The Road to Peace
By Christopher A. Etienne
Christopher A. Etienne
The United Nations was founded in 1945 with the idea that nations and peoples of the global world could engage in dialogue and debate about international issues peacefully together. The idea of stepping outside of our comfort zone to expand our moral imagination and explore new ideas. The idea of building new coalitions that bridge old divides. And the idea of shifting mountains of malice into moments of miracles. The late U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who passed away before he could witness his vision for the United Nations shift from a theoretical promise to an observable reality, argued to the U.S. Congress on the Yalta Conference in 1945, “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation… It cannot be a peace of large Nations – or of small Nations. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” How true that is.
Several years later, in 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy also argued for progress and peace among nations and peoples before the United Nations General Assembly, a manner similar to President Roosevelt’s address in 1945. President Kennedy eloquently argued, “But the great question which confronted this body in 1945 is still before us: whether [nations and peoples] cherished hopes for progress and peace are to be destroyed by terror and disruption, whether the ‘foul winds of war’ can be tamed in time to free the cooling winds of reason, and whether the pledges of our Charter are to be fulfilled or defied – pledges to secure peace, progress, human rights and world law.” Indeed, the paramount moment in history we have reached shall require moral courage to bring together the different nations and peoples to a common purpose of peace.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a historical leader because he was able to shift our country from mountains of malice into moments of miracles. As President Lincoln wrestled with the spiritual situation of the Civil War in 1862, the malice of slavery, he courageously argued, “The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war, it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.” As a result, some professional politicians and people honor God with their speeches, but their spirit is far from Him. They can appear as a “Giant with feet of clay.” Indeed, history has proven over and over again that these giants – the cynic, critic, and capitulator – shall fall.
We have reached a pivotal moment in history. The great question confronting nations and peoples is whether agreements will be reached to prevent the political oppression of the masses in order to give luxury to the classes. To be clear. Our country still exerts great influence throughout the global world in the 21st century. Due to advances in technology and its impact on society, the slightest remarks in either the U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives are known all over the global world instantly. Under no circumstances, should any developed, advanced country on earth tolerate a family of four making $50,000.00 annually to pay more in taxes than a family of four making $50 million annually. Indeed, we must exercise empathy in our humanitarian efforts to provide relief to poverty, recovery in sustainable development, and the reconstruction of the health and living conditions for children and families in the global world, to name a few.
In the global world, we seek, there must be a renewed commitment to Articles I and II of the Charter, which instructs members to “develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.” To be clear. Foreign policy, domestic policy, and public policy do not take place in a vacuum.
The moment is here, whether we seek it or not. In the language from U.S. President Barack Obama’s Northern Ireland visit in 2013 also on progress and peace, arguing, “Ultimately, peace is just not about politics. It’s about attitudes; about a sense of empathy; about breaking down the divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds and our own hearts that don’t exist in any objective reality, but that we carry with us generation after generation.” The road to peace is achieved through the spirit of service and sacrifice. The decision is ours to make a renewed commitment to the global world. To pave the way for nations and peoples with either mountains of malice or moments of miracles. And the unequivocal answer is, “Together we shall achieve the latter.” Invictus.
About Christopher A. Etienne
Christopher A. Etienne’s public service ethos is inspired and instructed by his parents and heritage in New Orleans, LA. His upbringing, formal education, and professional experiences provided him with a worldview that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they’re given an equal and equitable opportunity. Previously, he served as a Legislative Aide to U.S. Representative Cedric L. Richmond and U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, both of Louisiana, and U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes of Connecticut. He earned his master's degree in political science from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), two prestigious historically Black universities (HBCUs). For his leadership in public service, he was named a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Loyola University New Orleans (IOP) and named to the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute (NORLI).