On Friday, January 10^th, Mr. Josh Seamon presented to the Political Awareness Club.

During the last two summers, Mr. Josh Seamon has made the personal the political by bringing his passion—Ultimate Frisbee—to the West Bank, one of the most politically contentious places in a very unstable area—the Middle East. His goal: to emotionally connect West Bank kids of diverse backgrounds—Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Israelis—whose neighborhoods are usually separated by security barriers. Seamon achieved this somewhat aberrational convergence by using his art—Ultimate Frisbee. In doing so, he and his fellow ultimate enthusiasts changed the lives of 400-some youths who experienced the power of connectivity through sports.

Like Aristotle, Seamon and his confederates know that sports without moral excellence has little value. Thus, Seamon’s goal was not just to bring together a homogenous group of Palestinians and Israelis simply interested in honing their ultimate skills. Instead, he wanted to metaphorically break down the barriers that psychically crisscross and scar the West Bank, an area known for its intense tribalism, and create a cooperative environment that displayed the respective inner beauty of traditional enemies. In doing so, Seamon and his pals created a salubrious endeavor built around an aim that is easy to give lip service to, and tremendously difficult to achieve: peace. Indeed, by incorporating the vehicle, Ultimate Frisbee, and the ideology, peace, Seamon relentlessly pursued social justice.

And in combining Frisbee and peace, Seamon and his teammates also came up with a pretty clever name for their effort: Ultimate Peace. The goal of this organization is to serve as a reminder to West Bank kids that what unites them as humans is stronger than what divides them. And perhaps, more importantly, to inculcate in West Bank youth the notion that what is out of relationship is out of perspective. Ultimate Peace realizes that sin is separation. A philosophy that, by the way, profoundly influenced Martin Luther King Jr’s quest to end racial segregation in the United States.

Ultimate Peace puts forth five key Gandhian principles that, if adhered to, will guarantee transformative results: friendship, mutual respect, non-violence, integrity, and, lastly, fun. As great as these qualities are on the field, they’re even more useful and admirable off it. Sports are a metaphor for life’s travails,  and if these kids—Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Israelis—can connect on the athletic field, then perhaps they can do more than battle on the streets of the West Bank. Thus, our very own Mr. Seamon has brought traditional enemies in the combustible Middle East together in healthy ways, and he deserves to take great pride, at least in the view of this humble scribe, in using his passion, Ultimate Frisbee, to change the world. Indeed, Mr. Seamon is the incarnation of “purpose, passion and integrity” when he brings his zest for Ultimate Frisbee to the West Bank.  In short, Mr. Seamon and Ultimate Peace are living the credo of anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Perhaps we should all take up Ultimate Frisbee.