United In Our Struggles

       I am really enjoying the book Outcasts United. It is really helpful for me to get an experiential understanding of an issue especially when the idea is not something that I am completely familiar with. Even though I may not be a refugee myself when I read the story of Luma and the kids on the soccer team she is coaching I am able to relate to particular aspects of their stories. When we can connect our situation with certain aspects of someone else's story our understanding and compassion have the opportunity to grow.

        I can connect with Luma's on many different levels. I too left my family and the home that I knew in order to have the opportunity for new experiences, education as well as breaking away from the suppression and expectations I felt being raised as a Jehovah's Witness. I know what it feels like to be cut off from everything that you knew and how lonely and scary it can be. At the same time however there is also a feeling of courage and strength knowing that you are following your heart and finding out what you are really made of. I really admire Luma's strength, compassion and tenacity and look forward to reading the rest of the book.

What'sThe Problem?

       The information that we receive in this class continually reminds me of how much I don't know about the world around me and at the same time I am shown the access that I have to information that will continue to broaden my scope of awareness. I am reminded of my desire for this desire I have to keep growing in my awareness as I read Jeffrey Sachs piece Global Economic Solidarity. I thought this was a beautifully written explanation of what the real issues are around the poverty and hunger that so many people are facing around the world.

       It has been my understanding that the main reason people are still starving particularly in Africa is corruption on the governments part. We may be doing our part to help get food and other supplies to those in need but the government leaders or whoever else may be in charge is blocking our efforts. This idea of corruption while it may be an issue is not showing us the larger picture. Having this belief that our efforts are continually impeded by those in power has left me feeling very disheartened and left me feeling like any support I may want to give will be pointless. Even on NPR I hear how relief packages are blocked and no one is receiving the food and supplies that are so desperately needed.

       This article gave me a whole new understanding of what is going on and left me with a feeling of hope. Jeffrey Sachs points out that, "These challenges-food production, disease control, weak infrastructure, burgeoning populations-are not caused by corruption but by ecology, by history, and by the vicious cycle of extreme poverty itself. He then goes on to talk about each of these issues and how easy it can be to solve them through financial support from wealthy nations that is more than just token, easily accessible technology, proper medical care and education to name a few. He then talks about why these easy solutions have not been implemented due to a lack of trust and solidarity.

       I really appreciated Sachs straightforward and honest approach to this challenging issue. He was very clear as to what is happening and how devastating it is while at the same time giving us very practical solutions that we are all responsible for. I feel like he just broke down a huge wall in providing this message but in a gentle way that keeps me and hopefully others listening. I now want to get this message out to others so that we can continue to break the illusion of helplessness.

Human rights?

     I really appreciated the hopefulness of David Barashes article Human Rights. He gives us a nice summary of the history of Human Rights. He explains how different cultures or societies are going to have different ideas of what defines a human right and how this poses challenges especially for us in the west who may want to go into  another country and impose our own ideas of what human rights are and how they can change their culture to fit this mold. The article also goes into different ways human right are being upheld throughout the world through t with the help of various organizations including the U.N. which helped me to have a better appreciation for the fact that they are making a difference in peoples lives and not just acting as a talk piece for governments trying to put on a good show, particularly the United States.

       I thought the quote from Cyrus Vance sums up the article beautifully when he say's "We pursue our human rights objectives not only because they are right, but because we have a stake in the stability that comes when people express their hopes and find their future freely. Our ideals and our interests coincide" (184). In discussing human rights in class yesterday it became apparent that I am working from a model that can be very idealistic and something that much of the world cannot relate to.  Again the theme of getting a bigger picture of what is happening to our fellow citizens around the world comes up for me. We are all interconnected and it does not serve anyone to shut out the pain and suffering that is experienced by another being because we are never separate from anyone or anything else.

It may be inconvenient but...

       After watching the film "An Inconvenient truth" again I am reminded of the importance of continuing to get this message out. For me it was so easy to get passionate about doing more in my own life to make changes that will hopefully have an impact on the global warming that is happening to our planet. I began to feel very hard on myself after seeing the graphs showing the rapid melting of the icecaps and how the animal (the polar bears in particular) are dying because of this, along with all of the other statistics and pictures that were shown. Al Gore did a great job of making the global warming crisis we are facing very real for all of us. Even though it was not meant to put us in a place of guilt after seeing the movie and sharing in class the next day I felt like I was allowing myself to become complacent with the comfort and so called security of where I am in my life right now.

       Right now I am looking for a balance between the passion that I had for activism for various causes that I had in my twenties without holding onto the anger that was also a driving force for me at the time. I want to remain compassionate and grounded in my life and be able to share the love and joy that I get to feel with those around me while still remembering the work that I believe is all of our responsibility to care for each other, the planet and all beings that call this home. It's not about beating myself up because I drove today rather than riding my bike but making sure that everyday I am remaining present to what is right in front of me and moving from that place.

Is Peace Possible?

10-8-11
       I am definitely having some struggles with the readings for this week as well as the videos that we watched. Maybe it is just the mood that I am in but I am having a hard time believing that we will actually get to the point where we are governed by persons who are able to truly hold the space for a peaceful society to truly flourish. I am not saying that on an individual level we don't want what would be best for all involved, it just seems to get corrupted somewhere along the line and ideals are forgotten. This is hard for me to admit since I want to hold the belief of enlightened society and basic goodness, sometimes we have to dig pretty deep to find it and that is my challenge at this point.

       I can appreciate what Richard Falk is saying in his writing On Humane Governance, I'm just not sure how realistic he is being. I felt that there were many ideal brought up such as when he say's "The more fundamental struggle at the very center of the normative project, is to challenge war itself, the social and political process of mass, intentional killing in the name of the state, for the sake of wealth and power, in defense if ideology and a way of life, allegedly on behalf of security in self defense, but also to satisfy expansionist ambitions" (252). Falk believes that war is outmoded and no longer necessary which I agree with, I am just not able to believe yet that our government leaders feel the same way. Justifying war in a way that people accept seems to be something politicians are very good at.

       I also felt somewhat discouraged by the movies that we watched in class. The International Criminal Court seems like a wonderful idea and a very valuable asset to keeping governments in line. The big challenge that I have is understanding how it can actually be implemented. If a government is not willing to cooperate how can justice come about? Has the ICC actually been able to follow through with the prosecutions findings of accountability? It was also difficult to take the UN's video seriously with so much romanticism added to it. So I think that I will be done for now since I am struggling to find a positive spin on all of this at the moment, maybe that will change once the sun comes out.

Thinking outside the group!

       Reading Irving Janis's Victims Of Groupthink was something that definitely felt very personal for me. I grew up being raised as a Jehovah's Witness and was heavily indoctrinated into the groupthink mentality. I had viewed this as a cult like mentality before reading this and still feel in many respects that it is however I can see more clearly how a "sheep like" quality of just going along with the majority can happen in any setting where people are coming together for whatever purpose.  

        I was taught from a very young age not to question any of the beliefs that were the basis of my family's religious beliefs. This was very difficult for me since what I was being asked to accept did not feel right for me. If I did not become baptized into the group of Jehovah's Witnesses by the time I was a teenager, I was going to be under suspicion. I had a choice, either I could go along with what my family and the church wanted or I would be shunned.

        I had put off the decision to become baptized until I was eighteen years old, which was way past time according to my family. I wasn't even living at home anymore and my lifestyle was definitely not in harmony with the values of Jehovah's Witnesses. The pressure to make a commitment to being a Jehovah's Witness was more than I could take. I was not ready to cut off ties with my family yet, particularly my mother and sister. If I did not show them that I was one of them I would no longer have a connection with the people that meant the most to me. So I did it, I got baptized as a Jehovah's Witness and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.   

        Unfortunately the facade did not last very long. I could not pretend that I was truly a Jehovah's Witness and that this was the life I wanted to live. Instead of actually facing my family and telling them the truth I moved to Portland Oregon and began to explore who I was away from the influence of my family and their community of Jehovah's Witnesses. I would pretend that I was going to church and making friends in the Jehovah's Witness community in Portland. I hated lying to my family and knew that I had to stop being a hypocrite. The guilt that I felt was consuming every aspect of my life. I finally told the truth and excommunicated myself from the community of Jehovah's Witnesses. This went as I had expected which was not good. It has been over thirteen years since I have seen my mother and most of the rest of my family. As difficult as this has been at times being truthful and genuine with myself and everyone around me is definitely worth the pain involved.

        It amazes me to see just how powerful group mentality can be not just in my own life but in the world at large. We can go along with what other people are saying is right ignoring what I feel are very powerful natural instincts. We can inflict so much damage and still feel that what we are doing is o.k. because the group has agreed on what action should be taken. In his article Irving Janis states "Nietzsche went so far as to say that madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups" (Janis 32). Whether it's telling someone to cut off communication with their child or even something that feels positive such as making a decision to improve a societies well being, it is critical that we think for ourselves and ask question, even when it feels scary to do so.

missing eachother

       Reading different viewpoints on terrorism has been very enlightening for me. I hadn't really taken the time before to understand other points of view on why terrorist attacks happen. I just knew that I did not agree with what was being said by mainstream American media. Because of my lack of trust in what is being said by most newscast and a feeling of overwhelm, I have taken the approach of tuning out as much as possible. Catching some headlines from the news page on my computer or listening to public radio when I am in the car has been the extent of my news gathering.

       In his writing "The Clash of Civilizations" Samuel Huntington states "For the relevant future, there will be no universal civilizations, but instead a world of different civilizations, each of which will have to learn to coexist as Huntington says we need to educate ourselves about who these "other" people are. This knowing needs to be on deeper level than the biases and judgments that tend to have us making up our minds about someone before we have even found out their name.

       It is so easy to make up a story about someone and why they deserve to be judged in an unjust way when we don't know them as a human being. As long as we keep our distance and continue to believe
our story lines we can feel o.k. about the cruelty happening to those others. In saying this I realize that I need to do more to change this pattern in myself as well. Instead of shutting out information I may not want to hear, I need to learn more about peoples stories and remember we are all human beings doing what we feel is best.