Local Heroes
Our Local Hero - Susan Scannell from Allen Park, MI
Amidst the anguish perpetuated by mainstream media, we feel it is important to remind each other of the good things that are happening in our world today. We're proud to offer this Local Hero program as a place to honor true leaders. As Margaret Meade so eloquently stated, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
Our very first Local Hero is Susan Scannell for her thought-provoking words concerning our nation's perspective on conflict resolution. Few people have moved me so profoundly with so few words. While as a society we have resigned ourselves to living with a number of double standards and seldom spoken uncomfortable truths, Susan's words held the mirror up to our faces and said, "Look! It doesn't have to be this way!" My only wish is that one day my children will be able to enter a polling booth and pull a lever for candidates that share Susan's view of the world. Thank you Susan.
Thank you Susan,
Timothy Young
President/Chef
Teach Peace
Washington's bellicose talk about Iraq and Saddam Hussein made me reflect on
the future of our country and our world. I thought about those very young
people who will attend our elite U.S. military academies at Westpoint and
Annapolis in preparation for professional careers in military service to our
country, being inculcated with the objectives, practices, and language
inherent to military thought.
I wonder, though, where is the place for our young peacemakers to go, to be
formed in the thoughts, processes, and language of peacemaking? Where are
the highly-respected, structured, taxpayer-sponsored, national "Peace
Academies" whose graduates would be imbued with an uncompromising commitment
to advancing peace in very tangible, nonviolent ways, being prepared to
address everything from our local neighborhood race issues to world-level
conflicts. The curriculum should include studies of world history, language
and culture, philosophy, ethics, world religions, agricultural production and
economic development, geography, logic, political science, international law
and finance, economics, communication, negotiation and diplomacy,
collaboration strategies, and dispute resolution, among others.
Graduates from our peace academies should form the corps of high-level
negotiators and diplomats called to address all our involvements throughout
the world. Perhaps we need to establish a Secretary of Peacemaking position
at the cabinet level, a National Peace Advisor post, along with a U.S.
Department of Peace, and Office of Homeland Justice and Peace, so that
graduates of our U.S. Peace Academies could pursue an established and
respected career path in public service. We cannot continue to leave
peacemaking to those who operate from a military paradigm or in the changing
and feeble hands of "career diplomats" who acquired their positions through
other means, political associations, and generally haphazard formation.
Active peacemaking must be our national priority if, in fact, we are truly
sick of war and constant threats of it; if we are horrified by increasing
levels of hostility, violence, and murder in our own neighborhoods; if we
are anguished by persistent poverty throughout the world including here in
our own country; and if we are sick and outraged over U.S. expenditures on
"national defense" in excess of one-billion dollars per day at the expense of
health care and education.
To demonstrate genuine commitment to true peace, we must allocate a
meaningful portion of our national budget to building peace-promoting
infrastructure if we are to have any credibility as peacemakers in the
international community. We must give peace a chance. Not a haphazard
chance nor a casual chance. And not merely a chance, but a likelihood. In
fact, the more that active peacemaking becomes a serious national priority
and is firmly established in our everyday language, thought, and national
budget, the more likely peace becomes.
Susan Scannell
Allen Park, MI
An edited version of this letter appeared in the August 17, 2002 Editorial Section of the Detroit Free Press and The September 2002 Peace Digest, published by the Little Traverse League for Peace and Freedom.
Susan is involved in many peace-building activities in her community and has been kind enough to share with us some of her favorite organizations:
Pax Christi (www.paxchristiusa.org)
Peace Action Michigan (www.peace-action.org)
Network (www.networklobby.org)
Cranbrook Peace Foundation (www.cranbrookpeace.org)
Refer to Dennis Kucinich's website (www.house.gov/kucinich) for links to the proposed peace
legislation. The Cranbrook Peace Foundation has postcards you can send to your elected officials in support of Kucinich's peace legislation. Please contact them for more information.
Do you know a person who deserves special recognition? Food For Thought wants to help honor your local hero, whether she or he made a kind gesture in passing, wrote inspiring words in the editorial column of the city newspaper, or motivated an entire community to rally around a cause.
Click here to nominate a local hero!
