Promoting a Peaceful World
Each one of us can do our part to make the world a better place. There are many opportunities to take action for peace both locally and globally, through our daily interactions, and by educating ourselves about peace and related subjects.
Locally
Close to home, there are plenty of things you can do in your community, actions that reflect important values to further peace. One of these values is sharing of and providing access to resources to vulnerable or marginalized members of your community. Whether it is veterans, senior citizens, the poor, or the homeless, most communities have groups that would welcome your donation of time or money to improve the lives of these vulnerable people.
Consider getting involved with local organizations that provide one of these much needed resources. Donate your food or time to a local food bank, soup kitchen, or religious congregation that conducts food drives.
You can also find and support a local organization that helps in other ways. Join the fight against inequality and discrimination in your community. Give to the local chapter of the ACLU fighting for individual liberties, the Salvation Army fighting poverty, interfaith groups or other groups that bring people together across religions, ethnicities, or gender identities to promote understanding and empathy.
Take part in local events, dialogues, and demonstrations. National organizations such as Indivisible and 50501 have local chapters and list upcoming events in communities across the country. Find a protest or demonstration near you. Join or support local chapters of these organizations that mobilize for protests and demonstrations.
Globally
Interested in doing your part globally? Support peace advocacy organizations that take concrete actions in trouble spots around the world. These include large institutions and organizations with international reach such as the United Nations, United Nations Peacekeeping, and Oxfam as well as smaller groups with local focuses like APDIK (Democratic Republic of Congo) and CFTA (Gaza). Find a group that works on promoting peace in a part of the world that is important to you.
Through Daily Interactions
Practice kindness and understanding in your daily interactions with friends, family, neighbors, and others in your community. Express empathy and solidarity and treat everyone with dignity and respect. If you encounter hate speech or other harmful comments in your conversations, respectfully call them out and challenge them. Gently push back on the assumptions and prejudices that cause people to express hateful thoughts. If a situation escalates, practice non-violent conflict resolution. It's OK to agree to disagree. Remember there is more that unites us than divides us.
Educate Yourself
It is important to learn and understand the basic principles of conflict prevention, mediation, and peace building and keep up with events occurring around the world. By doing so you empower yourself to make a difference and contribute to a more peaceful future. There are many online publications, journals, and blogs dedicated to peaceful action, world peace, and related subjects. These include Vision of Humanity, Everyday Peacebuilding, the United Nations' Peacekeeping Peace Begins With Me campaign, and the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.