BY FRANCIS X. QUINN | AUGUSTA John Wallach, the founder of the international Seeds of Peace program which operates a summer camp in western Maine, was honored Friday at the Maine State House during a joint convention of the Legislature.
The camp in Otisfield regularly brings together youngsters from countries in conflict and seeks to foster friendships among them.
Wallach describe the program Friday as “a detox program for the hatreds that all of us possess.”
Wallach, who started Seeds of Peace in 1993, told Maine lawmakers, Gov. Angus King and state supreme court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley he believed Maine should be known as the “peace state” in recognition of its support for the camp and its heritage as home to Edmund Muskie, Samantha Smith and George Mitchell.
Wallach called the Otisfield camp “the miracle in the Maine woods.”
The three Mainers cited by Wallach have been among the state’s most prominent figures in modern times.
Muskie, the late U.S. senator, served as secretary of state under President Carter.
Samantha Smith was an 11-year old schoolgirl in 1983 when she traveled with her parents to the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov. Two years after her famous peace tour, she died with her father in a plane crash.
Mitchell, a former U.S. Senate majority leader, has assumed highly visible roles since leaving office by promoting peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
Wallach, a former foreign editor for the Hearst newspapers, said Seeds of Peace offers a unique opportunity for young Arabs and Israelis, Indians and Pakistanis, Bosnians and Serbs and others to learn from one another and to confront their emotions.
“We are trying to reintroduce humanity,” he said during a formal address to the Maine House and Senate, adding that he got the idea for the program after the first bombing of the World Trade Center.
According to Wallach, nearly 2,000 teen-agers have participated in the Otisfield camp program in the past decade.
A Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem has offered activities for program graduates.