (amazingly all her students were not only spared any harm, but became heroes going back in to save others). Among other things, she argued that involving interfaith leaders and groups in the talk about peace could help save us in anti-terrorism efforts in a post-9/11 world. She also mentioned how women are often left out of peacemaking efforts, especially in the Catholic church, since there are few women (more now than in the past) in official leadership positions. This is something I had not thought of before.
On Tuesday, September 6th, I was able to attend one of Dominican University’s Siena Center Program and Lecture Series entitled: “Peace is Possible. Peace is Practical.” In the light of the ten-year anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, this talk is still obviously relevant in our world. Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, whose credentials are too many to name, talked to us about her experience on September 11, 2001. She was on her way to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. to teach her off-campus Catholic University of America class on terrorism. Luckily, her car stalled and she did not make it to work that day when a plane flew into the Pentagon a few inches away from her classroom (amazingly all her students were not only spared any harm, but became heroes going back in to save others). Among other things, she argued that involving interfaith leaders and groups in the talk about peace could help save us in anti-terrorism efforts in a post-9/11 world. She also mentioned how women are often left out of peacemaking efforts, especially in the Catholic church, since there are few women (more now than in the past) in official leadership positions. This is something I had not thought of before.
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| Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love http://www.universityparent.com/sites/default/files/event1_0.jpg |
Some points of the talk that I left with:
- In order to create peace, we MUST not kill civilians.
- A war against terror is very difficult, as this is not a battle with an enemy that is fighting on a battlefield.
- We must work with local religious leaders and groups.
- We must work with local peace grassroots operations.
- We must begin rebuilding the human infrastructure before rebuilding other infrastructures.
- Terrorism will always be around; we must learn to manage risk as opposed to try to eliminate it.
- We need a whole government approach – increasing communication and collaboration of different governmental agencies in peacemaking efforts.
- In rebuilding nations, it is wise to give the local community ownership of the efforts – for example, CRS (Catholic Relief Services) in Afghanistan asked the people what they want, when they said schools, CRS said, where should it be, who will donate the land, what resources do you have to help us start it, we will fill in the gaps. They don’t go in and rebuild, they help the community rebuild themselves.
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| So true http://www.glogster.com/media/2/5/79/88/5798855.gif |
The following anecdote that the speaker told is COMPLETELY
paraphrased, as I have little ability to memorize aspects of talks:
Her son, who is four, started playing games pretending him and his friends have “guns.” When they visited historic sites in Virginia (Williamsburg, and various war battlefields) the ranger in his spiel said how George Washington longed for the war to be ended, since they had fought for SO long; he couldn’t believe the war had lasted SIX years (here we are ten years into war and there is not yet a huge public outcry). Her son turns to her and says along the lines of “Mommy, sometimes us kids fight. When we fight, it’s over toys. When adults fight, it’s over the Earth. When we war, it makes George Washington sad. Actually it makes God sad. We need to stop war-ing, and start peace-ing.”
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| I wish this was the only "war" that was played... http://www.maxwaugh.com/images/youth/tug.jpg |
The speaker said, “How can we find a way to make peace a
verb?”
I say, let’s start “peace-ing!”
Next blog: International Day of Peace, September 21st and Peace One Day
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