Wednesday, May 21, 2009 - Day 35
I came across this quote by Confucius:
Tell me - I forget,
Show me - I remember,
Involve me - I understand.
This goes a long way toward capturing what we are trying to do with Darfur Fast for Life. It’s about getting people more involved. It is no longer about sitting passively at one’s computer and collecting e-mails. While that plays a role in any campaign, how do we convince the world that crimes against humanity, mass atrocities, and genocide are horrors that needs to be stopped immediately? How do we convince the world that even one death is one where we were too slow to act?
Here at home, Americans need to be more concerned about the peace, safety, and livelihoods of others on our planet. Today more than ever, the world is so very interconnected, with every nation dependent upon another. I’ve always believed that Americans have too much of everything. We use so much and waste so much. We rarely take stock of what we truly need. The fast definitely has brought that message home more, at least for me.
How do we get more people to care about the many wars devastating millions of lives around the world, even if most of us remain unaffected by them? How do we find ways to tell our leaders that war is no longer a way to resolve government quarrels? When will we come to realize that any war anywhere threatens our common humanity, even as it destroys lives, devastates both land and culture, and tears apart the fabric of society, with no means of repairing it?
I often wonder if part of the problem lies in the flaws of our modern democratic systems. How is it that, even as democracy has spread with unprecedented scope and scale, governments have come to respect the will of their citizens less and less? Some day the will of the people must come to trump to the seductions of power. We all must demand that of our leaders. We all have a voice that we can use to demand better behavior from those in power. When we do, we’ll be one step closer to seeing meaningful peace and progress on our planet.
Very eloquently said. You express the best of timeless religious and spiritual ideals. Unfortunately as thee advocates for a better humanity learned, fear and anxiety drive people to trust in their leaders to keep them safe and comfortable even at the expense of their higher ideals and aspirations (example: the Obama - Cheney debate on torture).
1Perhap the crash of the American economy is a chance for our society to fast a while and discover that the satiation of desire is not the only way to achieve personal peace. You are to be numbered amongst the teachers of peace.
I’m reading through these pages to saturate myself before starting the fast. I admire you for targeting the areas of most acute suffering, and throwing yourself so completely in to striving for solutions.
Broadly speaking, I think the answer to your questions above is that we need to significantly raise living standards universally before humanity as a whole will relinquish war, and the kinds of attitudes towards resources and buying power that lead to so much (increasingly unnecessary) suffering.
We can start this process by modeling and proving a paradigm with such clarity that, even while poverty still exists, it becomes widely acknowledged that we are inter-dependent, and can all thrive better through cooperation than violence.
I’ve been working full time the past few years, with every fiber of my being, to produce this comprehensive, pragmatic solution.
I look forward to demonstrating how it can work to support efforts like Fast Darfur, and others supported by Humanity United, while also helping to lay the foundations for a world in which atrocities are only history.
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