Our next blogger, Risa Cohen is a risk manager for a large insurance company. A member of Congregation Kneseth Israel, she asks deep questions which I relish. She makes this seem so simple. Peace is respect. Now if we could just get everyone on the same page.

Peace equals mutual respect whether in families, neighbors, communities or countries. It may be a simple concept, but hard to put into action. How can one respect someone that disrespects them. The answer is you cannot control other people, but you can respect their right to their opinion. If that opinion means your destruction, it just means you need to influence their thought process, not destroy them. Much is written about enemies and war. Little is written about the families and individuals who try and build an environment based on living together. Someone has to take the first step. Let’s find those things we have in common and then find an approach to respecting those differences. Perhaps if the other party sees respect, they will reflect on it and return the respect.

Risa Cohen