the right to treat each other well (long response)

[Alan Stewart]

Dear Friends

My posting re "The right to treat each other well" triggered remarkable
responses from people on and off this list. Among these were wonderful
'reports from
the field' from Glory Ressler and Chris Weaver and others' comments about
resonance
of the idea.

I intend to send the piece to Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights Commissioner,
in a slightly modified form to that which was posted.

Here is background which you may wish to 'hear' re the report from our
intrepid
and inspirational poet Chris (10/17/01)

Chris, as you may know, is the director of the Swannanoa 4-H Camp near
Asheville in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. This camp, in a lovely wooded
setting, has been in use for over 80 years by school age chidren; it has
seen  at
least 20, 000 young people spend some time there.

Recently it was threatened with closure as the state government deemed that
it had run out of funds to pay for the director's salary, ancillary staff
and
maintenance.

At the height of this crisis, during May of this year, I was scheduled to
pay Chris
and his family a visit, en route from attending a conference in Vienna to
one in
Vancouver. He and I had had a good connection a couple of years previously
at the OSonOS gathering in Monterey in California.

As a potential contribution to the survival of the camp Chris asked me to
facilitate a
Conversing Cafe. (This can be described as Open Space a la carte, with the
principles of Open Space Technology made explicit. See Cafe Recipes in
www.theworldcafe.com)

People with a passion for what the camp had been and what it could become
were invited to participate.

After this event, Chris reported to this list:

"Alan Stewart from Adelaide Down Under facilitated a "conversing cafe" at
the camp last Friday night [May 18] which worked magic beyond description in
our
community."

Precisely what Chris meant by this I am not sure, but what I do know is that
there was substantial support given by many people in Asheville and beyond
and that
the camp is now on a firm financial footing -  and thriving. Chris' report
on just some
of the activities happening there now attest to this.

Perhaps what shines through from his observations and reflections, written
as only a poet can, is the spirit of the enterprise.

Glory and others, the story of 'The one which you feed' which Chris adapted
for his purposes and which you can too if you wish, is one which I found at
www.gurteen.com Stories.

Good to converse, with love

Alan
Adelaide

"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to
me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it
bruised
and misunderstood. For it is not difference which immobilises us most, but
silence."

                                                                Audre Lorde,
poet, 1999

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under
conditions
That seem unpropitious.
But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

                                                TS Eliot. East Coker V

"The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not too sure that it is right."
          U.S. Court of Appeals Court Justice Learned Hand.

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