A Nation’s Peace

Aaron Hoeltke

Human blood stains the very ground we walk on. It is in the food we eat, and in the air we breathe. Countless numbers of innocent fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters have been lost over the petty arguments between nations over land disputes, religious wars, and ethical arguments. This is the world we live in. Ever since mankind made its way upon this earth, there have been conflicts that inspire it to wage war on its neighbor. Wars that come in many forms from small family feuds, to gang wars on the streets of our cities, to large-scale global wars fought by all nations. The fact of the matter still remains that blood is being shed throughout the world. We as a people need to realize that we are all interconnected by a common bond, humanity. Every person on this earth, no matter how culturally diverse, is still human. We make human mistakes, have human frailties, and have human emotion. It is humanity that causes our differences and incite these wars that are plucking our loved ones from our arms, but it is also humanity that allows us to see that all nations can be united if we learn to settle our differences in non violent fashion. Peace can be achieved throughout the world but only through a global effort that unites each nation equally.

Within our nations today we see disputes over land, religious conflicts, equality issues, and economic states that do not seem to be changing for the better. We hear so many of our leaders telling us that they have plans to make things better, but until those plans are put into action, they are merely words. Without these plans being set into motion, we can never expect to see a difference in the state of the world. Some plans may not work, but more can be deciphered through trial and error than could ever be hoped from pencil and paper. No one will ever know just how a society will react to a condition unless it is put upon that society.

The act of applying plans of peace must be a global effort in which all nations participate equally. We cannot expect a plan such as world peace to work unless there is the cooperation from all sides. We as a people must set aside our differences for the common good. There is not a nation in this world that will not benefit from equality and peace, from the United States to the most remote regions of Africa.

We cannot expect there to be equality among nations if we do not even have equality within our nations. We live in a world of cultural diversity and narrow-minded people. The person is a very open minded and understanding being, but people as a whole tend to be close minded, and ridiculing of those that are different from themselves. Therefore, the issue of global peace must begin on an individual basis within nations. People must realize that we are not each other’s enemies but rather supporters for a common goal. It is very difficult to change a person’s mind once they have become set in their ways, but we must work on an action to change the beliefs of future generations, setting the peace plan into motion. This action may include the way our children are taught in schools, opening them up to more of the world than their immediate surroundings. We must teach them the many different ways of the many types of people in this world. In order to reach third world nations a global school system may be a way of reaching these children, a school system where the developed nations of the world can unite in a common goal of educating the world on the many different aspects of their societies. Our future generations must learn to overlook someone’s ethnicity and culture and focus on the fact that they are human, as is everyone else on this planet.

Achieving peace will be a long and tedious task, but it is a task that must be set into motion. As I look around this world of wars and violence, I cannot help but think of how our children will look back at our generation. Will they see us as a group that has done nothing to change the mistakes that have been made in our planet, or will they see us as a group that has set into motion a plan that will change the entire world for the better? The leaders of the nations need to set aside petty disputes and quarrels and meet with the common goal of finally creating a world of unity and peace if not for the sake of the immediate generation, then for the generations that follow. Let us not be a society that watches things happen around us, but let us make things happen. If no other nation is willing to be the first to work on a world uniting peace plan, then we must be the first. Let our example be the step towards finally achieving what seemed an impossible goal not long ago.

With the technological advances such as computers, microchips, and robotics we should be able to devise a new product that would better help us to achieve our goal of peace. Too many manufacturers create products aimed for uses in the military, instead on focusing on the most important goal of developing products that will help us to no longer need the military. We see games that are aimed at warfare and killing that are just brain washing our future generations into believing that this “violence solves everything” approach is correct. Violence solves nothing except the egotistical question of “whom has the stronger military?” Problems between nations can be solved through deliberations and meetings between the leaders of those nations, with a non-partisan mediator if necessary, instead of, almost instinctively declaring war on a nation with an opposing view on a topic. Violence is the root of the problems in this world today. It spawns itself creating a vicious chain that can only end when the chain is broken. We need to step up and break that chain.

Once one nation takes the initiative and initializes some sort of peace plan within its nation, others will follow hoping to recreate success. From there, conferences and deliberations can be set to unite all nations for a common good of world peace. Once those nations have been established they will no longer have need for a military, thus eliminating war on a large scale. On the smaller scale; the people that live within those nations will see from example that violence is no longer needed in society to solve disagreements helping to bring about peace for future generations. The plan, whatever it may be, needs to start here and now, so we may have a stable platform on which future generations can build. If we do so, we can hold our heads high knowing that we will be remembered for our advances, and not our repetition of mistakes created by our predecessors. If we do not, human kind may not survive long enough to look back on the mistakes of our generation.