An Appeal For World Peace

Last night, at Diwali 2011, while we were sitting down for dinner, I learned a great deal. I appeared to be at the International Table, so to speak. While eating my delectable feast of Eastern Indian food, I listened to the conversations about me. There were people in my close proximity from France, Korea, China, India, Mexico, and Finland. Not having superhuman hearing, those were all the people that I could listen to at one time. Truthfully, I wished that I could hear and participate in more of these conversations, but I am grateful for the ways that I was enlightened.

Out of the kindness of her heart, I received a recipe for green salsa from the Mexican woman that I spoke with. I learned how long it takes to fly to Oklahoma from Finland, which, by the way, more time was spent on the ground awaiting connecting flights. Bless this woman’s heart for her fortitude, and for the fact that she was at the table to speak to me. A young lady from India is in her freshman year to learn mechanical engineering here. She is not certain if she will stay here or return home to use her skills there.

All in all, my friends, I learned from our potpourri tonight that not only are you all great individuals in the sense of your goals and differences, but you gave pieces of yourselves in the hopes to learn about and get to know others. You are also doing a great service: you are introducing your culture.

The greatest importance of all this, I believe, is the way that we all interacted and how this can relate to world peace and learning to get along with each other. This is what I learned overall tonight, from the moment I stepped in the door and began relating to all different kinds of peoples of the world. No, I did not forget you, Singapore-Indian young man with the wonderful smile. I recall that you told me that you are an electrical engineering student interested in electronics(smile). You also told me that your Chinese friend beside you was your senior!

So, overall, I think that world peace can begin with all of us. It was easy for us all to relate individually, and I think that’s where this is going to begin. Doing this globally is not, and will not work. Therefore, let’s just start like we did tonight, and branch out from here. Let this letter to those of you that I met tonight start the ball rolling, and let’s see where we end up a year from now. If we broaden our circle of friends one person at a time, before you know it, I think we could really be looking at a positive impact on our individual work ten years from now for world peace.

I’d like to see us take the time to not only become friends, but learn each other’s culture, perhaps each other’s languages, and respect each other as the individuals that we are. Then the rest will come. You’ll see. I’m counting on all of you to help me do this. We can also say that Diwali night at Oklahoma State University brought this all to a start. This is a great school that is growing. I think we can add the start of world peace to its many accomplishments and branch out from there.