Dreams in a Box

The Chicago Peace Museum is dreams in a box
Some come true, some to be realized
Yet... we know that peace is a living thing
That it cannot be put in a place, contained
That it is not the absence of war
That it does not bow down to Marx or Lenin, Reagan or Thatcher
That it is not infected by hypodermic needles
And yet it must infect us with a cure, contagious.

Peace will not prosper while the poor are controlled in ghettos
Cornered by color or greed,
From Watts to Harlem, Balfast to Beirut
We must find new solutions to new problems.

The Chicago Peace Museum is a building
put up and run by men and women who believe
that peace does not exist by itself
That it is/will be brought into being by people
That it must be taught in classrooms as well as churches
At street level as well as at the negotiating table
By business men as well as artists.

I am a word writer...but it is actions
man-made and concrete
that we need...

We see love torn down
Begin the rebuilding.

Bono, 1987