PEACE Has Lost its Voice
It was hard enough for PEACE to be heard again since it does not have a voice like bombs.
They are heard everywhere they are dropped, blasting out the voices of humans. And, often, it was humans who gave voice to PEACE. Wise rulers, philosophers and spiritual leaders gave voice to PEACE in ancient times. During the Vietnam War era, young people. Musicians, and even politicians gave voice to PEACE. And, consequently, the peace movement was effective in ending the Vietnam War. A U.S. president gave voice to PEACE, Jimmy Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, then oddly, became derisively dismissed even within his own party, with his voice effectively binned to history.
PEACE is not like war in that it cannot speak through loud and bombastic destruction. If it has its own voice, it is very quiet and possibly only able to be heard where there are no violent screams. We tend to think of PEACE being located in nature and its voice manifested in the moving water of streams, rivers and oceans or in the wind making its own voice heard through blowing objects. We also tend to think of PEACE being located deep inside ourselves and made audible with pleasurable sound.
Wars destroy PEACE. The forests of Vietnam have not recovered from the war that ended just over fifty years ago. The ongoing conflict in Syria is taking an horrendous toll on forested areas, armed groups having removed sixty percent of the trees in Northern Aleppo. (Syria’s Forests Decimated by 12 Years of War, 21 March 2023, paxforpeace.nl) Where conflict has raged in Ukraine, forests are off-limits to the public until landmines and unexploded ordnances can be safely removed. Whether conflict is in forested areas or in the desert, what we have witnessed is a huge range contraction for humans seeking peace in nature and worse, for those seeking survival during war.
Fewer human are carrying the voice of PEACE in the United States, and for the few who continue to bravely advocate for PEACE, the sound of their voices does not travel far. It encounters the most resistant blockade in the history of our country. The voices of war have relegated the voices of PEACE to whisperers during saturation bombing.
Mary Troy Johnston, Ph.D.
