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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #126, March/April, 2003. Related articles from this issue: |
Nobel Prize Winner Issues Peace Challenge |
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The Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 was awarded to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social develop-ment.” Here is what he said in the last part of his acceptance speech. I thought often during my years in the White House of an admonition that we received in our small school in Plains, Georgia, from a beloved teacher, Miss Julia Coleman. She often said, “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.” When I was a young boy, this same teacher also introduced me to Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. She interpreted that powerful narrative as a reminder that the simple human attributes of goodness and truth can overcome great power. She also taught us that an individual is not swept along on a tide of inevitability but can influence even the greatest human events. The Nobel prize also profoundly magnified the inspiring global influence of Martin Luther King, Jr. On the steps of our memorial to Abraham Lincoln, Dr. King said, “I have a dream that on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.” The scourge of racism has not been vanquished, either in the red hills of our state or around the world. And yet we see ever more frequent manifestations of his dream of racial healing. In a symbolic but very genuine way...it is coming true in Oslo today. The unchanging principles of life predate modern times. I worship Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace. As a Jew, he taught us to cross religious boundaries, in service and in love. He repeatedly reached out and embraced Roman conquerors, other Gentiles, and even the more despised Samaritans. But the present era is a challenging and disturbing time for those whose lives are shaped by religious faith based on kindness toward each other. We have been reminded that cruel and inhuman acts can be derived from distorted theological beliefs, as suicide bombers take the lives of innocent human beings, draped falsely in the cloak of God’s will. With horrible brutality, neighbors have massacred neighbors in Europe, Asia and Africa. In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions. Once we characterize our adversaries as beyond the scope of God’s mercy and grace, their lives lose all value. We deny personal responsibility when we plant land mines and, days or years later, a stranger to us--often a child--is crippled or killed. From a distance, we launch bombs or missiles with almost total impunity, and never want to know the number or identity of the victims. War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live in peace by killing each other’s children. The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes--and we must. Copyright The Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, 2002. Used by permission. |
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