The historic election of Barak Obama seemed to raise the Spirit of the nation. Fatigued by eight years of aggression-driven policies, the nation seemed to dance with joy for the possibilities of a new dawn. A few days after my euphoria subsided, I found myself working to contain my expectations of what one man can accomplish in 8 years with a dysfunctional system of governance.The word barak means to kneel in Arabic (as in prayer) and it is derived from the root word barakah meaning blessing. Could it be that this blessing of Barak is a natural response to the ebbing of the life force we experienced under the Bush presidency? By electing Mr. Obama have we entered a period of expansion of consciousness after the Bush/Cheney years of contraction?

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Passionate Cry From the Heart In a passionate cri de coeur in the Huffington Post, Eve Ensler and Stephen Lewis have drawn our attention to rampant use of rape in the escalation of the ongoing conflict in the DRC (Congo).   We have heard about the hundreds of thousands (mostly women) fleeing the fighting  there.  We have not heard, until now, the reason so many are running-to escape rape. The level of sexual violence there is so extreme that Ensler and Lewis  are calling it femicide.                                                                                                                                                                               Rape as War Strategy There’s nothing new about rape in war which has been  going on since the beginning of time. What is different now is the use of rape as strategy, it’s deliberate employment, along with the use of guns and by armed men, to achieve their goals in warfare.  Consider the impulse to attack, to hurt other people or to make them pay for perceived injustices. How can one  inflict injury?             Physical assault             Knives/spears/swords             Burning/fires             Rape/sexual violence/enslavement             Guns/grenades/rocket launchers             Bombs/landmines/nuclear bombs             Verbal violence Rape Is Easy and Convenient A lot of these methods require that you take a huge risk to your own safety or they may require great skill in their use.

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Laughing as They Killed“ “They laughed as they killed,” read some reports from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I have been unable to verify these accounts but I tend to believe them.  Why do humans behave like this? Two vital questions beg to be examined: 1. Why are so many young people so easily engaged swept up into terrorism such that they become mass killers? 2. What will it take to eradicate terrorism and create a safer world?

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Joy Turns to Shock and Anger For many the joy of Obama’s Presidential victory was diminished by their shock and anger when Proposition 8 passed in California, overturning gay marriage in that state. The rage and pain for some of my gay and lesbian friends was visceral. They wanted to fight back. I support gay marriage. However, for me the larger question is: How can we encourage the arrival of social change? One gay friend argued with me vociferously when I referred him to an article by Lee Stranahan which recommends following Obama’s tactics: “What if instead of merely chalking up opposition to “fear and hate” they went in churches and communities and started engaging in conversations?

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 Killing Bin Laden Continues Disastrous Bush Policies President-elect Obama stated on his recent 60 Minutes appearance that he was committed to “capturing or killing Bin Laden”. I agree that Bin Laden, and his second in command Al Zawahiri, should be captured, but they should not be killed. Killing them would be a continuation of the disastrous policies of the War on Terror which so isolated us from the rest of the world. It is a dangerous policy and one which the Obama administration should carefully re-examine. Victims of Terrorism Not Just American I have been studying the terrorism issue since 1998 when the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Al Qaeda. The victims of those bombings were overwhelmingly African citizens.  Although the target was the U.S., the reaction of the U.S.

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Too Quick to Use the Carrot and Stick During the past decade, diplomatic efforts have sadly failed to produce satisfactory results needed to solve numerous international challenges. In the Bush administration, a popular theme to international problem solving has been the so-called “Carrot and Stick” approach. Perhaps overly reliant on this approach, the US has been too quick to use its stick: employing armed force, sanctions and political isolation. Zero-sum diplomacy always amplifies the likelihood of violence. The US policy has been, in plain language, “If you do not do as we say you will be punished”. This approach is based on coercion and control and, to put it bluntly, bullying.  Taking Responsibility for Harm Done in the Past  It is necessary to eliminate past-based or pre-existing resentment before countries in conflict can demonstrate the essential willingness to negotiate and cooperate.

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Ecstasy by Hayden Carruth For years it was in sex and I thought This was the most of it so brief a moment or two of transport out of oneself or in music which lasted longer and filled me with the exquisite wrenching agony of the blues and now it is equally transitory and obscure as I sit in my broken chair that cats have shredded by the stove on a winter night with wind and snow howling outside and I imagine the whole world at peace at peace and everyone comfortable and warm the great pain assuaged a moment of the most shining and singular gratification.                                                                                                                                                                                                         Dear friends; On this election day I offer this simple poem to you with its prayer for the quiet joy of what peace could look like and feel like between people, were we to let it come. Savor the thought. Whoever wins the election today, please support them and send them your blessings and prayers. We, here at Peace By Design, will be taking a hiatus in publication for a while. We are exhausted after months of intense effort and need to rest and restore our energy.

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Finding Beauty in a Broken World . Terry Tempest Williams. Pantheon Books: New York, 2008.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         “A mosaic is a conversation between what is broken.” Mosaic as Metaphor Terry Tempest Williams, in this piercing book, weaves the metaphors of brokenness and beauty into a work of astonishing power. After 911, Terry Tempest Williams, whose subject is usually the natural world, sought for a word to anchor her sense of fragmentation. The word that came to her was “mosaic” and this led to a study of mosaics.

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The Confusion of Peace and Defeat in the American Psyche  The question is why was the American psyche so readily open to make the connection between the words “peace” and “defeat,” and why have we not been able to overcome it since then? Grandstanding on the Election Trail For the last thirty years our presidential candidates have loathed identifying themselves as peace makers in their campaigns for fear of being perceived weak and too soft.  They employ a multitude of strategies to discuss our foreign policy challenges but they never discuss peace negotiations as possible options with our adversaries.  They encourage other nations towards peace and push a few more towards negotiations, but they hold the line when it comes to our own nation making peace with those we are in conflict with.  Candidates Insist We Are Tough, Not Weak The candidates go to great lengths to express their toughness as leaders and “commanders in chief;” any language of conciliation is deemed too soft and weak. It can spell disaster in the opinion polls.  They are hemmed  in from all directions and forced to remind us over and over again that they are not afraid to use our military might;  they will use the big stick because we are tough and no one should mess with us; it smacks with teen age harangues on the playgrounds. Bullying is Acceptable in Foreign Affairs Such diatribes underscore our fundamental confusion with our image as a peace making nation.  We have become accustomed to the idea that bullying is an acceptable behavior for our foreign policy affairs.  Not only have we come to accept that our presidents carry a big stick on the world stage, but that it is perfectly normal to use it whenever and however they see fit … as long as our lifestyle and consumer slumber is not disturbed.                                                                                                                   Peace Challenges Our Simplistic Ideas About the World As a people, we have unknowingly and in a deep way come to accept that peace is not only weak but it is also messy and it challenges the simplistic answers we have come to view the world with.  As individuals this notion may not be true for most of us, but as a collective we have slipped into a dangerous trance.  Our presidents become peace makers on the world stage after they are out of office; only then do we grant them permission to discuss peace making with our adversaries without negative repercussions; we heartily applaud them if they choose to assume such a role. Individualism Gone Awry Negates Community So what is it that keeps us invested in this position as a nation?  Do we blame Mr. Nixon, our politicians, our appetite for consumerism?  I believe the issue is rooted in the founding history of the American culture; it is individualism gone awry.  America was built by the best and highest values of individualism, but individualism in its extreme negates community; it is selfish and self centered and sees little value in a cooperative, unitive view of the world.  Adolescent Nation Needs to Grow Up Peace requires all the above and more; it requires humility and a sense of equality with our neighbors.  It requires a national stance that says we are part of the world and the tribe of humanity rather than separate and different from it.  It requires grace and maturity instead of an adolescent need to be separate in order to be special.  Individualism gone awry is an adolescent developmental stage that America has struggled to give up since WWII.  We won that war and with it gained maturity as a nation, but somehow we keep reverting to our adolescence.  Perhaps it is time we grow up and embody the maturity we so dearly paid for.

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The Burmese Harp. Directed by Kon Ichikawa. Starring Rentaro Mikuni and Shoji Yasui. Based on a novel by Michio Takeyama. (1956)                                                                                                                                                                               Little Known AntiWar Film is a Classic This 1956 Japanese film is a profoundly moving meditation on the price of war and may well rank in the top pantheon of anti-war films.  It is in black and white and this sharp chiaroscuro increases its impact and quiet power.  It takes place in Burma as World War II  is ending in July  1945.  The first words on the screen are: “The soil of Burma is red and so are its rocks,” thus introducing a metaphor for what is to follow. Using Music and Song to Touch the Heart The camera focuses on a unit of Japanese soldiers, whose captain graduated from music school and has taught them the basics of choral singing.  One of them, Corporal Mizushima, has learned to play the Burmese harp and accompanies his comrades as they sing.  They long to escape to Thailand but it is too late.

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