10/28/2007 - Students Discuss the Possibility of Peace in Today's World

by Betsy Morais
Columbia Spectator

“Is peace possible?”

Former ABC News correspondent Bettina Gregory posed this question to panelists at the culminating event of Saturday’s World Peace Forum in Roone Arledge Auditorium. The forum celebrated the 60th anniversary of AFS Intercultural Programs.

“The best recipe for peace is always inward-seeing,” documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said. “Peace is an individual exercise.”

Also on the panel were mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba, Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat, AFS’s J. Brian Atwood, We Are Family Foundation President Nancy Hunt, and One World Youth Project Executive Director Jessica Rimington. Discussion revolved around how to make positive global changes.

Rimington, a Georgetown graduate, said that she tells people “to spend time dreaming of the world they want.” She explained, “If we don’t know where we want to head, we won’t know how to map a journey to get there.”

“Get out and do,” said Akiba, who is also the president of Mayors for Peace and a leader in the campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons, advocating a more active stance than Rimington.

“No one else should ever suffer as we did,” he said, referring to the nuclear bombing of his city during World War II. “No one includes everybody. Even people we call enemies are included in that proclamation.”

Audience member Shuhei Soto, a New York resident originally from Japan, went to high school with Akiba through the AFS student exchange program. “He was an inspiration to me,” Soto said.

Like many guests at the forum, Soto was an AFS returnee—he participated in its high school exchange program that began in 1947 with 52 students and now oversees 4,600 each year.

“Religion and politics are twin brothers,” Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland President Arafat explained, adding that “unless religion and politics find a way to cooperate, we really cannot move forward.” The packed auditorium was decorated with balloons and a colorful “Peace” banner with handprints of children. Booths representing organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Ghana’s “Peace Through Crafts” lined the walls.

“The power in this room is humbling and inspiring,” AFS President Margaret Crotty said to the crowd. While the mood was generally optimistic, Burns noted: “I really believe that we will not be able to eliminate wars. It is unfortunately part of the makeup of this sometimes miserable race.”

Arafat countered that “If peace is not possible, I would not be praying every day five times,” evoking chuckles from the crowd.

“But peace is not possible if we are going to be lazy. If we are going to leave it for politicians, they are not going to go anywhere,” Arafat added.