ON MY SERIOUS SIDE: WHERE DID ALL THE PEACEMAKERS GO?

Cal Samra

ON MY SERIOUS SIDE

WHERE DID ALL THE PEACEMAKERS GO?

By Cal Samra
Editor & Publisher
The Joyful Noiseletter

Has the world gone mad? In Russia and Ukraine, Eastern Orthodox Christians in both countries are bombing and killing civilians on a scale not seen since World War II. In the Holy Land, the hot-headed leaders of the Palestinians in Gaza committed a barbaric assault on Israel, killing and taking hostage hundreds of Israeli civilians. The vengeful Israelis responded with the extensive bombing of Gaza, killing 18,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Ironically, both the Jews and the Palestinians are Semites. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the healer, was a Semite. Most of Jesus' Apostles were Semites. Semites gave the world many of its greatest religions.

And yet the ugly face of anti-Semitism has emerged again in the U.S.A. and Europe, reminiscent of the years before World War II.

It hasn't been officially acknowledged by the powers-that-be in Washington, but there is an epidemic of madness and violence of all kinds in America, especially rampant gun violence and traffic violence. This terrible epidemic has struck our schools, colleges, houses of worship, governing bodies, courts, stores, clubs, ballparks, dance halls, parades, and streets, taking many innocent lives. Sometimes it seems our society is on the edge of anarchy. Some see our plight as the devil having a field day.

Our feuding and uncompromising political leaders still haven't learned the lesson that violence and wars only plant the seeds for more violence and wars in future generations.

We still haven't learned that our problems are spiritual and moral failings, not psychological. It's all about how people treat other people, and how they treat themselves.

On a recent Sunday, I attended a Protestant church service. Afterwards, I mentioned to the pastor that I was surprised that there were no prayers for peace in Russia-Ukraine, in the Holy Land, or in America. He agreed that there should be prayers for peace every Sunday.

A week later, I attended a Catholic Church and mentioned afterwards to the priest that I was surprised that there were no prayers for peace in Russia-Ukraine, the Holy Land, or America. He, too, agreed that there should be such prayers every Sunday.

Where are the peacemakers in our society and the world, I wondered? Are there so few peacemakers that we've forgotten who they are and how they think and behave?

I searched out information on the lives and views of some of the great peacemakers of modern times and past centuries. I found that they were mainly centrists who respected other people's views. They were forgiving folks, and they all shared one thing in common: courage. Maybe we can learn something from them.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1945)

Gandhi, a Hindu who lived an ascetic, self-sacrificing lifestyle, was a spiritual as well as a political leader who brought the squabbling and hostile religious and secular factions of India together, leading to India's independence from England. It was Gandhi who famously said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

It is not generally known that Gandhi was strongly influenced by the pacifist writings of the Russian Orthodox writer Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy (l869-1910)

Tolstoy, as a young man, was an artillery officer in the Czar's Russian army during the Crimean War. He was appalled by the brutality and deaths in the war and left the army.

He developed a concept of nonviolence and became one of the greatest authors of all time. He had a profound influence on Gandhi.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1963)

Dr. King sought heroically to build bridges between the races and guide them to a peaceful resolution of their differences. He was the heart and soul of the civil rights movement. "We must live together as brothers or parish together as fools," he declared. He also served as president of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights.

Will Rogers (1879-1935)

My all-time favorite journalist was Will Rogers, the great Native-American humorist who was loved by both conservatives and liberals. This grinning, biracial, Cherokee Indian cowboy from Oklahoma kept our nation laughing through the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Will Rogers held the secret of banishing gloom, of making tears give way to laughter, of supplanting desolation and despair with hope and courage."

Politicians from both parties invited Rogers to run for President on their ticket, but he refused.

Raised a Methodist, he was ecumenical in his respect for all faith traditions. He advised: "Hunt out and talk about the good that is in the other fellow's church, and you will do away with all the religious hatred you hear so much of today." Rogers was a peacemaker, a healer.

When Rogers died in 1935 in an airplane crash, the entire nation mourned. Over 100,000 mourners walked by Roger's casket at his ecumenical funeral, His memorial service was presided over by a Protestant minister, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish singer who sang a Hebrew mourning chant. Mexican-Americans nearby placed a memorial wreath in their neighborhood. An African-American group joined a parade in Rogers' honor. In Oklahoma, Cherokee Indians performed a death dance in his honor.

Will Rogers had a loving heart, He was fair-minded, He never became obsessed with the bad news of his times. He had credibility with the American people. "We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others," Rogers said.

Rogers requested that the following epitaph appear on his gravestone: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't like."

In these tumultuous times, we could all learn from Will Rogers. He was a sane and believable voice who had a talent for bringing people together.

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet, was born in Lebanon, a Maronite Catholic. His Lebanese Semitic parents set an example for Gibran by refusing to perpetuate prejudice and bigotry in their daily lives.

Gibran came to the United States in 1911, about the same time my own Lebanese father – an Eastern Orthodox Christian Semite – came to the U.S. and both were happy to become U.S. citizens. My father remembers Gibran telling some newly arrived Lebanese immigrants: "Ask not what your country can for do you; rather, ask what you can do for your country." Decades later, President John F. Kennedy used that line in one of his campaign speeches.

In 1923, Gibran published his famous book of poetry, The Prophet, which became one of the best-selling books of all time. Both Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash were great fans of Gibran.

Gibran was a gentle, soft-spoken man who also had been influenced by the Islamic Sufis and the Bahai faith, and had a strong belief in the fundamental unity of all religions, though he remained a Christian.

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis lived a wild and self-indulgent life as a rich young man. He joined a military expedition and was taken captive for a year.

A mental vision of Jesus transformed his life, and he determined to live a life of of poverty as an itinerant preacher. He was a peacemaker, a healer, a patron and protector of animals, and a nature lover.

Loyal to the Catholic Church, he nonetheless was disturbed by the battles and slaughters during the Crusades. In 1219, he went to Egypt, where a Christian army was encamped, to see the Muslim Caliph with the hope of putting an end to the conflicts of the Fifth Crusade.

He preached to the Caliph, who received him graciously, and gave the Franciscans access to the Christian holy sites in the Middle East. Francis was the founder of the order of Franciscans.

St. Francis and St. Catherine of Siena were designated the patron saints of Italy.

There have been many other extraordinary peacemakers, men and women, in American history and in the history of other countries down through the centuries.

We all know that Moses led the Jews from bondage in Egypt to the Holy Land, but if you read Exodus in the Old Testament carefully, you will also see that Moses was bringing, in the Ten Commandments, a message of peace, sanity, health, and healing to the Israelis. Moses was also a peacemaker and a healer.

A lot of people know the Ten Commandments. A lot of people don't know them.

Here they are (Exodus 20:2-l7):

l. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall make no idols.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4. Keep the sabbath day holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land.

6. You shall not kill.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

In my long lifetime (I am almost 93), I have been blessed with many dear Jewish friends, and Palestinian Muslim friends, and Russian and Ukrainian friends, all of whom I cherish and pray for their safety and well-being.

I often pray the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are

born to eternal life."

During this holy season and in the New Year, perhaps it would bring some sanity to these troubled and violent times if ALL houses of worship of ALL faith traditions recited at their services the Ten Commandments and the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assissi.

Can you imagine the spiritual power that would generate worldwide? It might even send a message to all of our ferocious and uncompromising politicians that we poor, little folks cherish peace in our country and in the world.

(Nonagenarian Cal Samra has been the editor and publisher of The Joyful Noiseletter, an ecumenical humor newsletter for the past 39 years. He is a former staffer for The New York Herald Tribune, The Newark (NJ) Evening News, The Associated Press, The Ann Arbor News, and The Battle Creek Enquirer. Anyone may access some of The Joyful Noiseletter's humor, cartoons, and inspirational articles on its Facebook Good Noise Blog at http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com.