This is the third and final installment in my series that introduces Peacebuilding Starts at Home through other people’s videos.
In this one, I will be making the most difficult of the three cases on my agenda.
Defining your north star or even making solid plans for nailing it won’t be enough to make peacebuilding here at home happen.
This one will help, and not because it is the only one by someone everyone reading this post will have heard of, Jon Stewart and his monologue from his first show back on the air in 2024 in which he tried to get his audience ready for that fall’s election campaign.
The whole routine is worth watching, even two years after it first aired, and if you have the time, the first eighteen minutes are worth your while.
But for the purposes of this post, move the You Tube timer to the 18:46 mark and start from there.
And then get ready for another homework assignment.
As an old guy, I didn’t stay up to watch the show live.
But by the end of the week, at least a dozen people had sent me the link. Even my therapist wanted to make certain that I heard it.
With two years of hindsight, his words seem more accurate than ever, especially his final paragraph (before the hydrogen runs out).
The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch pail f***ing job, day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues until they get a positive result, and even then have to stay on to make sure that result holds.
Stewart is right.
We are going to have to grind away on a whole bunch of issues for a long time—longer than I can expect to live since I am already 78.
I might be a bit more optimistic than Stewart in one respect. As you will see in the next few posts, I am convinced that we can make noticeable progress sooner rather than later.
That said, I know that I will be proven wrong in that regard unless you do your part.
Starting by doing this homework assignment. Take no more than five minutes to jot down your ideas about what you just saw.
Like me, you may not know exactly what Stewart had in mind when he talked about “a lunch-pail f***king job.”
Still, I was drawn to this video because I agree that peacebuilding starts at home will be one, whatever Stewart actually meant.
Don’t worry about the specifics of how we’ll get it done. We’ll get there. For now, it’s enough for you to sketch out a basic strategy that you—and the rest of us--could follow.
Jot down your reactionsand then click this link to send me an email with your response.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Alliance for Peacebuilding or its members.