No principle is worth the sacrifice of a single human being.
Daniel BerriganRead
Instead of building the peace by attacking injustices like starvation, disease, illiteracy, political and economic servitude, we spend a trillion dollars on war since 1946, until hatred and conflict have become the international preoccupation.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the misguided priorities of spending on war instead of addressing global injustices.
Daniel Berrigan emphasizes the irony in our global priorities, where instead of investing in solutions to pressing issues like starvation, disease, and illiteracy, significant resources have been funneled into warfare. This misallocation not only perpetuates suffering but also cultivates a world steeped in hatred and conflict, diverting our focus from creating a peaceful and just society.
In practice
This quote could be used at a peace rally to emphasize the need for prioritizing humanitarian efforts over military spending.
No principle is worth the sacrifice of a single human being.
Of course, let us have peace, we cry, "but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties ... " There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison, and death in its wake.
The death of a single human being is too heavy a price for the vindication of any principle, however sacred.
The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.
For my part, I believe that the vain, glorious and the violent will not inherit the earth. . . . In pursuance of that faith my friends and I take the hands of the dying in our hands. And some of us travel to the Pentagon, and others live in the Bowery and serve there, and others speak unpopularly and plainly of the fate of the unborn and of convicted criminals. It is all one.
Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.
War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war.
Stability and peace in our land will not come from the barrel of a gun, because peace without justice is an impossibility.
No guns but only brotherhood can resolve the problems.
We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war.
In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind.
If nations could overcome the mutual fear and distrust whose sombre shadow is now thrown over the world, and could meet with confidence and good will to settle their possible differences, they would easily be able to establish a lasting peace.
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