Designing the World We Want

Nightmare Portends the Future? Two days after Election Day I awoke from a terrible nightmare.  A torturer had just cut off my legs and was forcing me to walk on the stubs of my legs. I woke up screaming.  Who was my torturer? Why this dream? Why now? In August 2001 I experienced repeated waves of doom that something dreadful was coming.

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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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 A World in a Dramatic State of Change                                                                                                          The winds of change are whirling ever faster on our shrinking planet. If we could grasp why so many people around the world are caught up in deadly conflicts with each other, ones which cost so much suffering to so many, would we want to know that? I spent a week in intensive study in Boulder, Colorado recently, sponsored by Spiral Dynamics Integral with the primary exponent of the Spiral Dynamics theory, Don Beck. The Missing Piece for Peacemakers? On of the main challenges for peacemakers is that we tend to apply one size fits all solutions. If you bad people (terrorists or bad governments, take your pick) would just stop your violent ways, the rest of us could live in peace.

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 The Future Starts Now: We Must Create It Together                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Jubilation, Tears and Thanksgiving Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential race on Tuesday night was a time of jubilation, tears and thanksgiving that I will never forget. One of my most indelible teenage memories is of watching civil rights demonstrators being sprayed by fire hoses while my father screamed, “Get those niggers!”  To see this man elected President was the fulfillment of a dream for me and for so many others.                            Tsunami of New Energy Released The eruption of dancing, and joy on the faces of people all over this country and around the world was utterly remarkable. People saw a possible new future for themselves, for their children and future generations.  A wave of energy was released, which some have compared to a tsunami.  It is absolutely vital that this energy is not allowed to dissipate.                                                                                                                Problems too Complex to Leave All Up to Government The problems we face now are far too large and too complex. We cannot leave handling all these problems -from the financial crisis, education, health care, energy, transportation,- to the federal and state governments.  If we leave these policy decisions to Congress the lobbyists will descend on Washington once more and the money machine will start all over again. Then all hope for change will go out the window.

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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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An Acrimonious Bitter Election Divides the Nation The nastiness of the current political campaign is the worst in living memory. It has felt to me, at moments, that the nation is coming unglued . I have been disturbed at the rage and hatred expressed by people on all sides of this election. My concern is not with who wins, because whoever wins, we will cope with it. My concern is rather that we will not deal with the fear and the rage that is underlying this animosity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Polarizing Cultural Changes Swept Through U.S.

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Today I’m pleased to introduce you to my mentor, teacher, and friend, Leah Green, founder and Executive Director of The Compassionate Listening Project.  For a complete history of the Project and its extensive activities please visit the website: http://www.compassionatelistening.org Deep Listening Begins in the Fire of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict                                                                                                                Q: Leah, please give us an idea of how The Compassionate Listening Project got started. L: I started leading citizen delegations to Israel and Palestine in 1990.   I had been looking for a way to bring something positive to this conflict when I found the writings of Gene Knudsen Hoffman, whose teacher was Thich Nhat Hahn.  He challenged peacemakers to stay connected to people on all sides of a conflict. Our new approach was so successful that Israelis and Palestinians asked us to teach them what we were doing. We crafted a curriculum for Compassionate Listening and then people here asked us to show them what we were doing in the Middle East. So the work in the Middle East has always been like a learning laboratory for us.

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Political Divisiveness in a Time of Financial Crisis I woke from a dream this morning that John McCain and Barack Obama had met and declared a moratorium on attacks on each other and had made a commitment to bring the American people together in this time of crisis.                                                                                                                There is something deeply disturbing about the divisiveness and rancor that is going on politically. When our financial system is in a state of total breakdown this is not helpful.  Continued verbal attacks are dangerous, might lead to physical violence,  and certainly will drive Americans  further apart.  A mark of true leadership would be to start working now to bring us together. Powerlessness Underneath Sarah Palin’s Attacks For the past two weeks I have been very disturbed by the conduct and words of Sarah Palin.  I was obsessed with her and was not at peace.  I had to inquire into this or I could not live with myself.  After much soul searching here’s what I found:  behind her folksy demeanor, Ms. Palin is a very angry woman. Life has taught me that underneath anger there is always an emotion that human beings are desperate not to feel-powerlessness.   Suddenly I saw why she had become a politician; it was the only way she could be powerful in a fast changing world that was leaving her small town, evangelical Christian world behind.  Feeling victimized and powerless is a human experience I know well.

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Political Campaign Miasma One month left to go in the American Presidential race and I wish it were over. I am not a happy camper.  I inquired into my unhappiness and this is what I saw: I had decided that something is wrong with the candidates, wrong with the way we do politics, and hell, something is wrong with us in the U.S. period. I saw that I was frightened, anxious and miserable.   I am worried that McCain and Palin will be elected and that together they will replay the Bush years –or worse. I fear Sarah Palin is unprepared for the job of Vice-President.

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