Examining the peace pole paradox

Those lamenting over the disagreements about the wording on the Peace Pole in the newly renovated Walnut Park are missing the point.|

Those lamenting over the disagreements about the wording on the Peace Pole in the newly renovated Walnut Park are missing the point. The dispute over posting the word “peace” in English only, versus the seven languages initially tooled by the artist, is being portrayed as an irony. Comments such as “… the project has been anything but peaceful,” and “the so-called Peace Pole is showing the impossibility of actual peace” seem to be the adopted theme.

While at first blush the controversy does seem ironic, a closer look reveals quite the opposite. Yes, the wording on the Peace Pole has stirred controversy and yes, people have expressed strong conflicting opinions on the desired outcome. This is neither fighting nor inconsistent with the ideals of peace. The Dalai Lama said: “Peace is not the absence of conflict: differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge.”

One of the seven languages in dispute is Bosnian. If Petaluma’s Peace Pole issue was transported back to Bosnia in 1990, the dispute might be adjudicated by constructing the pole, planting land mines around it and placing snipers and rocket-propelled grenades within range to keep objectors away. This is what fighting - real fighting - looks like within the context of world “peace.”

Ban-Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General said: “Peace is not so much a goal as it is a process.” Here in Petaluma, we fire off emails instead of rockets, we plant ideas instead of land mines, and we write letters instead of writing off each other. This is the peace process of which Ban-Ki-moon spoke.

A legitimate function of public art is to create emotion, promote dialogue and inspire. I don’t know how or why the designer came up with the idea of attaching seven languages to the Peace Pole, but whether intentional or not, it has created the potential for the dialogue, education and knowledge of which the Dalai Lama spoke.

Our Peace Pole is not just a symbol of peace. It is a living classroom that promotes the peace process. Our Petaluma Service Alliance and elected officials have the potential to expand the reach and meaning of peace well beyond solving the false dilemma of one language versus seven. Our park is big enough to accommodate anyone who desires to have his or her language represented in the name of peace.

The dispute over the Peace Pole is really a dispute over inclusion. If the parties are struggling with new territory they might find guidance in a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem by American author and poet Edwin Markham titled “Outwitted”:

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in.

(Cliff Nannini is a training coordinator with the Petaluma Police Department. He trained police officers in Bosnia as part of an international peacekeeping mission.)

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