Of late, I have been doing a great deal
of work on the importance of civil society in peacebuilding. One
reality that came across my mind is that civil society has a
tremendous role in the destruction of peace so it should have an
equal role in the building of peace. As the world works, an example
of just such a situation comes to the front of attention in the form
of the school shooting in the RUSA, Florida.
The school shootings can be an anology of
what is taking place in Syria. Although the scale of destruction is
different, the sparks that ignite violence can be seen as similar in
each circumstance. We can see the personal path of groups like Daesh
as similar to that of the person who opens fire on a school. We see
the isolation of the other, the internal conversation that festers
within the closed group or mind, the need to lash out, the need to
get revenge, the need to feel some control and the “insanity of
their words and actions”.
Then we have the outside group or civil
society. These are the people who see the destructive behaviour
taking place. Often the destruction takes place slowly and society
can brush it off, even though it is the destruction of society we
are witness to. Such situations are not comfortable for many of us.
This is true for every single person in society. Since there are a
great many factors swirling around in this situation, the scope of
the equation can be overwhelming.
What is meant by the scope of the
equation is this:
A personal problem manifests itself and
that person gives warning signs. When or if those signs are noticed
something must be done. What needs to be done, do you have the
capacity to do anything and of course there is the decision - are you
willing to get involved? Each and everyone of us faces these
situations everyday. We see people struggle with life everyday and we make snap decisions.
As we deal with these situations we
must take into consideration the reality that we may never really
know the impact we make when acting in a peaceful manner. It is easy
to look back as ask why something was not done. The only reasonable
answers is that no one really thought their actions would make much
difference and that nothing bad was going to happen by ignoring the
warning signs. Those thoughts are the most basic issue of why peace
efforts are such a difficult reality for many to grasp onto.
We know the impact of a bullet, a bomb
or a missle. It is difficult to truly know the impact of giving your
time to help another. It is even more difficult to help those that
are already understood as worthless, troublesome, weird or out of
touch with reality. However these are the links in the chain of peace
that will break if left alone.
Peace is a continous task filled with
moments of struggles to help eachother. Also, we must keep in mind
that we have to take care of our own internal peace. Each of us must
seek out healthy methods to vent frustrations as well. As we go about
such tasks we find that it takes greater courage to be a peaceful
person that it does to be a violent, destructive and harmful person.
As we go about our day, each of us
carries a responsibility to ensure civil society either builds peace
or wages war.
No comments:
Post a Comment