Tom Rows the Boat Ashore
It’s true, the world has a surfeit of conflict, more than even a Sunday newspaper can hold. Humans say they don’t like conflict. Their choice of movies, books, TV shows, sports, gossip and weapons and a fair amount of interpersonal behavior would, however, indicate some conflict over conflict. Fact is, newspaper sales and TV ratings tend not to go up when bombs fail to fall, athletes aren’t arrested, public officials lead exemplary lives and happy, loyal celebrities pursue placid careers, making timely mortgage payments. Face it, a movie series called “Star Peace” would not be greenlighted.
Some people feel so strongly about reducing conflict, they’ll pop anyone who disagrees. Still, our society’s professed goal is to reduce conflict. To that end, Tom and Ruth Ann Hornaday, who are presumably happily married, have just written a $1-million check to fund the Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being (CeDePWeB).
That’s a great California name. Can you too feel the good vibrations? In fact, this center will be in California. In Berkeley, as a matter of fact, where the United Nations chose not to locate. The Hornadays graduated from Berkeley in the placid ‘60s. Peace, brother. They’ve made a good deal of harmonious money developing things in Arizona and would like to promote peace elsewhere.
Those are good ideas. The Bay Area can always use some peace. And a million bucks can buy a lot of academic well-being. The center will draw on many disciplines to examine how conflicts are resolved or avoided and how friendships develop across ethnic and racial borders--in general, to research how families, peers and social institutions develop peace and well-being. Do you hear guitars?
It would be like, you know, a really cool thing to have less conflict in the world. Unless, of course, you make munitions or arms deals. But then you can found your own Center for Conflict Instigation and Inflammation (CCII). Berkeley is as good a place as any to start either one.
We’re feeling terribly centered about this new idea. But one warning, sent out gently to brothers and sisters of good faith in the interests of peace and well-being: You can bet your plowshares forged from swords that some conflicted observers who aren’t as mellow as the Hornadays will be watching for faculty members to pursue their individual versions of peace into vicious territorial conflicts over at the new Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being. Let the humming begin.
