On July 7, 2005, I woke up at Mike Skon’s Rancho Santa Margarita apartment. It was meant to be a final day of fun in Orange County immediately after returning from my solo Pacific Northwest road trip. Instead, while making myself breakfast, I turned on CNN and saw the London bombings on television. I wrote a blog about it that morning, using a recent scenario as an example of peace. Not three days before, on Independence Day, I had been at Hosteling International’s Fort Mason location. Originally in the room were myself, a Londoner named Simon, and a Japanese backpacker named Mark. The three of us that day met (on seperate occassions) two new members of our shared dorm room, Sammy and Hazib. Sammy was from Israel; Hazib was from Palastine.
The three of us became concerned about what might happen that night when they meet in our dorm room. None of us knew what to expect; they each seemed pretty passionate about their backgrounds. After watching the fireworks from over the Bay and all of us consuming our fair share of beer and cheap wine, we eventually all sat down and had a large group discussion until 3am. Sammy and Hazib hated each other at first; the next day, they went out in the city as two friends to explore San Francsico. I wrote the following that day, and I think it is still applicable for the horrible war going on right now between Israel and Palastine. It’s my personal belief that hosteling should be a mandatory part of growing up for all humans:
“There is no room for hate in the hosteling culture, and that is one of the goals of hosteling: for young people from different and often opposing countries to come together and sit and talk and find peace, with the goal that the same thng can happen on a larger scale someday. Utopian, yes. Simplistic, perhaps at times. But when you see hate expressed on such violent levels from both the “good” and “bad” sides, you can’t help but think that some problems could be solved by community, by friendship, by taking the time to sit and talk, have a beer, and understand your fellow human being.”
