Re: Retaliate with love

Tom-

I would like to add to your list that we need to help students put 
yesterday's action in context in an effort to bring meaning to the situation 
and help us all look critically at America's accountability.  I, for one, 
feel ashamed at how little I understand the political history of the middle 
east and the role that this plays in yesterday's acts.  This is surely an 
important piece in understanding what has happened.  I have also realized 
how little I have concerned myself with foreign policy and it's effect on 
the people who live in the countries with which America involves itself.  
How many of us have stopped to try and understand why terrorists think 
America is an appropriate target?  Why the World Trade Center and what it 
symbolizes?  What role we played, as individuals, in bringing this into 
being?

I have also spent a great deal of time both watching the mass media reports 
and listening to public radio.  It is an important and interesting contrast 
between the messages and one that our students should think about carefully. 
  Mass media is repeating statements such as "the equivelant of war" and 
already has a logo/slogan for the event (Attack on America with the image of 
WTC burning).  We are hearing patriotic messages that this is an attack on 
democracy.... that freedom has it's costs....that we will hunt down evil and 
eradicate it.  NPR and my local public radio station are both asking 
critical questions, providing information that sheds some light on America's 
accountability, and providing a forum to discuss possible alternatives to 
violence and war.  Their reports seem thoughtful and methodical and do not 
have that feeling of scrambling to have the scoop first, even if the 
information is a little bit off or unconfirmed like the mass media reports 
feel to me.  We must help students understand how the large media 
corporations work and how their reports are influenced.  Understanding these 
differences can help them to understand the role it plays in how we all 
react - with love or with war.

Deanna Berg Rullman
Graduate Student of Sociology
Portland State University



Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the 
end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."  - unknown



>From: Thomas Shields <tom.shields@tufts.edu>
>To: NAN OTTENRITTER <NOTTENRITTER@aacc.nche.edu>
>CC: sl@csf.colorado.edu
>Subject: Re: Retaliate with love
>Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 12:46:16 -0400
>
>Nan,
>
>I understand your instinct and position, and I agree with the desire to be 
>non-war like.  At the same time, I  have to say, many of us need to strike 
>back.  I think the real challenge is reconciling that with a philosophy of 
>non-violence - which I and many friends in the service-learning community 
>have incorporated into our
>life philosophy.
>
>Nonviolence as expressed through Ghandi's soul force was never about being 
>a victim or accepting victimization.   "Reacting" with love is good for 
>peace and acceptance, and for some, healing.  But I don't see justice in 
>just reacting.   For many of us, we need some form of justice.   We need to 
>"affirm life despite
>ambiguities which seek to negate and destroy life." (MLK)   Even Ghandi and 
>other students on non-violence have described that if our choice is between 
>being a victim and acting violently, we need to act with violence.   
>Fortunately, we are not at that point.   I am hopeful that there is a form 
>of non-violent retaliation
>that is for the courageous and creative to engage.
>
>  "Retaliation with love" is as good a phrase as any for that kind of need 
>- a desire to move beyond victimization while still holding dearly a faith 
>in Nonviolence.    The phrase is a source of hope.
>
>So, how do we go about finding justice without the eye for an eye which 
>leaves us all blind?.  I don't know, but I am hopeful that conversations 
>like this one - through the collective wisdom of all members of this 
>service-learning community and our home communities - that we may find a 
>way to think about these terrible
>events.
>
>One thought -   The attacks left thousands of dead, more wounded and the 
>nation in mourning.   I watched a building that served as a focal point for 
>much of my life as I grew up outside of new York City, fall yesterday.  And 
>though we hunger for justice, nothing will bring that back.  Nothing will 
>bring the people back  No
>assasination, air strike, nuclear missle or war will change that.   That is 
>part of the horror which we mourn, but it is also part of our hope. For me 
>the finality of these attacks keeps a thin remaining sliver of hope for a 
>non-violece retaliation alive.
>
>My hope is not because I think the killers or the groups responsible don't 
>deserve a violent reaction.   If anyone does, they do.   My hope for 
>non-violent retaliation comes because, I don't think we deserve to be put 
>in the position of becoming a killer of innocents like they were.
>
>Action through service is one means of retaliating with love.   This group 
>might be a good one to begin to identify the means for a service based 
>reaction.  Can we start a list?
>
>So far I have heard:
>         *    Donate Blood
>         *    Candle light Vigils
>         *    Ribbons
>         *    Meetings and discussion forums with students - especially to 
>talk about anti-bias
>
>Are there other ideas?   I will volunteer to help compile a list of actions 
>we can take.
>
>Even if all of these seem to fall short of the kind of justice or loving 
>retaliation that we crave, we can remember a quote by another service hero: 
>"I cannot do everything, but I can do something." (I admit - I forget the 
>reference to that one :) )
>
>
>peace, love & soul,
>
>Tom Shields
>
>
>
>
>
>NAN OTTENRITTER wrote:
>
> > You all are going to HATE this -
> > but I need to speak.
> >
> > I'm having trouble with the word retaliate - look it up in your computer 
>thesaurus and you'll find "hit back, strike back, even the score,get 
>revenge, etc. The word itself is reactive (love is proactive), it keeps 
>track - "even the score" (love does not keep track or keep score), and it 
>comes from a frame of we/they/war.
> >
> > I'd like to suggest saying "react with love" or something less war-like.
> >
> > I'm really not trying to be the language police, but language is SO 
>important. The more intentional we can be with it, the better our 
>peace-making efforts!
> >
> > Nan
> >
> > Nan Ottenritter
> > Coordinator, Bridges to Healthy Communities, Health and Wellness
> > American Association of Community Colleges
> > One Dupont Circle, Suite 410
> > Washington, DC 20036
> > PH: 202-728-0200, ext. 230
> > FAX: 202-833-2467
> > nottenritter@aacc.nche.edu
> > Check out AACC's webpage at www.aacc.nche.edu.
> > "The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to 
>walk on the earth." Chinese proverb
> >
> > >>> "Clothier, Raymond" <clothrs@millsaps.edu> 09/12/01 11:29AM >>>
> > Hearing from Stan on the efforts of those at LaGrange College to 
>"retaliate
> > with love" brought these words to mind:
> >
> > . . . Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to 
>a
> > night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only 
>light
> > can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Hate
> > multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies
> > toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. . . The chain reaction 
>of
> > evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, 
>or
> > we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
> >
> > Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Strength to Love, 1963, p. 51
> >
> > Peace to y'all,
> >
> > Raymond Clothier
> > Associate Director of the Faith and Work Initiative
> > Millsaps College
> > 1701 N. State Street
> > Jackson, Mississippi 39210
> > Phone: 601 974 1470
> > Fax: 601 974 1470
> > clothrs@millsaps.edu <mailto:clothrs@millsaps.edu>
> > http://www.millsaps.edu/faithwrk <http://www.millsaps.edu/faithwrk>
> >
>
>--
>Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development Tufts University
>105 College Avenue, Medford, MA  02155 (617) 627-4624  fax: (617) 627-5596
>
><< tom.shields.vcf >>


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