Searching For Peace in 2025:
Immediately Finding Heroes
John Reuwer / World BEYOND War
“We will not learn how to live together in peace
by killing each other’s children.”
— Jimmy Carter’s 2002 Nobel Lecture
(January 13, 2025) — At the start of the new year, witnessing the enormous suffering caused by violence and war in so many places, abetted by the US government sending weapons to violent actors in dozens of nations, made me want to scream.
Watching the federal administration and congress first hand in Washington DC not only refuse to adhere to domestic and international laws that were designed to prevent war and genocide, but actually attack the courts that can hold accountable those responsible, impelled me to take action to temper my screams. Where I live, it is easy to find ways to make a difference.
Working alone against the powers that be can be overwhelming, but trying to do at least one significant thing a day found me quickly surrounded by heroes and heroines who inspire me with their amazing care, zeal, hard work, and smarts. Here are some examples from just a little more than the first week of the year.
Jan 2 – 4: Being treasurer for World BEYOND War allows me to see one by one the hundreds of small gifts and a few large ones that allow the talented World BEYOND War staff to accomplish our work educating and organizing to end war and create a just and sustainable peace all over the globe. These generous donors enable our staff who produce content that can be found on our web site — a rich repository of information about almost any war in the world, along with information about who is trying to end it, and how you can get involved.
This year we added amazing organizers in South America and Africa, as well as supporting a researcher who helped us create the world’s most complete database of foreign military bases in the world. Our new bookkeeper Michael Rubin works on a cooperative model of business that helps other cooperatives and non profits do their work without making profit its number one goal.
Jan 5: Adelphi Friends Meeting in Maryland supports the work for peace despite significant challenges posed by thriving in a US culture that glorifies war. The Meeting serves as a model for working together despite the pull of strong opinions in opposite directions.
Jan 6: Prepared for a week of activities by watching a 2 1/2 hour webinar presented by Doctors Against Genocide (DAG), with powerful and heart-rending accounts of what is happening in Palestine from experts and eyewitnesses with geopolitical, military, humanitarian, and medical points of view. It is convenient to watch as each speaker takes only 5-10 minutes.
I heartily recommend this to anyone who wants to know what the situation actually is around the suffering in the Middle East. The same day, activists from Prince Georges County (Maryland) for a Ceasefire worked to put up a local billboards with this theme related to the Middle East:
Jan 7: Helped DAG schedule meetings between health care professionals and Congress members for the following day. I watched several physician leaders create press releases, talking points, and arrange transportation for dozens of fellow health care workers, in between seeing patients and taking calls. Some of them clearly did not sleep much for several days. Then watched testimonies by military and other government officials who have quit their jobs and spoken in protest of what they see as policies that undermine the best values they want our nation to stand for.
I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with some of them this past year, like this courageous young army intelligence officer who recently resigned her commission because the army is breaking US laws by supplying weapons to Israel when it violates human rights in such egregious fashion. Videos of her testimony Here and here.
Palestinian pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya.
Jan 8: Long day on Capitol Hill with DAG, visiting dozens of Senate and House offices. Some of these healthcare workers came from around the country to give poignant and passionate testimony about the attacks on the healthcare system by Israel in the Middle East. Our asks were that medical neutrality be respected at all times, that no medical workers be targeted and that medical facilities be left alone.
The focal point was asking for the release of the heroic Palestinian pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya who despite losing his son, refused to leave his patients at Hospital, and was recently arrested and held secretly by Israeli soldiers.
It is almost impossible to get appointments with actual representatives, and sometimes difficult to get staff appointments, so many of our visits were pop-ins to offices where we talked with staff briefly or at length, and occasionally ran into an actual representative. We received considerable warm welcome and support from some offices like Senator Van Hollen of Maryland, and some less war welcomes from others. We were assisted by Medea Benjamin and the indefatigable Code Pink, masters of human decency and accountability on the Hill.
Jan 9: Vigiled with Christians for a Ceasefire at the Washington National Cathedral during the funeral of President Jimmy Carter, in order to honor him and acknowledge his effort to humanize the Palestinians. The weather was frigid but beautiful, but our spirits were high with the memory of a President who, while far from perfect in his policies, avoided dehumanization of anyone, and maintained civility toward all those he encountered.
What a contrast from where we are today, when condemning and threatening anyone who opposes you wins you political power. I later learned that Helena Cobban, a tireless author and publisher dedicated to peacemaking was carrying the same message inside the funeral itself.
That afternoon finished with our monthly World BEYOND War board meeting putting me in instant communication with peace leaders from the US, Nigeria, Ireland, Bolivia, Australia, Ukraine, and New Zealand.
Jan 10: A powerful grassroots movement in the DC metro are that I know as a Whats App Chat “Organizing for Palestine” is another tireless group of activists that has given me the opportunity over the 15 months to participate in die-ins, demonstrations, and guerrilla theatre at landmarks all over the city. These folks literally occupied the streets around the Israeli embassy and Secretary of State Blinken’s house for over six months, braving all weather and harassment by Zionists and the Secret Service.
Led By Hazami Barmada and others who have had family killed in the ruthless attacks by Israel on Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, they find countless creative ways to hold government officials to account, while educating the public.
Today they served Antony Blinken an indictment for war crimes. With impressive props and an even more impressive factual indictment, they walked from the State Department to the Department of Justice and back to deliver their message. See a great video here.
There you have it. The opportunities afforded by my heroes and heroines in just the first week and a half of 2025 are open to everyone. I hope their work offers you also the antidote to despair or helplessness about what is happening in the world. Never buy the lie that you cannot make a difference. Please feel free to contact me to become more involved in creating the world we want for our children’s future.
John Reuwer is Treasurer and a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked in South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of the few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping. He also serves on the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern warfare, so blatantly displayed in the current war in Ukraine. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”
