It’s Memorial Day again, just like it is every year. And every year we have new deaths and severe injuries among our dedicated and courageous military men and women, and among civilians who also fall victim to violence and wars.
What is the way to show the most respect for our dead and injured? Wouldn’t it be, besides remembering them and respecting them and their sacrifices while defending their country and protecting each other, to do what we can to see that the number of deaths and injuries due to violence and war diminishes to the lowest possible numbers going forward?
While many wars and much violence has, in fact, been prevented by incredibly resourceful negotiations and bargaining during my lifetime, it is still true that the number of deaths due to violence and war during my 77 years probably has exceeded 100 million humans killed, most of them civilians, around the world, and untold millions have suffered severe physical and mental trauma, loss of loved ones, property and the life they were leading prior to the violence and wars.
Those facts, including the truth that century-old conflicts have been resolved by peaceful negotiations and bargaining, led to my book, The Peace Prescription, published in 2009. The book tells how violence and wars have been prevented, and tells how others could have been prevented, and how others can be prevented going forward. All of us can play a role.
One example, from the book, of a war that could have been prevented: The American Civil War killed over 600,000 Americans, more than have been killed in all other wars combined. The war caused enormous troubles and costs to Americans besides those deaths. It could have been prevented.
Before the war started, it was widely known that a considerable number of Blacks enslaved in the South had been able to earn some money doing side jobs, with the permission of their “owners”, and then used their savings to buy their freedom by paying their “owners” at least as much money as the slave-owners would need to pay to replace them with new slaves.
So, the idea was raised: Why not buy the freedom of all the slaves, and then the plantation owners would be able to afford to hire non-slave help? That way, the plantation owners, who had not broken existing laws at the time by buying slaves, would not have been economically punished by the end of slavery, and no war would have started at their insistence. Why didn’t this happen? Some Northerners argued “successfully” that it would be unethical to pay for the freedom of the slaves! But, I guess that meant it wasn’t unethical not to prevent the deaths of over 600,000 Americans, or to spend more money on the war than the freedom of the slaves would have cost.
If the Peace Law, advocated in The Peace Prescription as one of the Five Steps to prevent violence and wars, had existed in Europe during the 1930’s, Adolph Hitler would have been kept in jail as a serious and dangerous advocate of violence, war, and genocide, instead of being released, which allowed him to “accomplish” those three things. 50,000,000 lives lost in World War II, and so much more misery, may have been avoided. The Peace Law still doesn’t exist anywhere on the Planet, but it could.
Meanwhile, let’s remember and honor all those who have died while defending us. But, then let’s move on to create the worldwide peace maintenance environment that can only happen when large numbers of ordinary citizens, everywhere, get involved to carry out the Five Steps in The Peace Prescription. It’s worth a try! Failing to try means failing for sure.
Thanks for reading this Blog
Your friendly problem solver,
Dr. Ed
I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thank you for allowing me to comment!
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I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding
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Talk soon!
You are great philospher and a great person. I think you are very smart and thanks for the food for my mind.
Thank you. Sorry it took so long to see your comment.
Dr Ed
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Mari,
Sorry I had trouble getting notified about comment messages sent to me, such as yours. If you still need the information,
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Dr Ed