LiViNg PeAcE

Peace to me, doesn’t only mean no fights, wars and disagreements. To achieve peace we also have to think outside the box. I think that we can also achieve peace by helping our home: Earth. We usually think about “more important things” such as school, work, a car, a big house, an enormous TV. But what good would this do if you had nowhere to put it? Most of the time we take Earth for granted. We pollute and trash and overpopulate, but we keep thinking that it’s going to be okay. It is not. Global warming has been threatening the lives of many animals as well as humans. This effect has caused droughts, floods, heat waves and many other natural disasters.

For me, Wangari Maathai is a peace activist. Fortunately, we have people like her in the world. What makes her so great? Well, she has done myriads to help our planet. Dr. Maathai became the first African woman to received a Noble Peace Prize for ‘her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.‘ She received this prize after founding the Green Belt Movement. This movement started because in Kenya,  she had heard complaints in which she was told that the women didn’t have logs to make bonfires, the soil was eroding away and harvesting was poorer. She started by giving poor women in Kenya seeds for them to plant and paying them. This would later on prevent soil erosion, create shadows, provide wood for bonfires, and serve as a source of food. Until now, 40 million trees have already been planted. This has not only helped with soil erosion, but has also given poor women in Kenya and many other countries the opportunity to earn money. Because of the increase in trees, there has also been an increase in fauna which has currently attracted many tourists. This has helped developed Kenya’s economy and has encouraged Kenyans and many other people around the world to try and restore what was once found among the flora.

All this just proves my point:

ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  

“The Tree Mother of Africa”

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!”

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.”
 

Another person that I highly admire is John Lennon. As you probably know, he was also involved in peace movements. Aside from what he did in the peace movement, I admire him because, like Gandhi, he proved one person can make a huge impact in the world. 

He was born as John Winston Lennon, but later changed his name to John Ono Lennon. As an English rock musician, he was one of the founders and members of The Beatles. Not only was he a songwriter and a singer, but also a peace activist. This means that he wanted to achieve peace (during the Vietnam war) by doing different non-violent activities. To prove his beliefs, he participated in protests, boycotted and even created songs suggesting peace. He also participated in television shows, interviews, books, and other ways in which he tried to tell everyone to “Give Peace a Chance”. Unfortunately, during his years as a peace activist, he created enmities. When coming back after his four year retirement, Lennon was killed in New York City. Later, he was voted eighth in the list of the Greatest Britons. He ranked 36th on the Rolling Stones magazine`s list of ‘The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time’ while The Beatles ranked number one.

One of his peace songs is called “Imagine”. If you would like to watch the video, click on the link below:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOkxRLzBf0

Another very famous one is “Give Peace a Chance”. If you would like to hear it, please click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-NRriHlLUk&feature=related

I wanted to start off with Gandhi because he is a person that has caused a great impact in my life. I love everything he did and highly admire him as a person.He was called Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma meaning “great soul.” There are many other reasons why I admire him, but the main one is because of all the things he accomplished without a single act of violence. He started the Indian movement, one by which he tried to give equal rights to whites and Indians. Many times he was put to jail. This, of course, was only because he opposed to do things whites demanded them to do, because once again he believed in nonviolent co-existence. When in jail, he fed his followers -that had also been put to jail with him- for free. He also lead many strikes and hunger strikes. Beacuse of this, he soon became a national hero. In 1931, in a conference in London, he declared India as independent. Unfortunately, not everyone thought the way the way he did. Because of this, he had some enemies.He was assasinated by Nathuram Godse in 1948.

Some people think one person cannot make a difference. I believe one person make all the difference. This is another reason why I admire Mahatma Gandhi. It all started because he believed he could make a difference; and even though in the beginning he did not have any followers, he slowly started influencing a numerous amount of people. In the end, this one person accomplished his goal. Later on, he also inspired many other important people like Martin Luther King Jr. 

“I object to nonviolence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”         -Mahatma Gandhi  

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” -Mahatma Gandhi 

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”  -Mahatma Gandhi 

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”          -Mahatma Gandhi 

More quotes on Gandhi