Erase Conflict - Resolve War!
Sunday, September 6, 2015
AVOIDING WAR
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
8/16//2015
Note:
I wrote the following for the religious column of the local paper, THE LARAMIE BOOMERANG. It was featured today - 9/6/2015.
This is an article about war - or how we should go about avoiding war. How can we avoid war? That's easy - avoid conflict which leads to war. How can we avoid conflict? That is also easy - don't insist on confrontation.
Personally, I have avoided war all my life because I have insisted on avoiding conflict. It might seem cowardly, but if someone with a want to hurt me is coming down the road toward me, I deflect conflict that would happen with an encounter by going down another road; and if there is no other road, then I retreat. If I can't retreat and have to face an "enemy" with no possibility of escape, then I just smile and try to argue my way out of a conflict. The point is - don't insist on confrontation as if one has to confront an enemy or lose in the end.
Let me offer an example. In 1966, I was heading toward a class where a student was angry at the teacher. I met this guy on a stairway with him wielding a knife that he was going to use to stab the teacher. To say the least, I was rather shocked by his anger and intentions, but I told the kid - Hey, wait a minute. Nothing is so bad that you have to stab someone. Just put that knife away and let's get on with getting along. He cursed me for getting in his way - and threatened to stab me too if I did not get out of his way - but in the end, he put his knife away and nothing happened.
Now, consider that I would have tried to tackle this guy to keep him from going forward with his plan. What would have likely happened? I probably would have been a victim - as well as the teacher. As it happened, nothing more happened; and that is how it would often end if human beings in general tried to avoid conflict.
In truth, no one needs war or murder to prove he or she or they have to battle to survive. Why battle? What will it gain? Just think that if Bibi Netanyahu, President of Israel, and the current Ayatollah of Iran were to agree to meet in Geneva and talk about their issues. My guess is that they would soon come to realize that their battling one another over a piece of ground or whatever is about as useless as any possible endeavor of their lives. Then maybe each would compromise; and peace might be the result. Nothing ventured, nothing gained; but peace is always worth trying to achieve before one settles on war.
In my opinion, all war - personal and impersonal - results when two factions refuse to "meet in the middle." That is not to say that after two have "met in the middle" that all will go as each may have wanted, but just meeting in the middle will probably clarify a given struggle or source of conflict. Compromise will probably be a requirement of a settlement and two would be "combatants" will have to pursue something different than both wanted, but in the end, if two rivals do compromise, peace will have happened - and war will have been avoided.
I wonder what happened to that kid that I confronted on the way to a class in 1966. I do not know, but my guess is that he turned out to be a wonderful citizen and lived to make peace in life - not conflict and war - whereas if I had done other than I did and engaged him in struggle or insisted on involving the police, that kid would have spent years in jail for going forward with his plan to stab a teacher; and for what?
Too simple, you say? Maybe, but it sure has worked for me in life. What can I say? Bibi and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, get over your anger. Meet somewhere in some neutral city or countryside and talk - and let each other have "half their way." And if either of you are not personally willing to meet in the middle somewhere, let no other nation even think about lending you aid.