Outrage, othering, and campus peace advocacy

As we mark the 25th anniversary of the United Nations International Day of Peace on Sept. 21 — in a world wracked by warfare that ripples around the world — the question we should be asking ourselves is neither “Why do people kill?” nor “Who kills most justly?” but only this: “How does it ever stop?”

We’ve met this moment before: international warfare, campus activists, and a skeptical public.

Late in World War I, on Oct. 7, 1918, an editorial from a leading Philadelphia newspaper — The Public Ledger — rejected German peace offerings. In the days that followed, the paper published a letter from a professor at Haverford College, Henry Cadbury, which critiqued the public desire for revenge against Germany, instead urging readers, “to keep ourselves in the mood of moderation and fair play.”

The intense blowback to that letter led to Cadbury’s resignation.

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Scholars have since argued that the terms ending World War I humiliated Germans and created conditions that led to the emergence of nationalist political parties, culminating with the Nazi Party.

Cadbury’s sin was seeing Germans as whole persons. War-fueled divisions made it impossible for his contemporaries to embrace the logic, but his interest in moving past ethnic nationalisms toward deeper human understanding is also an American ideal.

If there is a central claim for both the wellspring of the democratic rights tradition and appeals made upon it from all sides, it is a phrase with roots in the Declaration of Independence: All people are created equal. It is at least as much radical aspiration as it is truth. In 1776, Protestants and Catholics, English and Scots, French and Spaniards had little meaningful investment in the universal dignity of humankind.

Ever since, this contested truth has been at the core of events, institutions, and ideals associated with progress — and it is central to peace and justice work. Are all people created equal?

A defining characteristic of conflicts around the globe is the failure by opposing sides to acknowledge one another’s basic dignity, as persons and as communities with rights to self-determination.

But outrage at mutual (un)recognition is different from equality in creation.

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At a genetic level, humans are more similar than different, though there is variation. Some people are more flexible; others are gifted in the acquisition of languages. Broad similarities, yet clear differences.

It is the second part of the Declaration of Independence that reaches toward a more significant, social promise. That section ties the notion of equality in creation to the presence of rights in this life. To secure rights, “Governments are instituted … to effect… Safety and Happiness.”

Nearly 250 years later, worldwide, functioning governments secure some amount of safety and happiness. It’s relatively easy to keep score on at least one important indicator of government efficacy: life expectancy. Different arrangements across diverse peoples yield varied outcomes. Babies born in Algeria can expect to live nearly 77 years. In Asia more than a dozen countries average above 80. Here in the U.S., life expectancy recently dropped to 76 years.

What does all of this have to do with building a just peace? The first requirement of peacework is to see the full dignity of “the other.” It is to stop seeing only French or Germans, Hutus or Tutsis, Russians or Ukrainians, and instead to see persons.

To see a person is to see a complex miracle.

The second move in sustaining peace and rights is to establish systems of shared governance. At their best, these systems make space for diverse ideas and identities, they offer freedom of movement and speech, fair and just judicial processes, and access to education and health care. To look around the world is to see that good governance is possible. Life expectancies continue to increase, across extraordinarily diverse peoples.

One of the ironies of the rights tradition is that complaints are heard most consistently in those spaces where rights have advanced substantially — and are now contested.

To participate in debates about appropriate speech on campuses is to sit atop the achievements of many thousands of activists, organizers, and administrators across issues and ideologies, who have collectively created the heritage within which we operate.

Campaigning for peace and building just institutions involves vital and varied work, often with numerous setbacks.

Cadbury advanced pacifist activism well out of step with the Philadelphia region in 1918. But he landed on his feet. He went on to teach at Harvard and later traveled to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee.

Campaigning for peace and building just institutions involves vital and varied work, often with numerous setbacks. People working to recognize and expand an embrace of human dignity keep stepping forward, learning, pausing, resetting, and re-engaging.

Establishing a truly just peace means always strengthening our collective capacities to see one another. We must ensure all voices are heard. We should work harder to see the light in every single person; especially those with whom we disagree.

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And institutional arrangements must better respect the dignity of each individual. Those arrangements must further reveal the truth in the Declaration of Independence — later extended through the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights — every person is equal. Around the world, great leaders understand this.

In a speech condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations Martin Kimani envisioned a more deeply integrated Africa, insisting, “We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.”

The move from the Declaration of Independence to the Declaration of Human Rights is a move of ever-expanding inclusion. This is a journey we must all continue.

We humans deserve rights secured and promoted by functioning governments, wherever we are born, with whatever identity, and however that identity might change over time. When we see one another, when we secure just institutions — we will achieve a just and sustainable peace.

Eric Hartman is the executive director of the Haverford College Center for Peace and Global Citizenship.