How to choose Peace.

I can't think of one person who would choose a life of war and conflict. History has given us multiple examples of war hawks and captains of industry who have built empires on warfare. However, they weren't on the ground fighting or making a conscious effort to live a life on the front lines in the absence of peace.
Choosing peace would seem a larger part of our human nature than the thirst for war. It is more involved and detailed then simply saying 'war is bad', or killing is wrong. Choosing peace is a much bigger commitment than refraining from actually taking a gun and shooting a human. Our moral barometers make us cringe at the concept of killing each other in cold blood. So it becomes easy to choose to not kill people.
That also makes it less heroic. Of course we aren't going to kill each other for no reason. Why would we even discuss that option among rational beings. To choose peace, a life of peace, is not merely the absence of warfare. It is a conscious choice to live a life free of bloodshed.
Think of the ways in which we benefit from war. Would you actually remove the dead bodies from a home in order to move into the newly vacated premises? Are you the type of person to roll a dead man over and take money from his pockets? The house is no longer needed, and the dead man wont be spending that money.
 If you would not do these things it is largely because of your compassionate heart.
A compassionate heart is nothing to be ashamed of. We are all born with one. I walk down the street everyday knowing that the majority of people whose paths I cross would do me no harm due in part to their heart of compassion. Because of this I have no fear of them.

One way of putting a compassionate heart into action is a vegetarian diet. If we were to all adhere to Buddha's precept to do no harm then we would be holding ourselves to a code of conduct to help all of God's creatures understand that they have nothing to fear.
Buddha once said "I advise everyone to revert to a vegetarian diet early, because the spiritual soul of man and animal came from the same origin. If you can bear to kill and eat the animals, it is just like killing and eating our brothers and sisters."
Whether you live by the precepts of Buddha or the 10 Commandments, killing is killing. The dictionary defines kill as causing the death of a person or animal. I strongly believe in the compassionate heart of my brothers and sisters. I know that most people would never eat the meat of an animal that they had actively killed. It just takes a little more work to remove yourself from the cycle of death by deciding not to partake in what others have killed.
If you do this, if you remove yourself from the cycle of killing and death then you will feel your compassionate heart grow. You will become a person of peace, led by your firm belief in the sanctity of life. It will become obvious to others that you have chosen peace over war, life over death and love over violence.
Thich Naht Hahn in his book Creating True Peace illustrates that it is the nature of war to take what one wants even if it results in the death of others.  A meat based diet requires that we wage mini wars every day. And the first victim of a war is always the one who perpetuates it.
I will choose peace for myself, my family, my community and the world.