1998

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Dec. 23, 2001

Peace on Earth
Will human nature prevent world peace?

Christine Akinaga Moran

John Lennon sang about it. Christmas cards proclaim it. Political leaders appeal for it. Yet peace on Earth can seem as fleeting as a song on the radio, just a word printed on a card that will be thrown out with the next day's trash.

Without solutions for political, social and economic injustice, political leaders may be crying in the dark.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought renewed interest in the Middle East conflicts, but also despair that humankind is capable of the violence that is has brought on itself.
Will there be peace on Earth?
We put that question to locals who deal with conflict on a regular basis: a neighborhood mediator, a cop, a scholar, a former military chaplain, an activist, a political scientist and two middle school students.

While many were skeptical, they also cling to the possibility of world peace. If conflict is a part of human nature, perhaps so is hope.

The mediator

A barking doc can make the neighbors howl in anger.
It's one of the issues handled frequently by Trip Barthel, executive director of the Neighborhood Mediation Center.
A non-profit organization funded by Washoe County court filing fees, the two-year-old center mediated neighborhood disputes, and provides mediation training to other agencies. Since January, Barthel said, the center has mediated 180 cases, including those concerning barking dogs. Resolution occurs 75 percent to 80 percent of the time, he said.

"We judge success by if we can get the parties to sit down together," Barthel said.
His days filled with bickering neighbors, Barthel nevertheless is optimistic about world peace. "I think peace is inevitable," Barthel said.
"Over the course of time, we'll realize we're all part of the same race of men. "Ultimately, I do it because it'll help us get to that. It's not a question of whether or not it will happen, just when."
Barthel said he knows people who work in Israel, where the disputes are much more grave than barking dogs, who say mediation tactics can work. When people from opposing factions really talk to each other, Barthel said, "they start to realize that they have more in common than they think."
While many would say Middle East conflict is based on land disputes, religious or political differences, Barthel said conflict happens when people are estranged from each other. "Take the first step and talk to your neighbor," he advised. Most people, he added, will want to resolve a conflict.

The cop

A 22-year veteran of the Reno Police Department, LT. Ron Holladay has seen his share of violence and is skeptical of world peace. "I don't think we're all going to hug across the world," he said. He does, however, think that people can learn to tolerate each other and avoid violence. "The best case scenario is to learn to understand our differences," Holladay said. Gang unit commander for the past four months, Holladay has observed that gangs tend to be close-knit, viewing outsiders with suspicion. Gangs organized over criminal activity, geographical territory or other reasons can find themselves in conflict with other gangs. That can create a tense climate, Holladay said, in which words between rival gang members can escalate into a shooting days or weeks later. Holladay described the situation as "almost a microcosm of society," in that he deals with groups who are unable or unwilling to tolerate each other. Not one to philosophize, Holladay nevertheless made an attempt at a reporter's request. " If you can agree to disagree, that's a step in the right direction," he said. It's a message he tries to convey to local gang members, but one he admits is a hard sell. "We do it one person at a time," he said.

The scholar

John Lennon sang it in the late '60s: Give peace a chance. Problem is, we never have, said Viktoria Hertling, founder and director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Holocaust has been a life-long focus for the German-born researcher. "I think sometimes we take a pessimistic view toward world peace, but only because we've never really tried it," Hertling said. When the world faces a crisis, Hertling said, "we hardly give peaceful intervention a chance to work. When there is a resolution, it's done through military means, and the assumption is, 'see, the military works."' The United States spends billions on military defense (around $300 billion to the Department of Defense in 2001); if the same amount was spent on education and conflict- resolution efforts, peace efforts would meet more success, Hertling asserted. In July, she watched with interest when Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced a bill that would've created a Department of Peace, a cabinet-level department of equal stature with the Department of Defense. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hertling said, the bill has been on the back burner. Still, she is hopeful. She's considering starting a graduate- level program that would train people to be mediators. Conflict resolution, she and other scholars said, is one of the keys to peace. "Conflicts are productive if they're solved right," Hertling said. But if they're not resolved, they brew under the surface. She added that peace seems to be an ancient, unfulfilled with of mankind. She pointed out that every faith expounds something like the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto you. "It seems to indicate that there's a general yearning among human beings for peace," Hertling said.

The chaplain

Pastor at the First Congregational Church of Reno, William Chrystal is a former military chaplain who served during Vietnam and the Gulf War. A former Marine, he was a chaplain with the Navy and the Marines on and off for 30 years. He said soldiers came to him for a variety of reasons: To obtain conscientious objector status; for courage; and often, to deal with their guilt and anguish over what they'd had to do in service to their country. "As a Christian pastor, I think we have to believe that peace is possible," Chrystal said. "That's what the birth of Jesus is a symbol of. "As a person who has served for years in the armed forces, even as a student of history and psychology, it's harder to believe that." Conflict appears to be a part of our nature, he said. The Bible attempts to explain why people are so conflicted, so less-than- perfect, if man was created in the image of God, as is stated in Christian theology. "The fall (of man, his expulsion from the Garden of Eden) is designed to try to explain why we aren't all that we should be if we are created in the image of God," Chrystal said. "It's an attempt to explain why we are not perfect in the way that we act." But mankind, despite its nature, still should try to achieve peace. "I think we need to pray for peace," Chrystal said. "I think we need to act out our belief in peace -to be peaceful; to live peacefully."

The activist

After the United States initiated air strikes in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, a small group of local residents committed to non-violence began meeting on the steps of the federal courthouse on South Virginia Street. Calling themselves Patriots for Peace, the loose-knit group of about 30 meets at 5:30 p.m. Mondays for song and discussion. Among them is Betsy Gledhill, a Warm Springs Valley resident who's also involved in Citizen Alert, a grassroots environmental group; Sunrise Sustainable Resources, a solar energy non- profit; and League of Women Voters. "People think the only way to stand up for themselves is to show that they're tough. There are other ways, like understanding differences and working it out," said Gledhill, a former teacher who often resolved differences on the playground. "Killing people is not going to solve the problem." She is not discouraged that the public appears supportive of the current military action in Afghanistan. She pointed out that Martin Luther King and Gandhi each faced formidable opposition initially, but eventually won hearts and minds through non-violent protest. She also said it's important for Americans to think about what the government is doing, rather than blindly following it. Of particular concern to Gledhill is President Bush's Nov. 13 authorization of secret military tribunals for foreigners suspected of terrorism. "I'm old enough to remember the McCarthy era," said Gledhill, 72. U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy amassed political power in the early 1950s as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on investigations, leading a probe of alleged Communist activities. His extraordinary influence ended in 1954, when his subcommittee staff was accused of threatening Army officials in order to obtain preferential treatment for a subcommittee consultant who'd been drafted. For many, the incident has come to represent how hysteria can be used for political gain. For Gledhill, there are similarities between then and now, "especially when the government moves so fast." For those who would accuse her or the Patriots of being unpatriotic, she refers them to the Constitution 's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and provides for the right to demand a change in government policies.

The political scientist

Leonard Weinberg is a University of Nevada, Reno political science professor, and has written and edited many books, including "Encounters with the Contemporary Radical Right." "I suppose I can imagine a time when war is rare," Weinberg said. Studying politics and countries, it appears certain factors are necessary for a society to be peaceful. Weinberg said a few obvious ones are prosperity and democracy, in the sense that democracy can provide the framework for different groups to work out their differences. "Being able to handle diversity seems to be an important consideration, " Weinberg said. Wars today tend to be within countries rather than between countries, Weinberg said. They tend to occur in Third World countries, and usually are over religious, ethnic or political differences. In many cases, intrastate war happens in countries ruled by autocratic governments that will not tolerate dissidence, and will crack down hard on people with opposing views. Weinberg said this has occurred in Latin American countries; others say it's occurring in the Middle East. Countries with intrastate turmoil, Weinberg said, "haven't yet hit on a way of dealing with intra-group differences." Democracy sometimes, but not always, provides the framework to resolve those intra-group differences, Weinberg said. "Conflict seems to be built into the human condition," Weinberg said. "Since conflict seems to be inherent, the issues is how these conflicts can be channeled in ways that are less likely to produce violence."

The youth

Last year, Pine Middle School student Sarah Kibbe mediated a dispute between two girls who were exchanging dirty looks. Kibbe, 13, said it was the hardest case she'd experienced as a mediator in the school's peer mediation' conflict resolution program. Kibbe and the other mediators don't sit in judgment, but help adversaries agree on how to solve the problem. Adults are present during the mediation sessions, which can be requested by students or by teachers on behalf of the students. The two girls eventually resolved their problem. "They weren't supposed to look at each other in that class," Kibbe said. Lindsey Matundan, 13, recently mediated a dispute between two boys that began over pushing and shoving at their adjacent lockers. "Now they're pushing desks into each other," Matundan said. Since mediation, they've agreed to take turns at the their lockers, rotating who gets to go first. Jonathan Gamma, 13, has yet to mediate a dispute, but stopped a physical fight in a classroom two weeks ago. He's one of 12 students who've gone through the initial training to be a peer mediator this year. Gamma, who said he used to get into fights and have problems, signed up to be a mediator to change his life for the positive. While he's willing to turn his life around, he's skeptical that mankind will turn around after a history of conflict. At least, he doesn't expect world peace to happen soon. "I think in the future there could be peace," Gamma said. But he said there may always be "wacko" people who cause problems in the world. Matundan said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks increased her skepticism of world peace. Kibbe also was doubtful. "I know it sounds horrible, " Kibbe said, "but I think you'll always have people who want to fight." Yet Kibbe and Matundan firmly agreed that mediation can solve problems before they escalate into physical violence. They're hoping to start a mediation program next year at Galena High School, where they will be freshmen. "(Mediation) helps them get their feelings out," Kibbe said. It works."