Be Peace. Not do peace, or be a peacemaker or advocate peace or even be peaceful, but be peace. These words, the nonviolence movement in a nutshell, were spoken by Thich Nhat Hahn, a Buddhist Monk from Vietnam. Be peace. I say this aloud when I wake up each morning. It shapes my day. Be peace. Just two words carry such meaning. Every day they grab a different part of my gut, my soul. It charges me to peace in the world, peace incarnate.

A woman once took her small son to see Mohandas Gandhi. They walked many miles, all day and waited a long time to see him. When they finally stood before Gandhi, the woman said, 'Mahatma, please tell my son to stop eating sugar. He won't listen to me. Perhaps he'll listen to you."

Gandhi thought for a minute then replied, "Come back next week."

The next week the woman and the boy repeated their long journey, again stood in line to speak to the great man. "Remember me?" she said. I asked you to tell my son to stop eating sugar." Gandhi turned to the boy and said, "Stop eating sugar." The woman lost it. "Why couldn't you just tell him that last week! Do you know how far we walked, how long we waited?!"

Gandhi answered, "Last week I was still eating sugar myself."

Gandhi said, "We must be the change we wish to see." If we want to change the boy, we must stop eating sugar ourselves. If we want peace, we must be peace. If we want justice, we must be just. If we want forgiveness on a global scale, we must forgive our family, our neighbors, our friends. You get the idea. Be peace. Be the Change you wish to see.

What you do must emerge from who you are. That's something you have to work out for yourself. But let me give you some suggestions.

First, be peace in public. Another peacemaker, Woody Allen, said 80% of success is showing up. So continue to show up to rallies like this. Tuesday's paper had two headlines on page six. The first one said "Americans overwhelmingly back anti-terror war" Right below it, "Austin Peace March Small." How small? Twenty People. Twenty people! I looked it up. There are 656,562 people who live in the city of Austin. 48,000 students at UT. I worked it out. That's .003 percent of the population. How seriously will peace be taken if it can only round up . 003 percent of the population? Not very. So be peace in public. Your body is a witness for peace.

When I mentioned this lousy turnout to a few people they said, "Well, maybe the publicity was bad. There are more people than that for peace in Austin." That's not good enough. The second thing that you must do is build a network. It looks like you have a good start here at Trinity. But you have to expand. A network of all the colleges in San Antonio. Who do you know at Incarnate Word? Palo Alto? UTSA? Involve the high schools. Get contacts at all the colleges in Texas, tap into a national student peacemaking network. Share ideas. During the Vietnam era student activists were able to mobilize almost a quarter of a million students using nothing more than manual typewriters, ditto machines and a roll of stamps. With your access to technology, with the Internet, you can do better. You must do better.

Third, venture forth into the community. You are the new generation of peace and we need you, we welcome you and we are, in fact, pathetically grateful when you show up. You might not realize it, but Trinity students are considered elitist snobs by most of San Antonio. So leave the ivory tower and make yourselves known. I've left flyers here that list community events that would welcome you.

We're calling Tuesdays "Peacemaker Tuesdays". There's a silent vigil from 7-8 pm every Tuesday in front of San Fernando Cathedral. The peaceCENTER has open space for peacemakers, a place for people to gather and talk, from 7-9. Next week we're starting an 8-week Class on Nonviolence, same time, same place. University Presbyterian Church, right around the corner, begins a five week class on the history of Islam next Tuesday.

And make sure the community gets invited to your peacemaking events. We hear about the big official stuff, like Lech Walesa's talk at Laurie Auditorium later this month. There has been hardly any word of any peace activities on any of the San Antonio campuses, which leads us to believe that you don't care. Let us in on it. We're all in this together, so let's act like it.

Fourth, as the Quakers say, "Speak Truth to Power." It takes courage to talk about peace when, according to the last opinion poll, 92 percent of the people are for war. You will be called names, from traitor to airhead, but do it anyway. My fellow peacemaker Rosalyn Collier says that the word courage has its roots in the French work "Couer", meaning heart. When she needs strength to speak truth to power she unobtrusively places her hand over her heart. She says it activates the heart chakra and gives you courage. Now, I don't know chakras from chalupas, but it seems to work, giving you strength.

At the peaceCENTER we are wearing a leaf for life, for peace. A leaf is great. It's free, doesn't require a distribution system, and when you pick a fresh one each day it reminds you of your commitment to peace. It can help us explain to people why we believe it is vital to turn over a new leaf, giving up the old cycles of violence for new ways of peace. It sparks conversation. "Why are you wearing a leaf?" Tell them.

And write letters to the editor. Even though they can't publish them all it sends a signal to the Express-News that there are people in San Antonio who are for peace. It does influence their coverage.

Fifth, Listen. Listen deeply. We live in what Deborah Tannen has called an "Argument Culture." We listen with half our brain while the rest of our gray cells are planning how we're going to "shoot down" the other person's point of view. Even the language speaks of violence! Listen carefully to the subtext of what people are telling you. The 92 percent of the people who support war are not all morons. They have fears and concerns and experiences that need to be treated with dignity and respect. The easiest way to get people to listen to you is to listen to them.

Finally, be a student of peace. Yes, keep up with current events. That almost goes without saying. But probe into peace history, theory, successes. If you don't know about Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, for example, you can't put Congresswoman Barbara Lee into context. Part of the definition of a community is that it shares a common history, shares communal stories. To be part of the community of peacemakers you owe it to yourself to know these stories, make them your own. You're students; you know how to do this. As I mentioned, the peaceCENTER is holding an 8-week class on nonviolence starting next Tuesday. You're welcome to attend. I've also left a short book and video list on the table, to give you a starting place for self study. Nuke a bag of popcorn, slap Gandhi into the VCR and have a satyagraha night. Strip the Trinity library shelves of peacemaking books.

And I challenge the Trinity administration. Worldwide, there are more than 500 university level programs in peace studies. Do you have one here? If not, you need one. You needed one last year. Next semester. Go for it.

That's not too much to ask, is it? Be Peace - know who you are. Be Peace in public. Tap into a network of other students. Be peace with the community of San Antonio. Speak Truth to power. Listen deeply. Learn and tell the story of peace and peacemakers.

Pace e Bene - peace and every good.

Susan Ives is on the core team of the peaceCENTER, San Antonio, TX. suives@texas.net This speech was delivered at a student rally at Trinity University, October 10, 2001.