Peace means, “Freedom from disturbance; tranquility,” according to Oxford Languages.
In 1978 Chicago welcomed its international ‘Peace Day’ to bring cultures and communities together. This year Peace Day was hosted on Sep. 23, at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago. Peace Day brought representatives from all over the world to signify togetherness and to receive the opportunity to share their unique experiences.
This was the first year that Taft High School attended Downtown Chicago’s Peace Day and everyone that went gave great reviews. They talked about how interesting it was to see all the communities coming together and embracing each other.
Rachel Miner, AVID teacher, said, “ I really liked how everyone came together. People brought signs, flags, and everyone was cheering for other countries and representing the fact that they want peace in those countries.”
“It was a fun celebration and now I want Taft students to be a part of it officially,” continued Miner.
Taft High School gave Student Ambassadors and Lego League members access to attend the field trip to Peace Day. After the experience and knowledge received, this is what members of the Taft community had to say about what peace means to them.
“To me, peace means caring for yourself and for others. Peace is being mindful of where you are and what you’re doing and if you find yourself in a conflict you handle it maturely,” said Taft senior, Skylar Daquilante.
Nyila Ridley, Taft junior, said, “To me, peace means being comfortable loving yourself and others.”
“Peace is being mature enough not to express your emotions in a way that will negatively affect others. I know when I’m angry I can’t take that out on everybody. That’s my anger to have, not to share,” said Miner.
Peace or lack of it also affects our communities whether that be where you live or even our Taft community. Taft has many ways to show their support towards having a peaceful environment, but there are some that aren’t as dedicated to promoting peace within our school community.
Ridley said, “It’s a peaceful school but just some things certain students say like, for example, I’m in the black community and there is a lot of hate and discrimination towards black people.”
Ridley continued with, “I often hear conversations in the hall talking about ‘oh this black person’ or them saying ‘that’ word. I think there is a lack of peace in that but overall within the school community I don’t think it’s that unpeaceful.”
Miner said, “I think certain staff members absolutely do try to promote peace, but I also think it’s not something we’re thinking about. I am not saying people are trying to be angry, but I think if we were more thoughtful about being peaceful we could do even better. I just don’t think we are thinking about it as much as we should be.”
Peace is a necessity, but it is not always what’s first on our minds. As a community we all should try and make a conscious effort to bring more peace to every environment we enter.
