I am an addict, a recovering addict, and I represent one of the greatest threats for Peace today. In my brief yet vital time with you today I will share the source of my addiction. Why you need to care and what you and I together can do to meet this challenge to Peace.

Far too many of us who vote and our children live under the pursuit of abundance. How to get what you want has become an American fetish.  Whether families with cell phones or college students with credit cards; from leaf blowers to SUV’s. There is nothing that money or limitless credit can not buy.

Those who have taken power lead the way in this pursuit. The American society has followed and we as individuals are daily confronted with its gravitational pull. If you doubt me, look in any magazine, newspaper, or store. (Newer, bigger, better, faster, smaller, cuter, – there is no end to the pull.)

Whether it is to acquire power, money, or misguided love, millions of us have become enslaved to the pursuit of abundance, with its addictive cycle of wanting, doing, and having; and in turn, fearing its loss or harm. Thus, we assume the need to protect and be protected. It is this addictive cycle that our corporations and government use to foster their agendas which will ultimately lead to more wars.

All too often we entered the road of addictions quietly; perhaps unaware of our own participation. We saw ourselves as a student, husband or wife, an employee, mother or father; simply living- striving to make ends meet, to fit in, or get ahead. While all around us our world was changing.

• We didn’t have time to see “what was really happening.” Wasn’t that the media’s job?
• We didn’t have time to notice that the population was exploding; 2 billion, 4 billion, suddenly 6 billion and rising.
• We didn’t have time to hear the cries of the poor who were getting poorer as our corporations and government moved employment to Mexico and overseas;
• Too busy to recognize that our health care was becoming so expensive that only the wealthy are assured of care.
• We had children to raise, the neighbors to keep up with, and the promotions to take.
• Wasn’t it supposed to be the thousand points of light that would take care of those less fortunate?
• Wasn’t it the duty of our leaders or the unions to ensure that our jobs, pensions, and health care would be secure? 
• Wasn’t it enough that we were taking care of our family, that we were church going, tax paying, and lawful citizens?
• What more could be asked of us?

We were too busy falling into the black whole of illusionary abundance. Why do I care? Why do I want you to care? An Indian diplomat, Lakshmi Pandit, once stated. “The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war.”  It’s time to sweat! Illusionary abundance is the greatest challenge facing Peace today in three ways:

1. These social and material distractions focus our attention AWAY from the true values of life.
2. By enslaving us in a cycle of materialistic addiction, it provides the financial rewards our corporations need to continue to create the new and different, often at the cost of crucial resources, and
3. It provides the so called justification of protection our government needs to support its acts of aggression. 

We now face a choice – take the truly challenging path of change. Turn away from our addictive life styles and learn to cherish what is truly of value. And sweat for peace, or forfeit the once abundant air we breathe and water we drink, our families, our health, our very existence. It is these that are in danger. While we remain distracted by our addictions, these are in jeopardy.

Those who had not fallen were perhaps among the first to wake up to the journey of peace. We heard and saw them during the Vietnam War.

• During that war the drums of the draft called loudly to those of us out of high school or college. (Of course, there is no draft to call attention to Iraq.)
• Daily on the news, we saw the suffering and deaths of the war and the protests in the streets. (No daily suffering or returning bodies displayed today.)
• We saw young veterans returning, often struggling to face life.

Protests after protest, large and small, the marches continued until peace brought an end to the war. Many stood up for peace. Some were heroic and others simply heard the call. However they got there they helped end the war. Yet, other wars have followed - The Gulf War, The Iraq War, and now The War on Terror.

I suggest to you, today, that unless we recognize that peace is not merely ending a war, we will create our own end.

If you see the grave costs awaiting our world if we do not release ourselves and our society from the grip of this addictive cycle, wake up your families, your friends, neighbors, and strangers. We cannot let today’s youth stay behind entrapped eyes, following the same entrapped path, until they happen to wake up. It will be too late.

• We must inform our fellow adults of the hard truths about our government’s actions, our media’s misinformation.
• We must teach peace in the high schools and colleges and talk of the truth about the part our government is taking to instill war as a way of life.
• We must teach peace to our very young. Educate them on the crucial importance of kindness, our environment and all of creation on this earth.

As peacemakers we must live the journey:

• committed to exchange a life style of addiction and self deception for the sweat of peace,
• take the time and steps required to find the truth,
• observe a person’s words and actions for their congruency or lack of,
• recognize and acknowledge personal hypocrisies, and
• face the challenges that life continuously brings with PEACE through nonviolence as our primary focus.

We must find new, creative ways to break the apparent hold these addictions have on so many of us and prevent our truly young from falling. The cost is too grave.

We must teach ourselves and others to slow down long enough to look closely at what we are giving up – our breath, our water, our families and ultimately our earth.

• All in exchange for what?
• Who are we impressing, ourselves, someone else?
• What will it matter if we are all gone?

Peace is creating a world where there will be no need for war. It is pursuing the truth that United we stand for peace, divided we fall to war.

We must teach peace and bring freedom from fear, freedom of opportunity, of speech and of religion to every person on this earth.

Let us show our gratitude for life. Take up the banners, donate your time, creativity and money to those that see this work as life’s truth, sing with us in the beauty of our work together. Thank you for helping us teach peace.

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