Service Above Self: The hope for peace comes through action

By Kitt Brand on May 27, 2025.

One-hundred years ago, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf was published to startling acclaim. The SS, his so-called protection squadron, was formed in April 1925. That same year, the Nazi Party was officially re-established. In Italy, Mussolini asserted to parliament his right to supreme power and became dictator. In Washington, D.C., the Ku Klux Klan held a march with nearly 40,000 members in full regalia.

Is 1925 happening again: persecution, war, denial of rights, lies, invasion, grabbing people off the street, cruelty? There is some glimmer of hope. After all, in 1925, Johnny Carson, Dick Van Dyke, and Margaret Thatcher were born and would bring humour and wisdom to the world of the future.

Yet, while Rotary has no religious or political affiliations, it sees what is happening. Fortunately, it is grounded in truth and doing good in the world through any circumstance. I am reminded of that twice a week during hour Zoom meetings with Rotarians in Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Canada and Ukraine.

While I’m sitting comfortably looking out the living room window at our safe city, I hear sirens from connections in Ukraine. Rotarians there excuse themselves and disappear to shelter their families.

Many of them have been awakened two or three times during the night, their phone apps alerting them to drone and missile attacks close by. And yet, 45 minutes later, if possible, these people are back on Zoom, apologizing for their temporary absence, ready to talk about doing good in their country.

Bizarrely, in North America where we sleep without warning apps, where we tuck our children in bed feeling secure, where we have an almost obscene abundance of food and freedom to join clubs devoted to community service, there is a growing void.

Service clubs – including Rotary – witness a decline in participation. We have so much and so much to give, and yet…

But in Ukraine, where existence of the very nation is fragile, ever under attack, Rotary clubs are expanding, emerging at an impressive rate.

Somehow, they manage to create hundreds of life and community sustaining projects – like commissioning a recorded lullaby for children to hear during attacks; or finding a used tractor for a farming family homing a centre for orphans – all while we North Americans are involved in our trivia nights, hockey games, and Netflix.

Why, you might ask, the difference? Our Ukrainian friends declare that they must do whatever they can, whenever they can, for as long as they can.

They know the country invading them has an historically documented way to conquer: Take the land, execute the teachers and community leaders, and – at least under Stalin – poison the land itself to starve the people into submission or out of existence. Rotarians there work for good to help their country survive.

In North America, in Canada, what can, what should we do? First, eliminate injustice. Whatever personal political persuasion, vote for behaviour that is true, fair to all concerned, beneficial to all, and that will build better relationships. Second, eliminate injustice immediately. Failure to speak out lets it grow.

One of the most haunting writings of WWII is from Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran theologian and pastor in Germany, initially a supporter then boldly an opposer of Adolf Hitler. He was eventually imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for 7 years.

He wrote:

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Since WWI, Rotary has long sponsored peace efforts and has established Peace Centres in Thailand, North Carolina, England, Japan, Australia, Sweden, and Uganda.

These centres train individuals in peace-building and conflict resolution while keeping a database of organized violence and mortality in the world, using a scientific approach to social issues.

As Rotary founder Paul Harris observed, “The way to war is a well-paved highway and the way to peace is still a wilderness.” Participants at the Peace Centers trudge the wilderness to reduce conflict and war.

Rotarians in Ukraine and around the globe blaze the way through barren land to peace by doing good in the world. Won’t you join?