What’s So Funny ’Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?

I recent­ly heard a song that took me straight back to my senior year of col­lege. “(What’s so Funny) About Peace, Love, and Understanding?”, per­formed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, was record­ed in 1979. Costello’s ver­sion of the song has an upbeat tem­po, so I must admit that I nev­er real­ly lis­tened to the lyrics until now.

The song was orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten and record­ed by Nick Lowe in 1974, which was the time of the Watergate scan­dal and the Nixon res­ig­na­tion. While the song was rel­e­vant for the time of its writ­ing, the lyrics are about the loss of empa­thy and the loss of hope, includ­ing lines such as, “As I walk through this wicked world search­ing for light in the dark­ness of insan­i­ty,” and “Is there only pain and hatred and misery?”

We have seen more pain and hatred in the past months, from cuts to pro­grams designed to assist our most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens to mass depor­ta­tions, lay­offs of fed­er­al work­ers, aban­don­ment of long-term inter­na­tion­al allies, and peace talks with­out all par­ties at the table.

Love for our fel­low human beings is a mere dream at this point in time for most Americans. Hatred and fear divide us, with fam­i­lies unrav­el­ing and friend­ships lost.

Can “peace, love, and under­stand­ing” actu­al­ly restore us to san­i­ty dur­ing the times we are fac­ing? What if we had peace with­in our­selves and peace with each oth­er, loved those who are not easy to love, and pro­vid­ed empa­thy and under­stand­ing for each oth­er? I have to believe that it would lead to a bet­ter world.

There are those in our com­mu­ni­ty active­ly engaged in resist­ing the pol­i­tics of the day in order to fos­ter hope. I was priv­i­leged to attend three events on Saturday, February 15, which were inspir­ing and held despite the attacks on diver­si­ty and equi­ty that seek to divide us. I am grate­ful for these lead­ers in our com­mu­ni­ty who remain com­mit­ted to bring­ing us together.

If you are feel­ing the way that I have been feel­ing, please find a way to join and sup­port the efforts of groups such as All Voices Reading Room, Leeds Center for the Arts, Clark County Equity Coalition, Proud Town, Winchester Black History and Heritage Committee, as well as many others.

Speak truth in love and kind­ness, sup­port can­di­dates com­mit­ted to keep­ing us safe, and believe that the pow­er of our shared human­i­ty can restore us to sanity. 

It may be the only thing that can.