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Julia Rath PhD
Julia W. Rath is the president of
Beach Street Education Films
Foundation. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of
Chicago and
works as project manager, researcher, fundraiser and consultant. Dr.
Rath is an
expert on oral history and has taught interviewing and research skills
at the
Fordham University Graduate Center, in Tarrytown, New York. Julia can
be
contacted at J_W_Rath@netzero.net
Below is a transcription of Julia's recent speech on values of peace and the battle against violence.
Let's see a show of hands of how many of you have seen Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."
I have seen that movie too, and in order to get the players on the world stage to sign environmental or peace agreements, there must first be communication among them. One of the major consequences of an increasingly smaller globe is that the cause of people halfway around the planet becomes our own cause. Above all, we must have the desire to walk in the shoes of others who live in various parts of the world, for we cannot be truly sympathetic to their cause without some first-hand knowledge of their daily lives.
Last year, I visited Ethiopia, where the drought in sub-Saharan Africa is unbelievable. When I visited an Ethiopian town called Lalibela, there had been no rain for two years and only tiny bits of rain over the last eight. The people there and in other parts of the country were starving. The Ethiopian government wanted to move them out to the lowlands where there was more rain. But the problem is that the lowlands contain mosquitoes, which carry the deadly diseases of malaria and yellow fever. As a tourist, I was privileged, for I can escape the country. But for those who don't have the money to escape and must live there, they are each faced with the critical decision of how to die, by thirst or by plague.
Even we, in the wealthy countries, drink bottled water.
The issue of providing fresh, clean water to the world's population was broached in the movie "Millions." Water is worth more to humanity than money. Without water we cannot live. Whoever owns the water owns our lives.
In early May, I was in Las Vegas, where the natives said that summer had come a month early. In fact, Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the entire United States. In addition to all of the gambling and partying that Nevada is known for, it is also home to the Hoover Dam, which diverts water from the Colorado River to the States of California, Nevada, and Arizona. As the hot dryness of the desert increases with global warming and as air conditioning makes it possible for more people to move to a desert climate, water will become a major issue for this region. As the increased heat sucks up whatever moisture there is into the hot dryness of the desert air, water may never return to the earth again.
We who live by the Great Lakes are lucky, but as other parts of the United States suffer from a lack of fresh water, we soon may have to implement government policies regulating the use of water here too. As our evaporation, condensation, and precipitation cycle is altered, there may be fewer sources of fresh water on the planet. Fights may occur globally for control and access to this precious resource.
Whatever your religious or spiritual belief, think about how grateful you are that your quiet enjoyment of the earth is dependent on the fact that you have water, that you can drink it and bathe in it, and that our crops are nourished by it. And while you are thinking about the importance of water, take the time out from your busy day and go to the lake or a stream and watch the waves move up and down and watch the currents flow. Watch how your pet dog or your cat drinks the water and plays with it. And maybe in the wild, you can even spot a deer drinking from a pond of rainwater.
But our quiet enjoyment of life is dependent on something more than water: it has to do with the nature of our psyche and the fact that we do not have suicide bombers in our streets, and the fact that the war in Iraq is thousands of miles away from us, and the fact that we can board a bus or a train or a plane and (in spite of the heightened security) we will arrive at our destination in one piece. People in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Darfur, Somalia, and other places around the world are not so fortunate.
Recently there has been a lot of talk among people of faith who believe that the Messiah is coming, whether in two years or four years, or maybe in 2012, which marks the end of the Mayan calendar. There is considerable debate whether we are living at the so-called End of Times or End of Days. The fact that the Jews have returned to Israel is supposed to signal an essential part of this prophecy. Is this the prelude to the First and Only Coming of the Messiah as the Jews would argue? Or are we now living through the time period before the Second Coming of Christ, as the Christians would argue? Will this Messiah travel alone or would he or she be accompanied by the last Imam, as some of the Moslems say?
I strongly believe that as for the Apocalypse, the Rapture, and the Epiphany-whether these things happen or not-this should not be our focus. Whether it's real or not, it will take care of itself. It's not in our hands. Hastening it along should not be our doing; in fact, it will be our undoing. Rather, we actively need to work for peace, health, and well-being within our own culture and for those outside of it. We must be the best people that we can be and live decent, moral lives in spite of cultural trends that promote greed, profanity, selfishness, brutality, and materialism. We must not do the bidding for others who want to use us but rather do the best that we can for each of us. One day at a time, one person at a time, we need to do good things for others. Rather than asking to be saved by supernatural forces, we should promote goodness, kindness, and decency and in so doing, we save ourselves.
With all the violence in today's world, the best we can hope for is something I learned from an Israeli representative of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. When there is a suicide bombing and people are maimed and injured, the doctors do not inquire as to whether the victim is Jewish or Palestinian: the patient is right there in front of them: a fellow human being who needs to be given the best medical care possible.
The gift of healing is the most important gift that one person can give another on this physical plane of existence. And to heal a person properly and well (and not superficially), there must be peace in one's heart and in one's mind and in one's soul. Or else the negativity ensues and the cycle of violence continues.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, the Buddha, and Jesus Christ have been seen within various religions as icons of peace and reconciliation in a violent world. While their personal examples and sufferings are notable, what we must learn is to internalize their lessons into our own lives. But we must also go deeper: We need to forge our own paths and develop a conscious commitment to creating a destiny that benefits us all in accordance with the mystery of the Universal Life-Force—whether you call this force God, Fate, or the Source of All-Being.
Let us hope that as we remain true to God and to ourselves, we will be granted the knowledge and wisdom to differentiate war from peace, freedom from slavery, and ignorance from strength. Through freedom of conscience and the progress of education in a democratic, multicultural society, we will be able to dispel fear and create bridges to people who are different than we are. Only in this way can we promote true peace in our lifetime. And peace begins one person at a time, one piece at a time. And it starts with you. The power of one is immense. The future of the world rests on your shoulders.
Below is a transcription of Julia's recent speech at Peace Forum III.
The Wisdom of Jacob
the Baker:
A Speech for the
2007 Universal Dream of Peace
Event -- Julia W.
Rath, Ph.D.
Life
has to be a balance.
We understand good, because we know about evil.
We know about peace, because we understand war.
We need to know sadness to truly know happiness.
Life
has to be considered and
not impulsive.
We must think first before speaking.
We need to consider the consequences of our actions.
We ought to reflect on what we have already done in order to decide what to do next.
Life
has to have perspective.
We need to look back and realize where we have already been in order to understand the direction in which we are going.
Reflecting on our past motives and actions can allow us to change our behavior and our effectiveness in reaching our goals and objectives.
Changing our behavior can potentially change outcomes in life and can allow us to forge better outcomes and a better future.
There are times to stand back and reflect, and there are times to move forward and act.
In creating peace in the world, we need to operate in the sphere of action and we need to work to improve ourselves. And both of these things can be done simultaneously.
To
explain this seeming contradiction, I would like to relate to you a
story from
the book Jacob the Baker by Noah ben Shea. As a professor at several
This particular story is called: “The Moments that the World Ignored Filled His Plate.”
It
was always the small, solitary acts of living that brought Jacob peace.
The
more attention others drew to him
The
more pleasure he began to draw from the commonplace.
The
moments that the world ignored filled his plate.
He
did not seem susceptible to his own inflation.
On
the contrary he appeared to relish and become more comfortable with
making
himself less.
In
this process, the subtleties of living grew, their significance
enhanced.
The
teapot whistled when it was ready.
From
this Jacob took that he must be patient until he is called.
And
when he is called, he must be able to hear the call;
And
for this to happen, he must pay attention.
And
when the call came and he was listening, he must be prepared to act.
Patience,
calm, attention and action—these were Jacob’s
thoughts in the small kitchen
over his morning tea.
When
he finished, the circle of the empty cup stared back at him, its rim
running
endlessly.
Jacob
drifted, cradled himself into the silent center space of the cup and
found
peace.
A wise individual once wrote:
For the garden of your daily
living:
Plant three rows of
peas:
1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul
Plant four rows of squash:
1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness
Plant four rows of Lettuce:
1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one
another
No garden without
turnips:
1. Turnip for
meetings
2. Turnip for
service
3. Turnip to help
one another
To conclude our
garden, we must have herbs like rosemary and
oregano, but the most important one is thyme:
1. Thyme for each
other
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for
friends
Water freely with
patience and cultivate with love.