How to Be a Peacemaker

EASTON — “How can you define the word peace?” asks Colman McCarthy, director of the Center for World Peace in Washington, D.C. “Peace is the result of love.”
McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist and dedicated pacifist, spoke April 23 to a small audience at the Avalon Theatre about how to become a peacemaker.

Colman McCarthy, director of the Center for World Peace in Washington, D.C., spoke on how to be a peacemaker at the Avalon Theatre, on April 23, 2014.

After an introduction by Rev. Nancy Sajda, a member of P.E.A.C.E. of Talbot County, an organization created to promote peaceful interactions within the community, McCarthy asked the audience to join him in a moment of silence to “Remember all the people here today, on this strange little planet, who have been, or will be, victimized by violence.”

McCarthy, who teaches several classes on nonviolent conflict resolution to all age groups through the Center for World Peace, as well as at American University and Georgetown Law School, spoke about what individuals can do within their own communities, and even their own households, to increase peace and decrease violence.

“We won the birth lottery,” to be born in the US, McCarthy said, citing examples of other countries without access to proper health care, social programs and other fundamental human rights. “What do we do with our good fortune?”

McCarthy, emulating the title of one of his six books on the subject, “I’d Rather Teach Peace,” suggests learning the works of great humanitarians such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi, and then sharing that knowledge within one’s own community, teaching children and adults nonviolent conflict resolution techniques.

Kids go to conventional schools, said McCarthy.
“Where they teach everything but non violence. We graduate high school peace illiterates.”

“We don’t teach our children the way to be peaceful,” McCarthy said. “And if we don’t teach them peace, someone else will teach them violence.”

While the perception of peacekeepers generally evokes ideas of military and war, or civil rights movements, McCarthy says it is also important to stop the wars at home.

Domestic violence, emotional violence, political violence, sexual violence, and even verbal violence are problems in every community — even those as small and seemingly peaceful as Easton, McCarthy said.

“When people ask ‘how can I become a peacemaker?’” McCarthy said, “You start right where you are.

Ed Simonoff, President of P.E.A.C.E. of Talbot County, concludes Colman McCarthy’s talk on how to be a peacemaker, inviting the audience to join P.E.A.C.E. in their local efforts.

“How can we make a difference?” asked McCarthy. “Be different.”

McCarthy has been a lifelong pacifist, he said, growing up on Long Island the son of an immigration lawyer who regularly took in people who had come to America with nothing, and he grew up wondering what had brought these people to such hard times. He was further influenced by his experience as a student at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., the first college to integrate in the south. Living the ideals he teaches in the classroom, McCarthy also works to end animal cruelty and is a vegetarian.

McCarthy’s talk was sponsored by P.E.A.C.E. of Talbot County, which donated $1,000 to the Center for World Peace. Ed Simonoff, president of P.E.A.C.E. concluded the event by encouraging the audience to treat their neighbors with kindness, to help one another, and to join the P.E.A.C.E. organization to promote the peaceful community.

P.E.A.C.E. continues to coordinate several programs in the area, including the Alternative to Violence Project and the Multicultural Festival, now under the direction of the Avalon Foundation, set to occur this Saturday, May 3rd, at Idlewild Park in Easton. 

From left: Bruce Butler, founder of P.E.A.C.E. of Talbot County, Colman McCarthy, Rev. Nancy Sajda, Ed Simonoff, and Rev. William Chilton.

To learn more about P.E.A.C.E. of Talbot County, go to www.talbotcountypeace.org.

“If you want to change the world,” said McCarthy, “There’s one simple, sacred, one-syllable word: Start.”