Winning Essays

By Anton Hornbrook, Jason Birch | 1986-06-01 12:00:00

The Gabriola Island Peace Association has sponsored a peace essay contest in local schools. Congratulations to the winners, whose essays appear below. Their prizes will include a subscription.

By Anton Hornbrook (Grade 6, Gabriola School)

I don't want a world war because I still have a life to live like all the other children in the world. We should save our world for the next generation of people. Even if people survived a nuclear war they would not live a normal life and the beauty of the earth would be lost and we could not start over. The USSR and the USA are just like kids when it comes to arms. If one has a new toy, the other has to have it. If President Reagan spent the money helping the less fortunate in the cities, by building better houses, educating the poor in the proper ways of nutrition and health habits, his country would be much better off. The money and technology spent to make nuclear weapons could surely be spent in a more positive way.

I think Nanoose Bay should stay as a port and not be a place to test nuclear missiles. It should remain a peaceful, quiet bay. Premier Gorbachev's idea is good. He says that they should stop testing bombs, making bombs, then the complete disarmament of all bombs by 1999. I would like to see children in the USSR have a discussion with Canadian children about this.

I can't see why all the countries in the world can't live in Peace. If we think about Peace and work towards Peace, maybe one day we will have Peace.

By Jason Birch (Grade 9, Woodlands Junior School)

I don't think politicians will be able to attain total disarmament without a boost from common people. This is because most people in our country have been taught in terms of 'us' and 'them', but not in terms of 'we' as a planet and as members of the human race.

One way we might try to achieve disarmament would be for the concerned Peace groups of this world to form a series of international political parties. These would have secondary headquarters in each country, and a head office in each of the superpowers. The members would consist of scientists, environmentalists, and heads of various peace organizations, as well as one highly trained and skilled political advisor at each of the head offices. A panel of experts on peace would meet once a month, and in emergencies, to debate and to tell the head offices what to do. Even if this organization couldn't get a majority of seats in the world's governments, it would still have a voice in world politics.

Groups of concerned politicians should meet with other such groups from other countries. They could achieve disarmament by having delegates from each of the countries go to each other country as "witnesses." If the witnesses remained in constant contact with their countries, we might achieve simultaneous disarmament.