Peace Is Not Just the Absence of War
an article by Tony Dominski

Jacqeline Haessly, in her monumental 534-page PhD thesis "Weaving a Culture of Peace and Justice" has pioneered the work of many future generations of peacemakers. Her singular contribution is a working definition of peace as a weaving together of values, images, language, systems of governance and technology, education and actions. This concept goes far beyond the popular negative conception of peace as the lack of war.

I was most fascinated by her discovery that the images and language of peace are relatively undeveloped compared to martial images. She challenges us to imagine a world in which we do not refer to each other as infidel, enemy or terrorist, but instead address each other as brother, sister, friend, or co-worker.

Ms. Haessly's bold vision is of a world in which peacemaking were as highly valued and financially rewarded as war making is today. Imagine Dennis Kucinich with a $200 billion budget for Department of Peace!

She challenges her readers to summon the will to carry out the ideas of the "U.N. Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence.

She points out that under the rallying cry of 9-11 those engaged in fighting on all sides claim to be engaged in retaliatory justice.

Heassleys reflections during the Vietnam war upon the poverty of her childhood, the squalid conditions of the homes where she did public health nursing, and the inequities of the health care system lead her to the conclusion that all these conditions were linked to a failure to distribute power and resources equitably. As a young university student, Haessly sought in vain for a source which would refer to peace as a "positive dimension of engaged human activity." Haessly's work has helped remedy that lack with a clarion call to reshape our thoughts and images to encourage life-affirming actions for peace. I look forward to her forthcoming book which will present her thoughts in a popular form.

Reference: "Weaving a Culture of Peace with Justice," PhD Thesis, by Jacqueline Haessly; The Union Institute and University; Cincinnati, Ohio; May 11, 2002; 534 pages.

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Promoting a culture of peace on a daily basis


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CULTURE OF PEACE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

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As PhD student in a Faculty of Education in Brazil, I found very important the discussion on the contribution of education to a peaceful world.

I think peace curriculum is possible since there is respect for cultural diversity, such as ethnical, religious, race, sex, gender and others in school's curricular and pedagogical practices as a means of building/developing values of tolerance and respect. There should be space in curriculum for students's voices, experiences and contributions. This way they will feel respectable and will also learn to respect the others.

Education may contribute a lot since it may help children and youth to become sensitive toward the importance of promoting peace among individuals, groups and nations.

This report was posted on September 14, 2005. The moderator is Joanne.

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