Alternatives to Death

Real leaders end wars, not start them.
Real leaders save lives, not end them.
Real leaders benefit humanity, not harm others.

On a sunny spring day in 1976 a young man was driving fast through Belfast. He was a member of the IRA and fleeing pursuit by British police. Who shot him. The car with its dead driver careened out of control and hit three children and their mother who had been out for a morning walk. Two of the children died on the spot. The third was mortally wounded and lived only a few hours. The mother, Anne Maguire was critically injured, but lived. Only to later commit suicide from the pain of loss.

Betty Williams, an office receptionist living in the neighborhood saw it all happen. Overwhelmed by the tragedy, she determined to do something to stop the violence and senseless killing that Belfast had experienced. Over the next few days she went door to door in the neighborhood collecting signatures on a petition demanding government and police put a stop to the violence. Despite fear of reprisal from the perpetrators of this and other killings, she took her petition and appeal to a local television station. Amongst those seeing the broadcast was Mairead Maguire Corrigan, Anne Maguire's sister. She joined Ms. Williams and together they organized a peace march to the graves of the slain children. The march, 10,000 strong, was set upon by members of the IRA who injured many. A week later, the two organized a second march through Belfast, this time 35,000 people joined the march, despite death threats against Ms. Williams and other marchers.

Ms. Williams, with the help of Corrigan, Ciaran McKeown, and others went on to found a grassroots peace movement in Northern Ireland called the Peace People. A major principle of this organization was to "reject the use of the bomb and the bullet and all the techniques of violence". This eventually lead to the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. Since that time Williams has traveled widely lecturing on peace and working with peace movements to slow the spread of world wide wars so loved by those in authority in many countries. She also founded the World Centers of Compassion for Children dedicated to aiding children abused by the ravages of war and poverty.

For her efforts Ms. Williams has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage, the Martin Luther King Jr. Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Award, the Ossietsky Medal for Courage, and many other honors.

Just one woman, an office receptionist, with no money and no resources. If she could do so much with so little, what of the trillions of dollars, power, and immense resource available to western leaders? Perhaps they really do prefer war and human suffering and the Straussian 'Big Lie'? Moral action independent of consquence is psychopathology.