On Saturday, September 21st, 2014, downtown Dallas held the Peace Day Dallas Awareness Walk. It ran from 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., beginning and ending at the Dallas Holocaust Museum Center for Education and Tolerance. Peace Day Dallas consisted of walking around the downtown area, directed by an audio guide that took you through the many historic places in Downtown’s Historic District. Peace Day is a worldwide event created by the United Nations to promote peace, and is defined as “a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.” A team comprised of Jesuit students assisted with the walk, which recounted the history of Dallas and its transition from a city of hate to an evolving center of peace.
The nature of the event makes the Holocaust Museum for Education and Tolerance an obvious starting and finishing point. “We at the Dallas Holocaust Museum appreciate and promote the values and ideals of Peace Day. In a world far too occupied with hatred and violence, Peace Day challenges us all to work toward a better and more hopeful future,” said Mary Pat Higgins, the museum’s CEO and President. Challenging others to better themselves and learn from the past is a core value held by the Holocaust Museum, and Peace Day is a perfect outlet for the museum to challenge a much larger group of people. A large part of peace is tolerance of diversity, a value that allows us to accept and respect the differences of other people.
Striving to promote peace and educate young people, Peace Day Dallas used an interactive walk to grab the attention of kids who are not fully aware off Dallas’ past. This idea of learning from history, but not dwelling on it is perfectly exemplified in Dallas Peace Day. Will Scott ’15 stated that “it was more of the City of Dallas coming together for this walk.” The unity shown by our city brings pride to residents in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, as they can sleep knowing that their city is fighting for peace. Dallas, for a time, was only viewed as the city where JFK was shot. This perception is rapidly changing, though, due to Dallas’s growth as a city and community.
Texas as a state is rapidly growing with its booming economy. This has helped evolve the city of Dallas as a whole, and the push towards putting the past behind us is great for our image. Joseph Duebner ’16 said that “it was a great chance to see the downtown city of Dallas and I feel like it has a lot of potential going forward.” The Awareness Walk not only informs people, but helps inspire them to help create peace in the world. The Holocaust Museum emboldens those ideals as they are at the forefront of raising education and tolerance. Dallas Peace Day Walk for Awareness hopes to continually inspire kids to want to fight for peace, and realizes that they can do that in their own community.
