War Must End in the Human Heart

War Must End in the Human Heart
by Patrick Howell

(excerpt)

Former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen put his finger on the radical challenge and conversion needed for ending all war. A strong critic of the huge buildup in American militarism in the 1980s, Archbishop Hunthausen said, "War begins — I believe — in our hearts, and that is where it must end."

On this Armistice/Veterans Day, we might wish to walk in our mind's eye up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and read Abraham Lincoln's ringing affirmation of the human spirit and of Americans' deepest desire for reconciliation and for a lasting peace:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Can we now apply this same spirit of reconciliation to our differences with the international community and truly become more noted for peace than for war?

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1111-32.htm