Peace Sells...but Who's Buying?

Finally, I was hung on a wooden board and put outside a hall on a table at a college. A ringer sat beside me and I waited patiently under the cloudy sky outside the main door all alone with a note by my side, “Please ring the bell, it’s International Peace Day today.”

Every time somebody passed by, my heart pounded. After about 10 minutes, a girl came, looked at me, looked at the note on the table and grabbed the ringer and “DINGGG.”

Peace comes by ringing a mere bell? Not exactly. When I came across the Megadeth 1986 album “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” I laughed at myself. Seriously, where do we buy peace? The political interests of the countries and groups have done enough in the name of peace. Countries buy more and more arms and ammunition in the name of fighting with rebels and insurgents in their respective nations when that money could have been used for food and infrastructure. It’s not just in war-torn African countries like Somalia, Sudan and Congo or Asian countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan — it’s in almost every continent.

Countries went to World War I and said peace would come, then along comes World War II. In the meantime, countries’ civil wars and border conflicts never stopped. Every day, people keep dying, children are abandoned in some corner and women are raped. Then there’s that perpetual plague, terrorism, that doesn’t even have political boundaries and continues to kill innocents.

True, everything is happening in some “other” corner of this world, so why should we care? But we care about Valentine’s Day, we celebrate the advent of spring, we care about the births of our Gods and even ourselves. Why can’t we mark the deaths of all those innocents and make peace for just one day? Peace won’t come just by ringing the bell, though. Peace starts from within oneself and, ideally, extends to one’s friends, one’s community, one’s country and one’s world. Make peace with your soul. As Socrates said, the state, the bigger version of your soul, would be in peace.

This past Sunday, when Afghan and foreign troops declared they would cease their offensive operations against Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan to observe this day, I felt as if Monday would be one bright day for the civilians in rural, war-torn Afghanistan. But the next morning brought grimness to their faces once again. Every year, countries announce cease-fires and individuals, communities, nations and governments highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace. A bell for international peace hangs outside the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

Just like every brick that makes a big wall is important, every day for peace is important. But if no one even marks this day, where are we going to find peace? It’s too bad that peace day is just one day. We are thirstier for peace than at any other time. May peace prevail on Earth. Just like Anton Chekov wrote in 1897, “we shall find peace, we shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” I hope we shall.

As for me, the peace bell, I stood still until the dawn in the hope people would still “ring me.” I was glad so many people did and every “DINGGG” meant a smile on a child’s face somewhere. I’ll be back next year.