 |
Children’s Category 3rd Prize
Enabling World Peace
Rebecca N. Drobinski
(Age 11, U.S.A.)
When will world peace come into our lives? It’s as simple as working together. To create world peace, we – the children – need to get along with one another and learn not to judge people by the way they look, worship, think, act, live, or believe. We need to let each other live their own lives and not interfere with their cultures or individual beliefs. We must allow them to be who they truly are and not force our beliefs on them. We need to create a project to enable world peace.
How can young people contribute to the creation of dynamic and harmonious multicultural societies?
When a person is working alone on a project, it may seem very hard work, especially if the project is global peace. The goal of world peace starts with one person. Then, let me share my project with my friends. They, in turn, share it with their friends, and in a matter of time, we will be able to see that what we are doing is making a difference. Other people will notice the difference and will be moved to participate. The goal will be achieved. It becomes easier when the young people are working together for the same goal.
How can people of diverse cultures and backgrounds live together peacefully?
My mom recently visited New York City and discovered it is home to over 170 diverse cultures living, working, and worshipping side by side in peace. How did they accomplish peace? It seems to me that kids judge or make fun of other people because they are either trying to cover up something or are ashamed of themselves. As human beings, we all have weaknesses. It is much easier to go through life when we help each other.
We also assume if we hurt other people emotionally or physically, we won’t be teased for our weaknesses. Negative attention is turned away from the individual. People might fear us, and won’t discover our weakness because of their fear. When we decide to help each other, we do not have to worry about hiding our own weaknesses. We all have weaknesses, whether it is the way we think, act, live, believe, worship, or look.
Let each other be
To enable world peace we need to be who we really are and accept each other for whatever way they choose to be. Once we learn to accept each other for our true selves, we as humankind will be able to create world peace. We must look at each other with tolerance and compassion and keep our judgments to ourselves. As long as my neighbor is not asking me to change my beliefs, I can tolerate hers. Let each other be.
What projects can be started to achieve this goal?
To spread the goal of world peace, I would create multicolored rubber wristbands with a small picture of the earth and the peace sign on the front of the wristband. All around the wristband would be people of different colors and sizes joined hand in hand. This represents humankind working together for their goal of world peace. The wristband is a reminder that world peace is the goal and it begins with the person who wears the bracelet.
I would start the project at my church, asking the religious education director to allow me to tell classrooms of kids about my idea. Everyone that agreed to live by the rules of compassion and tolerance for each other to promote global peace would receive a wristband. Each person would then go and tell their friends and family about the project. Every person supporting the project would receive a bracelet at a cost of $1. In order to pay for the first supply of bracelets, I would ask my community businesses to get involved. I imagine the project spreading from church to church, school-to-school, community-to-community, state-to-state, and country-to-country. If I could involve people from other countries in the beginning of the project, the project would be started from many directions. It will take children to create this program working together to enable world peace. Let my generation be known as the peacemakers.
|
|
