Cities of Peace

I’ve been following a Facebook page called Baghdad City of Peace Carnival. I have also been following the disturbing events of terror over the last few months brought on by extreme extremists. (When Al Qaeda declares you are even too extreme, you must be extremists in the truest sense of the word.) I’ve always been a bit of a news junkie, but lately I find myself keeping a closer eye on these issues. Perhaps it is because I now have family there or because I’m married to a brownie whom I adore, which makes it more personal, but perhaps I’m also finally awakening to the realization that we are truly all in this thing together.

This organization puts together a carnival to celebrate the UN’s World Peace Day (September 21, 2014) Think about that for a moment. In a city that is wreaked with havoc, there is a group of people that put together a day to focus on peace. I have to wonder if the organizers are putting themselves into harm’s way, by boldly organizing this day of peace. You know what that tells me? The world’s people want peace.

We war, and then we war, and then we war some more. Is it doing any good? Although I haven’t always felt this way, I have my doubts. My heart has grown tired of the violence, and I have found myself questioning the violence to combat violence mentality. I see Palestinians who want peace, I see Israelis who want peace; I see Ukrainians, Russians, Americans, Iraqis, French, Turks, even those aggressive Canadians who want peace. (Since I am called Canadian at least once a week, I admittedly took some sarcastic liberties with that joke.)

Who wants the wars? Who schedules the wars? What are the motives behind the wars? What are the real motives behind the wars? Who ends up dying in these bloody wars?

There is a video of Baghdad City of Peace that I’ll post here. The first minute is in Arabic, which is a beautiful language, so just listen. After the speaking, it moves into a song. The faces. Pay attention to the faces. Within this organization, these small faces have role models who are not advocating war and violence, but peace. We owe it to these and all the small faces to be peace.

It is so easy to dwindle the issues of this world down to black and white, right and wrong, us and them, and pick sides as if we’re playing some sort of sport. But this isn’t a sport. Ferguson, Missouri isn’t a game, and Baghdad, Iraq sure as hell isn’t a game. It is people’s lives, their children, their brothers, sisters, mothers we’re talking about and just because we are somewhat removed from the situations doesn't mean we can sit back and do nothing.  As John Stewart says, “You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how f*cking exhausting it is living it.”

...and just because I love the international phenomenon of this song: Happy--Baghdad style.