Dear Reader, As a piece activist and as a writer, I must find a way to express the horrors of war so that they don't upset people to the point they don't read the writings. Instead, the goal is to uplift them and get them involved in the peace process. In frustration, I discussed this dilemma with my friend Kathleen Jacoby and I think you'll find her comments of interest.
In a message dated 9/10/2010 10:53:46 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Dear Kathleen,
Your words from "Emotions" captured such beauty and vitality in life. I've read your piece three times.
"As we consciously choose to uphold love, not as an insipid or saccharin state, but as a dynamic evolving pool of creation, we will find ourselves avoiding those elements that pull us down and move to those that elevate us.obscures ultimate reality."
But as a writer and as a peace activist, it is very difficult to find a balance that doesn't deal in the negative. I want the writings I publish not only on KazanToday but on the candlelight vigil site, http://candlelightvigils.blogspot.com/ to uplift people and offer them hope.
But as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on, it is not an easy thing to do, particularly as President Obama implies that the war in Iraq is over ("combat operations have ended") which is grossly untrue.
I would very much welcome your advice in how to summarize the weekly candlelight vigils in ways that will make readers feel good, and to appeal to them to get involved to stop these wars.
For it is in their silence men, women and children continue to be killed or maimed, their homes destroyed and their countries devastated. I apologize for the negative tone but that is what is happening, although heavily censored by the U.S. Military.
Dick
Please visit us online at http://www.kazantoday.com/
Hi Dick...I've been chewing on your question throughout yesterday and this morning. It calls me to something that Steve and I mentioned to one another yesterday at lunch. Earth is such a beautiful planet, but it is a warring one. And without people standing up against tyranny and brutality, it will remain so. Yet, people become complacent. Our lives are formed by rules and ideals, and we are shaped by the culture in which we find ourselves. We are molded by subtle messages, and often we are lost in the crowd of indifference as we think our small view can make little difference. This, however, is a wrong tack to take.
Only when those who see injustice band together to point the way to a higher calling can something of value be accomplished. A prime example of this is the work of Mother Theresa and of Greg Mortenson, who wrote Three Cups of Tea, about building schools, not sending bombs to Pakistan and Afghanistan. And now in his new book, Stones Into Schools, he shows how he as a singular individual has pulled together a group who brought hope to a region that has been exploited by the U.S., the Russians, and every other invader in the name of....!
He rightfully identified the essential nature of the problems in the region and the appalling lack of education. he single handedly set out to build schools for the remotest villages - using their labor, their determination, and providing the funds for materials. He was in the beginning a nurse who lived in Berkeley, having little money, but was an intrepid mountain climber. After a bad descent, he landed in a strange village that brought him back to health, and he vowed to build a school there when he saw the boys and girls sitting on a cliff side trying to study with minimum material. It took him a couple years to raise the money, but he went back as promised, and now he has created a foundation that has funded the building of over 250 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has become a hero to the people of that region, and the U.S. Military has sought him out to find out how honoring a people and their culture is a way to achieve objectives rather than through warring with them. This is one man who saw an injustice and did something about it. No wealth, no special connections...just determination. And what he has achieved is more than all our foreign aid or bombs can ever do! We all need to learn how to respect one another's points of views even when we don't agree.
Many years ago, I was Acting Director of a foundation dedicated to the study of causes of war and peace within an individual and society. I met with many people who worked towards peace, finding it not to be a passive space, but a dynamic one of interaction and learning from one another. The key we found was not that conflict does not exist, but that there is a crucial point where it either escalates into war or takes a turn to bring a dynamic resolution. One individual who had to deal with conflict resolution between countries told me that the only way to truly negotiate is to find a common point of similarity...and sometimes the only thing that can be agreed upon is that each person is a human being. But he said, that is a start. And from that point of beginning, a framework can be built. This is why in so many ways, women sitting at a table from different cultures can ask about the children and show pictures and share hopes and dreams for their little ones. THIS is an action that evokes response in a positive way. This demonstrates humanity in someone who is a supposed enemy.
The key is to find the entry point. And just this week, we see that the actions of this Pentacostal minister in Florida who said he would burn the Koran, which is antithetical to our philosophy of tolerance, has actually in his action caused many religious leaders and religious communities to come together in discussion to find common ground of respect. In this we see that we never know how a negative can be turned into a positive and a greater good, but this is one of those moments - in spite of what his motives may have been. We are used as the hand of God. We are the instruments of action, and as we see a wrong, we need to call it out. We don't need to fight war with war, we need to find ways of approaching disagreements that give dignity and respect to all concerned. Until we do that, we have a continuing scenario of a winner and loser mentality.
Life is not a football game. It is a spiraling journey. Sometimes we come back to the same point we began - but with greater awareness. When we seek one another out with curiosity, we can open dialogue. If we continue to seek revenge for actions taken by another, it becomes the eye for eye/tooth for tooth frame of mind that leads to what Gandhi said was a world of blind toothless people. We can only change minds by appealing to the higher nature in human beings, and that cannot be accomplished through a fight them mentality. It can only be done with an approach that calls out the truth and lights the candle of awareness that if held by enough people is bound to make a difference. After all, Gandhi was able to bring down the English rule of India - something seemingly impossible. Martin Luther King made Americans aware of the shame in slavery and in repressing any group from the rights given by our constitution. This did not happen through hate. It happened through recognition that human beings have at core a place of goodness....and we must appeal to that goodness. In my own way, I have often stated that "that which is most unlovable is that which is most in need of love."
So, understanding that we have come to a planet that is not perfect...is not the Garden, we see that it could be and that it is up to us to make a difference - not through righteousness and self-satisfaction, but through opening to love, to respect, to curiosity. It is up to us to see injustice for what it is - Fear. And in so doing, to bring a voice of reason and a call to a higher purpose. When we do this, regardless of outcome, we DO make a difference, and we DO change the consciousness of the world.
The worst thing any of us can do is to believe that our voice does not have value and does not have the ability to cause profound change. The key is to align ourselves to principles that are noble and that help uplift the human spirit and all earth and her inhabitants in the process!
Those are my thoughts for the moment, Dick. Hope they spark some ideas for you related to your group.
Warmest regards,
Kathleen
Journey to Raw, An Investigation of the Raw food lifestyle: 2raw.wordpress.com
Seasons of the Soul Newsletter BLOG: http://www.kathleenjacoby.blogs.com/
Vision of the Grail, A Spiritual Adventure at the Dawn of the 21st Centurywww.grailvision.com
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