Before I begin, I want to make a disclaimer and to make a note that by me posting this article, it could be a career limiting decision. The reason is that I currently work (and have for the last 13 years) in the Defense Industry. I also served for 9 years in the United States Navy, so what I want to share here is based on extensive experience with this topic.
I am NOT going to share anything sensitive to the industry or disparage it in any way because that would make me a hypocrite, would it not?
I will say that before I came to work in Defense after over a decade in commercial manufacturing, I was somewhat of a peace activist. I struggled with my position in the industry when I first hired into it as I could not understand why God would put me into a role that seemed to conflict with my spiritual beliefs and personal mission of peace. I now believe God put me in this role so I could understand the industry I was so critical of before I came into it.
I thought as many others may think that defense contractors were only interested in money and that they were the primary part of the problem as it related to achieving peace in the world.
After having worked in this industry for a long time, I can honestly say that the industry is primarily filled with people across this country who do what they do from a sense of purpose, honor and responsibility. I will also say that the industry itself is far larger than I ever imagined.
While I have read articles recently that say that there are only a handful of major defense contractors in the country right now, there are literally thousands of small businesses that support those contractors. Small businesses owned by veterans, minority and even tribal owned.
The defense industry cannot and will not change on their own. It defies the very nature of any business or entity. We are all designed to change, grow and thrive and it is perfectly natural for businesses to set goals to transform themselves to provide more and more value for their customers.
Any effort by any individual or group to impact the defense budget is a wasted effort because of the massive impact it would have not just on the major defense contractors (who most certainly have sway with politicians), but the thousands of small businesses who support them and the hundreds of thousands of employees who depend on these businesses for their livelihoods.
The way to transform the industry then is to change the mission.
My wife and I participated in a “Walk for Peace” here in Ft. Worth several years ago. I learned some interesting facts that while I probably learned in the Navy, I had not thought about it in context.
I learned that in 1789, Congress created the War Department. This was in place until shortly after World War II, when President Truman proposed the creation of a unified Department of Defense which was formally approved in 1949.
The mission of Defense is higher in vibration than that of the mission of War, but still comes from a place of fear…and whatever we focus on collectively becomes our reality.
The people who organized the Peace Walk were proposing a new department within the U.S. government…a Department of Peace. I resonated with this concept strongly at the time and still do today. I know that if we change the focus of our mission, it will have ripple effects throughout the world. If our primary goal is Peace, how we approach conflicts throughout the world will come from an entirely different vibration than when we come from a place of defense.
As a Spiritual Life Coach who has been studying metaphysics for decades, I know the vibration of “defense” is about defending boundaries and the primary emotion associated with this is the energy of Anger.
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being Angry about everything in the world. I want to actively seek peaceful solutions and work from the vibration of peace to transform the world.
As I previously noted, the defense industry is massive, but if we transformed the infrastructure to create projects of peace rather than war, we could continue to keep people employed and working with a greater sense of fulfillment and purpose than ever before.
If our primary purpose was to help people across the planet, we might do some things differently. A painful example is the way the United States mishandled the Rwanda genocide in 1994, something President Clinton has admitted that “the failure to intervene is one of his biggest regrets.”
If we are to transform our society, Peace must become our collective mission. It will not require everyone in the country to make this shift. We simply require a critical mass of individuals to shift the collective consciousness.
As a Certified Spiritual Life Coach, I help others find this sense of Peace within themselves by helping them let go of their deeply programmed patterns of anger, fear and inadequacy. And there are many other coaches, healers, teachers and methods out in the world today all doing the same thing. We are working together (albeit perhaps not consciously) to create a more peaceful world. As a Hindu proverb taught me, “All rivers lead to the same ocean.”
It does not matter which method you use, but I encourage you to consider finding a path that works for you. Whether you realize it or not, your transformation to Peace matters.
Namaste
Jeff
Jeff Scholl is a Certified Spiritual Life Coach through Holistic Learning Centers and a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner through the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
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