Get Peace Back on the Rails: Peace Train participant Kristi Lewis on why she is getting on board

 

Get Peace Back on the Rails. That’s the title of an article about the Peace Train by Kristi Lewis in the Cowichan Valley Voice in Duncan, B.C. 

Lewis, who is riding on the Peace Train with her mother, Ester Hack, wrote that “Peace Trainers want to inspire our leaders to re-invest in Canada as an independent, intelligent and diplomatic middle power that is willing to uphold justice and self-determination as foundations for security; name and address the true causes of violent conflict. 

Along with that, participants want to ask government officials to “help create the conditions for avoiding war, de-escalating violence, conflict resolution, and post-war reconciliation and rebuilding,” she added. 

She went on to say: 

“The spirit of the Peace Train is carried not only by the Peace Trainers riding the train but also by the Peace Trackers—the thousands of individuals and peace organizations linked in an on board, virtual car after virtual car, supporting the train from where they are. 

“The Peace Train is not a protest but at but an effort to lift up all those who will rise to the current global challenges of resisting polarization, rampant self-interest and an industrial war machine that is out of control. 

“If we don’t want war, we must prepare for peace. Waging peace is not a neutral, passive aspiration, but a high-intensity engagement requiring fearless determination in the face of asymmetrical power structures that breed trauma, injustice and immense human suffering. 

“The nature and scale of human-generated conflict and climate disruption is a call to examine our shared values and potential. We can do better. The only way out of our assured destruction is to enable mutually assured freedom, stability and security. As Romeo Dallaire declared: ‘The era of ‘the other’ is over.’

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