My Commitment to Peace and How it is Taking Shape

By Elisabeth H. Scharbaum

Does the Peace Movement need to be rebranded? That's what a friend and I asked ourselves as we explored our respective commitment to peace in all walks of life. Perhaps, in order to gain traction for the movement these days and to avoid sounding old-school (as in the aging hippies who didn’t get the job done the first time around) we need to focus on new aspects of peace. Is more compassion enough? Or tolerance? Do we need a call to “stop accepting that hurt people hurt people”? Make people understand that “every perpetrator is also a victim?”

I have not found the new label yet, but my determination to work on all of the above gets stronger every day. How could it not, given the ubiquitousness of war (currently Gaza and the Ukraine center stage), airplanes dropping out of the skies, corruption and deceit, immigration and human rights rights issues all around the globe?

My peace work started with myself and my immediate circles, by learning not to react to insult or attack with fighting back but by rather halting and asking questions. “Why and how do I feel hurt and how might my words or actions offend another in a similar way?”

As Humans, we share a deep want for affection, acknowledgment, a sense of belonging and freedom to pursue our dreams. Infringe on that and the reactive chain of hurting others begins. But listen and accommodate the other – and find harmony. If only it were so simple! The larger the circle of humans, the more complicated this becomes. Throw in money, power, greed, sex, drugs and such and we have to organize.

My first move in that regard was to seek to become a US citizen in 2013 - after 27 years of being a green card holder, also, interestingly, known as “Resident Alien.” Up to that time, I had thought that being intensely committed to the sustainability movement, to “reduce-reuse-recycle” in order to protect our resources for future generations was sufficient. But slowly a bigger picture emerged: to reduce being wasteful is merely hinting at the real problem. Could the poor distribution of resources (or complete lack thereof in some places) be the source of much of the violence in our world? What if every human being were provided with the tangible and intangible necessities to live and thrive? This requires a much bigger change than what I had first signed up for in the sustainability camp, but I embrace this cause as well, and as full-heartedly.

My becoming a citizen allows me to work within the given framework of this democracy and I hope, true to sustainability principles, that we can tweak this structure for adaptive, more efficient re-use. Together we can gradually eliminate elements of violence, injustice, greed, corruption and strengthen the pillars of justice, equality, education and civil rights. In that name, I joined The Peace Alliance, a non profit organization that is instrumental in working to get a U.S. Department of Peace-Building approved by Congress, along with important legislation to increase the use of restorative justice in our judicial system (fewer prisons, more mentoring). I am volunteering at other organizations (18reasons.org and SCORE.org), hoping that a little gratitude and generosity of time will help further the cause, starting with my humble contribution of empathy and hands-on work.   

Born and raised in Germany, Elisabeth H. Scharbaum came to the US for love, trading Paris, France for Berkeley, Calif.in the summer of 1986. She has worked in the hotel business all her life, first concentrating on hotel management, then gradually moving into hotel design and ~renovation planning. She has served privately owned boutique and/or resort hotels as well as large, franchised, major brand properties in Europe and the US. As of early 2014, Elisabeth has been applying her bundle of business operations and commercial design talent to help small, brick-and-mortar businesses in all aspects of their daily operations in her adopted home-town, Oakland, Calif. In her spare time, she is planning and fund-raising for a dream project: her own small hotel or B&B where other immigrants can learn the trade and how to live and work in America. Elisabeth is passionate about supporting and promoting sustainable and thriving local communities. She lives in a small cottage and drives a small car to those places she can't walk to. Favorite pastime: to walk and talk with friends before enjoying a meal, movie, play, concert together.