What can we do to make peace between ourselves?

Well, it kinda bepends on what you mean by Peace Between Ourselves?

Do you mean peace within ourselves? That inner peace than many of us are looking for? I think that anokagrassland, in the previous comment, answered that nicely.

Or do you mean peace between different peoples? That's a harder question. I think part 1 of the answer is respecting the other point of view and where it's coming from, but that's not enough.

You can respect the other point of view to the point where it rolls over you with tanks or blows up your neighborhood. You don't have peace in that case, you have war and subjugation.

One of the defining traits of today's culture, in this country and worldwide, is that certain groups of people are very easily offended. Why? It gets them what they want. The "insulting" side then grovels and the "offended" side gets what it wants. It doesn't take much for the "offended" to resort to violence to avenge the "insult."

That said, there's great truth in the idea that we can only change ourselves. We can't change the other guy. We can't force him to change, either, because that causes even greater resentlment and more is lost than gained. This, of course, is the great error in the enforcement of politically correct thought.

So we have to grow the thick skins and we have to be able to shrug off the insults and we have to set the example. We have to be able to forgive all the perceived insults (and wouldn't that make for dull politics? ;) )

We also have to be strong enough not to permit extreme behavior. If a person knows that he'll pay a high price for crossing the line then the chances are pretty good that he won't cross it. He might even, just possibly maybe, try to find a better solution.

So it all starts with us. Since we can't change to other guy, and I'm not sure I would I I could, we have to start where we can.

Forgiveness is a great place to start. Forgive the other person for whatever he may say, but that doesn't mean we become doormats.

There's a saying in traditional Japanese Karate-do that goes something like this, "Don't strike first, don't strike twice (your first shot should stop the fight right now.)"

A similar philosophy was expressed by Bruce Lee in enter the Dragon.When asked about his fighting style, by the bully, he replied, "...the art of fighting, without fighitng..." He then demonstrated such quite nicely.

It's interesting how much of the good "make peace" philosphy comes out of the combat training of Martial Arts. I saw a lot of that when I was involved in the same. We worked with a lot of kids and got lots of remarks from parents on how much their kid's behavior and respect had improved.

Why? The kids had more self respect, more confidence, and less fear. They had less of a need to prove themselves, so got into fewer problems than the rest of the crowd. In the Martial Arts you work on yourself more than anything else and it results in a better you.

Plus, among other things, you look like less of a doormat, so you're a less attractive target, so you get into fewer problems. Much the same way as if you were walking your big dog. The riffraff will look for someone else to bother.

So just being nicer isn't enough.