In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
– Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
The Atlas Corps Class 23 arrived in the US during quiet a turbulent week in American history. or frankly the world history. The inauguration, the women’s march, the first week of executive orders. For most of the world, every new piece of news that came out during the last two weeks was at least surprising if not shocking. The opinions around the world are highly divided but I am not going to comment either one of them. I am writing this post just to express my biggest desire to see all of us from different countries, different backgrounds, religions, and nationalities come together and unite towards a common goal of peace that I have no doubt we all share. You may argue but no matter what a person’s actions might look like we all with no exception desire peace. Peace around the world, peace in our families, peace within ourselves.
But creating peace and maintaining peace is hard work. It is like raising a child. Have you ever heard this one wise saying that it takes a village to raise a child? Just like that, it takes the whole world to raise peace. If you do it gradually and invest in its development peace becomes very resilient and not easily breakable. Despite the current divide in the minds of Americans, I truly believe that the hundreds of years of the U.S. Democracy made the country’s peace very resilient. It’s not going to give up easily. And slowly but steadily it will win back. And I am very grateful to Atlas Corps for its commitment to promoting international trust, development of personal relationships between professionals from different countries and meaningful collaborations that are utterly essential to the peacebuilding efforts. I believe in the power of Americans to come to consent within this upcoming year. And I think it will be a great privilege for the new Class 23 to see it happen and contribute to peace in any way we can.
Dove of Peace, 1949 by Pablo Picasso. Courtesy of www.PabloPicasso.org