Stillness

[kenoli Oleari]

Friends -- It is easy to think about "them", but what this is really
about is "us" -- the big "us" -- that includes all of us, of all
races, all cultures, all nations.  No one has a monopoly on violence,
no one has a monopoly on peace.  All nations, cultures and religions
have killed in the name of what they hold most dear.  The old
testament is a history of genocide, as was the inquisition, as is the
American legacy in Indonesia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere during the
cold war.  The US representative to the UN was the US liaison to
terrorist groups in Central America.  The prime minister of Isreal
was a renowned terrorist during the founding of that country.  A
handful of terrorists of one people says no more about that people
than the terrorists of any other people say about that people.

We all hold wisdom, love and compassion.  This is what we have to
call forth in ourselves and each other.  In some recent work in a
foreign country, (I was brought in for some expertise I was seen to
have, and even told by Indonesians "You will teach us what you
Americans know.") I saw that there was great wisdom in all of us.  We
-- me, the other trainers, the agency people, the "trainees" and the
conference participants -- all brought the wisdom of our experience.
It is so easy to think that "we" know more than "they".  I felt the
strength in the relationships, the sharing of cultural viewpoints,
the open dialog that was supported by a core commitment to inclusion
and collaboration.

When we get separated from each other, think that we know better, we
are already sowing the seeds of destruction, which grow and grow
until, in our fear, we commit acts that are so intense we finally see
that the separation is unacceptable.  Can we learn from this recent
experience -- see that we have to come together, see ourselves as one
-- or will we continue sow the seed of separation and death.  America
is no different than other parts of the world in core, real ways.
The gloss of wealth and privilege is thin.  This recent event
certainly reveals this.  Can we be humble enough to see this, to stop
seeing ourselves as "other", better, to realize that there is
something we don't know that we can learn from this incident.  If we
can't, we will surely create our own destruction.

"Our" government has now voted unanimously a "Vow" to US retaliation,
at any cost.  The UN is evacuating UN staff from Kabul.  The whole
world is expecting "our" nation to begin killing innocent (along with
"guilty") people in Afghanistan.  Their loved ones will grieve their
deaths as we grieve ours in New York.  Are we so different?  Are we
proud of this?  Where else will people die because we can't live with
our pain?

It was "our" God who said, "Love your enemy as yourself."  The God of
Islam is also a just and compassionate God.

Kenoli

Here is an extract from the words of a woman who has been living with
terrorism for some time in Israel:

"My son served in the Israeli Army in the West Bank, so for me the barbarous
killings of two soldiers by a lynch mob in Ramallah made me feel the same
anger that must have led Israeli Prime Minister Barak to bomb Palestinian
leader Arafat’Äôs compound in retaliation and to escalate the war against the
Palestinians.  So when I saw the pictures of the murder of those
young men, I cried and was filled with rage.

Yet I can also understand that to those Palestinians these two
young men killed were just members of the occupying army, the army
that had been brutally killing over 80 Palestinians and wounding more
than 2000 civilians
in the past week’Äîand might have seemed indistinguishable from the Jewish mobs
that attacked random Arab Israelis in Nazareth a few days ago, beating and
burning.  For every outrage on one side there is a story of outrage on the
other.  For me, that doesn't justify either side--both are wrong and
both sides need to atone."
--
Kenoli Oleari, Horizons of Change, http://www.horizonsofchange.com
1801 Fairview Street, Berkeley, CA  94703   Voice Phone: 510-601-8217,
Fax: 510-595-8369, Email: kenoli at igc.org (or click on: mailto://kenoli@igc.org)

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