Some people are born leaders. Some train for years. Others, by way of the particularities of life experience, rise to accept a challenge and meet their greatness almost haphazardly. I was one of the latter group and now that I have some distance from the initial stages of becoming socially engaged, I can recognize my early acts of activism for what they were – self-serving. I took a reactionary rather than a proactive stance. I fought for myself and the respect that I knew I deserved. It was happenstance that there were a lot of people like me, both black Americans and women, who shared my right to be treated fairly and benefited from my efforts demanding my own respect.
I’d like to draw your attention to a critical distinction: the difference between fighting for justice and working for peace. These terms, while not mutually exclusive, can represent two very different perspectives on similar actions. In the former, one concentrates on a particular injustice, perhaps one you’ve experienced, and struggle for what is right. The latter requires a selfless kind of leadership, one that values the rights of all humanity. The question remains: Will you stand up for just yourself or will you be an advocate for peace?
In retrospect, my defining moments as a peace worker continue to be those that profit my personal causes the least. My opinion piece discussing the former U.S. radio “shock jock” Imus’ misogynistic and racist comments is dwarfed by my family’s choice to stand in solidarity with the gay and lesbian community at DC Pride. Funny how the actions seemingly removed from our own experiences are the ones that truly define us as peacemakers.
This is a challenge, for all who accept it, to upgrade your status as world citizens. Will you stand in solidarity with all peacemakers or only with other peaceful people like yourself? Will you attend a vigil for the Virginia Tech massacre with school alums and grieve with residents in Seoul, Korea about our shared loss of human life? Can you actively confront anti-Semitism and simultaneously support the rights of the Palestinian people? Could you worship among parishioners in your own church and visit a mosque to do the same? You found love and wed your husband. Will you support the rights of a same-sex couple to marry as well? Activism will take us places but it is universal humanitarianism that begets sustainable peace. Coretta did it. Nelson Mandela and Noam Chomsky do it. Peace X Peace is doing it. So what are YOU going to do about it?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Because moving at a snail’s pace is still m-o-v-i-n-g
This message is to remind all you peaceniks out there that moving at a snail’s pace is still m-o-v-i-n-g.
I’d like to start off with the preface that I am a HUGE advocate of dreaming big. Yet as age sets in and I become more and more of a pragmatist, I’ve noticed that occasionally I dream so big I become paralyzed before taking my first step. Take saving Darfur for example.
How is it that 62 years after the Holocaust, we, so-called humanists, have stood by and watched 7 additional acts of systematic genocide occur? We said “Never again.” But we’ve never agained again and again and again and again and again and again and again – seven times over. By standing by in Bangladesh, East Timor and Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia, Rwanda, and in present day Darfur, we suffer, in the best of circumstances, from widespread dissociative amnesia and are found guilty of, in the worst of cases, being accessories to murder.
I want to save humanity from itself. I want to save Darfur. But before my graduate school course on the history of modern Africa, I didn’t know where to find Sudan, the largest country in Africa, on a world map (another confession: I still can’t locate East Timor).
In our quest to save the world it is imperative that we recognize change takes place one act at a time. Each respective act builds upon the last giving us greater courage to persevere with every micro movement taken.
This one is for the snails, the sloth, the tortoise, the whale and all other unhurried creatures. Because finishing anything, whether one’s migratory pattern or lifelong ambition, starts with one.micro.movement.
I’m not asking you to save the world today, but I am asking you take one step toward creating a more peaceful planet. Tomorrow is not promised and moving your finger along the map towards north east Africa to find Darfur, Sudan or further south west towards Australia to locate East Timor, is certainly an admirable start.
I’d like to start off with the preface that I am a HUGE advocate of dreaming big. Yet as age sets in and I become more and more of a pragmatist, I’ve noticed that occasionally I dream so big I become paralyzed before taking my first step. Take saving Darfur for example.
How is it that 62 years after the Holocaust, we, so-called humanists, have stood by and watched 7 additional acts of systematic genocide occur? We said “Never again.” But we’ve never agained again and again and again and again and again and again and again – seven times over. By standing by in Bangladesh, East Timor and Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia, Rwanda, and in present day Darfur, we suffer, in the best of circumstances, from widespread dissociative amnesia and are found guilty of, in the worst of cases, being accessories to murder.
I want to save humanity from itself. I want to save Darfur. But before my graduate school course on the history of modern Africa, I didn’t know where to find Sudan, the largest country in Africa, on a world map (another confession: I still can’t locate East Timor).
In our quest to save the world it is imperative that we recognize change takes place one act at a time. Each respective act builds upon the last giving us greater courage to persevere with every micro movement taken.
This one is for the snails, the sloth, the tortoise, the whale and all other unhurried creatures. Because finishing anything, whether one’s migratory pattern or lifelong ambition, starts with one.micro.movement.
I’m not asking you to save the world today, but I am asking you take one step toward creating a more peaceful planet. Tomorrow is not promised and moving your finger along the map towards north east Africa to find Darfur, Sudan or further south west towards Australia to locate East Timor, is certainly an admirable start.
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