This afternoon, in recognition of International Day of Peace, Manchester University dedicated a peace pole at the Fort Wayne campus. The peace pole has the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the four languages most spoken at our Manchester University Pharmacy Program English, Arabic, Urdu and Spanish.

I was honored to offer opening remarks that I include below

Good afternoon,

As I thought about what to say today, I chose not to prepare my remarks well in advance and to rather quickly jot down this morning what comes to you straight from my heart; A heart, and mind, that is heavy by the recent loss of our friend Sue.

With that real and palpable sense of grief, I found myself reflecting on the number of lives lost we hear and read about in the news. Lost Lives that for the most part have unfortunately become mere cold numbers, numbers to which we have become accustomed or worse, numb.

So I asked myself, how can peace prevail on earth? How can we, as members of the Manchester family,
as persons of ability and conviction who are guided by our respect for the infinite worth of every individual,
inspired by a church steeped in the history of peace making,
how can we stem the tide of aimless, endless wars that cause immeasurable amount of pain and suffering on earth?

How can we help achieve such noble goal?

And every time I think about this, I find that the answer lies in one place.
Right here
If we want peace to prevail on earth then peace must prevail within, for when peace prevails within we become an unstoppable force of love that strives for justice for all.

May the peace, blessings and mercy of God be upon all of you. And may His everlasting peace shine through each and every one of you.

(Hoping to get a good discussion on this and would really like your input)

I have had a couple of conversations with friends recently about a concept that I will dub "luxury of thought"

Basically, I think, people whose day to day concern is basic survival/putting food on the table/making ends meet do not have the luxury of time to be able to spend on thinking/contemplating/deeper reflection.

Don't get me wrong; It's not that they are incapable, or that they lack the intelligence. Rather, it's that when making priorities, thinking about immigrants/climate change/war....etc does not make the top 10 list of concerns for them.

I believe that when people are not given the opportunity to have such basic rights as the time and mental comfort to think, thinking/contemplating/self reflection becomes a luxury and opt for the basic, often myopic, understanding of the world around them.

This concept is weaponized by those whose interests are best served by those who enjoy such "luxury" but use it with ill intent.

What do you think?