This paper is a
response to some questions Bob Banner sent to me.
They were given to me as an opportunity to sit back
and discover what I'm thinking about last Tuesday's
[911] shocking and tragic news, whether this might be
a new era with new creativity and thought or whether
we'll settle back into old patterns of conquer and
destroy.
1.
What do you think of this media craze focussing on
vengeance and military action against an unknown
enemy?
I feel
this is a reaction, not a response. It's an attitude
which is being encouraged by our government, I'm
afraid.
I feel
anger is a healthy response to an act of violence
against something or someone we love - but it isn't
the determining factor in how we should behave. I
think anger is also a reaction to danger, to fear,
but it's not the response which is needed. I hope we
have evolved far enough to realize there are other
paths to take, that we need to explore them, and to
talk publicly, freely about them.
I don't
know whether we are having a "media craze,"
whether the media is now being controlled by some
corporate or governmental powers. What I do feel is
that not presenting a variety of opinions to the
public is a disservice. I feel we need "open
mikes" which encourage diversity because there
are other ways to go.
2.
Do you think your work with Compassionate Listening
is impossible to implement at this critical juncture,
or do you at least contemplate it as a possibility?
I think
wherever we find someone who will encourage us to
listen, we should listen, and we should listen to
both sides. I also think we should make
"radically new responses to the radically new
situation of a world where violence is mindless,
hopeless, and meaningless. I feel we must move beyond
initiatives we formerly used, into realms we have not
yet considered, and not yet discovered." We
Americans have a gift for listening to the oppressed
and disenfranchised.
That's
very important, but can we begin to listen to our
"enemies"?
One of
the new steps I think we can take is Compassionate
Listening, a new international program I conceived in
the '80s, which is now doing remarkable things in the
Middle East and in Alaska, Washington, and other
States, as well as Canada. Compassionate Listening
means we listen to people who differ wildly from us
with the same openness, non-judgment, and compassion
we bring to those with whom our sympathies lie.
Everyone has a partial truth, and we must listen,
discern, and acknowledge this partial truth in
everyone - particularly those with whom we disagree.
The
ultimate goal of Compassionate Listening is to bring
both sides together to listen to one another and,
hopefully, they will make compromises - as they have
after a year-and-a-half being listened to in Alaska,
as they are beginning to in small pockets in the
Middle East. This is called reconciliation.
If we
want to do this today, we will need training for it.
In October there will be on the website
(www.coopcomm.org) the new pamphlet I've written
called Compassionate Listening: An Evolutionary
Sourcebook, which will take you step-by-step through
the process and prepare you to go out and do it. It's
free to anyone who wishes to take it off the web, and
the beginning of listening compassionately will be to
go from door to door with a brief questionnaire on
whether people want war now or do not want it and
why.
3.
You frequently say that "An enemy is one whose
story we have not yet heard." What do you mean
by that? Do you contend that terrorists have resorted
to violence because their stories have not been
heard?
Yes. I
do contend. I think a terrorist is someone who thinks
his/her grievances will never be heard and never
addressed, and I think that causes deep pain and
anger which is an invitation to violence. I believe
violence is caused by our unhealed wounds. I think
not being heard and not being listened to is a grave
wound. I think it can easily escalate to violence in
any one.
There is
a quotation by the poet Longfellow which I refer to
in times of stress and which I believe confirms my
opinion about our need to listen to everyone and
anyone, "If we could read the secret history of
our enemies, we should find in each person's life
sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all
hostility." And we should listen to both sides
before going to war.
4.
You've been speaking lately about creating a solid
group of citizens who would present genuinely
alternatives to our Administration and Bush's
policies. Can you tell us more about this new
project?
I think
so, but it will be abbreviated. I've long been
considering what formerly was called "The Shadow
Government in England." That's a group of people
who seriously consider the initiatives of the British
government and, if they do not approve them, they
devise new initiatives and publicize them in various
ways, sometimes taking them directly to Parliament.
I think
we should create such groups in our cities and
villages, of people who will come together to work on
new laws, new initiatives they feel are in harmony
with what people need, with truth, or with our Bill
of Rights and Constitution. Each time they read a
proposal with which they do not agree, they call
together their group and brainstorm until they create
a proposal they prefer. Then they seek to get it into
the media: newspapers, radio, TV - and if they can't
- they make fliers and go door-to-door to hand it
out. I think, if alternatives are available to
people, they might reconsider. I have a long name for
this proposal, but it says exactly what I think we
might do. It's called Concerned Citizens' Alternative
Solutions.
5.
During the hot crisis our government had with Qadaffi
and Libya, you actually went to Libya to speak to his
administration and to listen to their grievances. Can
you tell us why you went there and what happened when
you returned?
After
the 1986 bombing of the Libyan city Tripoli in an
effort to kill Colonel Muammar Qadaffi, I wrote a
personal letter to him, expressing my grief at the
violence, the loss of lives, and specifically the
loss of his little daughter. Remarkably Qadaffi wrote
me back, thanking me, and added an angry condemnation
of our military action.
Then, in
January 1989, when the United States shot down two
Libyan planes, the editor of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation magazine, Virginia Baron, called me
because I had written my first article about
Compassionate Listening and she published it. She
asked me if we should send a Compassionate Listening
team to listen to the Libyans. I was enthusiastic and
so was she. She began to visit Ambassador Treikki at
the United Nations and told him of our plans. He was
enthusiastic and on June 27, 1989, fifteen of us
began an act of Civil Disobedience and with the aid
of a Libyan plane that picked us up in Rome, we were
flown to Tripoli, ensconced in the Kabir Hotel, and
stayed there ten days.
Next
morning we met with a Libyan delegation of 15 men -
all outstanding in Libya - in a lovely, spacious room
and began our exploration. We all told them why we
had come and when I said I wanted to know about
Libyans, who they were, what their government was
like, how they lived, what they ate for breakfast,
they shouted in one voice, "Cornflakes!"
and our meeting opened in gales of laughter.
When
Virginia saw they were all men, she asked where the
women were? We were quickly joined by Salma Abdul
Jabbar, a teacher of philosophy at Tripoli
University, and Rawhia Kara, Libya's leading feminist
and associate Professor of English at Tripoli
University. We met more women later. We described
ourselves as the Libyan Listening project and they
dubbed us as "The Committee of Good
Intentions."
We
learned that Libya was nothing like we had been told
in the American media. It was an active, progressive
nation. They had developed universities and the
students were 60% women and 40% men. They wanted to
come to the United States for more education; they
had released all their political prisoners; they were
well read and aware.
One of
Qadaffi's lesser loved laws was that no movies or
television were allowed in Libya - everyone had to
participate in pleasures like dancing, playing music,
or listening to the radio and reading. We soon
learned that young people had an underground way of
getting videos and video players and they saw the
latest movies of the U.S. They also liked the
participation practiced in their country.
Finally
it was time to go home. We did, after being feted in
every city in Libya where our planes landed. When we
arrived home we went to our government, eager to tell
what we had learned. We discovered we were not
permitted to speak to any member of our government in
Washington for we had gone to Libya illegally and it
was against the law for anyone to listen to us. So we
wrote our articles, spoke on radio and TV and could
not follow up on our Libyan visit because there was a
ban on Libyans coming to the United States and we
were considered and were - lawbreakers.
6.
Do you think the people in the United States are
ready to listen to our enemies or to our own diverse
citizens for that matter?
I
believe some people in the United States are ready to
listen to their "enemies" and those are
people who realize that unless we do, we will never
be able to make a real peace with them. I don't know
if the US government is ready to listen to their own
citizens on the planning for war or peace question.
On
Friday, September 14, we had a meeting at the Sola
House to brainstorm what to do about the war our
President has proposed and our Congress and Senate
have approved as a reality. We listened to people of
varying opinions. Some expressed their anger, some
their grief, some their hope for a new era. No one
wanted war, and each sought new ideas for how they
could perform actions which would bring them
face-to-face in deliberations with one another. In
the end we felt we could listen to everyone's story,
from our president to the most ardent peace person,
and try to perceive the truths in each one of them.
The next
test will be trying to do it.
Gene Knudsen
Hoffman's articles of her work for peace,
reconciliation and compassionate can be found at www.coopcomm.org/listening.htm.
If you don't have access to the web check out her
Ways Out: The Book of Changes for Peace. It is edited
by her and includes many short pieces that deal with
Personal, Regional and Global Ways Out... focusing on
Violence, Divorce, South Africa, Reconciliation, the
Middle East, Wars, Terrorism, Models for World Peace,
Healing Alternatives, Weapons.... Contributors
include Fran Peavey, Robert Muller, Thich Nhat Hanh,
Chellis Glendining, Frank Kelly, Joanna Macy and
Wendell Berry among many others whose short vignettes
are inspiring as they are practical.
Call 800-662-8351 for details. Ms. Hoffman is also a
regular columnist at HopeDance.
