The sanctuary was full, the speakers were eloquent, the music was uplifting and we ended early! It was a joy to join together across many faiths and races for the International Day of Peace this past Tuesday. From the children of Trinity Episcopal School leading us in singing, "Let There Be Peace on Earth," to Rev. Casey Kimbrough's thought-provoking address, it was a worship service filled with hope and inspiration. Take some time over the weekend to pour a cup of coffee or a cold glass of water, then sit and relax as you read Katherine Cosburn's 1st place winning essay on peace. After you reflect on her words, take a few more minutes to read the 2nd place essay written by Grace
Anderson and the 3rd place essay written by Brian Lee. You will find yourself inspired! Next week I will share Rev. Dr. Kimbrough's remarks as well.

In the words of one of our Charlotte high school seniors, "Spreading peace is not a formal process, nor is it a proven formula. It requires relationships and greatfriendships. It requires love pushing itself into areas unknown." This weekend, I hope you will be intentional to "push love into areas unknown," and reflect on how you can be a peacemaker.

Shalom, Assalam Waylakum, Peace unto you,

Maria

1st Place Essay - Katherine Cosburn

My grandfather died two days before September 11, 2001. The whole country heard about the twin towers in New York City falling to terrorism. They did not hear about my grandfather's death. The whole country stood witness as the threat of war rapidly ambushed the minds of American citizens. None of those people ever saw the cancer rapidly corroding my Grandpa's body.

At the time of his death, I felt like nothing was more important than him and my nostalgia. I did not care about the state of peace in the United States, nor did I care about the poor families who had lost loved ones from the attacks or who would lose loved ones in the impending war. I was in a state
of selfish, oblivious grief - my lack of maturity glaringly obvious.

At the funeral, a few days later, my father was giving his eulogy and touched on a quotation that my grandfather used often, later in his life: "If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You
talk to your enemies."

When I was younger, I vaguely remember him throwing this quotation around in his everyday conversations. It never made sense to me as a young girl, but, then again, I was never really interested in knowing anymore about it.

It wasn't until his death that I became aware of the meaning behind the quotation that he so coveted. When I finally escaped from my self-absorption, I went on a quest to find whom he had snatched this little gem of knowledge from. My searching had me come upon a man named Moshe Dayan - a military warrior for Israel who, later in life, became a crusader of sorts for peace.

The only thing I could think about was the irony of this man's life, and the irony that came from the fact that my Grandpa, a white-bred, English-speaking, slightly racist old man used to quote a Jewish,
Middle-Eastern combatant on a regular basis.

That was the point at which I realized that my white-bred, slightly racist grandfather was more nlightened than he led on to be. In fact, it was then that I realized that he had essentially unlocked the safe sheltering the secret to achieving our very own, accessible culture of peace.

For my grandfather's entire life, he preached awareness. He told anyone he met to give up the comfort of their friends for the icy unknown of their enemies. He knew that peace wasn't about undivided acceptance of everyone in the world; my grandfather knew that peace was about respect and understanding.

By talking to your enemies, you will create the greatest friends you could ever hope to have. You will have created a friend that has reached deep inside him or herself to identify with you. By talking to your enemies, you force them to be aware of you and you force yourself to understand them and
their plight.

At the time that "nine-eleven" was sparking new enemies and igniting more passionate hatreds, I had one wish and one wish only: that my grandfather could have taught the world something before his death; that he could have stood up to the leaders of the greatest countries and passed on his
borrowed, wise words.

It was only when I realized that mine was a wish that could not be fulfilled, then I realized that the responsibility fell into my hands - into the hands of all the youth - to take back our world, give it awareness and bestow upon it our ultimate gift: a divine culture of peace.

2nd Place Essay - Grace Anderson

Honk If You Love Peace and Quiet!

There is a dry cleaning store near my house that regularly posts jokes on their marquis sign out front. This month's witticism: "Honk if you love peace and quiet!" At first, the obvious contradiction
in terms makes me laugh. But as I think about it more, I realize that the real contradiction lies in the phrase "peace and quiet." Peace and quiet? Peace is not quiet. Peace implores us to serve, to act, to "honk" for change. Our service and our action can bring about this change. So where do we begin?

A culture of peace starts with a peace between cultures. The two ideas go hand in hand: achieve one and you will also arrive at the other. The prospect of action in the name of peace is monumental and not a little daunting. But you don't have to shave your head, sell all your things and move to some remote corner of the world to help build a culture of peace. By doing your part to practice and promote environmental consciousness and global awareness, you are already helping build that peace.

Environmental consciousness remains, ironically, one of the largest untapped resources we can use to achieve a culture of peace. Dependence on oil, one of our most pressing environmental concerns, has lead to one of today's worst conflicts- the situation in Sudan. The violence carried out by that government is fueled in large part by the fact that the land in and around Darfur is rich in oil. But not everyone has the means to buy a hybrid car. So ride your bike for peace.

But dependence on oil is not, unfortunately, the only current environmental issue disturbing the process of building a culture of peace. Today's world wastes its resources left and right. Will there be wars in the future over clean air and drinking water? The answer can be "no" if we practice a
little consciousness: Turn out the lights when you leave a room. Don't leave the water running while brushing your teeth. Ask for paper bags. At the very least, recycle this paper when you've finished reading. All of these seemingly inconsequential actions form the beginnings of a culture of peace.

Another important aspect in building a culture of peace is global awareness. To create and maintain peace, separate communities must try to understand each other's concerns. To work together, individuals in those communities must be tolerant, or at the very least, informed. Knowing and understanding what goes on in other places is an absolutely necessary habit if we want to achieve peace between cultures. While complete understanding between this world's countries seems like a remote possibility now, we can start working toward it immediately by forming the habit of global awareness. Read English-language newspapers from other countries. In doing this, or
watching the news at night, or taking a course in a foreign language you are helping to build a culture of peace.

All these little things have the power to build up to a revolution. Regardless of what you choose to do, just do something. Instead of sitting down and resting, as "peace and quiet" suggests, honk!
Though this may seem like just another contradiction in terms, the hope of peace calls for us to fight. Yes, fight. Peace, that loud dream of ours, tells us to fight, and the noise is deafening: Fight injustice. Fight ignorance. Fight waste and excess. Fight closed minds in order to open doors.
Fight apathy. Most importantly, fight all these things in the name of peace.

3rd Place Essay - Brian Lee

A Peace of the Human Heart

As a South Korean, I often get asked the question that many of us are guilty of asking at least once in our lives which is, "Are you Chinese or Japanese?" which would inevitably escalate to, "Well then what are you?". In retrospect, I realize that the questions "What are you?" and "Who are you?" ask for
completely different things. When asked what I am, I reply with things like "a boy" or "South Korean" because those are characteristics that define me from other people. When asked who I am though, I answer with "Brian Lee" because it defines me not in comparison with other individuals, but
rather with respect to my character.

Peace and harmony cannot exist in a world where more importance is placed on what a person is rather than who that person is and stands for. In order to create a culture of peace, capricious differences like gender, race, ethnicity, or religious backgrounds cannot be allowed to take precedent before character, actions, and values. People must be willing to discard their fickle judgments
based on what people are and embrace them for who they really are.

One experience that I have encountered has made me a true believer that a culture of peace is possible and that it may happen in my lifetime. As I sat on the carpet watching television with my family one night in April, I remember staring in utter disbelief at the aftermath of the Virginia Tech Shooting, at the sheer unexpectedness and the raw brutality that ensued. When it was announced
that the shooter was a South Korean boy, I felt my stomach plunge as my head spun. As I lay in bed, I wondered how people would treat me knowing that I was of the same nationality as the person that had committed the most vicious act of school violence since Columbine. The very next day, rembling with anxiety and in a cold sweat, I caught a glimpse of a culture of peace.

As I tentatively walked Myers Park High School, I honestly had no idea if people would look upon me differently because of the shooting or if they would sympathize with me. As I uneasily walked into my math class, I was relieved to find there was no tension or uneasiness amongst my friends; that the way they treated me hadn't hinged at all upon the Virginia Tech tragedy. I believe that the driving force behind their unchanging attitude toward me wasn't courtesy or self-control but rather that they espected who I was, Brian Lee, their friend.

I believe that a part of me is a living, breathing testament that a culture of peace is very plausible, that people are capable of forgetting meaningless ways of categorizing people and remembering that we are all human. Creating a culture of peace is on the shoulders of all of us, not just the people
in high places. Each of us as individuals must see through the races, see through the genders and the religions of people at what truly matters, the heart. The way people see us shouldn't be as blacks, whites, girls, boys, lower-class, and upper-class but as fellow human beings, because that is who we all are.

Feeling Like Peace Is Just a Dream?

Join us in a Meck Min Community Read discussion of Three Cups of Tea:  One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

After Mortenson is nursed back to health by Pakistani villagers following a failed K2 climbing attempt, he promises to build them a school.  Thus begins a life-changing course of events, as Greg navigates the pre- and post-9/11 world in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

DETAILS:

When:  Thursday, November 1, 1007

Time:  7:00-8:30 p.m.

Where:  Room A106 at Providence Methodist United Church (at the intersection of Sharon Amity and Providence)

RSVP  and for information:  Michelle Eliason at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it