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An insightful message from our President, Gabe Hamda
Winning Peace Begins With Replacing Violent Behavior With Peaceful Behavior to Preemptively Prevent the Next Act of Violence by Gabe Hamda, PhD, SPHR.
Within this past week, three University of Virginia (UVA) football players were violently gunned down. More recently, five fellow humans were gunned down at a Colorado Springs nightclub. In light of these events, we must consider how we can replace violent behavior with peaceful behavior to prevent the next act of violence.
Whatever the circumstances and motives for these violent acts does not justify the loss of these precious lives. Any act of violence against our fellow humans must prompt us to do our part to prevent the next act of violence. Any violence against unsuspecting and innocent humans is violence everywhere. Peace anywhere is peace everywhere.
I respectfully offer up the following simple action to preemptively prevent the next act of violence. When you hear someone express a viewpoint, please kindly adopt the habit of restating the points you agree with rather than defaulting to what you do not agree with.
Here is an over simplified example, suppose we are having a casual conversation about the pluses of COVID 19 pandemic experience. My list of pluses include: (1) I spent more me time and got to know myself more (2) I got closer to my immediate family (3) I got closer to my neighbors (4) I adopted family movie nights (5) I adopted playing cards for fun (6) I started gardening. Suppose you are not a fan of watching commercial movies and playing cards and you think these hobbies are viciously addictive. You really think it is cool and share the same experience to spend more time with yourself and with family, getting closer to your neighbors and starting gardening. In this conversation, verbal peace can be fostered by focusing on how you benefited from similar activities and staying clear of criticizing your disagreements with movie watching and playing cards.
The habit of finding fault in what others say and the habit of expressing disagreements is one of many seeds that sprouts into conflict and then potentially violence. Having the habit of focusing on points of agreement is one way we can preemptively prevent the next act of violence.
Please kindly post your suggested action that may preemptively prevent the next act of violence and yield a peaceful outcome.
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