Peggy -- Thank you for your thoughtful piece and useful information. I want to share notes from a talk I gave at a peace vigil yesterday.... I urge each of us to not only contact leaders and the powerful voices of the media as you wisely suggested... but to BE leaders in every conversation: we need to find the way to OPEN the SPACE and sustain the container for conversations of peace, for transformation and healing...
Finding the Path of Peace in the Face of Terror This infamous September 11, 2001, was International Day of Peace. How ironic; how remarkable. How marked for all times. Let us seize upon this coincidence to study peace, to reflect on todays horrors, and try to find our way through the arduous and challenging path to peace. Surely a better question for us to consider rather than Who did it is How do we create a culture of peace? What is peace? Clearly one component of peace is a feeling of safety what we are longing for so deeply on this frightening day. Revenge cannot bring safety; violence can only beget violence. What if we really studied and came to know the challenges and practices of peace as intimately as we do those of war? I have been thinking about some of the vital and hard lessons learned by students of Columbine: they quickly learned there was no easy answer possible no quick and deceptive salve of vengeance or safety from heightened security and lock down measures. They came to understand that they had to tend to the root cause --which was the climate of their school, the human fabric of relationships in their school the un-peaceful culture of bullying, judging, isolating, exclusivity and they learned that the healing needed to begin within each of the students themselves by reaching out to each other, including the rejected and oppressed and unpopular . They continue to struggle today with this slow and arduous task one person at a time. I cant help but wonder, --Does this weeks terror represent a similar root cause of our global climate and human fabric? The in- crowds/continents/nations/peoples and outs, the haves and have nots -- played out on a global campus? And if so, dont our remedies fall in building relationship, not in revenge? In the words of Martin Luther King, Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamations of peace and our lowly deeds, which precipitate and perpetuate war. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. We know the outcome of the violent path of revenge of an eye for eye: a cycle of violence, generations of blinding/blindness. Those of us who believe in Peace, who are ready to stand up for peace, face a difficult path, as anger and righteousness rear up and find loud, ugly voices amongst our neighbors, friends and leaders. We must each of us hold to the voice of Peace. This is the true challenge and work of peace not in easy times on sunny days where love and acceptance float in on a gentle sea breeze. But today, beneath clouds of debris and ashes and fear. Do we have the courage? The perseverance? The vision? Can we hold the course amidst accusations of being dreamers, idealists, tree huggers, pansies and worse. Let us be inspired by Robert Kennedys wise words: Each time a person stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. There are many actions we can take, one conversation at a time. --Be allies to all peoples, including our Arab friends and neighbors who must feel very afraid of the backlash building --Stay hopeful, keep our hearts open --Seek out our enemies; build relationships; find out what they need; work together to meet legitimate needs --Remember peace is The Way in thought, in speech, in deed --Write our representatives and leaders and hold them to non-violent, peaceful responses --Demand that we form a U.S. Department of Peace (see web site http://www.house.gov/kucinich/peace.htm) --Join in action for community and peace building (for example, Global Peoples Assembly, see www.ourvoices.org) We will be challenged in every conversation and email exchange we face in the coming days and weeks. This is a defining moment in our history. A turning point. What direction will the collective conversation take? Can we hold to the higher purpose and intention of Peace and resist the false, temporary salve of revenge which only feeds the cycle of violence? Dorothy Day said: What I want to bring out is how a pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. And each one of our thoughts, words and deed is like that. Please take a moment to reflect: How can you find a way to transform the pain and grief the in this tragedy to bring a spirit of peace and wisdom to the conversations that will come in the next days and weeks? As my friend and author Vicki Robin said, May we flood our streets with love rather than fear? Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
