STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment
November, 2001
A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication
Peacemaking
Something you can do
You may want to send the thoughts in the following letter to the President and your Congressional Representatives.
"To combat terrorism, we must act in accordance with a high standard that does not disregard the lives of people in other countries. If we retaliate by bombing Kabul and killing people oppressed by the Taliban dictatorship who have no part in deciding whether terrorists are harbored, we become like the terrorists we oppose. We perpetuate the cycle of retribution and recruit more terrorists by creating martyrs. Please do everything you can to counsel patience as we search for those responsible. Please ensure that our actions reflect the sanctity of human life everywhere."
--Dorothy Griggs
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peacemaking resource suggestions
Study materials for individuals or groups in light of the September 11 crisis.
Communication and Conflict Resolution: Time Out! Resolving Family Conflicts, (The Peace Education Foundation, 800-747-8838; $4.95). Written in cartoon format, easy and quick to read, but based upon solid principles of communication. Comes with the "Peace Rules" poster and an invitation to everyone to try to follow this simple guide when discussing differences of opinion or conflicts which may arise. This book can go a long way in simply helping families and individuals, to communicate with each other.
[Note: The "Peace Rules" poster is different than the "Rules for Fighting Fair" poster that had come in the book’s older edition. The "Rules for Fighting Fair" poster is still available and can be purchased separately and still used with the book. From the website, www.PeaceEducation.com.
How to Turn the Other Cheek and Still Survive in Today’s World, Suzette Haden Elgin. A practical guide to dealing with conflict.
Nonviolence: Transforming Violence, ed. Robert Herr & Judy Zimmerman Herr; (Herald Press, ‘98). Inspiring stories of real people and their practical work for peace around the world. Developed by Fellowship of Reconciliation and the historic peace churches. Available from Brethren Press Bookstore, 800-441-3712.
Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from Fellowship of Reconciliation, ed. Walter Wink, (Orbis 2000). These seventy original and classic essays offer a comprehensive reader in nonviolence while also chronicling the struggle for Peace & Justice in the 20th century.
The Missing Peace: The Search for Nonviolent Alternatives in United States History, James C. Juhnke & Carol M. Hunter, (Herald Press.) Written from a historical perspective, this book debunks the myth that war and violence have effectively resolved crises in US history, and that nonviolence has been ineffective in producing positive change.
Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions. Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, (Orbis, ‘98). Religious rivalries historically have been at the root of many human conflicts. In this book, representatives of nine world religions offer insights on how their traditions may help to overcome the contagion of hatred through the practice of nonviolence. Contributions describe not only the significance of nonviolence to their tradition, but also reflect candidly on how their tradition has fallen short in putting these ideals into practice. Designed for academic or personal study, provides a wealth of insights and new perspectives on the persistent challenge of peace.
Darkening Valley: A Biblical Perspective on Nuclear War, Dale Aukerman (Seabury Press, ‘81). The author was a renowned Church of the Brethren minister, theologian, and peace activist.
For Older Children and Adults: Peace Begins With You, Katherine Scholes (Sierra Club, ‘89). The concept of peace can be a difficult one for children [and adults] to grasp, but [this] award-winning author...succeeds in explaining clearly why peace has a place in all of our lives. The book begins on a personal level... [and then] broadens, taking in national and international issues, including environmental ones. In the end, it suggests that the best way to protect peace - whether in our own homes or on a global level - is to ensure that everyone is treated fairly."
Submitted by Tom Hampson. Edited from an email written by Damon & Sue Wagner Fields, Atlantic Northeast District Representatives Decade to Overcome Violence, Church of the Brethren; swfields55@juno.com
News alternatives on the web
By KEN SCHROEDER and DANIEL MILLER-SCHROEDER
These web sites provide other points of view on September 11 and its aftermath:
www.globalexchange.org has background information on the events, Afghanistan, global justice and global security, suggestions for involvement, flyers to download and news updates.
www.nonviolence.org/vitw/, the Wilderness site, includes statements by loved ones of people who were killed on September 11 with the theme "Our grief is not a call to war." Also statements by Kathy Kelley, a recent speaker in Modesto.
www.fair.org includes critique on the mainstream coverage by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and commentary by Norman Solomon.
www.interrupt.org gives strategies for reframing the debate and speaking to shared values.
www.afsc.org is the American Friends Service Committee site with info on the "No more victims" campaign, on Afghanistan, on the military and the draft, and suggestions for action.
www.thenation.com has articles from the Progressive weekly magazine.
www.oxfam.org covers the continuing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/middle_east/Afghanistan shares this travel service’s info on the history, culture, environment and current situation in Afghanistan.
Cultivating compassion to respond to violence: the Way Of Peace
By THICH NHAT HANH
September 18, 2001
All violence is injustice.
Responding to violence with violence is injustice, not only to the other person but also to oneself. Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, -anger and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence. This is true in relationships between individuals as well as in relationships between nations.
Many people in America consider Jesus Christ as their Lord, their spiritual ancestor and their teacher. We should heed His teachings especially during critical times like this. Jesus never encourages us to respond to acts of violence with violence, His teaching is, instead, of using compassion to deal with violence. The teachings of Judaism go very much in the same direction. Spiritual leaders of this country are invited to raise their voices, to bring about the awareness of this teaching to the American nation and her People. What needs to be done right now is to recognize the suffering, to embrace it and to understand it. We need calmness and lucidity so that we can listen deeply to and understand our own suffering, the suffering of the nation and the suffering of others. By understanding the nature and the causes of the suffering, we will then know the right path to follow.
The violence and hatred we presently face has been created by misunderstanding, injustice, discrimination and despair, We are all co-responsible for the making of violence and despair in the world by our way of living, of consuming and of handling the problems of the world. Understanding why this violence has been created, we will then know what to do and what not to do in order to’ decrease the level of violence in ourselves and in the world, to create and foster understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness. I have the conviction that America possesses enough wisdom and courage to perform an act of forgiveness and compassion, and I know that such an act can bring great relief to America and to the world right away.
Terrorism and nonviolence
By ARUN GANDHI
Understandably, after the tragedy in New York and Washington DC on September 11, many have written or called the office to find out what would be an appropriate nonviolent response to such an unbelievably inhuman act of violence.
First, we must understand that nonviolence is not a strategy that we can use in a moment of crisis and discarded in times of peace. Nonviolence is about personal attitudes, about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. Because, a nation’s collective attitude is based on the attitude of the individual. Nonviolence is about building positive relationships with all human beings - relationships that are based on love, compassion, respect, understanding and appreciation.
Nonviolence is also about not judging people as we perceive them to be - that is, a murderer is not born a murderer; a terrorist is not born a terrorist. People become murderers, robbers and terrorists because of circumstances and experiences in life. Killing or confining murders, robbers, terrorists, or the like is not going to rid this world of them. For every one we kill or confine we create another hundred to take their place. What we need to do is to analyze dispassionately what are those circumstances that create such monsters and how can we help eliminate those circumstances, not the monsters. Justice should mean reformation and not revenge.
We saw some people in Iraq and Palestine and I dare say many other countries rejoice the blowing up of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It horrified us, as it should. But, let us not forget that we do the same thing. When Israel bombs the Palestinians we either rejoice or show no compassion. Our attitude is they deserve what they get. When the Palestinians bomb the Israelis we are indignant and condemn them as vermin who need to be eliminated.
We reacted without compassion when we bombed the cities of Iraq. I was among the millions in the United States who sat glued to the television and watched the drama as though it was a made for television film. The television had desensitized us. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were being blown to bits and instead of feeling sorry for them we marveled at the efficiency of our military. For more than ten years we have continued to wreak havoc in Iraq - an estimated 50,000 children die every year because of sanctions that we have imposed - and it hasn’t moved us to compassion. All this is done, we are told, because we want to get rid of the Satan called Sadam Hussein.
Now we are getting ready to do this all over again to get rid of another Satan called Osama Bin Laden. We will bomb the cities of Afghanistan because they harbor the Satan and in the process we will help create a thousand other bin Ladens. Some might say "we don’t care what the world thinks of us as long as they respect our strength. " After all we have the means to blow this world to pieces since we are the only surviving super-power. Do we want the world to respect us the way school children respect a bully? Is that our role in the world?
If a bully is what we want to be then we must be prepared to face the same consequences as a school-yard bully faces. On the other hand we cannot tell the world "leave us alone." Isolationism is not what this world is built for.
All of this brings us back to the question: How do we respond nonviolently to terrorism?
The consequences of a military response are not very rosy. Many thousands of innocent people will die both here and the country or countries we attack. Militancy will increase exponentially and, ultimately, we will be faced with another, more pertinent, moral question: what will we gain by destroying half the world? Will we be able to live with a clear conscience?
We must acknowledge our role in helping create monsters in the world and then find ways to contain these monsters without hurting more innocent people and then redefine our role in the world. I think we must move from seeking to be respected for our military strength to being respected for our moral strength.
We need to appreciate that we are in a position to play a powerful role in helping the "other half" of the world attain a better standard of life not by throwing a few crumbs but by significantly involving ourselves in constructive economic programs.
For too long our foreign policy has been based on "what is good for the United States." It smacks of selfishness. Our foreign policy should now be based on what is good for the world and how can we do the right thing to help the world become more peaceful.
To those who have lost loved one’s in this and other terrorist acts I say I share your grief. I am sorry that you have become victims of senseless violence. But let this sad episode not make you vengeful because no amount of violence and killing is going to bring you inner peace. Anger and hate never do. The memory of those victims who have died in this and other violent incidents around the world will be better preserved and meaningfully commemorated if we all learn to forgive and dedicate our lives to helping create a peaceful, respectful and an understanding world.
Arun Gandhi is Director, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, 650 East Parkway South, Memphis, TN 38104 Tel: (901)452-2824; FAX: (901)452-2775; email: gandhi@cbu.edu; web: www.gandhiinstitute.org
Re-Engage the World
By VIKRAM SINGH
Dear Friends and Loved Ones,
I begin this message in Sri Lanka’s nightly blackout, three hour cuts due to a drought that starves the island’s hydropower.
Like so many of you, I cannot describe the sensation of watching the second 767 strike the World Trade Center, of seeing a structure that seemed as permanent as the earth itself collapse into oblivion. The feeling that floats to the top must be despair. Living myself in a world of terror and reprisal (though we are far from the radar screens of the world), I also feel despair at the surge of bloodlust on the networks and the calls for vengeance from people, politicians, and the media.
Recent attacks on the US have been called evil acts of madmen. Oklahoma City, the Embassies in Africa, the USS Cole, all seen as acts of irrational evil. Evil they are. Nothing else can describe such brutal massacres, such wanton destruction. They are not, however, acts of madmen. None of them. The danger of such rhetoric should not be underestimated.
In my few years in Sri Lanka, I have seen dozens of brutal terrorist attacks, the most shocking and brazen; the recent destruction of 12 civilian and military aircraft on the tarmac at the international airport. I have walked among the dead and reported the carnage. The evil of terrorism touches countries worldwide. War and insurgency have killed over 140,000 Sri Lankans in the last 18 years and left a million displaced. The population of the island is only 18 million. Most terrorist attacks here strike the cities and kill innocent civilians. The government often retaliates with military operations and air strikes.
In this setting, the rebels are the "terrorists" and government retaliation is justified and celebrated by much of the general public in government held areas. Such attacks are supported by the international community as the defense of a sovereign nation in a state of war.
But reprisals can never stop the terrorist attacks. Every time a military operation claims an innocent son or daughter or parent or sibling, another terrorist — or freedom fighter — is born. The cycle is perpetual. Security can only be flawed; retaliation, however effective, can only contribute to more violence.
Sri Lanka is a gauntlet of military and police checkpoints. Vehicles are inspected going into shopping malls. You have to reach the airport 3 hours in advance and pass through multiple checks and searches, multiple x-rays, and at least one hand search of all baggage. The bombings continue. The airport remains vulnerable. Security is omnipresent and it is naturally discriminatory, often profiling people of the same ethnic community as the rebels. Checkpoints and searches do not make you feel safe. Because the underlying causes of the violence are not fully addressed, the attacks continue.
But in America, too, increased security cannot stop terror attacks. A single individual willing to die for a cause is virtually unstoppable. The fabric that holds diverse societies together is an uncompromising defense of individual rights and civil liberties. Security arrangements can prove dangerous if they target or harm specific segments of a population, thus driving people to extremism. Retaliation, unless surgically precise, will always create a mushroom affect — new men and women willing to die if their loved ones are slaughtered. We see it now in America: Thousands would die to exact vengeance on those responsible for the September 11th attacks.
But we are doomed to an ongoing cycle of terror unless the struggle Americans are willing to die for is one for justice — not revenge.
Fighting evil can only succeed if the approach to it is sophisticated and profound. It must be rooted in the most difficult strictures of the scriptures of the major religions and the deepest springs of the human heart. It must be rooted in forgiveness. Force must be tempered by understanding; punitive action complemented by positive action.
Around the roots of many terrorist organizations there often lies a thick layer of legitimate grievances from which violence drew its nutrients. This is true of the IRA, the LTTE in Sri Lanka, the PLO, the Kosovar Liberation Army, and many others. South Africa’s ANC spent generations as a "terrorist" organization. Many vicious forces in world were equipped by major powers, including the United States (think of the Taliban itself and the Contras).
To fight these forces — who also believe they are fighting for justice — countries must answer questions who and how. They must also look beyond to questions of why. The U.S. needs to seriously ask and answer these difficult questions: Why do these people hate us enough to do such horrible things? What will the cost of our retaliation be and how can it be just and accurate? The suspects in these cases are not after mere wealth and power. While retribution is necessary, the cost of that retribution must be estimated. Nations can easily slip into an endless spiral of carnage like that engulfing Israel and Palestine, like Sri Lanka, like so many devastated places on earth.
I despair for the victims in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, for their families, and I dread learning of the friends I too must have lost. I despair for a world in which understanding and empathy are victims of political and economic convenience and for leaders around the world who do not — perhaps cannot — realize the possible results of their actions.
I just returned from an international forum from which the US withdrew. America cannot remain separate from the global community; it must realize that in order to have global support—against terrorism and for many other global concerns—it must participate in global processes. It must openly defend its beliefs and interests and attempt to build consensus for its positions. It’s positions must be debated inside and outside of the country. It must empathize and attempt to understand the concerns and beliefs of other states and other groups of people. The withdrawal from Kyoto, plans for missile defense, refusing to sign biological weapons and land mine agreements, rejecting an international criminal court, all of these cannot be seen as disconnected from the future of US security.
The United States remains the greatest hope for the concept of mutual accommodation and tolerance. With many hiccups, we generally live together in tolerance and even the celebration of diversity. We allow all people the pursuit of happiness. As the United States chooses a path after September’s tragic loss, may the leaders find the wisdom to seek out justice, not vengeance, and to take any retaliatory action with care. May Americans remember to keep one hand ready for positive action if the other is striking destruction. May we confront enemies with strength and with kindness and avoid today’s global patterns in which one wrong makes a wrong makes a wrong makes a wrong. . .
May we realize the need to re-engage the world. The stakes cannot be higher.
ACTION: Contact the Author at 21 Glen Aber Place, Colombo 04, Sri Lanka, ph. +94 1 584955, email: vikramsingh73@yahoo.com. Contact your Representatives and Senators and ask that they seek peace through stopping the violence.
U.S. military spending vs. the world
(from The Defense Monitor, submitted by Phyllis Harvey)
The Defense Monitor reports on the National Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Request by the Bush Administration of $343.2 billion dollars for the Pentagon, of which $$8.3 billion is planned to be spent on missile defense. The debate in Washington this year is over whether to increase military spending a lot, or increase it a whole lot. Pentagon spending now accounts for over half (50.5 %) of all discretionary spending. While defense budgets in most countries are shrinking, the U.S. military budget continues to grow.
Discretionary spending are those funds that administration must request and Congress must act on each year, about one third of the total budget. Mandatory spending, which is automatically spent unless laws are changed that govern it, includes entitlements, such as Social Security, Medicare, federal pensions, and interest payments on the National debt.
Taking steps against land mines
By PHYLLIS HARVEY
Some 110 million land mines remain in the ground in 68 countries, and some estimated 500 people, mostly civilians are wounded or killed by mines each week.
Though the International Mine Ban Treaty has been in force for over two years, land mines remain an issue today. A soldier can lay 40 to 50 mines in one hour, but a de-miner can clear only 3 to 4 meters in a single day. Our country’s refusal to sign the International Mine Ban Treaty provides cover for other nations reluctant to give up these tools of destruction.
ACTION: Church World Service, working with the U.S. Campaign to Ban Land Mines, invites people to communicate with their Senators to encourage a Land Mine treaty to come to a vote. We should also communicate our concerns for immediate action to President Bush. Visit www.churchworldservice.org/Educ_Advo/landmines.html
Sisterhood
By ELIZABETH ANN VENCILL, MBA, MT(ASCP)
I'm wearing the head-scarf today,
In memory of their suffering.
Women look strangely at me
tricolor ribbons at my breast
hijab about my head.
Incongruous. Yet totally
an American Statement.Peace does not occur in nature.
Biological struggles are the stuff of daily fare.
We revert to our basest primal
Instincts in times of biological need.
Threats to our existence
Are met with force to drive them away.
It has ever been so and will ever be so.Peace is an elusive commodity.
Expensive at the one side,
Cheap at the other.
Immeasurable in times like this.
There will be none for many years,
Until the world has balance once again
Until philosophies are taken in-context
Not ex-context.Peace is a relative concept.
Meaning just that there is no violence.Elusive, Peace after war that comes in morning.
Elusive, Peace of mind that comes in mourning.
Elusive. Lasting minutes, hours, days, months, years, seconds.We can feed everyone.
But some confuse might with power.For the man who would destroy the United States,
It's ideals, its Constitution, its Bill of Rights,
Drive us from the Middle East,
Destroy those unlike him,
There is no Peace.It is not the paramount idea for him.
He wants destruction only.
And the installation of his ideas throughout the world
As Right.
For him, there is no Peace nor rest
Nor willingness toward tolerance.
He inspires others to sacrifice their lives
On his Altar of Injustice.
His name is unspeakably bin Laden,
Distorter of Islam,
Consorting others to Destroy their lives
For him, his ideas, goals, and vision.How can there be one so determined?
One whose words so enrage, so inspire, so distort,
So completely own another's soul as to
Drive him to suicide in his cause?It is very old anger and cumulative injustice
That will do this, carried intergenerationally across time.
Until the seventh generation and more.There is no forgetting where biology is concerned.
Unless we make conscious choices to forget.
But we do not.
We record events, then read them.But what must it be like
To watch your child starve?
To watch your parent suffer?
To know no satisfaction of your appetite?
This is what bin Laden would have us do.
Like the peoples of Palestine and Iraq,
Or others of the world.How can we dare
To bomb them
And
Eat steak?
Why is this "right"?How can we dare
To take their resources
And
Believe in the bottom line?
Why is this "right"?If we believe
In "supply" and "demand",
And we have taught him that idea,
Why are we unwilling to live by it?What makes us so much more "Right"?
How can we make a deal
That so violates the
Principles for which Rotarians stand,
And look ourselves
In the eye?But his decision and vision
Are unchangeable.
He is what he is.
He would destroy us because
That is his calling from his idea of God.And to Hell with the consequences
To the world.
Create more injustice.
Create more intolerance.
Create more chaos.
Create more distrust.
Destroy chances for business
Between anyone.And we understand all of this
Dichotomous thinking,
Destructive perceiving
And
Inevitable biology.
