Transforming security by bringing good people together

[SmileMaker]

This is a story that I wrote after weeks of extreme sadness over the war and the toll it has taken on the families most affected by it. Losing my emotions on the shoulder of Sue Niederer (I just lost it when I realized it was her standing next to me) I found solace in the words of Cornell West while trying to organize my thoughts by writing this.

In light of the current psy-op that Rove is trying to pull by demonizing liberals as weak I thought I'd share it with you all because I conclude that empathic love is our greatest strength.

Reframing Security - an ironic reflection

Date: Thu 02/26/04 09:11 AM

Colin Powell gave a speech at Princeton University recently on the "New Security Environment" and he was awarded a Crystal Tiger by students for being a leader who has had a 'transformative impact on
the world'. After his speech, I stood across the street and cried as the mother of a freshly killed soldier, Seth Dvorin, stood next to me
with a sign that said "Powell Lies, Who Dies? and shouted "You Killed my Son!" when his car exited past the heavily armed guards.


It was embarrassing to lose control of my emotions that morning - but, allow me to put that moment, captured by AP photographers, into context.

Two weeks earlier, I attended a campus event that featured a movie about a group called 911 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Some members went to post-invasion Afghanistan to learn about the war on terrorism for themselves. The movie showed the sad reality of war and its impact on the most innocent victims - most notably the children.

The movie was followed by a talk given by Bob McIlvaine , the father of a 911 victim who graduated from Princeton University in 1997.
After the movie, Mr. McIlvaine began to cry before he could even speak about the good work that his group was doing to help others.

Every time 911 is used by the Bush Administration to justify its cruel and misguided war policies, families like his feel the pain of their loss magnified. The experience of his sadness stayed with me, and then, a few days later I learned the tragic story of Seth Dvorin, a newlywed, who was killed in Iraq doing a job that he hasn't even trained for.

His family is, understandably, furious with the Bush Administration, These are morally challenging times. It's ironic that a known prevaricator can be honored at a university
distinguished for academic integrity after telling lies -- using 911, once again, to justify them -- while the mother of a victim of that man's lies, standing among a group of peaceful protesters, needs to be guarded by police with machine guns.

I can't stand knowing that there are so many more families devastated by the cruelty of war every day that it is allowed to go on. We need to find safer, kinder ways to be powerful.

Bob McIlvaine, Jr., the 911 victim, was a fan of Cornell West's and so am I. I have been thinking a lot lately about the themes of empathy and love that are consistent throughout his speeches and writing. I have concluded that Doctor West's approach to love could be the most powerful weapon we have in our arsenal of survival.

A full quote lays it out best -- from a speech he gave in 2000 before the Coalition for Essential Education: "...what is interesting about Socrates is that we rarely, if ever, see Socrates crying and... who never cries has never really loved.

And if one has never loved, I'm not convinced that one has really lived.

So the Socratic spirit, as rich and indispensable as it is, is a necessary,not sufficient condition for Essential, high-quality education.

So I submit that one has to bring together the Socratic-lingus, the dialogue of Athens, one of its golden moments with the tears, sobs, screams of Jerusalem, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus of Nazarus. They weep.
Andwhy do they weep? They weep because of their profound compassion, dare I say love, their deep sense of empathy:

empathy being understood as the exercise of will and imagination that tries to convince us to conceive of what it's like to be in the shoes of other people, to walk a mile in other people's feet. And it's that compassion, spirituality of genuine giving, serving, sacrificing that one does not see as one ought in Socrates or in that
moment in Athens, that we're after"

We need to hold Powell to a quote he made in his Princeton speech:

"We must focus on what inspires us, on what brings the good people of the world together..."

By reframing the "New Security Environment" to include love and empathy, in the spirit of Dr. West, we are more likely to achieve a transformative impact that will lead to liberty, freedom, security and democracy.

[knowbody0]

1. imagine if we had spent the war dollars

on dialog, creating respect and understanding of the other cultures we share the planet with. we could have put a huge dent in world hunger. imagine if peace was really the goal>