In 1985 I traveled to the Soviet Union with seventeen members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The purpose was to meet and talk with like-minded individuals and make some solid connections between their peace groups and ours. I went on the trip because I believed in the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s vision of creating new bonds of friendship. But I had a personal reason too. My grandparents were from Russia, and I have always felt a certain bond with people of Russian Jewish descent.
Even though we were not planning to visit the area my grandparents had lived in, I still believed meeting Russians in general would be a link to my deceased grandparents and their lost world. In preparation, I studied the prior twenty years of the US and Soviet Union and their stormy relationship. I realized there had been very little meaningful communication between the two countries.
I wondered how, in the long run, this could affect my family. I had been married about five years and we had a three-year-old son. I realized that the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union was critically important in avoiding a devastating war which could cause mutual destruction. I knew, too, that the fate of my son was in the hands of the leaders of both countries.
Even so, ordinary people of both countries had to organize to help prevent a war between the two nuclear powers. So I took a photograph of my three-year-old son, made a hundred copies, and stuck them in my camera bag. I was prepared to give a photograph to anyone and everyone I met and tell them that they needed to care for my son just as I would care for their children.
It worked. Thanks to those of my companions who spoke Russian, I distributed the photos with my brief explanation and everyone, Americans and Russians, understood my message. The response was overwhelming. The average person on the street grasped the honesty of my words and the photo and why I was asking them to be the caretakers of all children.
My Russian trip has much relevance in the increasing tensions today, especially in the Middle East. The problems between Israelis and Palestinians continue to fester. It is time to stop the rhetoric and reach some sensible understanding of how dangerous the conflict has become, and that the alternatives are not very attractive to either side.
The possibility of war with Iran is no different. Social media and the Internet have opened a new way to communicate with others. Reaching other like-minded folks is much different now than in 1985. One can post a photograph on a Web page and tens of thousands or more people can see it and respond.
An Israeli designer, Ronny Edry, created a poster of himself with his young daughter holding an Israeli flag telling Iranians that he loved them. His point was to inform anyone who would listen that he didn’t want to go to war with their country. The response was incredible. Not only did Iranians respond with photographs and expressions of love and peace, but people from all over the world responded.
At least it is a beginning. Perhaps it too can work in defusing a conflict on the Korean peninsula. In any event, we need to insist that politicians and the mass media support peace rather than perpetual war, and, most importantly, ordinary people need to organize and demand: No more wars.