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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 18, 2006 Give Peace House a chance By Andrew Scot Bolsinger Ashland Daily Tidings Since when did peace become so complicated? From the start. From the very first time someone brought up the idea that there is a better way than war. World history assures us creative over destructive is bound to earn cackles just about every time. An important Anabaptist book from 20 years ago advocates such an approach to life. Appropriately named, "The Upside Down Kingdom," the book shows how even in this zany world of commercialism, ambition, and unbridled zest for power, people can live upside down, in a giving, caring and peaceful way. But even still, yes, peace is complicated. Perhaps Tom Hanks said it best in the classic comedy, "A League of Our Own." "If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it. It's the hard that makes it great." Peace is hard, yet very essential. And not just the big picture, pull-the-troops-out-of-Iraq kind of peace. The ideological world peace that is little more than a philosophy. There is very little hard about that. My experience with the complications of peace go all the way back to my earliest college years at a quaker college. My professor was a kind yet strident promoter of peace who actually mentored then Sen. Mark O. Hatfield. He challenged me to explore pacifism. For an entire semester-long course I studied nothing else. I've never underestimated the complications and difficulty of peace since. A verse from the New Testament says, "Live in peace, as much as it depends on you." Even the writers of a holy book knew you can't just say, "live in peace." It depends on others and anytime two humans are together it is not easy. Ironically, I learned during that time that many of those who espoused great notions of world peace were some of the most interpersonally hostile people I met. Their "passion" or "calling" or "mission" became a built-in excuse for being rude, angry and overbearing. My professor argued for a better way built on a philosophy rooted in the here and now. Live in peace, as much as it depends on you with your spouse, your parents, your friends, your co-worker. Employ bold principles of peace in your approach to conflict at home and work and with your neighbors. In other words, you have to "live" the peace, not just talk it. A long-standing agency of peace in our community is trying to do just that. Peace House's troubles are one of those little secrets that most everyone knows. After years of cultivating a creative image of peace, its own destructive forces played out against itself. Peace within the organization became a source of conflict. For the last couple of years the board has tried to return to its roots. Holly East was hired to rebuild the peace organization on the concepts of peace. Inclusivity, tolerance, education and peaceful work in the community became the direction. The move has cost Peace House many supporters who prefer more aggressive and confrontational tactics. The organization's move toward greater interpersonal peace has cost it the support it needs to do so. Peace House is conducting an extensive membership drive to rebuild its support base. Without a good response, the organization may close its doors. If that happens, this complicated process of living more peacefully with each other in this city will get more difficult indeed. Current Comments: Thanks for the supportive editorial for Peace House. So many of us have come together over the years to make Peace a unique and solid center of our peace aspirations. All should support their membership drive and pitch in. It has never been a more critical time Rich Rohde - Ashland OR - October 18th, 4:37 PM Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.