Alva Myrdal, a Swede, worked to assure

Nuclear weapons-free zones in Europe and through

Her work at the U.N.  Weapons should be reduced,

Since violence could never to victory lead. To endure,

It was more important not to have nuclear arms

At all than have access and superpower rivalry. Alarm

Must produce concrete disarmament of all, else we’re “hostages

To the superpowers,” an annihilation they’d rather not speak of.*

Nuclear arms are in essence not defensive,

Garcia Robles argued in his creative mission,

But weapons of self-destruction. His comprehensive

Negotiations assured a Latin America and Caribbean

Free of nuclear weapons, and forbade anyone

From undermining the nuclear-free status of the region.**

At this time, the number of refugees worldwide

Was estimated at fourteen to eighteen million persons.

This U.N. Commission worked side by side

With diplomatic outreach and careful precision,

To, first, assure the health and safety of refugees,

And then secure cooperative agreements to ease

Their transitions. From war or security’s lapses they flee,

Stateless. “In the years that lie ahead, too, we

Shall encounter men and women on the run.”*

The Committee felt it essential to repeat this lesson:

“We live in a world community conceived

As a community of men and women.” To refugees,

We’ve a duty, and this is a duty to ourselves, for Peace,

To face the ‘problems of millions,’ for their freedom and dignity.**

When Argentina experienced this deadly strife,

Both Left and Right embraced strong extremists.

The military, through Videla, took 30,000 lives,

And the whispered and terrible anguish of ‘disappearance’

Engulfed the desperate “under a veil of silence,

Without any public announcements, without any trial or verdict.”*

Esquivel felt talk alone was insufficient hindrance

To “torture, imprisonment, killing.” His professed instincts

Said, “look at the case of the peasant who has no land

And is dying of hunger.”  There was work at hand:

Obligations existed between all – in communities;

The Church also lagged.  He sought greater social relief,

Nonviolence, participation, rights to expression and belief.

He said, “a crime is a crime, no matter who commits it.”

Adolfo Esquivel was born in ’31 to the family

Of a Spanish fisherman. His mother died when he was three.

Yes, he grew up the son of an immigrant to Argentina.

As a child he was drawn to reading – Augustine,

Ghandi – and to fine arts studies. He was actually seen

As an artist and professor. Then came the reign

Of General Videla, a dictatorship so cruel

That tens of thousands of citizens were ‘disappeared.’

While mothers and families wailed, the military commandeered

This democide, weaponizing terror, night-fueled.*

Esquivel wrote and headed Peace and Justice.  Resolved,

He traveled to the U.N. to request a human rights commission,

And returned to his native land – where he was imprisoned.

When released, he traveled again, Peace his mission.

In Mother Teresa’s acceptance speech, she said,

“I accept the prize in the name of the poor.

The prize is the recognition of the poor World,”

And harkened all to the biblical texts:  at our death,

What would matter would be to have helped those who were hungry,

Hungry for bread, for love and human dignity;

And to have helped those who were naked – not just

Naked of clothes, but of love and a human touch.

She said, “Our poor people don’t need our pity

And sympathy, they need our understanding love.”

She told the story of a man who was covered by maggots,

Whom they cleaned and cared for, who died knowing this:

That he was loved, with dignity, care, and a bottomless

Devotion to sharing the joy of a life lived without comforts.

Here was an Albanian Catholic girl named Agnes.

She followed news of missionaries helping the poor.

The Loreto Sisters in Dublin helped her:  blessed

Her trip to their Calcutta convent, their mission, pure.

‘Teresa ‘ she took, and taught geography to girls.

Then, on a train trip, God called her to leave in order to live

Among the poor. To the slums, her livelihood swirled.

There, Missionaries of Charity, nuns and novices, could give

Care to orphans, lepers, the sick and the dying.

While the Mission’s work grew worldwide, many were trying

To broadcast her work – “wholehearted free service

To the very poorest” in the slums. Endless, selfless.

“It is not enough for us to say,”  . . . as we abjure, . . .

“I love God but I do not love my neighbor.”*

Sadat and Begin won the prize this year for their efforts

To come to a peaceful resolution between Israel and Egypt.

Israel militantly claimed lands along the Sinai, which hurt

Arabs’ ownership rights and Palestinian lands and ports.

Begin had a history as a fighter for the ‘Great Israel’ state,

Which engendered in Arabs and Palestinians anger and hate.

Sadat grew in influence in Egypt to become its President,

And had watched their loss of the Sinai, Egypt’s soul rent.

He and Begin had, both, expelled Brits from their lands,

And both actively sought peace – with the U.S. President at hand:

Carter elevated their efforts while Sadat went to Israel with his staff,

And the Sinai area was given back to the Egyptians, at last.

Begin went on to permit Palestinians to be massacred in Lebanon,

And Sadat was gunned down by a fundamentalist follower of Islam.

Amnesty’s goals brought attention to a darkness

More widespread than many had previously thought:

We discovered that nations cooperated, in starkness,

Against freedom of expression, with a vigilance wrought

Of tyranny, fear of the governed, and militant action.

As the Amnesty movement grew – from a mere faction

To a “Prisoners of Conscience” petition to the UN against torture,

Its missions grew also, seeking to end the ‘death penalty.’

Benenson’s idea grew, like a candle in the otherwise dark future*

Of thousands of prisoners, released as a result of reports

By Amnesty, the media, global and local cohorts.

Then, two hundred thousand; now, millions continue their retort:

Oppression and torture of persons for speaking their minds

Must stop. Human rights are concrete and serve peaceful ends.

The winner this year was a neutral organization

Whose focus was “prisoners of conscience,” persons elated –

Who saw freedom due to the work of its members and devotees.

“In brutal strife, your sword and shield shall be

Belief in life and human dignity.”

These lines were written by the poet, Nordahl Grieg,

Expressing a philosophy of harmony, a creed

That was practiced by Peter Benenson, a London lawyer,

When he began his “Appeal for Amnesty’ in an office corner.

He worked for prisoners who had unfairly been

Imprisoned for their beliefs, opinions, nailed

For speaking, for peaceful acts, choice of religion,

And who were, until then, without an advocate, now hailed

By a group investigating and reporting:  they were unfairly jailed!

“Wherever war stalks the land,” the killing of children

Is the “logical result of the mindless brutality of War.”

In this case, a housewife and aunt were the first to bend

The hopeless resignation of thousands, rich and poor:

“I stand here in the name of courage, to give name to a challenge,”

Said Betty, “The words are simple but the path is not easy.

Reject the use of all techniques of violence,

Then seek out the work of peace . . . and do it. See,

New cloth from old woes: the “Peace People,” where fear had been,

Came with a clear, simple message: “we must put an end

To the use of violence and to acts of terrorism.”

Their simple “War is senseless” breached the chasm.

Their work grew from the ground up, common people

Fed up with the costs and contrivances of the “violence” principle.