Imagine Living Life in Peace

"I think this cruelty will end and that peace and tranquility will return again."--Anne Frank (1929-1945), victim of Nazi persecution. This chapter focuses on building lasting peace, as in Gandhi's constructive program of domestic and social progress to create positive peace. Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.There is a Zen story about a man on a galloping horse who is asked where he is going. He shouts back 'I don't know, ask the horse'. This is the fate of those who make peace by force but, as in Iraq, have no clear vision of how they are going to re-build a peaceful society.Before setting out on the road to peace it is important to figure out how we will know when we have reached that point. Yes, the guns will have stopped firing and the machetes will be restricted to the fields again, but what else can we foresee? We may only be able to move gradually, even two steps forward and one step back,towards our goals, but we need to know what our goals are and how to measure their attainment. Obviously,elements such as human rights for all are non-negotiable:everyone should have the right to practice their religion; speak their mind and their own language and practice their culture so long as this does not harm anyone else or interfere with other people's freedom. But that, as we have seen, may not be straightforward at all.