2008 SECOND HONORABLE MENTION

MAYBE WE CAN MAKE PEACE?
Kayla Lanae Weber
17 years old, Alaska

Different cultures deal with conflict in different ways. Many different countries have similar ways of dealing with conflict and ways of making peace. It is hard for people from opposing cultures to get along because they are raised thinking they are correct in their ways. The way you are raised will affect your views on how to deal with conflict and how to make peace. If we all would just open our minds and eyes to different cultures and embrace them, possibly we could find world peace.

Peace is a difficult thing to find in America. We might have one of the worst reputations among countries in this for being 'hot heads' in regards to conflict. Conflict starts with a dirty look and can quickly escalate into horrible things like genocide. In many countries, conflict begins with shame or embarrassment. Some cultures will not make peace face to face but send an envoy to work it out for them. We need to just start raising our children with the ideal that conflict is not okay. Conflict is detrimental to all people and we need to find peace in America and in the world. Our children, the next generation, hopefully will change everything. We are not born with hatred; it is taught. If we can refuse to teach hatred, it will ideally end. We cannot find a path to peace: peace just has to come about in our teachings. If our children see a fight we should teach them to learn how to stop it, or if they start one we should teach them it is wrong. If we teach peace it will most surely come about in our everyday lives.

It is important to America, and other cultures that people be open-minded to the ideals of other cultures. "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. If we do this and try to understand, it will be easier to get along with different cultures and learn their ways of making peace. If we all just respect each other, it would make the world a much more peaceful place. It is not our borders that divide us all, it is our views in our cultures and the fact that we are different that divide us.

Americans can start towards world peace by doing a few little things. We need to teach peace to our younger generations and we need to keep an open mind to other cultures and their ways of dealing with peace. Then one day maybe..... We can achieve world peace.