January 29, 2007

Ingredients for Peace

On Tuesday, January 23, five American civilians were killed in Baghdad after their chopper crashed. Helicopter pilot Arthur Laguna was among those killed.

Today, his daughter returned to the high school she attends. Her classmates organized a brief ceremony to welcome her back, and invited me to speak. Here's what I told them.

Today I see the ingredients for peace. The ingredients for war are resentment, grudges, egos, disrespect, miscommunication, and bad feelings. These ingredients exist not just in war zones, but even here at school.

But today I see the ingredients for peace. The ingredients for peace are support, encouragment, reconciliation. You have organized this gathering, and it includes the ingredients for peace.

Continue to support your classmate. Continue to support one another. The best way to honor those who have died is to work for peace right now, right here, in your lives, in your community. The world can learn a lot from your example.

I post this in the hopes that the previous sentence is true.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, Danny.