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The Peace Report, Issue #6
By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.
Welcome to The Peace Report, an occasional set of reflections on world and national affairs in these times of change and challenge, as seen through a peace lens.
Will the Real Peace Community Please Stand Up?
The Building a Culture of Peace conference coming soon in Santa Fe has spawned a very interesting phenomenon. It seems some of the local peace groups (especially anti-nuclear weapons proliferation groups, as befits the area around Los Alamos) are ‘up in arms’ about the conference.
They have various complaints (the State of New Mexico, which is sponsoring the event, cannot do so with integrity since it is aligned with the nuclear industry; the money for the conference would be better spent being given to the complaining peace organizations; no issues of real substance will be discussed there and no new ideas will come out of it; etc.)
In addition to airing their complaints through various media channels (see below, on Peace Journalism), and urging people not to attend, they are now threatening? promising? to take their protest to the streets and demonstrate outside the conference venue.
One of the interesting elements of this situation is that some of the people articulating this dissent are casting themselves as ‘the peace community,’ even as they castigate those involved with the conference as, yep, fakes, softies, or agents of the State Department..
So who or what exactly is ‘the peace community,’ or for that matter, ‘the peace movement?’ Are people involved with reducing teen violence or promoting peer mediation in the schools part of ‘the peace community?’ What about mediators who manage divorce processes or multi-stakeholder environmental problems? And peace musicians and artists, are they in the same movement as anti-war activists? Are international peacebuilders who work in war zones in the same arena as business innovators who create jobs and products related to peace, or as spiritual teachers who provide pathways to inner peace?
How about the foundations that fund the many non-profit organizations, or the religious groups that work for social and economic justice around the world? The psychologists who help relieve the trauma of violence? The human rights advocates who hold nations accountable for their oppressive regimes? The development workers who seek an end to poverty, and the professors who teach about racism,? And let’s hear it for that small handful of national politicians (you know who they are) who have stood up for the ways of peace in the midst of a stampede to war.
We are a vast and intricate network, those of us who care about making ‘peace on earth’ more than a greeting card sentiment. We are a diverse and motley collection that cuts across age, race, gender, ethnicity, sector – in fact, all the usual labels we put on our identity. We have different perspectives and passions unique to our own smaller sub-sets, yet ultimately we aim for the same goal, and all of us are necessary for its realization. I often imagine what our collective power could be should we ever understand that we are a single force for good on this planet, and pool our resources for strategic action.
Which makes it all the sadder for me when I see one small group attempt to lay claim to the mantle of ‘the peace community’ and demonize others who may choose a different path on the same overall quest. What a waste of energy to be protesting against each other, to pick a fight within our own ‘family’ where none need be.
It is true that there are two (at least two) distinct approaches to working for peace. These can be seen, somewhat simplistically, in the anti-war movement and the pro-peace movement. I happen to believe that both are useful, for the one calls attention to the evils of war, oppression, and injustice and says ‘NO!’ while the other calls attention to the new and better ways of living together on this planet that would make those systems obsolete, and says ‘YES!’
What’s interesting, though, is that some of the tools of the former – protest, demonstrations, marches, etc. – even when technically nonviolent, are sometimes full of polarizing, name-calling, blaming, and self-righteousness, the very qualities that the second group is trying to change as the norms of society. It has been a rich and not-always-easy learning experience in Santa Fe, holding the positive tone of a culture of peace within the maelstrom of false accusation, misinformation, and anger coming from within the peace movement.
It’s easy to think of the metaphors – a house divided, a dog chasing its own tail. It becomes immediately obvious what the energy of separation and divisiveness can do to the whole system, even (and especially) when one ‘side’ refuses to ‘fight back.’ (See how deeply steeped in adversarial paradigms even our common language usage is?) And it shows us how much more we need to be in dialogue together, to build bridges, to make revolutionary partnerships, even within our own community.
I am reminded of a series of dialogues I once ran between the Israeli left and the Israeli right. They were quite different from the dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians, and in some respects much harder. Indeed, in all the conflict zones I have ever worked in, sooner or later the parties realize there is as much factionalization and range of differences within their own group as between them and ‘the enemy.’
Let this be a call out, then, for those of us in the various streams of ‘the peace community/peace movement’ to reach out to each other, find greater common ground, and discover how we can build on our various strengths and shared goals to make this world a place where peace does indeed prevail, starting with (where else?) ourselves.
Peace Journalism
Once, in East Jerusalem, during the first intifada (around 1989) I found myself unexpectedly holding a video camera in the midst of a demonstration by Palestinian school girls against the Israeli military. When the clashes began, I waded into the action along with several other journalists. Amidst the chaos of tear gas and screams, I found myself training the camera on the girls – close ups of their faces, as they rushed toward or away from the soldiers. I panned quickly among them – this one was too calm; this one was crying from the gas but not with any interesting amount of anguish – oh, good, there was a girl with blood streaming down her face, shouting and crying with rage; now there was an interesting shot.
Suddenly I stopped, and put my camera down. I realized that I had succumbed to the notion that the greater the conflict, pain, and suffering, the greater the ‘news interest,’ and just how de-humanizing that approach was. I understood how easy it is to be mesmerized by the power of the camera/reporter to frame the story, and in doing so, to energize our fascination with war, violence, and bloodshed.
There was another story in that event, but I didn’t search for it – the experience of the Palestinian girls in their daily lives living under occupation; the experience of the soldiers faced with the mission of protecting their people against an angry occupied population; the courage of those who were seeking to change that situation nonviolently and creatively. I chose, though briefly, the easy way, the surface story of blood and hatred, battle and resistance, and in the process demeaned the players and the fullness of their humanity – and deprived my potential viewers of access to the deeper meaning behind outer events.
Recently I had another occasion to reflect on the role of journalists in covering – and thereby creating – stories related to peace. The protests of the Building a Culture of Peace conference mentioned above caught the attention of the local media, and there has been an interesting flurry of press coverage.
I and others had several learning moments in all this. First was the choice – whether or not to respond to published articles full of misinformation, innuendo, conspiracy thinking, and some (albeit mild) character assassination. We did choose to respond in the beginning, with facts and rationality, thinking that this would resolve the issues. How interesting, to discover that accurate information did not stop the incorrect assertions.
These ‘conversations’ happened at first face to face, one-on-one, and in small groups. Then the media got involved, and soon the whole region was talking about the ‘war in the peace movement.’ The protest (small though it is) became the story that the newspapers picked up (and ran on front pages and editorial pages), not the conference itself, which is as full of exciting good news as any story I can think of. I gave long interviews to reporters about the important issues that would be addressed at the conference and the incredible peace leaders who would be attending from all over the nation and the world, only to discover that most of the story in print ended up about the complaints and protests, with only a small portion devoted to the actual events of the conference.
Right there, in front of all the readers in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, was a lesson in the power of the media not only to report the news but to create it. There were many possible points of view these newspapers could have taken. They chose the one that highlighted dissent rather than accomplishment; that focused on protest rather than substantive achievement; and in so doing created a situation where the negativity of a few became the news of the day while the positive approaches of others were lost to view.
Some years ago I went to Greece and Turkey, talking with journalists there about how they covered the conflict in Cyprus. In Greece I had a visual shock. At every newsstand the newspapers were displayed next to each other all around the upper edge of the kiosk, and each paper screamed a massive headline of big, thick, black letters. I asked for translations, and found that each was more negative than the other.
When I asked about this practice, I was told that newspapers were in extreme competition with one another to sell copies and that because their publishers were not journalists but businessmen seeking to grow their incomes, the papers tried to outdo one another in headlines that would catch the readers’ eye – both substantively and visually.
Recently Bill Moyers did a show called Buying the War about how the media in this country bought the administration’s story on the war in Iraq and sold it to the American people – without skepticism, without questioning, without searching for the story behind the story, without examining their own role in the process.
(www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw)
In all of this, I am aware of the way in which stories and images of war, crime, violence, and polarization fill our airwaves. We are surrounded, in newspapers, magazines, television, and talk radio, with a universe in which the least positive view of humanity is portrayed as ‘just the way things are.’ What we don’t see or hear are the stories of those on the peace path – stories that are equally exciting, dramatic, and inspiring.
I long for a new kind of journalism. I envision a press that will look for the story behind the story; that will highlight the incredibly moving and creative ways that people are building a better world; that will lift up the ways of peace and make violence aberrant.
Many journalists claim that they do just that by reporting so much on war, crime, and violence – that these are indeed not the norm, and that’s why they are news. I find that argument specious, as the net result is that what the public sees and hears is a world full of enemies, aggression, and danger.
There is a small but growing number of magazines, radio shows, blogs, e-newsletters and other media that focus on the positive and tell the stories of solutions rather than problems. My hope is to see more of that specifically about the people and practices of peace. This is an essential strand of a culture of peace, for the media is one of the most significant socializing agents of our society and must show us the way forward in these times of change and challenge.
My own contribution to this new trend lies in this Peace Report. Reminded of the need for more, I will commit to adding a column every edition that highlights the good work of one peacebuilder who might never win the Nobel Prize for Peace but whose activities are making a difference. Stay tuned…
Standing on the Threshold
Tens days out from the Building a Culture of Peace conference, I find myself standing in a pool of anticipation. The excitement builds. The energies are gathering. The people are preparing to converge. Those of us who have been holding the vessel are preparing to receive what is coming. From the front end there is wonder – what will happen? What will emerge on the other side?
I find myself reflecting on the congruence between this state of readiness for a peace conference with other similar thresholds we find ourselves on in these times.
We are at the threshold of change in the war in Iraq. We are ready for it to end, and ready for our leaders to realize this. The forces are building in this direction, toward the point of inevitability.
We are at the threshold of a massive shift in consciousness sweeping the world. We are building the new social, economic, political, and educational systems in small pockets here and there, and waiting for the tipping point that will fill these new systems to overflowing.
We are witnessing that tipping point in action around the issue of global warming, as what started as a fringe movement is now a subject of common interest and creative action. The insight and awareness of a few have become the shared truth of the many, and the momentum for change has spilled over into the realm of global activity.
Many of us have had similar experiences of change in our personal lives, where we know we are letting go of old ways of being and doing, and going through a state of anticipation as we catch glimpses of what the next chapter might look like, until suddenly it is upon us and around us and we are immersed in it, hardly able to remember what life was like before.
I believe humanity is at that point of revelation and evolution regarding the shift from the war path to the peace path. We see it coming. We know it must come; our survival depends on it. We feel the excitement of new ways unfolding, even as the dissolving of the old ways temporarily increases the turmoil and generates waves that seem to hide that which is emerging.
But peace as a way of life is emerging. It is emerging through the vision and activities of all the people, the organizations, the movements described in the section on the peace community above, and more. It is emerging because the people are coming to understand that we are one single global family of life, and that our well-being depends on the well-being of others. It is emerging because we are coming to realize that ‘us’ against ‘them’ is a fabrication, since in truth there is only one of us; because more and more of us are profoundly dissatisfied with the fog of violence that clouds our lives while simultaneously inspired by visions and opportunities that open doors to a better way.
We stand as a human family on the threshold of a massive transformation. The excitement builds. The energies are gathering. The hopes and dreams for a world at peace, for people and nations in right relationship with each other and with the earth – long hidden within clouds of despair – are tumbling into plain view and being translated into concrete reality faster than we can keep up with it all. It is a good time to be alive; a good time to take our place in the shifting planes of human existence as builders, leaders, and innovators.
It is a good time to remember that, as Mother Theresa says, we belong to each other, and to feel the joy and the awe as together we make that dream a reality. For in the words of Hillel, ‘If not now, when?’
Hummingbird Recommends
The hummingbird is considered by some Native American peoples to be a messenger of The Peacemaker, the man who helped bring peace to the warring nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the principles of which became the basis of our own constitution). As one who can show us the deep recesses where the sweet nectar of peace resides, the hummingbird is a true peace leader in these times, and I have respectfully borrowed her name for this column.
A review of the inspirational fable, Where Peace Lives, by Debbie Robins.
If you could meet the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Martin Luther King Jr., or Gandhi, what do you imagine would be the one essential teaching they would each share with you? If you had to find the three keys that would free peace into the world, where would you look, and how would you know when you were successful?
This delightful story is told as a fable, replete with quirky animals, angel dust, a flying smiling canoe, and a terrifying Cube of Bitterness, the better to charm us into the classic quest story of our times – how to enliven peace in the midst of so much fear, hatred, and aggression. The secret, of course, is not only to find the keys within but to use them in our daily lives.
This book, full of fun illustrations, would work for children as well as for the child in each of us. It’s never too late to awaken peace from her slumber, and it couldn’t be simpler. I won’t give away what those keys are – as we used to say in grade school book reports, ‘If you want to find out what happens, you have to read the book.’ Go to www.wherepeacelives.com for more about this book and the network it has spawned, and let yourself be carried by childlike wonder into that place in you where peace is freed in service to the world.
Interesting Peace Websites
Jody Williams won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to ban landmines. Go www.icbl.org to learn about that work, or to www.nobelprize.org and enter her name in the Search box to learn more about Jody.
Rigoberta Menchu Tum won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for indigenous human rights. Her website is www.rigobertamenchu.org (in Spanish), or learn more about her in English at www.nobelprize.org and enter her name in the Search box.
David Adams directed the UN International Year of a Culture of Peace. Now he has an extensive website on the ongoing progress of the UN International Decade of a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, and on key issues in the global culture of peace movement. Go to www.culture-of-peace.info.
Chic Dambach is President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a network of organizations engaged in conflict resolution and peacebuilding around the world. Go to www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org.
Rudy Balles works with PeaceJam, which brings young people from all over the world in contact with Nobel Peace Laureates and their profound teachings. Go to www.peacejam.org.
Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo teaches the profound spiritual practice of peace and directs an extraordinary Peace Village in the mountains of Vermont. Go to www.sunray.org and www.beautywayproductions.com.
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