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Friday,
October 12, 2001
Laureates
urge students to work toward peace
By Erin LaMourie
Staff Reporter
Four
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates challenged students Thursday to
take action toward world peace during the war on terrorism
by beginning to address problems of poverty and world hunger.
The
laureates discussed peace as part of the American Airlines
Leadership Congress this week at TCU.
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Sarah
Donaldson/SKIFF STAFF
JimWright
moderated the proceedings of the presentation of the
Nobel Prize winners Thursday night in Ed Landreth
Hall Auditorium.
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Jim
Wright, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
and moderator for the event, said laureates Oscar Arias Sanchez,
Jody Williams, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Norman Borlaug are
all examples of what individuals could do to make a difference
in the world.
Sanchez,
1987 prize winner from Costa Rica, said hunger was the silent
bomb which kills more than any other weapon. He said the Federal
Agriculture Organization released a report that 35,615 children
died of hunger and malnutrition the same day of the terrorist
attacks.
“Peace
is not a dream,” Sanchez said. “Peace is hard work.
It is a path we must all chose.”
Williams,
1997 prize winner from the United States, said she believed
ordinary citizens can come together to deal with any problem.
“One person can spark a movement but if nobody follows
that movement, the spark will die out quickly,” Williams
said.
Williams
said people need to step up to positions of leadership to
try to resolve problems.
“Leadership
is believing if you care enough, you can change anything,”
Williams said.
Jessica
Keller, a sophomore speech pathology major, said people need
to focus on ways to obtain peace in problems other than terrorism.
She
said she was encouraged and reminded that even though she
is just one person, she can still make a difference.
“I
plan to take a more active role and make a difference, even
if it is starting with something little like a leadership
role and then gradually building my way up to make a difference
in the world,” Keller said.
Esquivel,
1980 prize winner from Argentina, said being a leader means
walking together with the people, not ahead of them and demanding
the impossible.
Esquivel
said people need to not just talk about peace, but also live
it out in their own lives.
“What
we have to do is make possible what seems to be impossible,”
he said.
“(Peace)
is something we need to have within because we can’t
offer others what we don’t have.”
Erin
LaMourie
e.m.lamourie@student.tcu.edu
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