September 2, 2011 – Delighted, inspired, quizzical, angered.
These were all emotions that I felt as I watched the One Day of Peace TED talk. One of my first thoughts was of the quote found in Peter Block’s book Community: The Structure of Belonging “A possibility is brought into being in the act of declaring it.”
I was thrilled that someone had announced that they had implemented a day of peace. Now that the idea has been put out into the open, more people will hear about it and it will continue to spread. Instead of people thinking about how to make an impact and feeling alone, they have a community to go to and share their visions.
Partway through the talk Gilley mentioned how when his team goes into a community they talk mainly with the women and children. This is similar to what Heifer International does when they work with a new village. Instead of teaching the head of the family, the male, how to raise the animals and make a living from it, Heifer shows the women how.
This helps to both raise the status of the women in their society and ensures that the profit made from the livestock goes directly to the family and is not squandered. I found it interesting how more and more organizations are following this method of interacting with the women instead of the men.
It is not done with the intent to devalue the male role in the family, but to bring light to the fact that women and children, who are typically considered subordinate to men, have a high potential for change. Instead of waiting for the men to make a change through war or endless debates in politics, the women can find their voices and through grassroots efforts make lasting impacts.
I was inspired by the idea of women changing their community and bringing peace and wealth to their family through the use of their voice. It made me wonder what impacts my voice could have.
I was shocked when I heard that the violence level dropped 70 percent in Afghanistan on the day of peace. I could not believe that the Taliban would send a letter agreeing to not make any offensive maneuvers on that day. They were willing to lay down their guns so that humanitarians could come in and help children, elderly and the sick.
I was shocked and wondering why this could only happen on one day. If the Taliban were willing to observe a cease fire for one day, would they be willing to extend it for a longer amount of time so the leaders could talk and discuss their differences?
Why couldn’t we extend this one day into two or three days? How could the common citizen observe this idea in their daily life? Instead of getting angered at coworkers and fighting verbally, could they use the ideas of peace and deal with their problem a different way?
Anger. It seems a bit odd that my emotions ranged from delight to anger in the span of a 17 minute talk.
When the talk was over I was angry that it took this long for a peace movement to catch on in my lifetime. Why had none of the recent peace attempts worked and how long will it take for this one to become a fad of the past? Why is humanity ok with sending people to die to solve their problems. It isn’t just our soldiers who die in these confrontations, but also the local citizens.
Children playing in the streets, mothers walking to the market, grandfathers sitting outside the house. They all become the innocent victims, but not on the day of peace. Instead, they are able to get medical attention, walk down the street, and play outside without the fear of being shot by a stray bullet. I wanted more change to happen and for it to happen now.
Although I was left with negative thoughts, overall this TED talk had a positive impact. It was the success story of a man with a vision and a dream who was willing to fight against the odds to gain peace. It reminded me how there are people in our world who are making small changes every day and one day their actions might just catch on and have a global effect.
-Lisa (CA)