UN International Day of Peace: What Words Work?

By Byron De Lear

Speech delivered in Washington DC on September 24, 2005 commemorating the United Nations declared International Day of Peace (September 21st). Exploring the shift and evolutionary political perspective to bring civilization to higher ground.

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman:

My name is Byron De Lear and I bring you greetings from the West Coast of the United States + from sunny southern California.

I am honored to have the opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts about achieving peace on our planet on this United Nations declared International Day of Peace.

So many inspirational words have been spoken from this microphone, haven't they?

Before I sought about to craft a message for you today, I had to consider the overwhelming wealth of wisdom and vision and enlightenment that has been brought to the table of humanity by our most cherished artists, authors, humanitarians and peacemakers throughout the millennia.

And today, we gather here to continue on and amplify those efforts.

But what message -- of peace -- can I offer here, that could make a difference? -- that could make any mission of peace effective?

What words work?

Humanity is on the threshold of a true global community.

In the midst of this cultural convergence we have the historic opportunity to compose evolutionary principles for a more sustainable expression of civilization: a government of the life and for the life.

This is what we as peacemakers need to own, the mission of life, truth and love.

To begin to set up a shop that sees the world with empathic vision + truly, a government of the life and for the life.

But we need to take our peacemaking past the borders of strictly governmental concern + for the concerns of those in our corridors of power are languishing in a design for our species that is rife with obsolescence.

A `survival-of-the-fittest' ethos run amok -- putting profits and power over people and life.

We live... with a media culture governed by the edict, "if it bleeds it leads..."

Well a brighter future will never ever be led by the bloodthirsty.

We live... with a socio-economic reality which is dictated by corporate and national institutions with only an eye for the next quarterly business report or the next electoral cycle.

And as these national and corporate institutions have an impact on our planet in terms of decades, centuries and even millennia -- our envisioned future needs to be seen with better eyes than that.

You have those eyes.

And the vista of human dignity needs to be brought into focus.

It's our job as peacemakers to take the blinders off of a global audience so hungry for this truth.

But keep in mind that we only have window of opportunity and are working against the clock as the clock of destiny is ticking out.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "It is no longer a question of violence or non-violence in this world, its nonviolence or non-existence + that is where we are today."

This reality is more real now than ever, and every rung up the ladder of technological and industrial advancement that civilization climbs, the necessity for a more evolved and less forceful means for conflict resolution must be found.

Whether it be five years from now or a hundred, the alternative is sadly, radioactive.

To stay the course laid by a global system of war will inevitably lead to disaster.

That's why we need to unpack just what this system of war is.

This global system of war goes beyond bullets and bombs and extends into our lives with economic weapons wielded by multi-national conglomerates and infiltrates our culture by the monolithic controls upon the flow of information by the PR arm of big business: what I like to call the main stream deluge.

War is a complex.

It's a complex of militaristic industry, corporate usurpation of policy, and the subtle monopolization of the field of ideas through the main stream torrent of telecommunications.

And this unholy trinity of warfare + militaristic, corporate and propagandistic -- is a war being waged onto the people by a system gone astray.

A `religion' of self-destruction.

The unholy trinity of warfare is something we should expect our leaders to work to dilute and eradicate, not be complicit in and amplify.

The evolution of nonviolence in politics will work to break down this complex.

Empathy is the lifeblood that courses through veins of the Golden Rule + and as individuals we all know what it feels like to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but do governments inherently embrace the Golden Rule?

Do multi-national conglomerates?

The work of the 21st century will be to institutionalize the Golden Rule and to infuse the doctrine of nonviolence into the very fabric of the world's socio-economic system.

We can no longer continue to reward and invest in a system that seeks to prey upon the weak and promote consumer vulnerability + this system perfected will consume itself.

Truth be told, I believe some fundamental qualities will coalesce into our conception of democracy in the 21st century, namely, that power's legitimacy will be directly proportionate to its transparency.

Power's legitimacy will be directly proportionate to its transparency.

Truth be told.

And even as we rally up against the ways of the world, and the law of the jungle + this truth is on our side.

Worth more than billion dollar media buy, this unmistakable truth will resonate as `the shot heard round the world' in this war to end all wars, and will clearly and unequivocally show that the key to achieving peace on our planet will be born out of the necessities of self-preservation and survival married with the empathic vision demanded by a Spiritually evolved perspective.

The law of the jungle and the rule of heaven come together.

The government of the life and for the life will render this complex of warfare as a retired aspect of an evolving civilization.

Thank you for your attention and your consideration.