Writing for Peace is published by the SLCC Community Writing Center in collaboration with the SLCC Student Writing and Reading Center and the Gandhi Alliance for Peace.
All inquires should be directed to:
CWC Director
210 East 400 South, Suite 8, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), the SLCC Comunity Writing Center (CWC), the SLCC Student Writing and Reading Center (SWRC), and the Gandhi Alliance for Peace are not responsible for opinions expressed in Writing for Peace, nor does the writing represent any official position at SLCC, the CWC, the SWRC, or the Gandhi Alliance for Peace. The authors are solely responsible for the opinions expressed herein.
The authors retain copyright. Reprinting of this publication is permitted only with prior consultation and approval from the SLCC Community Writing Center. www.slcc.edu/cwc
“The future depends on what we do in the present.” —Mahatma Gandhi
The authors in this collection show us the reality of peace in our daily lives: from peace within our families to ideas for achieving a peaceful global society.
These works don’t just express the authors’ experiences with and ideas about peace, they are themselves contributions to peace.
We thank these commuinty members for their generosity in sharing their thoughts and beliefs with the 2025 Writing for Peace Competition.
We hope that these writings can move you to establish peace— starting from within our own communities.
—the 2025 Writing for Peace Committee
The Begging Bowl by Candice Bithell
The life of a Buddhist monk is a simple one. Waking at 4:00 am every day, the early hours are considered sacred and reserved for meditation. They set an intention for the day. They recite and chant verses that fill the mind with peace and inner calm. After this, the monks head out into their community, quietly walking single-file, eldest first, holding a simple bowl in their hands. The bowls range in color and size, but each monk holds one out in front of him.
The tradition of the begging bowl is an ancient one. It was one of only two possessions of the first Buddhist monks, besides their hand sewn yellow robes. The process today has changed very little. As the monks head out from their living spaces, villagers come out of their homes and fill the begging bowls with whatever food and leftovers they might have available. When the monks return to their monastery an hour later, they sit down and eat one of their only meals of the day. The menu? Whatever food they have managed to collect in their bowls.
I met my birth mother several years ago. I was traveling to Ohio to visit my birth father, who I have known for a long time, and decided it was time to meet. My brother gave me her number and a warning, “she says hurtful things when she’s drunk.” Feeling like I was beyond any pain she could cause me at this point, I sent a text asking to meet. She seemed wary but agreed.
The empty begging bowl by Candice Bithell
As the date to meet arrived, I was incredibly nervous. My heart was not sure about all of this. I had, at times, blamed her for everything bad that happened in my life. I tried to love. I tried to forgive, but the stories of my birth and early childhood were hard to get past. My father tells me that at parties, my birth mother tried to get rid of me during the pregnancy by running into walls and jumping off of tables, pounding her feet onto the floor. Then when I was born, she threw me in the trash at 2 days old. By the time I was 2 years old, I was in the custody of someone else, then adopted at age 7 into an abusive home. These things had been put in my bowl a long time ago, but there was a residue that was difficult to wash off.
Meta meditations on love and kindness only got me so far before the meet up with my birth mother. They did help ease my nerves, but the gnawing in my stomach was growing. The only thing that seemed to help my anxiety was to try to see the larger narrative about what had happened. I tried to imagine what it was like to lose your children because of a drug and alcohol addiction. I tried to imagine the pain that my mother no doubt carried with her during her life. I pondered what would drive a person to discard their own infant and I knew that there was a lot of suffering there. I was peering into her bowl and thinking about what might have been placed there.
I have to admit, her pain and her suffering drew me closer. It was a commonality between us, and I understood the desperation and hopelessness that accompanied those feelings. My brother sent me a picture of our birth mother and I thought as I gazed at it, you know pain too and that deserves allowances. A month later, there I was, sitting in a rental car in the driveway of her home. I tried to calm myself down and chanted something about love under my breath. She had abused me and allowed others to abuse me when I needed a mother the very most, when I was absolutely the most vulnerable. Help me to love, help me to love, help me to love, I repeated over and over. It was like a monk’s meditation, and I chanted it to myself with a thought that I could do this. I felt like crying, screaming, running
When we were finally reunited, my birth mother grabbed me in an embrace. There was a big smile on her face, and I was filled with an undeniable love for the person in front of me. The years of resentment melted away, along with the voice inside my head reminding me that I had been hurt. There in her arms, I felt mercy and empathy for her and the huge burden of regret she carried for so long. As I have thought about this moment, it has become clear that the past is out of reach for both of us and any struggle to manage it or wish that it were different would only lead to more suffering. Through this experience, I can see that it is not what is placed in my bowl that causes me pain, but the lack of acceptance and even gratitude at what is there. Today.
My birth mother and I have kept in touch after that first meeting, mostly through texts and the occasional phone call. Sometimes, out of nowhere, she apologizes, “I was a terrible mother,” she says. There is deep regret in her voice, and I reassure her that those days are long past and that I have forgiven her. “You’re here now loving me,” I typically say back. Both of us repeating words we have spoken to each other before. I pull her back into the present with my words. Look into your bowl today, I am saying to her, look at the peace our relationship has brought both of us and let’s be grateful for that. and yelling all at once.
Marching Toward Peace by Michelle Glover
In 1913 the suffrage parade shared the voices of over 5,000 courageous women speaking out for the right to equal political participation. This protest can remind us that peaceful acts have the power to change the system without violence or destruction. The parade was a big step in Alice Paul’s journey to bring about equal rights for women. While there were 5,000 marchers and many more women supporters, I speak mainly about Alice Paul, as she spearheaded the activities that drove the movement. While many protests had occurred before this time, this one is significant because it shows how a group of people who have felt undervalued and underserved decided to do something about it, and do it in a visually significant place, in a visually significant way
When the parade occurred, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, the crowd was immense and due to its size and the struggle of the police to contain it, some of the crowd pooled into the streets with the marchers who had to endure heckling from many people in the crowd without it being curtailed by the police. The women just marched forward toward their goal without desertion of their cause or aggressive reaction to the heckling. Alice Paul stood firm in her communication to stand up for herself and the brave women marchers and supporters, by vocalizing her dissatisfaction with the security/assistance from the police which resulted in a congressional inquiry due to security failures. She utilized this to continue to further her cause to the president, emphasizing that her end goal was to obtain a national constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage.
In today’s political climate, we have seen a resurgence of groups of people who are feeling undervalued, such as the police, teachers, and vets, and those who are feeling underserved such as those whose
Medicaid and/or social security are functional parts of their everyday lives. As a result of the impending losses and the growing frustrations at feeling these losses such as the cuts and loss of power people have once again begun organizing and protests and rallies are making a strong return. While Alice Paul eventually achieved her goal by relying on patience, determination, and the desire to have the same rights as men, she was starting from the bottom up. Women had never experienced equal rights before so they had none to lose. In today’s society thanks to these brave feminists, women have enjoyed equal rights for 100 years, until slowly, recently, they are being stripped away once again, which is a slap to the face of these women who came before us and worked so hard for women to be equal.
People will hear the message louder when it is not couched in violence, destruction or aggression. Unfortunately, the politicians who have their own agenda, are the ones in charge of “deciding what is best for the people of their state.” However, two ways that people who are feeling undervalued and underserved have to fight back are protests, rallies, and to not re-elect the individual who chose not to serve the needs of the people. There will never be one perfect way, one perfect solution that will leave all citizens safe and happy with all of their needs met. However, peaceful protests are a great way to connect with others who share your vision; the masses get a chance to both see and hear your message and you are able to feel empowered which is the end goal to combat the feeling of loss of power that has been taken from you, while being able to leave your dignity intact.
One Mind by Michelle Butler
Martin Luther King Jr. suggests there are four steps to a nonviolent campaign, “Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action.”
Step one is to determine if injustice exists. Without the recognition that injustice exists, there is no reason for a campaign of any sort. First, we will need to wake and gather the masses. To have a campaign, we will need to act as “one mind.” In American Indian Prophecies, Kurt Kaltreider looks at the Native American perspective, “According to Grandfather Commanda, we are quickly approaching this fork in the road. There must be a coming together of all the peoples of the world such that there is only ‘one mind,’ for ‘the Creator will not answer until you have just one mind, just like if you have one person.’ ” Every successful nonviolent revolution had the backing of masses. Mahatma Gandhi succeeded in freeing the Indian people from British colonialism. Nelson Mandala returned South Africa to South Africans. Martin Luther King Jr. led Black Americans in the elimination of racist Jim Crow laws. These leaders had more than just a commitment to nonviolent revolution. They had crowds marching behind them. A mass of individuals, of one mind. The Native American is surrounded by a sea of immigrant colonialists on their land. The genocide of Native Americans was nearly total. From the perspective of the Native American, there would need to be a mass change in thought. The concerns of indigenous people are poverty, the environment, and minimal political representation. These are global problems. They are the problems of all the disenfranchised.
Poverty reaches every category of people but is a biproduct of racism and isms generally. I took a sociology class that looked at discrimination. We looked at them all, racism, sexism, sexual religious bias and so on. In the end it became clear that the greatest ism, is poverty.
From that class, a nonprofit was developed to help feed the poor. It was called “One Voice.” The name was inspired by the song “One Voice” by Barry Manilow. Solutions start small, then others join in, and the movement grows. This is how we become “one mind.” The insight that poverty is the root of all that is wrong with the world was spot on. Feeding a few of the poor was inadequate however well meaning. The system needs to be overhauled.
Some cases of poverty are so severe we see skeletons with skin and heartbeats in minute-by-minute danger of ceasing. These are just the extreme cases. There are extreme cases of wealth on the other end. The extremely wealthy would have us believe that extreme poverty is the fault of the impoverished. Fascism is the use of propaganda that inflames irrational hatred of otherness, and distracts the masses, while the global elite destroy democracy and strip the masses of wealth and resources that rightly belong to everyone. There are those who have succumbed to the propaganda and do not understand that their hatred of the other, prevents the utopia for all. One needs to blame the impoverished to maintain poverty. The extremely wealthy push the propaganda that the free-market system is what it means to be free. What they mean is that those who have extreme wealth are free to hoard. The extreme wealthy have stolen land resources, and imposed slave labor.
The extremely wealthy provide the propaganda to convince us that the elimination of poverty and the healing of the earth is not possible. There is a meme circulating on social media. It is a picture of wealthy men playing the game Monopoly. The board lies on the back of barely noticeable sameness nobodies, bent over and naked. According to the meme, the people simply need to stand to upend the game. The game of Monopoly was created as a commentary on capitalism. It is meant to teach us of the pitfalls. When played as the game was designed the result is that one person owns all the wealth and everyone else is bankrupt. We need to find a new way to play the game. Players need to be allowed to cooperate. They could buy resources jointly.
They need to be allowed to get loans without interest. Each time a player passes Go a small contribution, tax, is paid to the community fund. Each time a player passes Go they get enough to make it around the board. There could be a luxury tax on the monopoly holder that is one hundred percent over an extreme amount, that goes into the community fund. Rather than Ayn Rand’s Taggart Transcontinental, what if all four monopoly railroads were communally owned? If you land on the railroad, climb aboard! Competition is fun, unless you are the looser. What if everyone won? What if once everyone goes around the board three times with all the property owned and developed, players begin to build things like personal businesses, monorails, or the spaceship enterprise? What if the spaceship enterprise is a cooperative venture? When everyone has had the opportunity to build something great, the game is won. The elimination of global poverty is worth negotiating for.
The second step is Self-Purification: I have altered the order of Dr. King’s steps of a nonviolent campaign. The step of self-purification needs to come much sooner. Once injustice is recognized anger is a natural response that needs to be directed constructively, before the campaign even begins. It might even be the first step except that first we need to understand exactly why we are angry. After that, before we even get started, we need a personal commitment to be nonviolent. It was the order of steps Dr. King took.
Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man. From this bus boycotts would grow into a full-fledged movement to eliminate Black segregation. Even before the movement began, Martin Luther King Jr. set the tone. He said, “If one day you find me sprawled out dead, I do not want you to retaliate with a single act of violence. I urge you to continue protesting with the same dignity and discipline you have shown so far.” The bombing of his home was the first act of violence. There was a crowd armed and ready to unleash on the police. After being assured his wife and baby were okay,
he addressed the crowd form his porch saying, “We believe in law and order. Don’t get panicky. Don’t do anything panicky at all. Don’t get your weapons. He who lives by the sword, will parish by the sword. Remember, that is what God said. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. Love them and let them know you love them. I did not start this boycott. I was asked by you to serve as your spokesman. I want it known the length and breadth of this land that if I am stopped, this movement will not stop. If I am stopped, this work will not stop, for what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just, and God is with us.”
For a nonviolent movement to succeed, it needs to be understood from the very first day, that it is a nonviolent movement. Our lesson from the experiences of our nonviolent leaders is that a nonviolent movement will be faced with violent opposition. Violence can be expected. Knowing that, “what we are doing is just,” is the assurance that it will succeed even if our leaders are assassinated. Every individual must be a leader. Empedocles said, “God is a circle whose circumference is everywhere, and its center is nowhere.” If we can become as “one mind,” we become unstoppable, because if one cell is assassinated the “movement will not stop.” The loss of one cell does not eliminate the “one mind.” It is not relevant who started the Me-Too movement. Everyone who responded spoke. It must be made clear before we begin that when the armies and police arrive, if they use violence, they are on the wrong side, and will therefore, loose. A nonviolent campaign must be a commitment of every individual, at every stage in the campaign. Every moment every individual must vow to self-purification.
The third step is Negotiation. Before we begin a protest, we need to make it clear what we expect. Injustice exists because someone else has privilege. The privileged do not tend to give up their privilege without a fight, and the extremely wealthy have resources to fight back. They are not likely to agree to give up their wealth because we
ask them to. But it is right to start with the request, so that it is clear what our demands are.
One of the most important books I ever read has been, The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions, by Jason Hickel. The how to is there. Hickel, however, acknowledges that he is a how-to man. If he were a politician, he would be assassinated. He has provided us with a negotiation outline. The rest will be up to us.
Utopia must be global. Jason Hickel begins his chapter eight with a quote by Henry David Thoreau, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.” There was a meme stating that Bill Gates donated a cow to a family in India. This of course is satire, but it points to the truth. Throwing your donations at the impoverished only keeps them impoverished. It keeps them alive just enough to keep them working at slave wages. There needs to be a system overhaul.
Hickel was raised in Swaziland, now known as Eswatini. He is an economist addressing the economic inequality in places such as Eswatini and other impoverished communities globally. When the rich are taxed, they simply uproot and move their monopoly to another country where they can get the equivalent of slave labor. The top wealthiest one percent are global players. Mukesh Ambani is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He is estimated to have a net worth of $123 billion. As one of the wealthiest men, he could pay off the debt of Eswatini that is crippling their country, and it wouldn’t touch his standing as one of the wealthiest individuals globally. He could do without $5 billion. I had an insightful friend expose the reason I grew tired of playing Mafia Wars. He said, “Yeah, some people just like to watch numbers go up.” Extreme wealth is also a game of power. They control the economic wellbeing of everyone else.
Debt Resistance: Debt burdens need to be abolished in developing countries. Eswatini has asked to have their debt lifted but this has not been granted. They are paying out in interest more than they produce. Bankruptcies of creditors is worth the elimination of suffering of hundreds of millions of people. Or we could just ask Ambani nicely. Hickel suggests cancelling “dictator debts.” That is debts racked up by dictators that the people never agreed to. He says, “Dictator debts presently amount to about $735 billion in thirty-two different countries. Cancelling them would free citizens from having to repay loans that they never agreed to in the first place, and which probably never benefited them.”6 If debts are not excused, then at least the interest could be dropped. Some countries are burdened with paying solely on interest they may never get out from under. Developing countries need to be allowed to default without fear of military response.
Global Democracy: We need to democratize institutions of global governance. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are already in place, but developing countries are not fairly represented. Currently representation is based on which countries provide the most financial shares, giving the wealthiest countries the vote. We should have a merit based democratic elections for the representatives of global organizations. Citizens need to be able to vote for who will represent them.
Fair Trade: Free trade agreements are made in secret. This needs to change. Free trade agreements should be public, and subject to democratic scrutiny. If there were no tariffs on goods from poorer countries it would help them compete. Agricultural subsidies for large scale farmers that are the largest exporters need to be cut so that small farmers can compete. Hickel says, “Indeed, subsidies for Hickel summarizes his solution in chapter eight, and he provides eight necessary changes:
small farmers in the South is essential to curbing global hunger.”
The WTO court system is imbalanced. It favors wealthier countries, who can impose sanctions that crush poor countries while they can ignore sanctions of poorer countries. Hickel suggests a compensation system that pays damages in proportion to the market size of the nation.
The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) needs to be reformed. The period of a patent under TRIPS is twenty years. This could be halved. When the pharmaceutical treatment for AIDS came out, the patent was sold, and the for-profit holder of the patent made the treatment out of reach of those who needed it. The Swaziland population, for one, was devastated. Mukesh Ambani’s son married a woman whose father was a pharmaceutical tycoon. The cost of the wedding was $300 million. The most essential technologies such as public health technologies should have patent royalties eliminated altogether. Other important goods that need to be made accessible include industrial technologies, textbooks, software, seeds, plants medicines, and genetic materials that already exist in the natural world. Fair trade needs to be made fair.
Just Wages: If there was a global minimum wage, companies could not move their monopolies around looking for workers forced to work at poverty wages. The people in Eswatini, for example, are working below sustenance levels. They are starving. Because the cost of living is different from country to country the minimum wage could be 50 percent of each countries median wage. For poorer countries the minimum wage needs to be above the national poverty line. Hickel says that “the UN’s International Labor Organization has already claimed that it has the will and the capacity to govern a global minimum wage system.”
Universal Basic Income: This is a money transfer to residents regardless of employment status. What do people do when unemployed?
Allowing homelessness and starvation is not an option. In Alaska, residents are provided an annual dividend from the oil reserves in that state. Natural resources should belong to the public. Alaska’s model is popular and effective. Hickel suggests a global tax on the extraction of natural resources to go into a trust for every human. He says, “We could add to the fund with other commons related revenues: taxes on land value, pollution, intellectual property sales, and on currency exchanges and financial transactions, such as the Robinhood Tax suggested by Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin.” We could have a luxury tax in the game of Monopoly so that we can all pass Go. Public health care and education should be free to everyone.
Tax Justice: Tax evasion drains hundreds of billions from developing countries each year. The “individuals, multinational corporations that offshore their income, the bankers who assist them, and the rich-country governments and international institutions that make it all possible – are let off the hook.” The uber wealthy need to be held accountable.
Land Security: Corporations are guilty of land grabs. Money is being made from fossil fuels, deforestation, and mining. Some investors are speculating on food sources. These are the lands where indigenous people live and produce the food they need. There need to be protections for the small farmers. Profits from land resources should be held communally.
Climate Action: The 2016 Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change needs to be a pledge made by all nations. There needs to be a cut in the use of fossil fuels. There needs to be an end to the subsidies for fossil fuel companies. If there are no fossil fuel billionaires, there will be no one motivated to block the movement toward cleaner energy sources. The structural causes of poverty are closely related to the destruction of natural resources, and the earth. Monitoring of land use should be done by indigenous people.
I believe that in America, Native Americans should be granted stewardship over environmental concerns. It needs to be understood that it is in the best interest of the whole that we care for one another and our planet. Developing countries should be compensated for damage done to their countries caused by climate change.
Jason Hickel has provided us a how-to list. We have NATO, the World Bank, IMF, and the WTO, but they need to be democratically and fairly represented. There needs to be a global democracy. We bring Jason Hickel to the negotiation table. It’s too late to assassinate him. We have his book.
The fourth step is Direct Action: History of Nonviolent leaders had Civil Disobedience in common. The earliest effort to use civil disobedience, was that of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ objective was to free the Jewish people from Roman oppression. To create a sovereign Judea, he asked the Jews to not participate in Roman currency, to not pay tribute. When asked whether Jesus paid tribute, he said, “the children are free” but then he told Peter to take up a fish and “when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take and give unto them for me and thee.” There was no coin in the fish’s mouth. They were fishermen. They would take the fish and if they found a coin, the Romans could have it. If it had the face of Caesar on it, give it back to Caesar. Jesus was crucified for sedition to Rome, for calling himself “King of the Jews,” which was the accusation over the cross. He was assassinated for sedition to Rome, and the promotion of a nonviolent resistance.
In 1849 Henry David Thoreau published Civil Disobedience. He asked that taxes not be paid as a means of protesting policies that are debasing to humanity such as war and slavery. Leo Tolstoy published The Kingdom of God is Within You in 1894. Tolstoy reognized that Jesus called for passive resistance. He said, “We shall submit to every ordnance and every requirement of government except as are contrary to the commands of the gospel and in no case resist the operation of law except by meekly submitting to penalty of
disobedience.” Thoreau and Tolstoy were influential in Mahatma Gandhi’s use of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi, like Jesus, the fisherman, instructed the Indian people to take the salt from the Indian sea, which the Indian people had a right to. Let the British keep their currency. Martin Luther King Jr. was influenced by all these great thinkers. Nonviolent civil disobedience has a history of success, and assassination. There has been loss of life in these movements, but something greater is maintained, the soul of the “one mind.”
We are ready to use civil disobedience. It is the bus boycotts, the Indian march to the sea for salt, and the fisherman keeping their fish rather than pay tribute to an oppressor. When there is push back, we start with sit outs. The system needs slaves. Don’t be one. Stop working until it is agreed that we should have fairly distributed wealth and democratically elected representatives of the global organizations, and the other seven requests Hickel negotiations. I recommend an organization of circles. Each leader has the contact information for their local community. A contact to one leader is a contact to their community and the baton is passed to other leaders. When the president of the Mormon church wants to pass on a message he contacts the Stake Presidents, who contact the bishops of wards in their districts, who contact their members. The leader of each community has the contact information of the “Stake Presidents.” God is a circle....
We can live in a world free from heartbreak and poverty. A world where every individual has the means to be healthy and well can be ours. We can live in world where we can travel and be awed by its beauty. A Hindu concept of God is that all life, every individual mind, is a small part of the infinite divine. I can imagine a global democracy and the elimination of poverty. Can you? What is needed to introduce a utopian world, is “one mind.”
The Paradox of Peace
by Elizabeth Hanna
“I don’t want no peace, I need equal rights and justice.”—Peter Tosh
Peace and violence are not diametrically opposed forces. Violence can take many forms; physical, verbal, or psychological. Per the World Health Organization, violence must include a component of intentionality and result in harm to another person or group be it physical, psychological, or due to deprivation. This broader definition also allows us to include acts that are the result of unequal power dynamics between groups. In short, violence can be direct, structural, or cultural.
Expanding our definition of violence allows us to broaden our understanding of peace. Peace is an oft used word yet rarely defined. There exists a tension between peace and justice, The former having been co-opted by oppressors to mean subservient and obedient. Peace must be grounded in social justice, equal rights, and individual liberties, lest it is at risk of being a tool for more powerful groups to oppress marginalized ones through violence.
It is necessary to refine our definition of peace. When we speak of peace, do we mean abstaining from violence, thereby accepting the status quo? Or do we mean a timely response to oppressive regimes through non-violent acts, such as handcuffing oneself to the handrails of the Capitol building? Or are we simply referring to conflict resolution, diplomacy, or using empathy and compassion as tools for negotiating with more powerful and oppressive actors?
In the face of daily structural and cultural violence that is more and more frequently spilling over into physical acts of violence, I wonder if calling for peace, if defined as the absence of or even the opposite of violence, is appropriate. In the United States and globally, peaceful movements have often been squashed with the use of violence by
more powerful groups. I would even go further to argue that demanding peaceful deference from the oppressed, by the oppressor, is a form of structural violence to uphold an unjust and unequal society. History is written by the winners and it is no accident that non-violent resistance has been emphasized while violent uprisings have been hidden. In reality, the path towards social justice has been far more complex, it is not simply an either/or decision. This essay explores the delicate balance between peace and social justice through historical and contemporary examples. I argue that peacemaking is not synonymous with pacifism; it is an active process that demands courage, strategy and fortitude in order to confront injustice.
The Haitian Revolution
In 1791, the enslaved people of Haiti rose up against French colonial rule in the only successful slave revolt in history. Their violent rejection of oppression was not merely an act of desperation, but a calculated effort to claim their freedom and autonomy. The Haitian Revolution stands as a testament of the power of collective resistance against systematic violence. However, the aftermath reveals a sobering truth: certain marginalized groups who seek to dismantle oppressive systems via violence will face sustained retaliation. Haitian independence came at the cost of economic isolation, forced reparations to France, and continued interference from external powers such as the United States. The lesson from Haiti is twofold: violence can be a successful tool for liberation but without justice, peace and freedom cannot be obtained. The sustained efforts necessary to build a just society must be intentional and require support.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
When we are taught about the Holocaust, the dominant narrative is one of Jewish passivity. Mischaracterizing Jewish people as a conglomerate of victims, glossing over acts of resistance, some of them violent. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 demonstrates that when faced with the inevitability of death, Jewish residents organized an armed revolt against the Nazi regime. Outnumbered and
outgunned but they chose to fight, asserting their agency and standing against the Nazi regime. Their defiance underscores a critical point when non-violent resistance fails; violence can become a last resort in the pursuit of freedom. Peace cannot exist under conditions of dehumanization and there are times when violence is the only means of maintaining one’s humanity.
Nelson Mandela and Apartheid
Nelson Mandela is celebrated as a symbol of peaceful resistance against the apartheid in South Africa. However, this portrayal neglects his earlier involvement in the African National Congress, acting as co-founder of its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela recognized that apartheid would not be dismantled through non-violence alone. Arguably, he was “peaceful” as long as he was due to a lengthy prison sentence inflicted on him by his oppressors. After serving 27 years in prison, Mandela transitioned to diplomacy, playing a pivotal role in shaping a post-apartheid South Africa, founded on reconciliation and social justice. Prior to being imprisoned, Mandela had traveled to North Africa to train in guerilla warfare tactics, intending to apply them in South Africa. He entered prison a 44 year old man and left a 71 year old, it is likely that his transition to diplomacy was not only a result of his pragmatism but also due to his age. He demonstrated that peacemaking is not a linear process but a dynamic interplay of strategies tailored to each situation.
Yasser Arafat and the Israeli -Palestinian Conflict
In his 1974 Olive Branch and Pistol speech to the United Nations, Yasser Arafat encapsulated the tension that exists between peace and armed resistance offering to make peace, but making it clear that he was willing to violently defend his people’s right to self-determination. The combination of force with diplomacy reflects the reality that many liberation movements face. Peace is not achieved through passivity but through a combination of negotiation and resistance. Arafat’s legacy underscores the necessity of addressing the root causes of conflict including systemic injustice and inequality.
Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Civil Rights in the United States
The Civil Rights movement in the United States is often reduced to the non-violent philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. Although a remarkable man whose life achievements are worth celebrating, this narrative overlooks the critical role played by Malcolm X and his advocacy for freedom “by any means necessary.” King and X were not opposites but rather complements. Dr. King’s emphasis on non-violence and moral persuasion was made all the more effective by the implicit threat of violence by the more militant Malcolm X. King himself acknowledged in his later years, “a riot is the language of the unheard.” It would seem that this thinking was erased from history, likely because that doesn’t fit a useful narrative for those in power in the United States in a post-King and X world. The interplay between these two leaders highlights the importance of diverse strategies in the pursuit of Justice. It also raises questions about why society celebrates one man, dedicating a national holiday to him, and seeks to malign the other. Their story reveals much about the biases in how we remember our own history and who might seek to shape our collective memory.
Stonewall and LGBTQ+ Rights
The Stonewall riots of 1969 marked a turning point in the LGBTQ+ Rights movement. Faced with marked systemic violence and discrimination, patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City fought back, sparking a wave of activism that continues to this day, celebrated throughout the nation during Pride. Like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Stonewall demonstrates that marginalized communities often resort to violence only after enduring sustained oppression. Stonewall highlights the importance of collective action in achieving social change as it served as a launch pad for a more sustained and peaceful gay rights movement. If you were to attend a Pride parade or celebration today you would have no indication of its violent inception.
The Stonewall riots were not an isolated event, but part of a broader struggle for justice and equality, and the interconnectedness of violence and peace in liberation movements.
BLM and Kyle Rittenhouse Intellectual resistance
The notion that a resistance movement must remain ‘peaceful’ to be taken seriously is false if that peace is defined as mere acquiescence. This essay has demonstrated that this has not been the case, historically, and that righteous violence has been peace-washed in order to create a certain narrative. When it is convenient the oppressor will label a liberation movement violent, regardless of their actions and when it is deemed acceptable, it will herald its own violence as justified. A recent demonstration of this took place during the Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests, following the murder of George Floyd. BLM protestors were accused of violence, and acts of property damage were exaggerated in order to create a frightening depiction of those involved. Compare this to the actual violence committed by Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed a BLM protester.
I want to make clear that I do not believe that violence is not the only tool of resistance. Rather, I believe that writing it out of history is a form of cultural violence itself. Intellectual resistance through the written word and education has long been a powerful force for liberation. The speeches of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X live on today, continuing to inspire generations beyond their own. Today, as media outlets are increasingly controlled by oligarchs, and authoritarian regimes work to suppress free expression, intellectual resistance is more important than ever. From student protest to academic dissent the pen is truly mightier than the sword. The threat that thought-leaders pose to oppressive regimes has been demostrated time and time again. Autocrats commonly jail, and even kill, intellectuals, writers, and artists. Consider Federico García Lorca; famous Spanish poet, playwright, and critic of social injustice, who was
executed by Franco’s fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Pro-democracy Nobel Peace Prize-winning writer, Lui Xiaobo died in jail after the Chinese Communist Party refused him treatment for cancer. Finally, consider Fred Hampton, activist and deputy chairman of the Black Panthers who was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago police due to his political organizing. As fascism tightens its grip around the throat of not only the United States but many, globally, intellectual discourse remains a crucial tool to challenge this violent New World order.
Peace Without Justice
History shows that peace cannot be sustained without justice. From Haiti to South Africa, from the civil rights movement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the pursuit of peace has always been intertwined with the struggle for freedom and equality. Violence, while often a last resort, has played a role in these struggles, challenging the notion that peacemaking is synonymous with pacifism. True peace requires addressing the root causes of conflict, including systemic oppression, inequality, and power imbalances. It demands courage, strategy, and a willingness to confront injustice.
Conclusion: Achieving Sustained Peace
Peace is not passive; it is an active and ongoing process that requires the participation of all stakeholders. As we reflect on the lessons of the past, we can see that there are many others who exemplify the tension between peace and liberation from whom we can learn much. During these tumultuous times, we must recognize that peacemaking is not about conforming to a simplistic “give peace a chance” narrative but about confronting the complexities of power and oppression. A future where peace and freedom coexist must be sustained by the necessary precursors of justice, equality, and mutual respect. Rather than emphasizing a narrow remit of peace, I prefer to encourage the pursuit of social justice, equality, and freedom in the hopes that through this, one day, those that follow can enjoy a lasting peace.
Cultivating Compassion and Understanding for a Peaceful World by Maria Ellora Cabbat
When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Senator Robert R.F. Kennedy was in the midst of his campaign to run for president. At that time, he was in Indianapolis about to make a speech. In response to the assassination, more than a hundred cities were involved in riots, fires, and violence. Upon learning of Dr. King’s assassination, Kennedy was advised not to speak because there was a risk of riots breaking out. Indianapolis was predominantly black. However, Kennedy chose to speak and announced Dr. King’s death to the audience regardless of this risk. He made an impromptu speech that focused on unity, love, wisdom, understanding, and compassion.
He said, “In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black— considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible—you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization—black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.” (“Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968.” jfklibrary.org)
Kennedy concluded his speech by saying, “Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
As a result of Kennedy’s courage and dedication to peace, no riots broke out in Indianapolis. Fifty years ago, Kennedy prevented violence through his call for understanding and compassion. He did not encourage people to commit violence in response to violence and injustice. He understood that peace can only be achieved by doing peaceful actions like praying and when individuals have worked in their personal evolution. His compassion approach worked. Hence, a peaceful society is comprised of people who live in a heart-based consciousness that use compassion and understanding when conflict arises.
I have witnessed the result of violence firsthand back in my hometown in the Philippines. I still can remember to this day, when I was thirteen years old, as I walked back home from school, a dead man lay on the side of the road. The lifeless body covered in blood had been embedded in my memory. I later learned that the victim was murdered by someone from another gang. To this day, acts of violence throughout the world continue to be broadcasted in the news. Although I will never fully comprehend the magnitude of pain suffered by the victims of violence and their families, it is my wish that world peace be attained one day.
Destroying individuals or groups do not lead to peace because getting rid of the physical do not resolve the fundamental issues that lie in humanity’s consciousness. Hatred, vengeance, and fear all stem from a sense of lack and separation. By transforming these mindsets to that of love and oneness, peace can be possible. By looking at the individual, problems that exist nationally and globally can also be understood. Hence, the evolution of one person is a lens to the evolution of the whole planet. The transformation of individuals can eventually move on to a global scale, one heart, one consciousness at a time.
Although violence still persists today, there are also people and organizations who are working towards peace. By attending the Writing for Peace Workshop, I learned about different individuals who work for this cause. One of those individuals is Marriam Banghouti,
an American born Palestinian journalist, writer, and activist. She works bravely in the accurate representation of the truth of the war happening in the Middle East. She also monitors humanitarian efforts and development aid in Middle Eastern countries.
Because of their deep connection with their heart, peaceful people develop authenticity. As a result, they are free to express the uniqueness of their being without fear of being judged or ostracized. They are free to be straight or gay, black, white, or brown. There is no racism and discrimination.
Zanele Muholi, an artist and visual activist whose work bring awareness on issues such as racism, homophobia, and gender discrimination said, “It’s what comes from within that is beautiful.” Her work could be summarized by the statement, “I’m just human,” which emphasizes everyone’s shared humanity.
People of a peaceful society are emotionally intelligent and remain calm in the middle of conflict. They are responsive instead of reactive. When emotions such as anger and sadness arise, people are able to express them in healthy ways may that be through breathing exercises, exercising, journaling, meditation, or other healthy outlets. They know how to regulate their emotions and are free from the past. They have become masters of their mind, body, and spirit. There is freedom of expression that is not destructive, but beneficial to all parties.
For example, when provoked or presented by a difficult situation, peaceful people choose to relax and practice deep breathing. Dr. Andrew Weil, a physician and author of health books developed the 4-7-8 breathing technique. It requires one to breathe in through the nose for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds and exhaling through the mouth for 8 seconds. This cycle is repeated three times. By engaging in self-care such as deep breathing, people can cultivate self-compassion and achieve a sense of peace.
Peaceful individuals are self-aware and free to explore different ideologies. They have autonomy to study different belief systems and decide on what resonates. As such, they are free to experiment and apply different principles in their lives. They use critical thinking instead of following old dogmas.
In a peaceful society, expansion of understanding and knowledge have given way to greater empathy and compassion. People know that the more they educate themselves and integrate ideas from other cultures, traditions, and schools of thought, the more they can innovate and effect positive change. By cultivating self-awareness and social awareness, peaceful people learn to value diversity and respect others’ values and beliefs. They appreciate cultural, political, and religious differences. As such, they let go of cognitive biases. They strive to understand everyone’s perspectives instead of judging them as wrong or labeling them as evil.
Andre Duqum, the host and owner of the podcast, Know Thyself,” invites different individuals in order to better understand the self. He invites guests that include scientists, doctors, authors, therapists, etc. to give light to the individual’s physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual reality.
In a peaceful society, people practice compassion through forgiveness and living fully in the present. Because of their focus is on the present, they rid themselves of vengeful thoughts, let go of painful memories, and allow themselves to live in a space of love. They own their experiences and look at them with wholeness. They know that everything they had gone through may it be negative or positive, has contributed to their development. They focus on lessons and what can be done moving on forward. Eckhart Tolle, the author of “Power of Now,” emphasize the importance of living in the present. He said, “When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power.”
Another practice that promotes compassion is by practicing loving-kindness meditation which is popular in the Buddhist tradition. The meditation starts with the phrase, “May I be well, happy, and peaceful.” The phrase, “May you be well, happy and peaceful is then extended towards family and friends, then to neutral individuals. The phrase is further extended towards all living beings in the planet, including animals. This practice increases kindness towards the self and others.
The Dalai Lama said, “The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.”
Another practice that promotes compassion is through volunteering and community engagement. By volunteering for different causes and organizations, compassion and a better understanding of others are developed. One of my friends regularly volunteers at the Utah Food Bank. Her passion to make a difference inspires the people around her, including me.
Through the practice of mindfulness, compassion and kindness towards the self and others may also be cultivated. One of the famous proponents of mindfulness, Jon Kabot-Zin said in an interview found on mindful.org, “So, one of the really profound, liberating aspects of the practice of mindfulness is actually recognizing thoughts, and then realizing that they may be true to a degree, but then none of them are actually absolutely true and a lot of them are based on the mind. They’re not the truth about anything. And then in that very moment, you’re freed up from your own biases. You’re freed up from your own thought patterns that identify you in one way and identify other people in another way and very often disregard our common humanity and the fact that we are 99.7% genetically speaking in terms of our DNA, the same all over the planet.”
Peaceful people are open-minded and welcome different traditions. For example, many people in the United States today practice yoga which is an Eastern practice. Sadhguru, a guru and founder of the Isha Foundation, lead yoga retreats in India and different parts of the world. He has built centers for meditation and spiritual practices. He stated, “When you experience the whole existence as part of you-that is Yoga.” He believes, “Yoga essentially means to obliterate the boundaries of your individual nature and become universal.”
This sense of oneness is also recognized by Billy Nye who said, “There really is no such thing as race. We are one species, each of us much, much more alike than we are different. We all came from Africa. The color of our ancestors’ skin and ultimately my skin and your skin is a consequence of ultraviolet light, of latitude, and of climate.”
In a peaceful world, humanity have elevated its consciousness and realized that the way towards peace is to connect with the heart and turn inward. People have learned to use love to connect with themselves, with their communities, and the whole world. They practice compassion and have a great sense of awareness towards themselves and others. A peaceful society is where people live in heart-based consciousness and see the world as one.
The Art of Quiet Wars and Gentle Victories by Aubrey Olsen Earle
The house was a war zone… though no battles were ever declared outright. The air always seemed to carry the thick tension of impending conflict. Words turned to knives. Silence became barbed wire. Ours was a world of survival, where my three siblings and I relied on the sharpened instincts of anticipation, analysis, and adaptation. While some children learned to swim in their wealthy relatives’ pools or ride bicycles through sun-drenched neighborhoods… we learned to read the dangerous currents of human nature… balancing on the narrow ledge between chaos and calm.
Violence in our home was not always a strike with fists. Sometimes it arrived quietly like a shadow slipping under a locked door… through the sharpness of insults, the cold withdrawal of warmth or the unpredictable rages that stormed through the walls without warning. But beneath every burst of anger lay a deep-rooted hunger… an insatiable cycle of projecting pain outward. My siblings and I became unwilling witnesses to that cycle, standing on the precipice of becoming its next carriers.
And yet, we resisted… not with rebellion or retaliation, but with something it would take me years to name… quiet diplomacy. We listened. We studied. We traced the patterns of unpredictability like maps etched into our nerves, brain cells, bones. And slowly, as adults, we grew into peacekeepers. We chose silence when rage beckoned. We tried to soothe instead of escalate. We addressed pain not as an enemy to be eradicated but as a wounded force in need of acknowledgment. These were the first seeds of peace I ever planted… small, invisible victories that laid the groundwork for a future I would one day call my own.
Those early survival skills… empathy, emotional analysis and preemptive compassion… they were forged in our fire of childhood trauma. But somewhere along the way I realized they could be repurposed for something greater than endurance. They could become tools of transformation. I became a woman shaped not just by pain, but by the deliberate and stubbornly disciplined choice to interrupt it.
As Gandhi taught: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” His was not a passive path but a courageous, active resistance rooted in emotional intelligence. He understood that rage, unchecked, becomes a cycle that feeds itself. Like him, I do not glorify suffering… but I believe in its alchemical potential. I believe in the transformation that can take place when pain is met with understanding rather than vengeance.
Referring to my marriage. Conflict doesn’t vanish when you marry the love of your life. It simply changes form. My husband and I have faced moments that felt like overly emotional earthquakes… misunderstandings, unmet needs, the invisible strain of chronic illness, and the weight of trauma neither of us asked for.
One night, not long ago, we stood in the kitchen of our first apartment together, after a disagreement that had snowballed from me wanting to run, shouting and quickly into silence as it often does… The air was heavy. I could feel his frustration simmering, mine quietly cracking under the surface. My instinct… still laced with the survival tactics of childhood, was to shut down… to build a wall before I could be wounded. But instead, I waited and then we talked about some of what was aching deep within us instead of fearing the vulnerability that often has been a benefit to talk about and let loose from our hearts, together, talking… a benefit that was better than to hold it all back, keeping it caged in our ribs, bruising our hearts.
What followed when listening and talking, wasn’t easy. It was raw. But it was honest. In that moment, we weren’t enemies… we were both children of conflict trying to build a home where peace could
live. I learned that night… and often many other times before and after, with him… that love isn’t just found in grand gestures or poetic words… it’s forged in the pauses we make for one another, in the patience to see behind the anger and into the wound.
In parenting… raising children… especially ones I was not blessed to birth but blessed to raise… raising children, while healing yourself, is like trying to build a house during a thunderstorm. There are days I fail. Days I raise my voice before I raise my awareness. But there are also days I win quiet victories.
Like one night a few years ago, my stepdaughter slammed her door in frustration and refused to come out for dinner. My old self… the reactive self… would have seen it as disrespect, as rebellion. And I did. That fiercely changed years later looking back on it… I visualize that day along with many others sometimes. I look back on her then and I recognized the look in her eyes…the look of a child who wants to be heard but doesn’t yet have the tools to speak her pain. And the journey of my motherhood is different for each of my step-kids. Instead of demanding respect that day, I should’ve sat outside her door. Not speak… and simply waited.
After some time, the door would have cracked open. She may not have apologized, I wouldn’t expect her to. Instead, I could’ve said something along the lines of, “I can tell something hurts. You don’t have to talk now. But I’m here when you’re ready.”
And even if she didn’t say anything that night and even if it was the next day, I’m sure she would’ve agreed to a walk… and that walk would have become the foundation of a new layer in our relationship. Not built on control or compliance… but on empathy.
I’ve learned that parenting isn’t about shaping children into our mold. It’s about showing them that they’re safe to be whole even when they’re struggling. It’s about choosing presence over punishment. Connection over correction.
In my community I’ve become a quiet place for people to land. Not because I have all the answers… and I don’t… but because I’ve lived inside the questions. I question everything. I’ve sat with women navigating the wreckage of trauma, grief, chronic illness, and spiritual estrangement. I’ve been that woman, too… trying to hold a shattered faith in one hand and my aching story in the other. So when people come to me raw and unraveling, I don’t try to fix them. I sit beside them, and we breathe through the ache together.
Sometimes healing shows up in circles. Sometimes it’s a one-on-one conversation on a back porch, at a game table, dinner table, on the phone or a vulnerable comment someone writes after I share one of my poems. I’ve helped create spaces where people don’t have to perform strength to be respected. Where they don’t have to hide their doubts, their anger at God, or their disillusionment with the stories they were told.
I remember one moment, years ago, when a conversation about leaving the church turned heavy. One woman was sobbing, torn between missing the faith she once clung to and resenting how it broke her spirit. Another woman, still active in the church, flinched at her words, feeling attacked and unseen.
I didn’t correct either of them. I didn’t mediate with platitudes or redirect the topic. I leaned in.
I asked the grieving one, “What do you wish someone would’ve said to you back then?”
And I asked the other, softly, “What are you afraid this conversation is taking from you?”
The room shifted. Not into agreement, but into tenderness. We didn’t find peace by erasing differences… we found it by naming pain. And in that rawness, something sacred cracked open… mutual humanity.
It’s not my job to force healing. But I can create the conditions where it’s safe to begin. I don’t lead with any religious doctrine… I lead
with dignity. Something instilled in many. Naturally and sometimes overflowing within them. I hold space for contradiction, for mess, and for silence. Because I know firsthand how powerful it is to be truly witnessed, and how life-changing it can be to finally feel seen… not for what you’ve survived, but for how you’re still choosing to love.
I have found peace despite many hardships. One evening I remember, I was folding laundry while music played softly in the background. My children were laughing in the next room, and my husband was reading on the couch. A golden sunset poured through the windows, casting everything in a soft, forgiving glow.
I paused for a moment, just to take it in.
I used to crave dramatic moments of healing… big cathartic breakthroughs, sweeping declarations of closure, both being more constant... But healing, I’ve learned, lives in the mundane. In choosing not to argue when I’m tired. In offering grace when it’s easier to blame. In returning, again and again, in realizing that life is up and down and never constant, and in returning to the question… What would peace choose here?
That evening wasn’t perfect. The kids would argue later, and the dishes would pile up. But I felt something unshakable in my chest… a kind of settledness. A knowing. That the war zone I came from does not define the home I’m building. That love… real, raw, enduring love, is a series of small and often beautifully powerful choices.
The war zone of my childhood, as I have stated, could have severely shaped me into another bearer of inherited violence. But I chose to become a translator of pain, a builder of bridges, and a sort of alchemist turning generational suffering into empathy.
It is a revolution.
That is the art of my quiet war. That is the triumph of my gentle victory.
I am no longer surviving. I am living. And in doing so, I am teaching
my children, my community, and continually myself that peace is not a myth. It is not passive. It is not weak.
One that begins in kitchens and classrooms and quiet walks. One that grows in every moment we choose compassion over control, patience over pride and truth over triumph. One that ripples gently but powerfully into the next generation.
“The future depends on what we do in the present.”
