RESOLUTIONARY IDEAS Don't believe all that you think! Most don't know what to do... Hello - Most of the pieces that follow reflect my concern for what's happening in the US. No doubt they reflect some of my own political bias. As I write I am getting ready for a two week trip to Europe. I'm looking forward to hearing first-hand some of the perceptions from other parts of the globe. As I reflect on the election I am much more concerned with the absence of real dialogue than the outcome. The election was a reflection of the media - just diatribe and talking at - no real engaged thoughtful dialogue. I do hope the pieces that follow contribute to your thinking. I picked up the following from the press. It causes me great concern. I share it in the hope that it will motivate you to stay involved with this gift called democracy. I find it troublesome given my understanding of the foundational principles of this country. **************** Government Asserts Broad Power to Detain Enemy Combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Michael J. Sniffen, The Associated Press, 12-02-2004 Under detailed questioning by a federal judge, government lawyers asserted Wednesday the U.S. military can hold foreigners indefinitely as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even if they aided terrorists unintentionally and never fought the United States. Could a "little old lady in Switzerland" who sent a check to an orphanage in Afghanistan be taken into custody if unbeknownst to her some of her donation was passed to al-Qaida terrorists? asked U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green. "She could," replied Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle. "Someone's intention is clearly not a factor that would disable detention." It would be up to a newly established military review panel to decide whether to believe her and release her. *********** For the Holiday, A Message of Hope... "A Little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometimes against us at Home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." - Thomas Jefferson, 1798, after passage of the Sedition Act ****************** I wish you a warm holiday. Sincerely, "America, Right or Wrong" (Harper Collins) Anatol Lieven ************* We are not, of course, talking here about Islam or about al-Qaida and The virtue of Lieven's book is that it is not a book about 9/11 or Iraq but about the entirety of the nationalist tradition that reacted to the one and inspired the other, and which itself has been changed by both. His readiness to call a spade a spade is not only refreshing but basic to his method. He cuts through the conformist political rhetoric of America, the obfuscating special language of the "American dream", or the "American exception", which infects even foreign accounts. Even to use the word "nationalism" to describe an American phenomenon is, as he notes, not normal. Americans are not "nationalist", they are "patriotic". Lieven first paints a picture of an in some ways admirable American Then he turns to the bundle of alternative traditions which constitute what he calls the American antithesis. At its centre is a Scots, Irish and northern English nonconformist obduracy about matters of faith which later events have transformed into an anger at American elites and at the rest of the world. Lieven is at his most interesting when he explores this theme of the loser nation inside the winner nation. The rural white Protestants who experienced, and are still experiencing, defeat and decline in America, especially but not only in the south, have in modern This constituency, including the large part of it animated by Protestant ndamentalist and evangelical Christian belief, is in a permanent state of ferment. Its values are under constant assault from American popular culture, yet it entrusts itself politically to the representatives of the business elite who profit from and largely drive that culture. The circle is squared by assigning to "liberals" and foreigners a demonic role in undermining family, religion, and nation, in which latter category can now be included not only the American but the Israeli nation, so Zionist has fundamentalist Bible-belt christianity become. Whatever the internal contradictions between and within the various "While America keeps a splendid and welcoming house," Lieven writes in his preface, "it also keeps a family of demons in its cellar. Usually under certain restraints, these devils were released by 9/11." ************************************************************** David's recent article on the power of courageous conversation is inspiring and insightful. This piece is more a commentary than a call to action.
The early descent of the night and the lighted warmth of the kitchen always recall childhood to me. There seemed to my child's eyes in those early days an aura of expectation to the onset of winter that was beyond excitement about the holidays. The summer was my own but winter seemed somehow communal, not only between people but between times. The past, medieval or ancient seemed to run outside our house in the dark, in parallel with our interior family gatherings and I felt instinctively close to others not only around our particular Yorkshire fireside but with all those, generation after generation who had struggled through the same cold northern winters before us. I recall this image because I feel as if humanity itself is sheltering from a particularly cold winter right now, gathered round the dying embers of a fire that seems to give off little heat and very aware that spring and summer seem far off. It is a time when people naturally begin to wonder if a warm spring day will ever come. It is especially marked when we have little good human leadership to rally our spirits. Then we must look to more timeless invisible threads that weave together a life worth living and enjoying. There is a political and social fight necessary in the human world in order to improve things, but there is also an inner integrity, a necessary happiness and a willingness to enjoy life which demands a fierce intentionality and a greater perspective than our too tangible difficulties with the present. Having worked in South Africa over the last two years I have been fascinated to learn the biographical details of Nelson Mandela's struggle. His singular genius, and his ability to affect a whole society, seemed to spring from an ability to work in powerful parallels. On the one hand he always found a cause to work, a contour to follow, no matter how confined his exile or his prison cell. The victories could be small so long as they symbolized the greater things he stood for. His first task in prison was to win the right for himself and other prisoners the dignity of long pants. On the other hand he had an unflagging ability to look for enjoyment and entertainment, song and conversation, improvement and learning, even if it was through a discarded scrap of newspaper found in a corner. The most powerful accompaniment to his political integrity when he finally emerged after his long dark winter was an absolutely infectious, absolutely genuine sense of humor and a hard-won compassion and respect for others. This is a man who transformed even his own jailors. We are imprisoned at present as much by our fears as we are by the real individual chance of being harmed by terrorism. Our prison is one we have built and fitted out with our own hands as much as by those who use violence against us. Most of us have lived and loved, triumphed or failed, painted or published in parallel with the Cuban missile crisis, the Cold War, the Killing Fields of Cambodia and the slow unraveling of the biosphere. We do not have a free ride, we cannot turn our face away from these political necessities, but we not also turn away from our own sense of personal joy, our own sense of timelessness, the inner necessities that make the outer political fight worthwhile and qualify us to enjoy whatever victories we can secure. We. are no different from all the generations of humanity who have gone before us. We must shape the best life we can amidst the evidence of our own ability to get it completely wrong, and thereby keep these winter embers alive until the new season turns. ***************************************************************** (A beautiful expression of what happens when people get fully engaged with each other in a collaborative relationship.) When we look into each other, however briefly, without any agenda or scheme of desire or need, something indescribable and essential makes us more than we are by ourselves. This is the difference between looking into a mirror and looking into the eyes of someone you love. We began our first certification training in August, seven brave souls, off to a rich start. I'll be starting another on January 14 and 15, 2005. Follows the original invitation. Please be in touch if you are interested. The benefits of the program will include: > Accomplished learning partners with a high degree of experience and presence
> Experience on the IBI Global Faculty is rewarding and rich with learning and opportunities. If you want the experience of an entrepreneurial bootcamp go to www.ibiglobal.com for more information or contact me > Great initial revues for "ResolutionWorks Online!" If you want a demo of the prototype please contact me. The full program is in Beta Test right now with 19 people up and running. Yesterday the first of many audio clips were dropped in. Very exciting. It looks like the initial marketing will be to larger organizations who will combine an initial live training with the follow-up and immersion that the medium provides. Please contact me if you are interested. The conference was a huge success and will be part of an ongoing movement. Check out www.BKPub.com. ****************************************************************** January 14-15, 2005 Resolutionary Certification 105 Oakland, www.ResolutionWorks.org February 11-13 Contemplative Practice and Education: Making Peace in Ourselves and in the World. www.contemplativemind.org/programs/academic/conference . July 05 Center for Disease Control Annual ADR Conference
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