Peace

Unlike what most people think, peace doesn’t vegetate at MacDonald, Burger King, Wendy’s or Chic-fil-A. You won’t find it at a German diner, a French Cafe or at an Italian restaurant. Neither does it reside at your most favorite steakhouse, nor is its habitat found at your nearest bar.  Like a kernel as small as a mustard seed peace germinates in the hearts of men and women

As the year closes, I look back at 364 days that have been a challenge for all humanity living on planet earth.  Many people died.  Death became an acceptable disease in our societies.  We have become desensitized to the suffering going on in the world. We see children being bombed, maimed, dying of starvation, or some type of curable disease, and we’re thankful that it doesn’t happen in the western world.  We hear the cry for peace, the scream for reconciliation as the roar of machine guns, and the use of chemical weapons become more and more the mode of acceptance, and the guilty receives a slap on the hands for committing a naughty act, and we sit back and flip through the television channels.  Gone are the days when people would march on the streets protesting the violence that we see penetrating itself and spreading out on every continent. Our silence stamps our approval upon the acts being committed, and nothing changes.

We are becoming a hedonistic society that balances our inner mental health on whether or not we have the perfect body, the newest fashion, the largest house, the fanciest car, or the most money, and those things control our hearts. We show those countries living in poverty the values that are important to us, and these people yearn to have the same things. People born in poverty call it the good life.  We magnify this view through television, movies and the Internet, and they learn that a new Cadillac supersedes a sick child, a new Lexus wipes away the guilt of a nuclear catastrophe, the shine on a new Ferrari outweighs the use of Chemical weapons against helpless people and a brand spanking new Mercedes take precedent over laws that forbid selling uranium to nations that repressed and terrorize their citizens.

Have we not learned our lessons from the horrors that took place from 1933 to 1945?

Let us not kid ourselves.  Those same weapons, bombs, guns or whatever that we are producing or sanctioning by not lifting our voices against the policies that are being construed by our governments for the sake of diplomacy, regardless of which country we come from or live in, are the stamp of approval for the destruction of mankind.  We are accessories to the fact and are destroying the souls and bodies of our children.

I am not a pacifist. Believe me, I am not so naive as to think or believe that all mankind can be lovey dovey on this earth. That would be an impossible wish from me that borders on foolishness and stupidity.  However, it is never too late to communicate and relate honestly with integrity towards one another.  People who come together under such an alliance can shake the cruelest of nations.

Thus, as I stand at the doorway of time watching as the year 2014 creep patiently towards us, my New Year’s Resolution resonates in six words, Let there be peace on earth.

Happy New Year everyone!

Shalom,

Pat Garcia