A Long, New Opportunity for Peace
Just as this article kicks off the Peace Column of Mustard Seed Mountain’s first issue, our country is talking about, perhaps planning, and hopefully committing to ending our longest war: The War in Afghanistan.
This war has touched all of us, and we at MSM will represent this. We work with our low-income neighbors, with people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues, of which veterans, unfortunately but persistently, make up a significant portion.
The acceptance of conflict that this war has imposed on our country, the world, and the larger questions this situation begs will also be recurring themes in this column. Like our recent high school graduates or newest class of armed forces recruits, some of the writers of this paper
have never been alive while the USA has been at peace. What is this “normal?” The pervasiveness of violence, systems of harm, our collective participation—while these realities manifest themselves in several social issues, they are perhaps most pronounced when they boil over into war. This column is an opportunity to reflect on them, own them, and mitigate them.
Above all we will focus on the hope that is peace. Celebrating not a war’s winning, but its ending. From the commemoration of national holidays like Armistice Day, to any day that any one of us, soldier or not, lays down our arms and chooses non-violence, we will celebrate peace and are committed to ensuring that it prevails in our lives.