Notes from the Counselor on Peace

These notes on Peace were written at a time of relative peace in the world.

Dr. McKenney was born on September 15th, 1924. Her parents had met because of the Great War WWI. Her father was a cavalryman who was caught in a gas attack in 1917. Her mother was helping in a hospital for the returning wounded.

In a way it was anything but peace that leads to her existence in the world.

Shortly after her parents married their house was burned down because they had a mixed marriage. One was protestant and the other Catholic. Not a terribly peaceful beginning.

As a child she did have somewhat of a protected existence as her parents worked hard and were prosperous during times that others suffer through, like the Great Depression.

As a teenager she saw her brothers go off to war in Europe. One was a rifleman and the other served in some kind of logistics. Once she was old enough she worked as a candy striper in a hospital in Boston.

Toward the end of the war in Europe she married a seaman who was preparing to go to the war in Asia. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions that many young folks made back then.

She saw family involved in the Korean War though it was just the in-laws.

When her children began to graduate high school; there they went off to serve the nation during the Vietnam War. Her three oldest boys joined the services and her daughter married a military man and was off to the Pacific with him. (It was really bad duty as they ended up stationed in Hawaii)

Just as the young boys were getting there lives together along comes 9-11. Almost immediately one of these sons is sent to Afghanistan. He’s back now but her youngest son is over there now. She also has a grandson there and her daughter-in-law is in Iraq.

No, she hasn’t seen much peace in her eighty-two years. But, she believes it is possible.

These are the notes of Dr. Muriel R. McKenney, the Counselor, on Peace:

“As the holidays approach this year, it seems that peace is uppermost in our minds. Not only here in America, but all over the world people are yearning for a spirit of love and peace.