Inspirations & Models for Roles of Peacemakers
When I think of role models, or those who have inspired me, Einstein, Twain, and Schweitzer are at the top of my list. When I look at their photos together, there is definitely a common thread, and I smile.
But from an early age, my favorite has been Albert Schweitzer. First for his “Reverence for Life” philosophy. As a sixth grader I could only see it as it applied for his compassion for all creatures, after all I was going to be a veterinarian — right up until my freshman year at college when I bumped heads with chemistry. Knocked me right out of that playing field into the one social work.
Schweitzer started to have more meaning to me later in high school and then in college during the “war” years of Vietnam.
Today, my spirit being pulled under with the craziness and inhumanity of our world, needing a little more inspiration, I pulled out my pocket version of “Reverence for Life” and reread his lecture, “The Problem of Peace”, given in Oslo for his 1952 Nobel Peace Award (received for the work he did building a hospital for those with leprosy in Africa). How his message is so important for today. I always appreciated the simplicity of his words and the passion behind them. His lecture ends with these words:
“In the name of all who toil in the cause of peace, I beg the peoples to take the first step along this new highway. Not one of them will lose a fraction of the power necessary for their own defense.
If we take this step to liquidate the injustices of the war which we have just experienced, we will instill a little confidence in all people. For any enterprise, confidence is the capital without which no effective work can be carried on. It creates in every sphere of activity conditions favoring fruitful growth. In such an atmosphere of confidence thus created we can begin to seek an equitable settlement of the problems caused by the two wars.
I believe that I have expressed the thoughts and hopes of millions of men who, in our part of the world, live in fear of war to come. May my words convey their intended meaning if they penetrate to the other part of the world — the other side of the trench — to those who live there in the same fear.
May the men who hold the destiny of peoples in their hands, studiously avoid anything that might cause the present situation to deteriorate and become even more dangerous. May they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men”. These words are valid not only for individuals, but for nations as well. May these nations, in their efforts to maintain peace, do their utmost to give the spirit time to grow and to act.”
The full speech can be read here:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-lecture.html
