Apathy and Inconvenience- Opinions about NATO Protest

Joshua Brollier — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:56:08 -0500

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By Joshua Brollier

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Apathy and Inconvenience
Opinions about NATO Protest

Anti-NATO Demonstration 5.20.12

Capitalism and NATO may seem like they provide security for some living here, but they certainly interrupt and inconvenience other societies around the globe. In China, people are working as near slaves to provide us with the lovely parts for our newest IPad. Iraq and Afghanistan have been devastated through decades of war for their resources and strategic positioning. Countless other countries have been severely disrupted through military and economic interventions. And we don’t want to stop to think about who is causing the continuation of such destructive policies, and how we can effectively involve ourselves in changing these policies.

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Apathy and Inconvenience
Opinions about NATO Protest

I feel compelled to comment on a few things I have heard in the past week during the lead up to and duration of NATO protests here in Chicago. Mainly, I feel disheartened by the way the media and consumerism have shaped national opinion and attitude when it comes to these specific anti-NATO demonstrations. Two friends of mine, whom I highly respect in other aspects both personally and professionally, have made comments that seem to echo too much of the hysteria and general misunderstanding as to why people are protesting and what being a participant in a social movement entails.

Anti-NATO Demonstration 5.20.12

In response to the mention of the demonstrations calling for Rahm Emmanuel to restore funding to mental health clinics, I heard one of these friends say something like “some people just have too much time on their hands and don’t know what to do with their life”. It’s sad and somewhat bizarre that when people stand up for something they believe in, they somehow are immediately categorized as lazy or ignorant. Not only is this a vast generalization, it is simply inaccurate. From being a part the anti-war movement, community justice programs and a number of other social projects (all of which involved demonstrating publicly) I can tell you that my colleagues in these movements have not been lazy or uninformed. In fact, they have been some of the hardest working people I know. These friends are not saints or the reincarnation of Gandhi. They are ordinary people who often work full time jobs and then engage in much needed social activism as volunteer work- putting in way more than the traditional 40 hour work week. They often take considerable money out of their own pockets, from hard earned salaries that are modest at best, to travel to demonstrations and participate in events and support causes they feel worthy. Most study these issues to the point of exhaustion; reading articles and books, as well as meeting people first hand who are involved and affected by whatever the issue may be.

The second friend made a comment that since the G8 portion of the summit was moved, the “Trust Fund Babies” from Occupy Wall Street cannot cancel their plane tickets so they will still be coming for the NATO demonstrations. I felt the statement was intended to be insulting and funny. But, again, it was mostly an inaccurate accusation. Though there have been middle and upper class youth who have participated in Occupy Wall Street (and there should be), it’s too comfortable for the average citizen, similarly privileged, to write off this movement as monolithic. Vague criticism can provide an easy out for non-participation and an excuse for not researching the issues being discussed.

I have certainly not been the most active in Occupy Chicago, but I do participate. And what I have seen is far from being easily typified; people from all ages and all walks of life voicing their frustration with an economic system that betrayed the general population a long time ago. Participants ranged from kids out of college facing enormous debt, tenants facing eviction on the south and west sides of Chicago, former home owners who lost their houses in the inexcusable game of poker that our nation’s prominent bankers had played with their mortgages, those already homeless and disenfranchised, nurses and doctors concerned about the collapsing healthcare system, and so on and so forth…

The past six years of involvement in the anti-war movement has also brought me in contact with some of the finest people I’ve ever met. There are those who work full time for peace, those that work full time jobs in another field and organize for social change on the side, and those that come and go as they feel inspired. There are many youth who are raising their voices, and I think they have an important perspective because their moral vision has not yet been clouded by as many years of propaganda and cynicism.

Furthermore, so many in the movement are 60 years of age and upwards. Many of these elders are war veterans who have realized, after participating in war and watching the endless ongoing parade of nightmare conflicts around the world, that violence and coercion will not solve the very serious problems that we as a global society are facing. With time for reflection, they have also come to challenge the notion that violence and coercion are actually intended for humanitarian purposes. This is painfully obvious in the present when the violence which NATO and most world powers are waging is so blatantly serving a small political and economic elite delighted to profit from the misery of others. These veterans and elders hold their opinions from experience and with confidence, without judgment, but in the hopes to leave a more positive legacy behind to the next generations. For those that are non-veterans, the scene is colorful and varied; mothers and sons, grandfathers and grandkids, black and white, US citizens and Iraqis, Palestinians and Israelis, etc… all working together to create a more healthy vision of how we can be better interconnected in this time of rapid globalization.

What I must also mention is the astounding apathy and entitlement that I hear among the portion of our population that are so outraged about being inconvenienced because of the protests. So there are thousands of people coming to Chicago for the counter-summit, but most of the inconvenience comes from the over-zealous police response, not from the protestors. The city frequently hosts sports, music and arts events which bring in thousands of tourists and there is no such public outcry about the inconvenience.

Though it’s true that there are occasionally isolated and small acts of violence that occur during demonstrations, I have been to many and I can’t recall ever seeing a demonstrator intentionally try to harm a non-participant. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the incidents are rare (comparable to incidents following sports events) and the most egregious violence almost always comes from a police provocateur (uniformed or undercover) as a pretense for the police’s standard practice of using violence as a means for crowd control. The provoked violence sounds good for the newspapers and, even if it is later exposed as a bogus set up, the public relations move by the authorities and the police is effective in the moment at turning the population against the protesters. If there are genuine demonstrators involved, they are often convinced to take a more violent path by FBI/ police infiltrators, as was clearly documented with the 2008 Republican National Convention. The population is beginning to see through this well rehearsed pattern. I strongly suspect that this is the case with the three demonstrators charges with terrorism the evening prior to the summit. We will see with time if the charges are suddenly dropped or if any further evidence comes out. Attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild have been closely following the case and have already stated that they perceive the accusations against the NATO 3 to be farcical and politically motivated.

We often hear scathing criticisms in the media and conservative rhetoric on the issue of entitlement and social welfare programs, etc… But the average US citizen expects that they are to live an uninterrupted life of satisfied consumerism in peace. What is often not realized is that this is a false peace built upon the suffering, exploitation, chaos and state sponsored terror that others endure on a daily basis. Furthermore, the rights we take for granted have been fought for and won by social movements at great risk and sacrifice by their participants (think Civil Rights movement, etc…), not by foreign wars of aggression.

People occasionally complain when the public transit trains are packed with obnoxious and drunk Cubs fans at 10 AM during the summer baseball season. But generally the city tolerates participants in sporting events. Yet, if there is a demonstration, suddenly it becomes socially acceptable to say things like “Get a job, you lazy freak.” It’s assumed that that loud and boorish behavior exhibited by Cubs fans is healthy because it fits in dominant narrative of our society. Keep in mind that there are often violent physical confrontations by aggressive fans in Wrigleyville. I have witnessed this multiple times just trying to pass through the area. But as long as you keep consuming, no problem.

Our ruling political class in the United States has done an excellent job of enticing us into passivity. Elections have little real effect on policy within the two party corporate system. But hey, what does it matter if the physical and economic violence is not affecting you personally? This is the perception at least. When the truth is that there is very significant violence and poverty within the United States and it is growing due to the self-implosion of these imperial policies that cannot be sustained.

I am not writing this piece to insult Cubs fans nor those who made the comments to which I am referring. I think that sports, arts and leisure are healthy parts of a society (though they could also be participated in and supported in ways that are less consumerist; ways that build real solidarity and human cooperation instead of varieties of empty, meaningless “team spirit”). And I believe very strongly that we should not let war or politics steal the best things in life from us—sharing a meal with family and friends, music, dance recreation for its own sake, art for its own sake, love in its most unrefined sense. I often hear people say “I hate politics”. Well, I do too. I think most of it is hypocrisy and manipulative games being played by the powerful. But should we let the greedy and the morally calloused make all our decisions for us about how to organize society? If we sit back and do nothing, that is political too, whether we like it or not. We have given our consent by default to the reckless leadership of those who care nothing about us at all.

My hopes in writing this were to make my small challenge to the apathy which is so predominant in our national consciousness and also to clarify what I see as a growing misunderstanding as to who is protesting and why. If we, protestors and non-protestors, can move towards understanding, than I have achieved my aims. I don’t think that demonstrations have all the answers. The physical revolutions are regularly needed to call out and challenge the power imbalances and injustices which will naturally present themselves with the continuation of any system. But truly changing the destructive path we are on requires societal and behavioral shifts, and each person has their role in that. Maybe your role is not to demonstrate regularly. Maybe it is to do what you love; to give your skills and talents without harming others- an artist, a construction worker, a musician, a teacher, an honest business person or lawyer. Whatever it is, let’s work together to build a more functioning and compassionate society and realize that it is going to take creative thought, effort, and more than a slight inconvenience to make it happen.

Joshua Brollier, based in Chicago, is a co-coordinator with Voices for Creative Nonviolence and a tenant advocate with the Illinois Tenants Union. He can be reached at Joshua@vcnv.org.

Photo Attribution: Michael Kappel

VCNV Author

Joshua Brollier

Overcoming Our Afghan Non-Existence

Gerald — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:36:36 -0500

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A message from the Afghan Peace Volunteers
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The global system of concentrated wealth and power has successfully made us strangers to one another while it steals from all of us and kills some of us without notice… …Since no power ever dismantles itself, especially when it is us who consent to their power, we require worldwide dissent. In this age of dying hearts and minds, dissent is love. It is in such dissent that we’ll find our way.

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Dear friends, we ordinary Afghans are practically non-existent to the rest of the world.

But then, 99% of the world’s people are also practically non-existent to one another.

The global system of concentrated wealth and power has successfully made us strangers to one another while it steals from all of us and kills some of us without notice.

Until we get organized enough to reach critical and beautiful masses everywhere, many of the 99% would still buy the maxim of governments and mainstream media that ‘protesters are ignorant and cause unrest’. However, there is a visible global awakening eager to change this status quo of the 1% dominating every aspect of our lives, through actions like those you’re having in Chicago.

To overcome our ‘non-existence’ in Afghanistan, the U.S./NATO/Afghan Multi-National Corporation needs to be dismantled, along with the Taliban/Al Qaeda ‘jihad’ and regional power-games. None of these powers represent the interests of the people of Afghanistan. None of them genuinely respect our right to exist and live.

Since no power ever dismantles itself, especially when it is us who consent to their power, we require worldwide dissent. In this age of dying hearts and minds, dissent is love. It is in such dissent that we’ll find our way.

In 2003, Gen. Tommy Franks, then commander of the Afghan war, had declared, “You know we don’t do body counts.”

In Chicago this week, President Obama and the NATO Summit participants won’t be doing body counts either. But they will surely count their euros and dollars.

They will do their usual business over us as their ‘commodities’ and ‘targets’.

Even Afghan mothers and children are considered ‘necessary’ ‘collateral damage’.

We say to the U.S./NATO war summit :

We are neither ‘targets’ nor ‘collateral damage’. We refuse this imposed inhumanity.

You cannot take away our human dignity, even after you’ve put your bullets and bombs through us.

We are not ghosts. Our flesh will return to the earth to remind you of our mortality.

We are not ‘targets’ to raid bullets on, especially in the dead of Hindu Kush nights.

We are not ‘targets’ to have total surveillance on, invasive surveillance meant only for your protection, ‘eyes’ that can never see the invisible anger your policies incite.

We are not ‘targets’ to ‘finish off ’on ‘drone’ screens.

We are not ‘targets’ for you to isolate from the laws of conscience.

We exist.

And we are no longer alone.

To Suraia and all of you at the NATO Counter Summit, we thank you for giving company to our non-existence. We’re grateful that your assemblies and actions on the streets energize our thirst for a better world.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Afghanistan Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement was sealed in the pre-dawn darkness of May Day, when instead of addressing unemployment in America and Afghanistan, President Obama and President Karzai signed a military business agreement for continued counter-terrorism till 2024 and beyond. This agreement will establish what we lament as Afghan Okinawa military bases, unhelpful to Afghanistan’s status as the second most corrupt country in the world, and her tragic distinction as the second worst place on earth for mothers, our mothers.

Before the signing, President Karzai had demanded that the U.S. government clarify the amount of money that they would provide. Karzai said: “Give us less, but mention it in the agreement. Give us less, but write it down.”

If they could, Afghan mothers would tell Obama and Karzai, “Keep the money. We are not commodities. We are not ‘targets’.”

In the next 12 months, the U.S. government and the Afghan partners will attempt to quietly establish legal immunity for the twenty to thirty thousand U.S. ‘war trainers’ and Special Ops troops that will be in Afghanistan for at least another 10 years beyond 2014, through what is called the Bilateral Security Agreement.

Fortunately, the Iraqi public and parliament were able to end the Iraq Status of Forces agreement last year because they refused to grant legal immunity to the U.S. military, setting an important precedent.

Those concerned about Afghanistan should also make the issue of legal immunity for the U.S./NATO forces a viral issue.

Watch the usual opponents of public opinion. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker already projected victory, just like when he presided over disastrous Iraq, saying, “Without wanting to sound wildly optimistic, we do have a year to work our way through this issue.”

And Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Fazl said that ‘in private discussions, Karzai has made it clear that he might be willing to accept legal immunities for troops….’

But Afghans, being human beings, don’t want legal immunity for U.S. soldiers urinating on corpses, cutting off fingers as trophies, and going on killing sprees. All armies repeatedly mimic the detestable crimes of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Afghan warlords still in government.

We also appeal to U.S. Congress Representatives or UN officials to propose a Bill or Convention to Ban Collateral Damage. How can we endure any more killing? This December, we wish to find a friend for every one of the 2 million Afghan victims of war. We will campaign for ‘2 Million Friends’.

Friends we can stand with, just as you’re standing with us now. Love is an irrepressible spring that will outlast the U.S./NATO coalition, so love is how we’ll make our stand.

President Karzai had called for a special meeting with the elders from Panjwai village after Sergeant Bale’s killing spree. One of the elders questioned President Karzai and his team persistently. The elder was not at all violent. He was hurt, and grieving the loneliness of many deaths.

Following the civil example of this Afghan elder, we wish for the chance to stand before every President, and to say without spite, “Mr President, I want an answer.” We wish to overcome our non-existence.

From Afghanistan, with a world of thanks,

The Afghan Peace Volunteers

http://ourjourneytosmile.com
http://globaldaysoflistening.org

Kathy Kelly at the Univeristy of North Carolina

Gerald — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:07:46 -0500

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Delivering the UNC's First Alternative Commencement Speach
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UNC’s first “Alternative Commencement,” held to honor graduating students sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and similar movements. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the speaker for the main ceremony, and he had ordered the forced closure of the OWS encamplent-demonstration at Zuccotti Park. This group chose alternative speakers including three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly.

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UNC’s first “Alternative Commencement,” held to honor graduating students sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and similar movements. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the speaker for the main ceremony, and he had ordered the forced closure of the OWS encamplent-demonstration at Zuccotti Park. This group chose alternative speakers including three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly.

Walk to the NATO Summit: Inside Agitators Stride Toward Peace

Gerald — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:04:14 -0500

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Buddy Bell Day 17 / At A Global Crossroads: Turn Against War
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by Buddy Bell
May 17, 2012

On what is now the 17th day of our walk from Madison to Chicago, the number 165 does not seem to encapsulate all the progress we have made. We are 17 days and 165 miles away from the day I drove into Madison, where news arrived that Air Force One had descended on pre-dawn Kabul for the forging of the Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement.

When I spoke at the May Day rally later the same day, I denounced what all indications show to be Obama’s continuing-for-another-decade war in Afghanistan. Almost immediately a lone man in the dwindling crowd started shouting vulgar slurs at me, with a lack of decency that was amazing considering young kids were present.

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by Buddy Bell
May 17, 2012

On what is now the 17th day of our walk from Madison to Chicago, the number 165 does not seem to encapsulate all the progress we have made. We are 17 days and 165 miles away from the day I drove into Madison, where news arrived that Air Force One had descended on pre-dawn Kabul for the forging of the Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement.

When I spoke at the May Day rally later the same day, I denounced what all indications show to be Obama’s continuing-for-another-decade war in Afghanistan. Almost immediately a lone man in the dwindling crowd started shouting vulgar slurs at me, with a lack of decency that was amazing considering young kids were present.

The psychology of the moment is worth some analysis. What of the people who approached me and thanked me for my speech after I finished– what stopped them from shouting some slogan of affirmation to counter the trash talk? Maybe it was a lack of preparedness to respond, maybe a reluctance to be the first one to take a risk.

An analogy can be made for the United States government, although of course the stakes are infinitely higher. The powerful do hope people will be uninformed and ill-prepared, about NATO or any other pressing issue of justice. They certainly want complacency to carry the day, so no one will jumpstart a movement to reject the belligerent, fake virtues of poverty and war.

The miles go by, and we’ve now passed through more than 20 cities and had 5 formal speaking stops. Since this campaign started I’ve heard from people who didn’t even know NATO was in Afghanistan– they now know how the two are linked. Many others have come away with useful new information about NATO and about people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Bahrain. All people not fundamentally different from ourselves, who wish and hunger for peace and friendship.

Others expressed disbelief that protest can be effective. I maintain that first off, if we suppose it already has made a huge difference, it won’t necessarily be obvious what that difference is. It can mean we don’t yet have another war. Secondly, it’s not necessary to recruit 51% of the public to our ranks, only a critical mass of people to start a chain reaction. Two becomes 4 becomes 8 becomes 16, and after a while, a bigger group offers some anonymity, making it easier to join. A politician can usually live with one act of protest, and the higher up you go, that politician can easily weather multiple protests. But none can survive opposed to a movement that is growing exponentially.

This walk has been a movement-builder. We’ve informed and motivated people, and we have received information and motivation from folks along the way– not to mention all the other kinds of physical sustenance we have been given, for which we are very grateful.

We’ve recently been joined by a group of walkers from New York State, who brought enlarged pictures of some of the kids we know in Afghanistan to tape onto our placards. These young peacemakers are wearing blue scarves, which invoke the blue sky as a common symbol of comfort and peace. No one can buy and sell it, and it touches all nations and cultures. I’m glad the kids will be present with us on the walk in this small way because I know they will move more people to take new steps, commit acts of protest in favor of peace.

Let’s hop to it… because Uncle Sam isn’t known for his decency.

Photo Gallery for At A Global Crossroads: Turn Against War

Gerald — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:33:06 -0500

AAGSTAW

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The Moral Arc of the Universe

Gerald — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:08:06 -0500

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Robert C. Koehler on the NATO Summit
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By Robert C. Koehler
May 5, 2012

The city of Chicago and the federal government will be putting on a $55 million security extravaganza later this month to protect NATO delegates, representing the most powerful military force on the planet, from nonviolent protesters who want to see an end to war.

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By Robert C. Koehler
May 5, 2012

The city of Chicago and the federal government will be putting on a $55 million security extravaganza later this month to protect NATO delegates, representing the most powerful military force on the planet, from nonviolent protesters who want to see an end to war.

Think of the mini-security state as an ironic projection of NATO’s own agenda, which is control — by force — of as much of the world as possible. And of course the propaganda that accompanies the big show is that the protesters are the dangerous and disruptive ones, that NATO’s violence is distant, necessary and somehow clean, despite the occasional awkward headline (“NATO Admits Killing Afghan Mother, 5 Children in Air Strike”).

What the protesters really represent is what NATO, and all the forces of empire and domination, fear most: the impertinence to question and challenge authority and demand a say at the big table.

“The nonviolent resister has a deep faith in the future, and believes that the forces in the universe are ultimately on the side of justice. To quote Dr. King, ‘The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’”

NATO, on the other hand, has no faith whatsoever in the future, beyond that miniscule segment it thinks it can control by total and overwhelming force. It’s losing the war in Afghanistan but needs to demonstrate it hasn’t lost the one on its own turf — though by defining it as a war it has already lost.

The words quoted above are part of the nonviolence statement at the Voices for Creative Nonviolence website, some of whose members and friends — including Nobel Peace nominee Kathy Kelly — are in the process of walking some 200 miles from Madison, Wis., to Chicago in response to the upcoming NATO summit. I joined them this past weekend on Wisconsin’s Glacial Drumlin Trail, put in about ten miles with them and shared — oh, the joy! — a burst of serious rain with them on Sunday. I got soaked. Everyone got soaked.

Creative nonviolence! Walking in the rain has become part of my definition of what this term means. Indeed, just walking along a trail in calm pursuit of the seemingly impossible — from Helenville to Sullivan to Dousman to Wales to Waukesha, and when the trail ends, more walking, through Milwaukee and south to Chicago, through 25 towns and cities — is empowering in ways that defy logic. If nothing else, it breaks one’s sense of isolation and helplessness, which begins with the question: How can I possibly make a difference?

“This is where you get the energy for the next 20 miles — one person ‘out there’ you connect with,” said Jules Orkin, one of the walkers.

Walking for a cause is building community. It’s also being part of a community. As Jules and I talked, somewhere between Dousman and Wales, it was already starting to rain. I felt a familiar, habitual dismay at the first few drops, an “oh no,” as though the fun were over, but the conversation was getting so good I ignored the feeling.

“I’ve averaged over a thousand miles a year,” Jules said. Walking, that is, to end war, to demand justice for Native Americans, to challenge nuclear power and weapons. This summer he will walk from Nagasaki to Hiroshima, arriving in Hiroshima on Aug. 6. He’s 73. He turns 74 in August.

Did you ever walk along the moral arc of the universe?

Along with Jules and Kathy, my fellow walkers last weekend were Buddy Bell, who coordinated the walk; Alice Gerard from western New York; Kathy Walsh from Madison; and Barbara Hoffman, from Appleton, Wis. Some were vets in taking a nonviolent stand for the future.

“I’ve spent 15 months in federal prison,” Alice told me. She’s been sentenced three times, once for three months, twice for six months — for crossing the line at Fort Benning, Ga., during the annual protests at what was once called the School of the Americas. For decades, Latin American military personnel, in service to the American empire, received training there in torture and other methods of keeping impoverished populations in check. She’s been arrested for protesting, in total, 14 times — spurred to activism after her friend, Sr. Diana Ortiz, was kidnapped and brutally tortured in Guatemala.

“At that point, it ceased to be an abstract concept — the reality of somebody I knew being tortured helped push me across the line,” Alice said.

And so we walked in the rain. We walked to stand in moral opposition to the NATO drone strikes and night raids. We walked to stand against the Strategic Partnership Agreement, recently signed by Presidents Obama and Karzai in secrecy and in the absence of public debate or input, which, after 11 years of devastating war and occupation, will keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan for another decade.

We walked to take all this and more out of the realm of abstraction, to build community and to acknowledge that the only future worth creating is one that bends toward justice.

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His new book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is now available. Contact him at or visit his website at commonwonders.com.

© 2012 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

What Would I Do If I Wasn't Afraid?

Gerald — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:53:21 -0500

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by Sallamah Aliah
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Sallamah Aliah
May 8, 2012

How do I relate to conflict? I tend to either challenge or avoid it. But, today I search and struggle for an alternative. To retaliate or avoid the truth creates more discomfort in my own life and for those around me. To challenge my default, I must work hard to acknowledge the conflict and take responsibility for my own actions. My professor once asked our class to contemplate the question: “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?” The answers to this question never stop coming. This question challenges me, however slowly, to see what role fear plays in my life. Fear of failure, violence, rejection, but most importantly how my perceptions, filtered through fear create the world in which I live and consequently the actions I take or don’t based on this view.

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Sallamah Aliah
May 8, 2012

How do I relate to conflict? I tend to either challenge or avoid it. But, today I search and struggle for an alternative. To retaliate or avoid the truth creates more discomfort in my own life and for those around me. To challenge my default, I must work hard to acknowledge the conflict and take responsibility for my own actions. My professor once asked our class to contemplate the question: “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?” The answers to this question never stop coming. This question challenges me, however slowly, to see what role fear plays in my life. Fear of failure, violence, rejection, but most importantly how my perceptions, filtered through fear create the world in which I live and consequently the actions I take or don’t based on this view.

My involvement with Voices for Creative Nonviolence provides me with the container to begin facing that fear, in community, with supportive people, who have become my friends. When I first came to Voices in June 2011, I aired my dirty laundry: “I watch crime shows and basketball; I don’t listen to or read the news with only a few exceptions.” I was greeted with smiles and open arms.

I am slowly recognizing just how accountable I am for the violence around me, an accountability that must be present in my personal and social life, extending to the global community of which I am a part.
Conflict defined by Merriam-Webster, “Competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action.” I am often uncomfortable with conflict but I must become more tolerant to opposition because disagreement is not in and of itself a bad thing, in fact, it is a tool. When I hear other’s thoughts and feelings that are different than my own, it helps me reflect on what I believe. However disconcerting at times, one of the most valuable lessons I have learned at Voices is to begin taking ownership of my values, finding the courage and knowledge to put walk into the talk.

Recently, I was on-line with a young man living in Kabul. The conversation came after a recent attack on the city. Having this conversation brought my heart right to the surface and the attacks immediately became more real. And while I was concerned for his safety he was wishing me happiness.

For most of my life, guilt was the first emotion that would arise when I heard of people living in poverty and violent conditions, either here in Chicago or in Afghanistan or anywhere else. I felt paralyzed to take action and blamed myself for having such a great life. But in reality, I struggle too. And the idea that I can’t do anything to help comes from my fear to help. I tend to fear that involving myself in efforts to alleviate or prevent violence would infringe on my options for living happily or comfortably. It’s tempting to look away from violence or pretend not to know or care about wars and other violent forms of abuse. But, in actuality, living my life in a way that involves me in campaigns for truth and justice doesn’t take away from my life; it adds to it.

Here at Voices I have learned a lot more about violence in our world. Even though I was born in Beirut, Lebanon during the civil war in 1978, I moved to Indiana when I was 2. I have been distantly aware of war and its effects, but if I am being honest, I couldn’t be more removed. For example, if someone approached me on the street and asked me for money to support the U.S. war efforts I would say no. But, according to the Cost of War Calculator during the tax year of 2011 I paid $913.00 for the Afghanistan war and other military spending. This I would not have known had I not found VCNV. There are many ways that I am responsible for the violent world I am a part of, and I am only beginning to understand the magnitude. But if I approach this new awareness with my old way of thinking—feelings of fear and guilt—I shall never make the changes necessary to heal myself and the world.

Desmond Tutu states, “Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”