How Good is your Century Cease-Fire™ Imagination?
By: Jonathan M. Genn
November 11, 2009
It’s 11am on November 11, 2011, and in the town of Gaza City, a short distance from Sderot, Israel, a beautiful baby Islamic Palestinian girl is born. During that same hour in the town of Sderot, Israel, a short distance from Gaza City, a beautiful baby Jewish Israeli girl is born.
No one will be able to convince me otherwise --- no child is born with an innate instinct of hatred or desire to kill any other human being anywhere in the World, regardless of his her race, religion, ethnicity, culture, national original, or any other distinguishing characteristic. Unfortunately, however, under today’s hostile conditions, these two hypothetical baby girls are vulnerable to becoming poisoned with hate and intolerance during their lifetime as the unfortunate by-product of one or both of the following adult influences:
(a) the express teachings of hatred, intolerance, disrespect, and misunderstanding by that child’s parents or other adults having a direct influence over that child’s development, and/or
(b) the violent acts of adversaries (even if those adversaries contend they were provoked or appropriately “justified” in using force), which inflict permanent physical and/or emotional scars on that innocent child when that child experiences or witnesses the injury or death of family, friends, or neighbors, or otherwise experiences or witnesses the destruction of the only world that child has ever known; namely, his or her village or neighborhood.
But what if there were a way to insulate these two beautiful babies, so they would not be taught hatred and intolerance, nor would they develop hatred or intolerance on account of their parents’ adversaries attacking their village and injuring or killing their family members, friends, and neighbors? What if instead they were taught to practice the five essential ingredients to every healthy human relationship --- whether between family members, friends, colleagues, communities, and even among races, religions, cultures, and nation-states --- which can be distilled down to a simple acronym, “T.R.U.T.H.,” with the letters of that acronym representing the values of mutual:
Tolerance,
Respect,
Understanding,
Trustworthiness, and
Humility?
No doubt, there will be an infinitesimally small percentage of people who would be threatened by the prospect of non-violent co-existence, because their power and influence derive directly from the perpetuation of violence among adversaries. The civilized World, therefore, must be vigilant and united in their resolve to take immediate and forceful action to deter and impose powerful “consequences” on those who threaten to breach this intended Century Cease-Fire™. A so-called “T.R.U.T.H. of Consequences™” doctrine of international relations would thus appear to be an effective carrot-and-stick approach to could sustain our non-violent co-existence during this intended Century Cease-Fire™.
Although a tiny fraction of the population have a vested self-interest in perpetuating hate, intolerance, and violence, the hope for humanity rests in another, even more powerful, truth; namely, the overwhelming majority of parents of children born on 11/11/2001 (and every day thereafter) --- regardless of their nationality, race, religion, ethnicity, or culture --- will share a similar dream for their newborns to have an opportunity to grow up without the constant fear of violence, and that their newborns could enjoy a safe, productive, and fulfilling life. This common dream of all those parents could be overpowering motivation to see this vision for a Century Cease-Fire™ come to fruition.
With the continued advancement of modern medicine --- including medicines and treatments that have not yet been invented, but will be discovered during the coming Century --- there is a reasonable chance that both of these babies born on 11/11/2011 could celebrate their 100th birthday on 11/11/2111. Just imagine the power and wonder of our legacy, if we could have succeeded in creating the pre-conditions necessary to establish, enforce, and preserve a Century Cease-Fire™ for these two baby girls, so that on their 100th birthday the following conversation between them could take place:
One 100 year old woman asks the other with a look of bewilderment in her eyes (it matters not which one initiates the conversation):
“I honestly don’t understand why our ancestors were fighting and killing each other a century ago when we were born on 11/11/2011.”
And, after swallowing her bite of birthday cake, the other 100 year old woman replies with a warm smile and twinkle in her eyes:
“Neither do I.”