Peacemaker

In the 19^th Century, Col Sam Colt brought out a handgun he named the Model P, or Peacemaker. We think of peace as opposite to war, and make up crude slogans to express how contradictory the concept of fighting for peace appears.

We forget that fighting isn’t necessarily about  bombs and guns and bloodshed. Often, but not necessarily. Fighting can be a more passive resistance, an occupation of strategic space (the central theory of Wing Chun is essentially just that – moving into the opponent’s space). And once there, refusing to relinquish said space. No matter what.

The Nobel Peace Prize was founded by the man who invented dynamite – reputedly in an attempt to redeem himself for making such a desturctive weapon. And it’s been awarded to three women: the Liberian Leymah Gbowee, a peace activist instrumental in organising the peaceful resistance against the warlords that ultimately resulted in the Accra peace treaty and the end of a civil war; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, another Liberian and Africa’s first elected female president; and the Yemeni Tawakkul Karman, also a peace activist and journalist fighting for both women’s and press freedom, in the face of threats and harassment.

We may glibly say that fighting for peace is a contradiction in terms, but in the end, refusing to back down in the face of threats and violence is fighting – it may not be an active offensive, but it requires all the strength of a warrior.