Peace

Dear Ones,

Last night I had just finished a One Good Thing essay when I thought to check the news before posting. That’s when I learned that the United States had bombed Iran.

I had spent several hours writing that message, but it is not the post for this moment. Maybe I will be able to publish it at some point, albeit modified, given current circumstances. But something else is required now, because we are apparently at war, even though a week ago it wasn’t even on our horizon. And even though a vast swath of the country — a majority, even — is opposed to it.

Photo by Frames For Your Heart on Unsplash

The United States has been involved in wars with Somebody Somewhere for virtually all my life. I’m old. And so, so weary of fighting.

Maybe in some quarters the United States is regarded as the world’s watchdog, keeping everybody safe. But I’m pretty sure many, many other quarters see us as the world’s big bad bully. I am not a pacifist in every situation — but I believe war can be avoided in most situations. I find the Just War Theory a helpful way of assessing things. (You can look it up.) The action the United States took yesterday violated all of the major components of the Just War Theory:

• Just Cause: One’s reasons for waging war must be justifiable. Here, Israel alleges Iran is developing nuclear war capability (or has already done so). Our president’s own intelligence community denies that is so. We obviously don’t actually know the truth here. But we bombed anyway. Remember George W. Bush’s claim that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”? It was a bogus claim, ginned up to justify the war. We spent years fighting in Iraq as a result of it. Are we headed down a similar path now? We don’t know, and we should be certain before we send in the bombers.

• Last Resort: You must try everything short of fighting before you go to war. Was bombing the only possible action we could have taken? Unless you count the president’s posts on Truth Social — which were belligerent and threatening — I don’t see much evidence of diplomacy as a first measure.

• Probability of Success: You must have considered the possible outcomes enough to have some confidence your war will be successful. What are the chances we will succeed in Iran? Oh my. You can read people way smarter than I am, who know more about the region, more about war in general, and more about the key players. So far, I haven’t read anything that gives me any optimism that this will be a successful effort. (And how do you measure success anyway in this case?)

• Competent Authority: Many people question the president’s mental competency these days. Many wonder who is actually calling the shots in the White House. But this element of the Just War Theory means something other than that. It means war must be initiated by the body who has the legal authority to declare war. Our U. S. Constitution gives Congress — not the President — the ability and responsibility to declare war. Yet, here we are at the mercy of an unstable man, who hasn’t taken the time to avail himself of good intelligence and hasn’t bothered to engage in diplomacy, sending our young people halfway around the world to drop bombs. If he consulted Congress one little bit, it must have been in the dark of night when nobody was looking (and nobody was there).

So, yeah, this is distressing on so many levels it’s hard even to come to grips with it. But this is the One Good Thing blog. I feel obliged to come up with something positive to say. Here it is: Regardless of the heinous action the United States took a few hours ago, we still have each other. We have our friends and families and communities. This is the time to embrace them more fiercely than ever, because, together, we will find our way forward. Staying isolated and alone is another choice altogether, and not a propitious way to pour out our energies. So, find your people. That’s a start. When we find out people, perhaps actions will emerge that we can take.

(And a reminder that some actions already exist for us: Call or email your Congressional delegates. Write letters to the editor and essays for your local papers. Make music and art that marks the insanity and injustice of this moment. Protest in any nonviolent way you can. Nobody has taken away our ability to do those things.)

On September 11, 2001, I was a student minister at First Parish in Brookline, Massachusetts. The senior minister called a hastily planned worship service for that evening. The City of Brookline lost 11 of its citizens on those airplanes. Also, there were friends and family members who had been in the towers or fighting the conflagration on the streets below. They died, too. I had people weeping in my arms during that service, as one person after another came forward to express their grief and fear. I will never forget it.

Here’s a prayer I found to read that evening. It feels apt today, too. I leave you with it, along with my deepest, most heartfelt prayer for peace.

Ojibway Prayer, from the Ojibway Nation

Grandfather,
Look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the Sacred Way.
We know that we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk the Sacred Way.
Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion, and honor
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.

Love,

Sylvia