World Peace is a goal shared by almost everybody, but this goal is widely regarded as an unrealistic dream. I believe this is because so many people are unclear as to the causes of war. We need not seek a solution within genetic engineering or hope for a benevolent world government, neither of which will work. We need to stop teaching our children to hate.

      Children can be taught to believe absolutely anything. Groups like the American Nazi movement and the KKK teach hatred for certain groups with the intent to provoke violence. Even other than such blatant cases of hatred, it is widely rumored that some groups teach their children that they are superior to others and that some people are inferior to the general population or inferior to them. Some of these rumors are false or exaggerated, but they fuel a cycle of distrust. Rather than accuse, we might all politely ask everybody not to do it.

      The passing on of hatred for others from parent to child is difficult to remedy, but there is a principle that can be be taught to the population as a whole, and the United States can make a very big difference:

      The first amendment protection of free speech has been modified by the courts in several ways to prohibit the incitement of crime, panic and violence, but the issue most important to world peace has not yet been addressed:

      The kind of speech most hurtful to any country and to the world is the teaching of racial and ethnic hatred to children; and to a lesser degree, the teaching of racial and ethnic hatred to adults. I believe these should be treated as misdemeanors. Teaching racial and ethnic hatred to children should be considered most serious because, ultimately, it is the creator of war. The fact that this abuse does not usually manifest its destruction within minutes of the offense has fooled us for too long.

      This misdemeanor is as follows:

      A person presenting a public message is guilty of class harassment when he or she intentionally and publicly advocates to a public audience that a group that he or she identifies be subjected to violence or to a violation or violations of the human rights of that group at the hands of that audience; or proclaims that one or more established human rights of that group are not warranted; or advocates diminishing the human rights of that group on the basis of that group's competence, race, religion or ethnic origin.

      If most of the employees of an institution or business are of the same ethnic origin and that organization does something that sparks anger in some, it is far better to tell the truth about the organization's misdeeds than to make the jump to disparaging that particular ethnic group. This type of irrationality will be seen less often if there are consequences in law. We have war because we are not careful to teach fairness and reason to our children.

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