LiViNg PeAcE

I am very pleased to feel that I will never run out of people. Even though I am very content with what my blog has turned out to be, this week I want to relate my entry on something that connects with me even more. I chose peace. You have probably seen that I am all about peace, but with this entry I want to think about what peace really is. In wikipedia Peace is defined as “a state of harmony or the absence of hostility.” To me, peace is something that is not yet known to humans as a whole. Many of the people I have written about represent peace to me because they have found the balance needed. Irena Sendler, for example, risked her life by saving children. She did something that at the time was wrong, but because she knew she was doing something right. To me, she found equilibrium between bad and good. In other words, she did something that was wrong in order to achieve something that was right. Like the popuar saying “The end justifies its means.”Peace has to be achieved within a person before we can have it between people. Like Xao Tzun once said “If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nation, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace in the neighbors. If there is to be peace in the neighbors, there must be peace in the home. And if there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the hearts.”Other people consider peace ot be a battle. An example is Albert Camus, when he said “Peace is the only bettle worth waging.” Do agree that peace is a battle, but it does not involve anyone else. It is a battle with one’s self. I believe it is a battle because peace is something very hard to achieve completely. For me, peace is the equilibrium between one’s thoughts and their relationships and co-excistence with the world. I think it is hard because trying to find peace can sometimes lead us to things we don’t want to do. With this, I don’t mean doing bad things, but doing good things that you don’t want to do. “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”-Moshe Dyan. The most important message I would like to get across is that “Every one of us can make a contribution” like Wangari Maathai said. “every one of us can make a contribution. And quite often we forget that, wherever we are, we can make a contribution. Sometime I tell myslf, I may only be planting a tree here, but just imagine what’s happening if there are billions of people out there doing something. Just imagine the power of what we can do.” Every one of us needs to find peace. There is no other way to world peace, but to find peace within each individual, because “Alone, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

As I wrote in my previous entry, Martin Luther King, Jr. was an activist during the sixties. He participated in many activities that involved peace. Some of these activities include the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the march on Washington, and the “Bloody Sunday.” He helped with the foundation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. With this conference he flew to many cities, like Washington, where he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Even though not many people agreed with the Civil Right Movement, with this speech King persuaded many people and “raised public conciousness.” This speech stablished himself as “one of the greatest orators in U.S history. During these years he tried his best to stop segregation and racial discrimination, therefore, he was the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. All of his accomplisments were reached by non-violent means, such as civil disobedience.King was the leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where he and other African Americans lasted 385 days without using the public buses. During this period, King’s house was bombed and he was arrested. This led him to court, where he won the case and caused the racial segregation present on all Montgomery public buses to get to an end.

He accomplished many other things, but I chose him because was another person who participated in the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War. He gave the “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” speech. His strongest argument was that America was spending enormous amounts of money on the war, while they could spend it on the War On Poverty. He believed that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense that on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” He was hated by many white segregationinsts, however. Even with enmities, King kept going with his struggle to make a better world. One day, Martin went to Mephis, were he was to give a speech. Here, he recieved many threats from white segragationists. His response, which would be his last speech, was:

 And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Later that week, Martin Luther KIng, Jr. was assasinated by James Earl Ray at 6:01. After his death, president Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.

                                                         “I Have A Dream!”

This is the time period I am most passionate about. Yes, you probably have heard bad things about it, but in this period many rebellions took place and peace activists started really acting. In this time period we can see people like John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr., Andy Warhol, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Dr. Seuss, among many others. It was in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Even though many great thing were done throughout the sixties, many people consider this era to be ¨one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance.¨ This decade got the name of the swinging sixties because of ¨libertine attitudes¨ developed throughout it. In this decade, different groups, ranging from friendly to religious, started using drugs to achieve levels in which they felt what they thought was peace. As Paul Kantner said, “If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren’t really there.” This decade was new, radical, and exiting, which spread onto 1970s and beyond. This period however, was difficult to the government because people were protesting against many things,  that many times made them change things they didn’t want to. One of most conflictive events was the Vietnam War. People were highly opposed so there were many riots, strikes and other forms of activism. It was also hard because many times, guards and police men had to be sent to control the angry mobs. Unfortunately, not only great achievements were reached by the freedom of speech showed during this period. The assassinations of some important people were also events that marked this era, like that of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X among others. Even though these things are highly remembered about the sixties, what really marked the era was the anti-war movement. This consisted of sit-ins, protests and resistances against anything involved with the Vietnam War. An example of this is when the peace activists started to burn their tickets that would get them to Vietnam. They also burnt flyers and anything that showed agreement with the war. At first, these groups started as very small and consisted mainly of highly religious people. As time went along, these groups became larger and larger. The numerous crowds would make it easier for the activists to be heard, but also to get hurt. An example of this is the Kent State shootings. Activists were protesting against the war. Just to be sure, guards were sent to maintain peacefulness. Everything was going well that weekend, but on Monday, many other people joined the protest. It turned violent. Four students ended up dead and nine others were injured. “This event caused disbelief and shock throughout the country and became a staple of anti-Vietnam demonstrations.”

This is my favorite decade because people said and did what they thought was right. Even though many times they tried to be stopped they kept on fighting for a better place, a world without war. Peace was a main factor on this decade and even though not-so-peaceful events came with it, the people tried to be heard, and for me at least, they were. It is also my favorite because people started experimenting new things such as the modern art brought by Andy Warhol. These changes created a great impact all over the world giving a way to new ways of living.

Freedom of speech? so much to say about such a short frase! For me freedom of speech is having the ability to say what you think without getting in trouble for it. I do not mean that you can just say bad words wherever you want but that you can say your opinions and agreements without being judged or punished. I think we have different right as a person and as a blogger. I believe this is so because in a blog, everyone sees what you have to say. In reality, only people that are really intented to hear it do. In a blog, I think you have the ability to say what you think as long as you don’t harm anybody or corrupt the minds of younger readers. Since you probably know, the internet is opened to anyone who has a computer. By everyone, I also mean children. If we write about things that maybe their parents don’t want for them to know just yet, we will be corrupting them. I don’t think it is for us to judge what we would like children to hear, but for each independent parent. It can also be hurtful.We could  express things online that our friends might agree with but other people may find offensive. I think this is a very delicate subject to discuss because every one probably has a different opinion on what is offensive. I think we have this right on the blogs as the U.S. constu¡itution promises, but we have to be more careful because people from other cultures and countries also access the web! 

I now have in mind something a little different. It is only different in the fact that the previous people were nonviolent peace activists. Irena Sendler was also part of a peace movement, in my opinion, but she wasn’t just singing and believing, she was rescuing children.
When Germany invaded Warsaw in 1939, Irena was a nurse in a hospital in Warsaw. When she saw what the ghetto was doing, she knew she had to do something. She started trying to convince mothers to give their children to her so she could try to get them out of the ghetto. She knew it was hard to give a child away, so she gave them time. Sometimes, when she came back to ask if they had made up their mind, she would find out that they had been sent to concentration camps, from were she was sure they would never come back. When she did get kids from families, she would take them out on ambulances and said they had Tifus, which was a very feared disease back then. After a while she started using whatever was available to rescue these children. She used garbage cans, cardboard boxes, coffins and anything that would help. She knew the kids were still in danger once outside the ghetto, so she made each and everyone of them false identifications with different names. She wanted to be able to give these kids what they once had, so she kept their real identifications and buried them in her neighbor’s backyard. She was caught. The nazis found out what she was up to and was taken to jail. There, she was awfully tortured. She bared all the tortures and never gave out the location of the true identities of the children. Because of this, she was put to death penalty. The day she was supposed to serve it, a soldier allowed her to escape.  After the nazis left, she got the identifications back and tried to return every child she could to their original home. She saved more than  2,500 kids. 

Yesterday, May 12th, with 98 years of age, Irena Sendler passed away. Until last minute, she still got visits from the kids she had once saved or their children. When asked what she felt about what she did, her roesponse was, “I could have done more, and that remorse is going to follow me until the day I die.” She made a huge impact on the life of thousands of people. Irena Sendler will be remembered in history as the “Angel of the ghetto in Warsaw” for her bravery and kindness.

“Mother of the children of the Holocaust.”