In Pursuit of Peace and Justice

Nearly all of us have been touched by the tragic events of last Tuesday and the mindless destruction of human life. At Harvard as well as throughout the nation, we have spent the past week trying to cope with our loss and our anger. This is both a private and a collective undertaking, as we try to fathom a response to unfathomable acts. In our effort to do this, hundreds of members of our community have come together to form the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice.

Coming from a diverse range of personal perspectives and value systems, each of us nevertheless shares a deep commitment to the sanctity of human life. From this foundation we were able to arrive at five principles that unite us as well as similar groups from eight other campuses in the Boston area, including Boston University, Boston College, Emerson College, MIT, Brandeis University, and Northeastern University. First, we mourn the victims of Tuesday’s tragedy, and give support to friends and family left behind. Those who have suffered a direct personal loss from the attacks are among those who stress the need to protect all innocent life, and this is our second principle: the sanctity of human life everywhere. Third, members of the Harvard community stand united against racism and are committed to protecting civil liberties in America, especially those of the country’s sizable Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities, who have already suffered atrocious attacks. The fourth point is to seek alternatives to President George W. Bush’s calls for war. We are not advocating for peace blindly. We recognize this is a difficult and delicate time and believe that a just, compassionate response is not only in the best interest of those innocent people we stand to destroy, it is also the time-tested solution to our nation’s security concerns. Finally, it is our goal to promote discussion of American foreign policy and our role in the world.

These are simple points agreed to by a huge and diverse coalition of individuals and groups, and that is what gives them their power. Yesterday’s massive rally on the Widener steps, where professors, students, workers and others shared their visions for how to heal the gaping wound left by the attacks without causing more senseless death, was meant to demonstrate the strong support within this community for an opening of dialogue about what our options are. The debates taking place so far have lacked balance and have treated the use of drastic military measures as inevitable, while relegating concerns for civil rights and civil liberties to a secondary status. The reality is that there is no simple solution on this issue, which is why we must go forward with an open and democratic process that encourages rigorous discourse, rather than the hegemony of a few opinions. It is in this time of crisis that we most need to consider all possible options, and think beyond fighting violence with violence.

As citizens who care deeply for the future of our country, we must keep from letting our despair push us into destructive actions that may ultimately make the situation worse. There is a thin line between the pursuit of justice, which will promote healing and security, and the pursuit of revenge, which will only serve to expand the scope of this tragedy.

If we are to prevent further tragedy, however, we need student support. In the upcoming weeks there will be a series of events organized by the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice to provide a forum for everyone’s ideas about how to recover from this disaster and create a safer world. We invite everyone interested in open exchange to these discussions. Join us as we work to ensure that vengeance is not our only memorial.

Rachel M. Riederer ’04, an environmental science and public policy concentrator in Mather House, and Dev P. Purkayastha ’04, a biology concentrator in Lowell House, are members of the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice. Readers may contact the group at harvardnowar@yahoogroups.com to receive announcements of events.