When Will We Ever Learn

 

This plaintive lyric from Pete Seeger's unforgettable song---"Where Have All the Flowers Gone"-- moves me deeply today for many reasons. 

 

"When will we ever learn" that men, women and children all around the world--all of us--care and want the same things:  peace and security in our lives: knowing we are appreciated and that we matter with people whom we respect; having opportunities for personal progress and to enjoy a reasonable level of prosperity?

"When we ever learn" that simply listening to another person, coming to know their story, is the greatest gift we can offer them--and ourselves.

 

"When will we ever learn" that in order to resolve inevitable differences in viewpoint and beliefs among different people, we have to be able to talk with one another to share our views and do so with mutual respect, building a level of trust that permits and leads to honest conversation? 

 

"When will we ever learn" that we cannot achieve the peaceful coexistence we desperately need with other powerful nations-- each with their own cultures, traditions and beliefs-- unless we talk with one another with respect and a mutual desire to see each other’s point of view? To learn what are the "red lines"are for each of us and how we can respect them without betraying our own most fundamental interests?

 

"When will we ever learn to act" on the reality that there are common challenges and opportunities that demand that nations work together to secure not only their own interests but their very existence and that of the planet.  I refer above all to the challenges of nuclear disaster, climate change, terrorism and rampant disease, as has been abundantly evident with COVID.

Yes, “when will we ever learn?”  More to the point, perhaps, is the question "how can we learn?"  And indeed, “can we learn?”  

Honestly, I’m not sure.  But there is room for hope. History presents examples when we have acted on this learning . In the last century we have seen the nations of Europe, which had been in almost constant warfare with one another, come together in the European Union. Agreements and common understanding among the nuclear powers--the United States and Russia prominent among them-- have led to the avoidance of the use of nuclear weapons for over seventy years. 

In the 1990's, after the peaceful  dissolution of the Soviet Union and China's path of  development which appeared compatible with fostering global unity, we had a glimmer of hope-- a shining moment, even as it has turned out a despairingly short one--when we  (or at least many of us) thought we had reached a point of stability, of living together, not perfectly, but on the whole constructively. 

And yet, as we now are all too well aware, over the course of the last 20 years, we have witnessed in the deteriorating relationship of the West with Russia and China and continuing with Iran, the shattering of this hope of living together peacefully, not free of rivalry, not perfectly, but constructively, recognizing and acting on our all too obvious common interests. 

   

What more can I say other than the imperative of not to give up on achieving this.  It’s beyond my ability to say how we can do this.  It’s not beyond my ability or experience to say we must find a way to do this. And that we should proceed with not only determination but hope-- for history teaches we have made progress in the past-- led by individuals like Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lee Kuan Yew, Konrad Adenauer,  Martin Luther King and countless unsung heroes in every walk of life. Individuals like you and me,  deciding to do what they believe is right and necessary, no matter the risk and challenge, and joining with others in the quest.  Individuals facing seemingly insuperable challenges, responding-- "nevertheless"-- we will continue on.