The propeace community needs to begin articulating its vision of peace and nonviolence as vital components of national and international security. In these heightened times, simply asking "can't we all just get along?" is not enough. It is an ideal toward which we work. But clearly we are not all getting along. There are threats and incursions to peace every day. While it is important that we don't take a fearful posture, the propeace community must still address these threats and incursions. It would be irresponsible not to.

Angry mobs of disenfranchised youth. Ethnic cleansing. Violent suppression of expression and dissent. Racial intolerance. Domestic violence. Wars of aggression. How does the propeace community address threats to national and international security? How does the propeace community protect the citizens of the world? These are responsibilities of leadership. If the propeace community is to lead, then it must embrace these responsibilities.

The societal transformation we envision will not be adopted quickly. But its adoption will be hastened if we become better able to articulate why it should be adopted. Conservative philosophy understandably puts the brakes on any societal or cultural change that is simply for the sake of change. It resists any break from the moral and traditional code refined over countless generations and entrusted to us for safekeeping and propagation. Talk of transformation threatens this priceless inheritance. There are many cherished things worth keeping, and we have to be able to explain why our shift in consciousness is the best way to protect the cherished and evolve the obsolete.

Finally, we must be able to identify the moral underpinnings of this movement. Everything we do must be rooted there. I know that this community has a deep sense of what is right and what is wrong, and we must lose our fear of making those judgments and discriminations. At the most basic level, I believe that what is right is what draws human beings together in cooperation and harmony, and what is wrong is what creates divisions, isolation and paranoia. The underpinning of the propeace community is healthy human relationship. That includes how we relate to human beings with whose actions we do not agree or with whose ideologies we cannot relate. Policies that build bridges and find commonalities are right. Policies that separate, isolate and marginalize are wrong.

To build national security we must foster human security. Humans feel secure when their basic needs are met and, being socialized animals, they feel they are accepted into the pack. Any threat to this basic human security is a threat to national and international security. The more human beings that have their needs met and are engaged in productive, healthy relationships, the greater our national and international security will be. And again, a productive, healthy relationship can be full of disagreement and ideological difference. What makes it productive and healthy is tolerance, communication, connection, spirited exchange and humility.

A strong military is also key to national and international security. Part of our nature is that of warrior. Warriors can be proud of their elite training. Their fearlessness of death does not imply their desire to be sent to die, regardless of how willingly they would do so. We can honor the warrior through training, military exercises, humanitarian work and medals of honor and achievement, without engaging in warfare. The strength and protection provided by having a military force is honorable, while the use of military force to settle difficulties is almost always pure folly. We must not be afraid to NOT use military force to solve our difficulties. And we must trust and encourage other countries in a similar fearlessness. Strength is in restraint and patience and trust.

National and international security can and must have a place in the propeace community. Security must enter into our dialog and into our policies. It is up to us to break the grip of fear that is choking the world, and we can only do so if we offer our love cloaked in security.