By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

In words and in deeds, people in this country struggle with peace.

The issue surfaced when peace studies students at Avila University asked me for a definition of that often used but frequently diminished word. My frustration is people define peace by what it isn’t.

That concept is just too narrow to capture the full range of the value and application of peace. Peace has to be more than the absence of war, fighting, strife and violence.

Peace should never be an alternative. It must be the only solution for conflicts, controversies and differences. Making peace the pinnacle is the path to true peace.
Such thoughts surfaced this month at the “From Pain to Peace” service at the Community Christian Church commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy.

Explaining the Buddhist tradition, Ray Porter said peace is not independent of us. Each of us has the capacity to live in peace. Fully applied, peace helps us to be more productive.

But it’s easier to talk about peace than to live it. Our culture and our country glorify fighting and violence.

Peace takes a back seat to guns. The United States has expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier.

A congressional study released this month showed that the U.S. signed weapons agreements worth $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms market. That was up from $25.4 billion the previous year.

Guns fuel a lot of violence and fighting.
We have domestic violence shelters because of fighting with and without guns. There are never enough beds for fleeing women and children.

People shoot, stab and injure one another. It is a growing concern in Kansas City.
Data released last week by the FBI showed that murder and manslaughter dropped nearly 4 percent in 2008 nationwide, but the murder rate in Kansas City increased 28 percent.

This year has the potential to be worse unless peace becomes the dominant force reversing black-on-black and poor-on-poor crimes.

Peace would enable people to turn to each other for help and comfort rather than turn on one another in these hard times of high unemployment, devastating foreclosures and shrinking opportunities.

More people needed to hear Ahmed El-Sherif at the recent peace service. He said that because the world is smaller, we are all neighbors affected by others’ actions. Peace lets us learn and benefit from others’ love, hope, faith and kindness.

Peace offers better ways for people to work together, prosper together and get along.
How people communicate is important. Unfortunately, our language is filled with violence. Such words fill our music, television shows, news, video games, movies, the Internet and other media.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim behavior and classism work against efforts toward peace.

Violence also is a defining character trait — particularly for men. Being tough and fighting is part of the male identity. It’s in our literature, schools and media.

Abolishing violence will be more difficult than ending slavery because violence is such an institutional and widespread problem. Violence is how this country was settled, how it spread from coast to coast and became a superpower.

Peace offers a better way. But the United States has to take strategic steps to overcome violence.

The first step is for Congress to pass and President Barack Obama to sign legislation creating a cabinet Department of Peace. The department would provide people with examples of best practices in solving all conflicts through nonviolent means.

Like alcoholics and drug addicts, we need a 12-step program toward overcoming violence. The first step is recognizing that we have a problem.

At the “From Pain to Peace” service, Ashty Hamaamin said peace removes the uncertainty, instability and fear that violence fosters. “The only way peace is possible is through communication,” she said.

Words for peace should matter most of all.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to