A Peaceful World

The last piece I wanted to discuss is a contrast to the class, it’s about peace and how we can bring peace to the world. John Denver’s The Peace Poem, is about how war and killing has corrupted the minds of those in charge. It is about making choices, not necessarily the wrong choices but ones that have an impact on the world and those around us. He believes that if peace would be our answer instead of hatred then there wouldn’t be torture and pain in the world. I believe with peace there wouldn’t be a need for this class on the torture of the body. Scarry’s work about interrogation as a way to get information and the loss of words due to pain wouldn’t exist. If there were peace and everyone got along with one another we wouldn’t have to discipline or punish people and Foucault’s work, on the history of discipline and punishment, would be null and void. However, if there were peace it would be a perfect world and everyone would be flawless. The perfect utopian world does not exist and never will because no one can ever be perfect no matter how hard we try. This is why Foucault and Scarry’s works have meaning and relevance. They shed light on the history of pain and torture and the government’s view on it. Starting with Foucault’s kings and ending with Scarry’s government debates on torture techniques being reasonable for the purpose of information gathering.

To the man who has touched the lives of so many, I wanted to say thank you, your words and music are not forgotten by those who knew you, and you are deeply missed. If people would have listened to you there wouldn’t be torture tactics to produce confessions so our military could protect us; we wouldn’t be in a war against terrorism; we wouldn’t be missing two towers in New York; and all the people who gave their lives when the towers collapsed would be sitting at home with their loved ones instead of in box. I can’t help wondering what you would have to say to the people of the world about problems that occurred since your senseless death. One man can’t do everything, but one man can do something.

The Peace Poem
(Denver)

There's a name for war and killing
there's a name for giving in
when you know another answer
for me the name is sin
but there's still time to turn around
and make all hatred cease
and give another name to living
and we could call it peace

And peace would be the road we walk
each step along the way
and peace would be the way we work
and peace the way we play

And in all we see that's different
and in all the things we know
peace would be the way we look
and peace the way we grow

There's a name for separation
there's a name for first and last
when it's all for us or nothing
for me the name is past
but there's still time to turn around
and make all hatred cease
and give a name to all the future
and we could call it peace

And if peace is what we pray for
and peace is what we give
then peace will be the way we are
and peace the way we live

Yes there still is the time to turn around
and make all hatred cease
and give another name to living
and we can call it peace

http://www.john-denver.org/Default.asp?id=60

I can’t believe that this is my last blog of the semester. I have learned a lot about torture and the impact it has on the body. I enjoyed the class discussions and meeting all of you guys! Krista, you have made class fun and kept us talking about torture. I’m not one for discussion based courses, as I am the quiet type who listens then speaks, but I definitely enjoyed the topics and the effort you put into trying to bring each of us into the conversation, especially if we sat silent too long. Thanks guys for a fun semester!