On Turning Up the Volume
an article by Jim Sargent

Two events have occurred recently that have significantly impacted my life: 1) the reporting of abhorent abuses to Iraqi POWs by members of the US military (clearly, I'm not alone here); and 2) more swastikas and other graffiti spray-painted on the entry of a local synagogue. Obviously events one and two are miles apart, not only geographically, but in their degree of importance on a humanitarian scale. Fact is, the two occurrences are completely unrelated. Or are they?

A minor civil rights abuse occurred at a synogogue in Auburn around April 20th. What happened? Apparently a meeting of the board of directors was held. Nothing of any substance resulted from it for three weeks. The atrocities at Abu Ghraib occurred sometime late last fall. What happened? Apparently a number of commissions were activated but nothing of any substance had resulted for months.

Then, along came the "media."

It took a photograph of the spray-painted swastikas in the local paper for anything to be done in Auburn (a few phone calls to pertinent people were made and the building was cleaned up the next day). It took photographs of blatent abuse in newspapers, on the internet and on TV before anything was done in Iraq (some of the more obvious participants have been court-martialled and a serious investigation of those in command is underway).

The atrocities at Abu Ghraib are so profound that it seems almost childish to compare the two. Still, several parallels can be drawn between what happened locally and what happened half way around the world. Of particular note is that it took someone to "turn up the volume" before anything of any significance was done in either case.

In that sense, the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Beth Abraham are very much alike.

DISCUSSION

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How can you and I make global peace a part of our daily lives?


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CULTURE OF PEACE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

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Well there are many ways we can make global peace a part of our daily lives: I think that we can make peace a part of our daily lives by completing our civic duty, our duty as a citizen, which can mean sending letters to our political officials. This brings about peace, because it allows us to have a voice.  Completing civic duty gives us a voice, a voice that so many fought for.  So we must continue, we must continue preserving the civilization that founding fathers of nations have crafted for us.  By protecting the environment you and I make global peace a part of a our daily lives. I believe that the environments of the world are all connected, and what we do in our local environment will effect the environments of the world.. . ...more.

This report was posted on May 26, 2004. The moderator is CPNN Coordinator.

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