• Cody Brown

    Instructor Turner

    May 17th 2012

    Jr. English

    War and Peace

    The argument of what to do with war and peace; many people struggle with the thought of war because of what they see on the news and in movies. For peace people usually compare hippies and organic foods. Both concepts are related and may give many people in our community a gut ache just uttering their names. With post-cold war solutions to one day of world peace, the ideals of three inspirational speakers will display three very different view points and concepts of originality of their own.

    When faced with the concept of war many think of terror and not of the solutions that may end the conflict. Although Thomas Barnett from the office of the Secretary of Defense states that he has created a new map for peace in his TED Talks video: Thomas Barnett draws a new map for world peace. Mr. Barnett speaks to the audience about his new founded method of reaching peace. While this proves an excellent stagiest plan, there’s another man who stands out from the crowd when he speaks to the audience of his TED Talks video: Jeremy Gilley: One day of peace. Both Mr. Barnett and Mr. Gilley have thoughts of changing the world with their ideal theories to make the world a better place. Drawing a map of world peace seems difficult and times consuming, but when Mr. Barnett gives the audience a strongly enforced power point of the idea he says in his talk; “Breaking it in two.”(Barnett) he gives the idea of a possible future in achieving world peace. Whilst this is a good idea for him and plenty of others, Mr. Gilley spreads his plan of simply having one day of peace during the year and to grow to have the same goal of total world peace.

    Mr. Barnett and Mr. Gilley spoke of their ideas of world peace and gave inspirational lectures on the subject while Suheir Hammad gave a TED Talks video called; Suheir Hammads: Poems of war, peace, women power. Within all three videos they manage to cover a common ground of peace. Ms. Hammad displays her affection for peace within her personal poems and gives the audience a different view point then what the other two speakers covered. The poem What I Will is her not buying into the thought of war being a glamorized entity. Both of the previous speakers gave plans to improve already set peace issues with new views and objectives while Ms. Hammad’s poems give the audience the feeling of tangible peace and the strength to endure what needs to be achieved to reach their common goal of world peace. Mr. Gilley’s idea of having the day of peace on September 21st was interrupted by the events of 9/11. Such obstacles gave Mr. Barnett a problem when he tried to first create this map to peace when he intruded on career conflicts. Ms. Hammad as well as the previous two speakers have had her share of conflicts, while spreading her ideas within her poems the public gave her a lot of poor comments displaying their disbelief in the cause.

    Mr. Gilley’s events in September gave him motivation to film a documentary entitled Peace One Day. This is an example of the speaker showing the community how he has worked and worked on this cause with his heart and gave it his all. Just like the poems written by Ms. Hammad, and Mr. Barnett’s work that showed a new way to achieve peace are all good examples of how passionate each and every one of them are about this mutual cause. Visiting 76 countries within the last 12 years Mr. Gilley experienced human face to face interactions that got him even more motivated for the upcoming one day of peace objective he had in mind to become a reality.

    Mr. Gilley, Mr. Barnett, and Ms. Hammad have common ground of achieving world peace one day. With thinkers like theses and people that follow them we can truly achieve such a goal. The post-cold war solutions, one day to have world peace, and inspirational poems have shown excellence to their audiences and inspired many people across the world.