Frank Deaver Peace Editorials

     On a major university campus in the United States, there is a Rotary-sponsored international student center, providing dormitory rooms for students from around the world. Some of them come from countries not on good relations with each other.  In that shared residence, students arrive with the baggage of their respective homelands, but they soon learn to look beyond political and governmental confrontations.  They find themselves replacing preconceived notions of distrust with individual respect.

     A Muslim from Pakistan and a Hindu from India put aside political and religious differences as their shared interest in engineering draws them into a personal friendship.  A Turk and a Greek bond in mutual respect and friendship, seeing each other individually and no longer through the stereotypes of their national rivalries.

     In this residential environment, international understanding emerges as misunderstanding fades into the background.

     February is identified in Rotary as World Understanding Month.  Much is being written and said encouraging greater understanding and extolling its benefits.  But in many cases, understanding can be accomplished only as misunderstanding is recognized and put aside.

     The story is told that during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, soccer teams from the warring countries were matched in tournament play. These were athletes, not soldiers, now facing each other on the field of athletic battle.  Each team fought desperately to penetrate the opposition’s defense, but the game ended in a scoreless tie.

     A newspaper headline placed the outcome in international perspective:  “Nobody won, but nobody died.”

     The account may or may not be accurate in all details, but it illustrates the humanity of all people, whatever their differences.  Whatever our differences, the challenge of understanding is to focus on our commonalities rather than on our differences.

     Two Rotary Districts, by their very structure, illustrate the challenge to understanding.

     (1) Rotarians in District 2450 are fond of claiming the distinction that their district includes clubs on three continents.  Nine countries of Africa, Asia, and Europe are in that district, including members of widely differing cultures, languages, and religions.

     (2) District 5010 has the distinction of being the physically largest district in the world, stretching from the Russian Ural Mountains through all of Alaska and into the Canadian Yukon.  Embracing three countries and eleven time zones, it also represents extremes of cultural diversity.

     It staggers the Rotary mind to imagine the club visitation schedule of a District Governor in those two districts -- or to consider the daunting tasks facing organizers of their respective District Conferences.  In these instances, international understanding is certainly put to the test.

     With such monumental potential for MIS-understanding, how shall Rotary further its goal of world understanding, and its ultimate goal of world peace?  First, we must recognize and admit to our differences, whether they be differences of national pride, ethnicity, language, politics, or religion.  We must concede that “our way” may be neither better nor worse than “their way,” only different.  And we must respect those differences, so we may respect each other.

     Then we must focus on our commonalities, not on our differences. As Rotarians, we have embraced lofty goals of humanitarian and educational programs through our Rotary Foundation. Understanding leads to respect, respect to friendship, and friendship to service.  Only with understanding can we be bound together in the common goals of Rotary friendship and service.