Give Peace a Chance

I’m reading “An African-American Appeal for Peace” by Walter Mosley. It originally appeared in The Nation (1/27/03) and now appears in the anthology I use in my composition class. It’s a hard article because I keep looking for the answer to what can we do? and it doesn’t exactly appear. He says, “we must make a commitment to peace,” but it’s hard to know what that means. What he does remind me of is that we have lots of glorious war stories and few glorious peace stories. The Civil Rights Movement is, however, mostly a peace story, and we often forget that there are many more glorious stories than Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaiming, “I have a dream.” We need to promote those and all the peace stories we can find.

Mosley also says that after 9/11/01, many Americans have been shocked that others could hate us so much. African Americans, he says, “know how to live with hatred.” We can all learn from a people who have struggled, on various levels and to various degrees, with hatred. Being committed to peace isn’t easy. Mostly, I’m busy with my job, my house, my family, and my friends. Mosley’s article reminds me not to forget about peace.