Day 7: One World Project

To build peace is one thing. To strive to be non-violent in every way is a whole different ball game altogether. This week, we worked on questioning the choices we make in the words we use, in the language we situate our needs, and in the way we refer to each other.

The following letters were written by children from grades 6, 7, and 8, respectively. They shoot straight from the heart, and get right down to business: but not without the gentle innocence and compassion that’s so inherent in them. The group that wrote to Trump chose to call him “Trumpy Boy” and “Donald” because they felt that he would respond to love. The group that wrote to Kim Jong Un chose to do away with a formal letter format because they thought he has “too many procedures in his life anyway.” And the group that wrote to the world leaders who seem intent on developing nuclear weapons fell back on history because “never again” holds an important lesson for the world to learn from every day.

I remember when I read The Diary of Anne Frank for the first time. I remember thinking to myself that she had to be incredibly unique: it seemed too amazing that a child could think like that. Today, that feeling rises in my heart with full force even as Anne’s legacy peeks out from these pages before me.

As I sift through these sheets, read them, and look at the writing until they blur into one with my tears, a knot of powerful energy whispers a beautiful truth in my ears: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart.”