Today, Monday, September 21, is the 27th annual United Nations International Day of Peace.

It’s supposed to be “a day of global ceasefire and non-violence.”

So look around you and search for peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Columbia, Congo, Kashmir, Chechnya, Sri Lanka — to name only the most obvious war zones where people are killing each other on this International Day of Peace.

Now weep over a number. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations estimate that some ninety percent of all casualties of war are civilians. That’s ten civilians — men women and children — who die for every soldier in warfare.

The military, who love euphemisms, call the slaughter “collateral damage.”

I call it obscene.

A brief pause if you will, and let us pay honour to elusive peace in our violent world.

Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Pete Seeger
 
I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
And study war no more.
The Weavers

They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation
nor will they train for war anymore.
Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3