On this Presidents Day let’s step back in time for a moment to President George Washington’s last message to the nation. It was 1796 when Washington gave his farewell address.

Washington had one last request of the American people, to “Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.”

Washington believed Americans needed to be kind and charitable to all peoples. Washington said “to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.” Americans had to set an example of this kindness as “just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”

Likewise President Abraham Lincoln advocated peace at home and with all nations. As the American Civil War was nearing a close in 1865, Lincoln had his second inaugural address where he stated “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

“Peace among ourselves” we need today as there is too much political bickering. We can’t let political divides keep us from taking action on life or death issues like gun control and climate change. We need to build peace “with all nations” to end wars and prevent future ones.

Lincoln’s words for peace inspired a group of farmers in 1948 to start a train that traveled across America, collecting food donations for Europe. This was almost three years after World War II and Europeans were starving. The Abraham Lincoln Friendship Train helped build post war peace by feeding the hungry. You too can take action to feed the world’s hungry and contribute to world peace.

You could help the World Food Program, Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services, Mary’s Meals, Church World Service, Mercy Corps, Action against Hunger, Edesia, CARE and many others by collecting donations. The earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the drought in the Horn of Africa, wars in Ukraine, Yemen, D. R. Congo and South Sudan are among the many emergencies ongoing that need food aid. We need to support the refugees from Ukraine as we continue to stand with that nation as it resists Russian aggression. We need more Food for Peace, which is the name of a global hunger relief program started by President Dwight Eisenhower. Food for Peace saves lives from hunger around the world.

President Eisenhower knew we needed to be a strong nation militarily but also be equally strong in the pursuit of peace. Eisenhower said “we will remain strong always, but always in one hand will be the olive branch held out to all who will take it in honesty and in integrity.”

Eisenhower said in his farewell address in 1961 “Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.”

It pained Eisenhower that he could not announce a lasting peace in his final speech as president. Eisenhower said “Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.”

As citizens we too can advocate for peace such as letter writing calling for disarmament treaties by the nuclear weapons states. As President Ronald Reagan once said “We seek the elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.”

On this Presidents Day each of us can take action for peace at home and overseas.

William Lambers is the author of “The Road to Peace” and partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by The New York Times, Newsweek, History News Network, Chicago Sun-Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.]]>