Week 12/13: Peace

13 weeks ago, I walked through the National Mall on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration and I was moved by the juxtaposition of the political climate and the monuments. Words from FDR, MLK Jr. and JFK spoke directly to me and contradicted the words that I was hearing from the soon-to-be president. I was bewildered as I led 24 students though that experience.

In the past two weeks, an image from that trip has reappeared in my head. It is an image I photographed late on the night of January 18th. We were just finishing the long day that gave me the inspiration to start this blog, and it is literally the last picture I took that day.

       

Korean War Memorial Washington DC

January 18, 2017

On that day, I was not concerned about North Korea. I’m not really sure why I took the picture. Maybe it was because my wife’s grandfather fought in the Korean War, or maybe it was just because those soldiers looked so ominous. Their faces were tired and scared. They looked cold and worn down. Their expressions mirrored my mood as the inauguration approached. I felt pity for them. There they were frozen on an endless patrol in the middle of the Nation’s capital, yet so far away from home.  

Historians call it the forgotten war because no one ever talks about it. So, let’s talk about it: About 36,000 Americans from that war never came home. A small number compared to World War II (about 400,000), but a huge number compared to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (about 7,000 combined).

This generation, my generation doesn’t know what it’s like to lose that many people. Some of us, like my brother-in-laws Matt and Tom, know what it’s like to to fight in wars but us folks on the homefront haven’t experienced a large scale war. To us, war is something that happens in a far away place that only affects the people that “signed up for it.” We’ve never been drafted. We’ve never been bombed.

In the past few weeks, the rhetoric between the United States and North Korea has ramped up significantly. So, the first question my students had for me on Easter Monday after our Spring Break was, “is North Korea going to bomb us?” Even though North Korea has been threatening us for years, this was the first time that my students took notice. Why? I think it was because we threatened back. For years, presidents have heard the outrageous threats from North Korea, and for the most part have ignored them. This is not Trump’s style. He doesn’t know how to deal with bullies.

The number one rule about bullies is; don’t play by their rules. Bullies want to agitate you. They provoke you to see what you will do. Teachers battle this everyday. We tell our students “don’t be provoked.” “Don’t respond to threats on social media.” “If you play by their rules, they win.” So, what does our president do? Play by their rules. He met threats with threats, and that freaked my students out, rightfully so.  

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper for North Korea's ruling Worker's Party, wrote, "In the case of our super-mighty pre-emptive strike being launched, it will completely and immediately wipe out not only U.S. imperialists' invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes," -Reuters.

It’s been 64 years since there was war on the Korean peninsula. Don’t get me wrong: the situation is not good. There is a militarized zone and unfriendly relations. However, there is not a war. I see this as a positive. Wars are devastating. Take another look at the statistics above. Do we want to go that route again? Do we want to make damn sure that this generation knows what it’s like to be drafted? Do we want them to know what’s it’s like to be bombed, or what’s it’s like to worry about being bombed? Between violence in our own streets and terrorism, they’ve got enough to worry about.    

So what can we do about it? What’s our homework this week? The way I see it we can do a lot. This president is swayed by public opinion. Some say that’s good while others say it’s bad. I think it depends on public opinion. If we are indifferent about large scale war on the Korean Peninsula, or anywhere in the world for that matter, then I am afraid that we may slip into one. We must be vocal or before we know it, there will be a draft, we will be bombed or in constant fear of it. The bubble statistic of the next war on the chart above will balloon to the size of the first Korean war, or worse. There are warhawks in Washington that seem willing to go that route, and I am afraid they will gain the ear of the president if we are silent. If we are silent.        

There is one president, 535 members of congress and 12 supreme court justices. On the contrary, there are over 300 million of us. “We the people.” This is our country. We elected these representatives, true, but we still have a voice. They will not fight the war, we will. Our sons. Our daughters. The current high school and college students. Their futures will be put on hold, and many of them will not return. For what? To finish a war that never should have started 67 years ago?

It’s our job to be advocates of peace. As their rhetoric ramps up, so should ours. At school, at work, in our communities, on social media--let’s make it clear to our leaders that we want peace.

The best thing we can do to honor the soldiers stuck on the neverending patrol through the National Mall is to live in peace with our neighbors and be a beacon of peace and liberty to the world.