Statements From the Trinity Community

The Challenge of Peace

Liza Boffen '96, Director, Annual Fund

I grew up in an apartment on a hill that overlooked a beautiful valley that was bisected by an eight-foot tall, ugly razor-sharp barbed wire fence. I could see towers with soldiers who patrolled the fence. It was the dividing line between East and West Germany. My father was stationed in the Fulda Gap, the place "we" surmised the Communists would enter into "Old" Europe, as a ground-to-air missile sergeant in the United States Army. You couldn't have met a prouder kid! My dad would defeat the Communists, he kept the peace for all of us, and he also perpetuated one of the biggest myths going.

The Challenge of Peace

The U.S. armed forces are the most heavily armed and heavily financed in the world. As a recent Canadian caller to a U.S. television network said "We are easy in our peace since our neighbor goes out to fight the battles which keep us safe." Is it only the United States who can fight those battles? We are easy in our peace, but have we truly lived the call of peace?

I am not so sure. To tell you the truth I was much more proud of my country in 1983 than I am today in 2003. We met the Challenge of Peace in 1983 and celebrated with the demise of the "Cold War". President McGuire recently asked the Trinity College community to fit the Church's teaching of a Just War into the call for "Iraqi Freedom" in 2003. Is this even possible?

The Challenge of Peace

In the 1983 pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, and the 1993 Reflection on The Challenge of Peace entitled The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace the U.S. Catholic Bishops sought to address the threats of nuclear war in an age of heightened tensions. The stress in the letter was for solidarity among all faiths, the importance of continued efforts of peacemaking institutions and the illusion and moral danger of isolationism.

Part of the legacy of The Challenge of Peace is the call to strengthen peacemaking as an essential dimension of our faith, reminding us that Jesus called us to be peacemakers. Our biblical heritage and our body of tradition make the vocation of peacemaking mandatory.

How can we make peace with Saddam Hussein? Can we rely on the United Nations to put aside the geopolitical framework of a multinational organization to fight for the rights of the people of Iraq? Our faith calls us to be leaders in peace.

By its nature, the gift of peace is not restricted to moments of prayer. It seeks to penetrate the corners of everyday life and to transform the world. But, to do so, it needs to be complemented in other ways. It requires other peaceable virtues, a practical vision of a peaceful world and an ethics to guide peacemakers in times of conflict.

And so I contemplate how I can advocate peace and call out to the women and children of Iraq "We hear and see your pain!".

The Challenge of Peace

My cousin headed to Bahrain last week. He is a freshly minted 19 year-old Marine. That's pretty much all he's ever really wanted to be. No college for him, he wanted to serve and make our country proud. He has already made me proud! His decision to serve speaks volumes about his commitment and maturity. But I'm also scared stiff.

He is heading to war under a hawk President who has never known war, and a Senate with only one member sending a child to this War. This "Shock and Awe" Campaign doesn't seem to be working out exactly as the White House (and our Congress) had expected. Where are the peaceful voices calling to the people of Iraq? Are the only voices saying: "Surrender?".

The Challenge of Peace

From my vantage point we've already lost. The great people of the Middle East see us ostensibly as oil grubbing foreigners. The United Nations crumbled under an "Old" versus "New" European coalition which highlighted a weakened structure like never before. We met the Challenge of Peace in 2003 and failed. My cousin and thousands of courageous young men and women like him will see the devastating results first hand. Now comes The Challenge of Chaos.