Teaching Peace

The fall 2004 issue of Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy is a special issue devoted to "teaching peace." There are some interesting things in it, including an article entitled "Conversations in the Blogosphere: Weblogs in Inclusive Pedagogy of Peace and War" by Jo Ann Oravac. But two things caught my attention. The first was in a review article called "Eco-pedagogy: Philosophy and Praxis for a Peaceful World". Below is an excerpt:

For my students at least, the possibility the "war" might include the gross inequities between the industrialized and the developing nations--or practices such as clear-cutting which destroy not only wildlife habitat but the lives of local people; or the targeting of the world's disenfranchised for the siting of waste dumps and landfills; or the continuous, unavoidable, deadly exposure of all organisms to biocides and other toxins in food, water, soil, and air; or the consumerism, globalization, and Wal-martization" which are the underlying causes of all the above--is a novel, unnerving, and often unacceptable concept.
-- Jeri Pollack, "Eco-pedagogy: Philosophy and Praxis for a Peaceful World", Tranformations Vol XV No. 2

That is one sentence. In the first paragraph. There is one even longer in the next paragraph. I think I'm a fairly intelligent guy but by the time I got to the end of the that sentence I could not remember what the beginning was. This was only a five page article but I gave up part way though the second page. I think she had some good things to say but who is going to pay any attention.

That's part of the problem with "us"--the left, the intellectual elite, or whatever they are calling us these days--we can't just say "weapons of mass destruction" or "terrorists" or "flip-flopper" and get six million people to grunt in agreement. We have this need to over-explain everything.

The other piece in this issue that I liked was a poem:

The Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag
we tremble as the fireworks erupt
on the Fourth of July
red, white and blue stars exploding
deafening sounds of friendly fire
helicopters hover above war ships
echoes of jungle warfare, chemical rain
naked children running
through their own rice fields
filled with enemy bombs, not yet detonated
weapons of mass destruction
made in the homeland

of the United States of America
we broke bread with the Indians
the history books tell us
when November rolls around
we eat turkey, give thanks
for food and friends and freedom
we do not tell our children about the slaughtered
the mass graves of men, women, and children
who lived on this land before we did
or those who came here after us, in chains

And to the Republic for which it stands
our forefathers shaped a "finders' keepers" America
we were all created equal:
white, educated, male, land and slave owners only
the blood of wounded spirits, wounded people
stains the flag that our children face
as they recite the pledge each morning

One nation, indivisible
while we cover our blood soaked soil
with rows of identical houses, strip malls,
Wal-Marts, gated communities
and one
big
white
house
filled with "evil doers"
let's remember never to forget
the suffering of the past
the motherless-fatherless children
let's speak for those who were and continue to be
silenced
pledge allegiance to the truth
use your mind as your bow, and your words as your
arrows
to fight the good American fight for peace
with liberty and justice for all

--Maeve D'Arcy

And that is by a seventeen year old student.

Transformations is published semi-annually by the New Jersey Project.