Resiliency building and Peace building

Last week on NPR Morning Edition, there was a series of interviews with Stephen Flynn, author of the new book, The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation. His focus on preparing for the aftermath of a disaster, be it another Katrina, or another 9/11, made me think about the philosophy and theology behind the Mennonite Disaster Service (and the Church of the Brethren Disaster Response, and the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, etc.).

Flynn’s approach is realistic, in that not all disasters are preventable, such as Katrina, and to put all our hopes in preemptive wars to protect us from another 9/11 (“fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here”) is misguided. As a pacifist, I would like to promote all the arguments against war, but it had not occurred to me that building resilience from disaster is a valid form of peace building, as well.

When we consider the links of Global Warming, Climate Change, economic development, fossil fuel consumption, etc., we are conscious of human activities which may have contributed to the intensity of Hurricane Katrina. And our neglect of the New Orleans levies, and a workable evacuation plan, exacerbated the loss of life and property from Katrina. So resiliency alone should not be our sole focus. Prevention has its place, in all things, as in using seat belts and driving sensibly, but when accidents happen, we need emergency rooms, ambulances, blood banks, etc.

Just because we have hospitals and ER’s, can we ignore driver education, stop enforcing speed limits, eliminate helmet laws, etc.? By the same token, just because we build our resiliency for another Katrina or another 9/11, can we stop working for Global Cooling, or withdraw from the United Nations, or (this is hard for me to consider) unilaterally disarm?

Christian pacifists by definition probably believe in disarmament, and even most would acknowledge the consistency of unilateral disarmament with Christ’s example and teachings. But just as most Christian pacifists oppose capital punishment, even though Christ himself submitted to it, it may be argued that maintaining a military for self-defense is a valid method for ensuring resiliency of the nation. To the extent that Christ’s teachings are pragmatic more than dogmatic, Christian pacifists may follow his example.

I am afraid my thinking about disarmament is still a little muddled, but I do think I have a clear idea about resiliency and printing. What do we have available if the internet and phone lines and radio/TV are disabled for a time? We might need to revert to an earlier technology for communication: printing. And what if the chemical industry is shut down, and the chemicals needed for modern offset printing are not available? We still have letterpress printing, which dates to Gutenberg in the 15th century and before. So the 20th century Heidelberg letterpress which I have in my garage, is my contribution to resiliency and available for use in certain future disasters. It would be nice to retrofit it for manual operation in case electricity is not available, but it can be used as is with a person simply turning the flywheel by hand. I have only a finite amount of paper and ink, but other printers (and offices with paper for copy machines) could be called on as sources for paper and ink.

Along this same line, we may think of earlier technologies as a general source for resiliency for many services and goods. The tools and knowledge for these earlier technologies need to be preserved. This, too, is resiliency building and thereby peace building.