Conversation Point

What Makes for Peace?

Watching the movie Gettysburg on DVD last night started out as a tentative, wait-and-see event. Over four hours long and dealing with tough subject matter, the movie called to me every time I passed by it sitting on my coffee table. Finding ourselves in the middle of another war, its brutality displayed each day on the nightly news. was its own caution. Although this newest war is far away, being fought outside other people's homes, it is our war too because we have made it our business to be there. Did I really want to invest a whole evening looking at people killing each other? Having been encouraged by a group of Civil War historians to make the time to see this particular film for what it had taught them about the war, I settled in to see what I could discover for myself.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought during the summer of 1863 in the hot, humid farmland of Pennsylvania, in a country that had already been at war for too long. North and South both understood that this meeting would be a turning point for ultimate victory or defeat. General Robert E. Lee saw what lay before him as something greater: an opportunity to make this the final battle of the war. A letter to President Lincoln outlining full peace terms was already drafted and was ready to be placed on the Union leader's desk when Lee would lead his men back home to Virginia via Washington, D.C. We now know, of course, that this war that most assumed would last only a month still faced another twenty-two months time before it would run its course to conclusion at Appomattox Court House.

Lee's desire to end the war sooner, rather than later, strengthened his resolve. But it also shadowed his ability to adequately consider the advice of his key generals, particularly Peter Longstreet, who repeatedly urged Lee to avoid direct conflict with the North at this point. Longstreet believed a defensive stance in another location would be a better choice. Lee's decision prevailed. As they say, the rest is history.
But this battle wasn't just about aground gained and lost, or even about winning the conflict.

What was most evident were the relationships among the men fighting and those leading the troops. Our Civil War, as any country's war within itself, pitted brothers and sisters against each other in the most hideous ways. The generals at Gettysburg all knew each other well, having trained together at West Point. They were also comrades, friends with shared histories that could not be overcome, even by the use of infantry and artillery against each other.

What did I learn, pressing myself to pay attention to a war that happened almost one hundred years before I was born? Wars don't seem to be based on what we feel for each other, not when we fully view our own humanity and those against whom we are fighting. Attempts will always be made to dehumanize our enemies, even if they are our own people, to make it easier to justify our own position and silence those with whom we disagree. There is something about fighting with each other that is easier for us than creating a world of compromise, equality, justice and peace.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when the Messiah would come and this would all change. "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4)."

It is time to stop fighting wars and time to stop training for wars.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 5:38 PM