By Richard Czaplinski
I’m a veteran. Nearly six years of service (1964 -1969). I’m also a member of the Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans for Peace, Chapter 57. As an organization we try to foster peace. Over the years I must admit that I have been more than a bit frustrated as to the best way for me to foster peace and how to encourage others to foster peace.
Our chapter marches in parades at various events during the year and the Fourth of July in Montpelier is one of them. Thanks to the city of Montpelier for putting on the parade and allowing VFP to participate and express our aspirations for peace.
This year, to see if I could get other folks’ ideas on how they foster peace, I made a handheld sign that read, “How do You foster Peace.” I underlined the words You and Peace. “You” because I hoped that the responses I got would be personal, such as “I foster peace like this.” I underlined “Peace” because I feel strongly that we really need to put our minds and energy and dollars towards peace rather than war.
While waiting for the parade to start and during the parade I managed to scribble 35 responses on the back of my handheld sign. What really struck me was that only a few of them were personal: “I’m taking care of a veteran;” “I’m helping parties to set up a peace process in Syria;” “Our school (Montpelier Montessori School) teaches conflict resolution to children using the book The Peace Rose;” and “Our school (River Rock School) teaches children history of the world and solving problems by peaceful means.” One person demonstrated how she fosters peace by giving a hug.
The rest were phrased as what one or others should do. To be fair, maybe it’s a way of speaking and those who responded more impersonally are most likely doing what they suggested.
Here are a few of the responses:
• Be peaceful yourself
• Read history
• Be decent to people
• Listen to others
• Find common ground
• Help other people
• Not saying bad things about people
• Be kind and tolerant
• Vote
• Learn about the other. Identify with the other
• Use plain old manners
The next day in Warren, I set up a station with the sign and a clipboard asking Fourth of July parade-goers to answer the question. I got 22 responses. Here is a sampling of those responses:
• Think of each person as yourself
• Hear the other side
• Listen and talk to people of all viewpoints
• Practice compassion in all situations
• Don’t judge others
• Let everyone have a voice
• Spending more time meditating
• Widen your perspective! Learn!
I would like to thank everyone who responded to the question and to those who read and pondered it. Your responses will be reviewed by our VFP chapter members at our next meeting and will no doubt have an impact on how we go about fostering peace.
I would also like to invite veterans to join our chapter to help working to foster peace. If you are not a veteran and would like to help in our efforts, you can join us as an associate member. Contact me at
Czaplinski lives in Warren.
