Much of the world is currently focused on the Syrian military’s murder of its own people, seemingly intractable conflict in Egypt, Iranian nuclear threats, and daily suicide bombings in Pakistan. Indeed, as the USS Neimitz moved into position recently to prepare for American-led bombings in Damascas, people around the world braced for another possible war. Hopefully the Russian-proposed solution will now prevent such conflict.
But still we must ask: Is it possible in such a world, and at such a time, to utter the P word? Is it even thinkable to speak of peace in such a widespread climate of violence? Probably it does sound a bit naïve to most of us.
But peace is not a quick answer to conflict. It is not something one turns off or on. Peace does not simply happen. It is a process, a process of long-term investment in a better world. If we have learned anything from decades of war, murder, rape, pillage and religions hegemony, it is that preventing these outcomes—achieving peace instead—is the result of years of effort. Cultures must be able to meet and get to know one another. The rule of law must prevail. Religious leaders must help find common ground and shared traditions. Children must become educated so the black-and-white world of their parents is replaced with nuance and understanding. Women must gain greater equality. And the downtrodden must believe that they have a real opportunity to feed their children.
These things are the ingredients of peace. But each of them represents long-term investments to break down divisive barriers and to build commonality and hope among the peoples of the world.
How ironic then, that as the Syrian war is about to expand, the U.S. Congress is in a child-like battle that virtually freezes many components of the federal budget. How ironic that a Congress that authorized fiscal expenditures now threatens not to let the President pay its bills.
But the irony goes deeper. The one governmental program our nation has that fosters virtually all of the ingredients of development—of real peace—is the American Peace Corps. But today it sits on the Congressional chopping block waiting to be cut.
And also today, as for the past fifty years, American young and old are working in countries and villages around the world to help promote peace, seek understanding and to foster opportunities for those who often have none. Some 8,000 Peace Corps Volunteers are working in foreign lands investing in the long-term peace divided as you read these words. Why should such a small and unique program be the target of Congressional malfeasance?
The Peace Corps is far from perfect. It has become ossified in many ways and needs reform. Indeed, I, along with other country directors, was fired from Peace Corps some years ago for the worst of nasty bureaucratic reasons. But I do not urge throwing out the baby with the bath water. Reinvention and rejuvenation requires more support, not less.
If Congress has an ounce of concern left for the sorry state of the world, if its Members have any idea about the components of peace, and how much long-term investment it takes to promote a more peaceful world, it will provide more support, not less, for this one small program to promote peace in the world.
