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Peace Makers

Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores
George Hirst
Let us be peace makers December 29, 2009

This the season when we speak, sing and celebrate “Peace on Earth", but peace on earth does not come: carols, sermons, gifts and gatherings do not produce permanent peace.
The peace celebration ends with Jan. 6 and we return to our usual ways of living. I would like you to consider being year round peacemakers.

Thomas Cahil wrote a series of books that spoke of the events and people who contributed to the practices and methods of the way we live.

The Greek leadership when they found themselves on the brink of battle, called what Cahil calls a "campground meeting" in which soldiers, town leadership and heads of government met and strategized on how to go to war. Such a meeting helped create the unrivaled killing machine of Greek Warfare.

This is the lesson the rest of the world uses to go to war. “Cold calculation and rational planning, not heroic, rhetoric or mystical faith has served as the principal weapon of the Western Military Machine.” P 46 Sailing in the Dark Sea, Thomas Cahil

I am convinced that if we brought people together from all places and strategized on making peace with the same fervor, not wishful, with cold calculation and rational planning we would make living in peace a way of life.

Every one of us needs to believe in peace that is, be at peace in our personal life and be able to talk about it. When we meet with other people, we need to be at peace with them, that is, accept them as they are. Differences are all right but, we do not have to agree with their ways.

Peace for us is not a wishful thought. Peace has to be planned. Wars have a cost that is calculated. So peace has a cost for me, the cost of having no enemies. This means that there are persons different from me but, I do not let them become enemies. It is expensive to find no fault and, to find good things in our world.

As I sit here in Arizona, at a laptop looking out a window at a sunny warm day, at cactus and palms, I think of you at home looking out a window at Midwest winter. All of us need to see the good where we are. We also need to find respect and value in everyone we meet.

In closing, I would remind you that our faith tells of peace on earth for all people, let us be at peace with the whole world. I wish for you and your friends a peaceful Christmas season so full of peace that it becomes an important issue of every day of the year.

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Created by KKris. Last Modification: Saturday 02 of January, 2010 08:48:21 EST by KKris.