Peace is often a hard commodity to come by in this world. Far too often, people resort to violence to solve their disputes, rather than discussion and compromise. It is easier to hurt another than it is to compromise your own wants and desires.
Having said this, I want to thank the School of International Service, the AU Hillel, AU Students for Israel, Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Student Association, Jewish Student Association, College Democrats and Korean Student Association. For one week, all these groups put aside any differences they might have had to work with Leonard Hall in the pursuit of peace. As a result, and thanks to all the members of the student body who contributed, Leonard Hall's Residence Hall Association was able to raise $634.45 to help send a child to the Seeds of Peace camp in Maine this summer.
The Seeds of Peace is an organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions in conflict with the leadership skills required to advance peace and coexistence back in their home countries. Dr. Aaron Miller, the president of the organization and, most recently, the senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations, came to American University to discuss the group and its "Non-traditional Approach to Peacemaking." He spoke of Israeli and Palestinian children who, sharing the same room on the first night of the camp, were unable to sleep because they feared that the children of the "other side" would attempt to kill them as they slept. Through the weeks, however, the children talked, debated, played with each other and, by the end of the trip, cried when they had to say goodbye. These were Israeli and Palestinian children, many of whom might never before have understood the humanity of a Jew or Arab.
Seeds of Peace proves that non-traditional approaches work. Miller pointed out that leaders can be talked to and negotiated with. However, in the end, it is the people who must make peace and the children who must keep it. Only by preparing each of their publics for peace and educating them fairly about the "other side" can any final deal between Israelis and Palestinians be concluded. It is the people who matter because it is they who suffer and they who die. It is they who are scared of riding a bus. eating in a restaurant, soldiers patrolling the road or roadblocks in the streets. It is the people who suffer and the people who must make peace.
On behalf of the Leonard Hall Residence Hall Association, I wish to thank our own staff, which put in five weeks of hard work to make this event happen. I also wish to thank Dr. Aaron David Miller for taking time out of his busy schedule to deliver an address to the campus, all the participating organizations, and, most of all, to all of you who donated. You took a second out of your busy lives to donate to a good cause and, in doing so, changed one child's life; a child who could one day grow up to do what his grandparents never could - make peace.
Micah Winograd is the president of the Leonard Hall Residence Hall Association and a sophomore in SIS.
