Turtle (way of warrior)

[Artur F. Silva]

[I sent some messages to the list, some time ago, and I have received
them back except this one, that I am resending. Sorry if you have received
wo copies of it - Artur]

-----------

Dear OS-comunity:

[Sorry if this message disturbs some of you]

At 14:17 26-09-2001, John Dicus wrote:

>(...) She said to walk the circle
>clockwise, hearing from the four voices in the unending sequence of a
>learning spiral.  If we become stuck at any one point, she said, we should
>back up a quarter turn before moving on.  So, what does teacher need to say
>before we can go forward from warrior... to vision to healing to....?  In
>this spiraling, the way of the turtle (wisdom) grows it's voice as well.

>If any of you have never seen Paula's works, her teaching book "Who Speaks
>For Wolf" would be a good read right now.  In short, it's about a people
>who decided to move their village to a more fertile area but forgot to hear
>the voice of wolf in their council circle.  When they moved, they moved
>smack dab into wolf's territory.  After being harassed by wolves for a few
>months, they decided that either they had to kill all the wolves or move
>back. They decided to move back since the other choice was unconscionable.
>So -- who speaks for wolf?

I read this initial message about the turtle and though it was very well
observed, and I prepared myself to see the answers. Who would speak
for the ones that have no voice in the "council circle"; the ones who's
land one wants to occupy or to bomb (the ones that were once the
native Americans, later from Vietnam, later from Serbia, and today are
from Afghanistan, it seems (*)? Who would speak for the wolf?

And also who would understand that when one is stuck in the warrior
position one needs to go back to the teacher position, and investigate the
world from a new point of view until one can go on again. If not, one will
be a soldier, not a warrior - much less one that cares for the four ways,
(and the center of the circle - the turtle position...)

Then I become quite sad and disturbed when I have discovered that
the wolf's voice was understood not as the voice of the *other*, the
dispossessed of voice, but as "the wolf within us", a much lesser
dignifying wolf, indeed.

But that is not strange. The first revenge/relief response planned by
the US government has been delayed due to criticisms from European
partners, Islamic countries and "people that spoke for the wolf". At this
moment a war is already in place -- but it is a war in the media, to
convince the American people and other partners that must be done
what has already been decided. (But Pakistan will have the debt
cancelled and maybe Cashmere; Russians will have Chechnya and the
North of Afghanistan; and the weapon producers will sell a lot more
weapons. And USA will behave as always. More of the same...)

The voices that once spoke for the (real) wolf have been stopped - and
today even the meaning of the "wolf" is changed. Someone referred 1984?

Precisely when a paradigm change and a new world view are, imo,
most needed, the wiser between us are progressively accepting the
"war propaganda". Precisely when the "good" questions would be
- "Why are some people so angry with us to do so terrible things?",
- "what have we been doing wrong all this time?",
- "have we shown any respect for other peoples?",
- "can we be respected by other countries when we accept the death
    penalty within our borders?" (can a Christian accept that, or must
   one consider that this is the type of question where a Christian must
   show that he can also be a WARRIOR?)"
- or, even, "why do we consider natural that the others must speak our
   language and we don't even try to speak theirs?" (Do you remember
   that even in a so open environment as our own, the open space site
   at www.openspaceworl.org was "English only" only one year ago...
   (The world speaks English...)

I am sorry for asking those questions in a so painfull moment. But those
are truly the questions that even most of the American supporters in Europe
ask themselves every day, not to speak about the countries that have
been bombed by the USA.  And those are also, imho, the questions
America MUST think about in this moment. And if America as a whole
will not think about it, those are the questions that I must ask clearly to
my American friends. Please, think about them, now!

And, as one could expect, the voices that speak for the wolf will be
less and less heard, then less and less accepted, and, later, more and
more criticized, until they will be silenced or persecuted. In a time of
war the ones that don't agree with us are probably on the side of our
enemies, are enemies themselves -- they must be controlled, arrested,
or even killed.

The war closes the space. War always closes the space. War is
the contrary of Open Space.

"Whoever comes and agrees with us is the right people"  will
become the new version of the "principle" in all the countries involved...

The problem with this war is that it will encompasses all the world,
and all the forums, including this one. I inicially agreed with those
that alerted us that, from now on, discussing war can be dangerous
for the OS community. And I was almost decided to consider the thread
over for me and apply the law of two feet in relation with terrorism,
war and warriors.

[It was a pity because I am preparing a text with my own experience
with terrorism - the experience of the Portuguese colonialism, of
the terrorism it implied against the African peoples of the colonies
and within Portugal itself; and how this have conducted to African
terrorism (beginning with UPA in Angola - by the way supported by
the Americans) and later to the Portuguese democratic revolution
and the independence of the ex-colonies. And how the Occident had
already managed to introduce terrorism within those countries that
are today devastated by competing armies - all armed by occidental
countries. ]

But then I saw  Toni Petrinovich's message that ended with:

With peace in my heart, love for mankind and a prayer that we do not easily
walk away from this discussion when it is exactly what those who wish to
fight us are hoping for

and that can be also true.

Since the attack we are all living terrible moments - and terrible moments
can be an inhibitor for learning and changing. But they can also be a good
moment for "emerging crativity" and change of paradigms, that are sometimes
(or always?) painful...

Please believe I am really sorry for all the victims of the attacks and their
families and relatives. And also sorry for the fact that such dificult
questions
have to be answered by each of you, at least in your heart, at this so
dificcult
moment. And believe that what I wrote comes only from the great consideration
I have for this community - it comes only from passion and responsability.

Warm regards

Artur

(*) In the NATO's meeting of Defense Ministers, yesterday, the representative
of USA produced no proof of the involvement of Bin Laden or Al-Quaed
in the terrorist attacks. When questioned about that by the media he answered:
"I can show you again the film (of the two crashes); do you need any other
proof?" Do we?

*
*
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