Paths to Peacebuilding

Redistricting Takes Center Stage

Pasos is dedicated to the proliferation of “positive peace.” One of the principles of this concept is the shared democratic use of power. Based on the 2010 census figures, districts across the United States are now being redrawn. This raises the question of how this potentially affects our cherished sharing of power.

The Nation reports, “Throughout the South, Republicans are taking advantage of the state legislative control they gained in 2010 to redraw districts in a way that dilutes the power of the Democratic vote. But what’s most disturbing about this redistricting push is the fact that districts are being redrawn along racial lines, threatening to undo a decades-long integration process in a region with a long and brutal history of racial segregation.”

North Carolina State Senator Eric Mansfield states that, “We’re having the same conversations we had forty years ago in the South, that black people can only represent black people and white people can only represent white people. I’d hope that in 2012 we’d have grown better than that.”

Writing for The Nation, Ari Berman puts it this way, “It’s not just happening in North Carolina. In virtually every state in the South, at the Congressional and state level, Republicans—to protect and expand their gains in 2010—have increased the number of minority voters in majority-minority districts represented overwhelmingly by black Democrats while diluting the minority vote in swing or crossover districts held by white Democrats.”

“What’s uniform across the South is that Republicans are using race as a central basis in drawing districts for partisan advantage,” says Anita Earls, a prominent civil rights lawyer and executive director of the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “The bigger picture is to ultimately make the Democratic Party in the South be represented only by people of color.” The GOP’s long-term goal is to enshrine a system of racially polarized voting that will make it harder for Democrats to win races on local, state, federal and presidential levels.”

There is nothing new about gerrymandering. Both Democrats and Republicans have a long history of using this strategy to bolster successful election results for their respective party. Yet, the longevity of this history must not distract us from the corrupting effect it has on our right to a shared democratic use of power. Using politics to strip an individual or group of equal participation in this process is antithetical to positive peace. Using political maneuvering to enshrine segregation by race for the next decade is tantamount to an open act of aggression.

For more on this topic, read “How the GOP is Resegregating the South” by Ari Berman in The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/165976/new-southern-strategy

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is a new biography about theologian/World War II spy Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. It is a story of incredible moral courage striving for social justice in the face of monstrous evil.

The life of German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonheoffer was one committed to social justice and pacifism. He was also a spy who would help plan an assassination attempt on Hitler and was involved in “Operation 7,” an effort to smuggle Jews into Switzerland. He was a passionate anti-Fascist, and one of the most severe critics of German Christian Church who capitulated with the Nazis. Although he had traveled to the United States in 1939, he would soon decide to return to Germany on the last scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic.

“I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people… Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1939

Once back in Germany, Bonhoeffer served as a courier for the German resistance movement to reveal its existence and intentions to the Allies and to secure possible peace terms for a post-Hitler government. He was arrested on April 6, 1943 and remained imprisoned throughout the rest of his life. By direct order from Hitler, Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945 in Flossenbürg concentration camp, two weeks before US soldiers liberated it.

His life as a pastor and theologian of great intellect and spirituality has been hailed as exerting great influence on Christians across broad denominations and ideologies, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

To view a video interview with the author: http://www.pasospeacemuseum.org/virtual_museum/library_page_6.html

Marines Urinate on Taliban Corpses

Shocking as it may be to see soldiers desecrating the bodies of the fallen enemy, we need to recognize a natural cycle that has always been the hallmark of war. Whereas the killing of humans is something society frowns upon, people and their governments create armies to aggressively protect their interests or co-opt the interests of others. To gain the moral high ground in this pursuit, a process is begun that dehumanizes the enemy. Given this, we are left to question the following: can a society dehumanize a people, train a force of soldiers to annihilate them, and then react with moral indignation when the corpses of those we demanded be killed are desecrated?

Former Army officer and Iraq War veteran Andrew M. Exum summed it up by saying, “The degree to which a squad or platoon in combat becomes calloused toward the enemy that they are facing is almost always high. There is always, always, always the temptation to abuse a detainee or pose for a picture with some dead fighter. And that’s why noncommissioned officers and commissioned officers have to be extra vigilant.”

Mr. Exum’s point is as valid when talking about the troops at war as it is when we dehumanize groups within our own society. Once begun, we have no choice but to attempt a series of checks and balances to control the far-reaching ramifications of this process. Thus, for example, we create laws that protect against discrimination by race and religion. Legislation upholds rights for the disabled, women, and LGBTQ persons as a protection against those who devalue them and would like to limit their full participation in society.

The only route to future societies that are peaceful is the universal rejection of the process of dehumanizing our fellow man—even in those cases when this process appears the most expedient means to a desired end.

Pope-Benedict-XVI

On January 10^th it was reported that Pope Benedict met with diplomats from 180 countries and declared that same-sex marriage was a threat that undermined “human dignity and the future of humanity itself.” If one is to accept this notion, then the estimated 700 Million gay and lesbian persons on earth are to be forever denied the right to have community sanctioned relationships that are protected under state law. Both they and their families are further to be denied the emotional stability and respect that comes from being recognized as a family unit.

Basically, the Pope has called for the withholding of human dignity from those who are gay and lesbian, by creating a hierarchy that favors one group over another. The problem with this has been played out in history time and again. To say that one group is unworthy of the protections and rights of another is akin to sanctioning the devaluing of that group. This is how followers interpret statements such as these. It is also something that such followers act upon. Devaluation of any group leads to violence, and it is disingenuous for the instigators of violence to then attempt to distance themselves from violent acts that follow.

If we are truly peacebuilders, then we must accept that all people deserve the full benefit of those rights that we hold dear ourselves. If the greatest commandment is to treat others are we would be treated ourselves, then it goes without saying that questioning the human dignity of others demonstrates the greatest of religious failings.

Daniel Lorunguiya in Congo

As many of us focus on New Year’s resolutions, packing up holiday decorations and starting back to work, an e-mail arrived from a young Kenyan priest who works in Congo.

“I have been deep in the forest doing Christmas services in a dangerous place where there are Ugandan LRA rebels. Thank God I am safe, but Congo is not politically stable after the elections. I live with a Congolese priest in a simple mission surrounded by over 35,000 people. All come to us to present their spiritual and material problems. We are not always able to assist them all. We have a small dispensary but there are many more diseases than the medicines we have—typhoid, malaria, TB, diarrhea, dysentery, just to mention a few. We buy medicine from Uganda, which is far and the transport is costly. Still, it is better to buy in Uganda, which is about 1,500 km away than to buy in the capital city, which is 2,500 km away from us. We have constructed a few wells in order to reduce the water problems and have been teaching the people to boil water.  Many children don’t go to school due to poverty. Last year we managed to support 10 of them and they did well in the school…”—Daniel Lorunguiya

As I read Daniel’s words, it is easy to recognize his peacebuilding efforts. However, the lesson isn’t that we need to be in exotic places to be peacebuilders, but that we need to be peacebuilders wherever we happen to be. If Daniel can accomplish so much in such a hostile environment, what stops us in our relatively comfortable lives from treating those near to us as we would like to be treated ourselves—with acceptance, kindness, compassion, and with offers of assistance when needed. With the new year comes renewed inspiration—a deeper awareness of our role as peacebuilders and the challenge of committing to new courses of action.

Dudley Gaffin, Pasos Founding Member

The Board, Advisory Board and Volunteers of Pasos Peace Musuem mourn the loss of Dudley Gaffin former board member and current advsiory member.  Dudley will always be remembered as a peace builder, yogi, attorney and beloved friend.  Our prayers and thoughts are with Siegried Raible, Dudley’s wife, friend and partner in all of Dudley’s good works, his children Adam, Elizabeth, Kate, Joshua and his grandchildren.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, after her speech on human rights issues at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

The path to peace is inextricably tied to our commitment to social justice. As long as one group finds it expeditious to devalue another, crimes against humanity will persist. Yesterday, the Obama administration took another positive step in peacebuilding when they announced that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy to promote gay rights around the world. In an announcement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated, “Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same.”

As Uganda reopens its debate to make homosexuality punishable by death, and US ally Saudi Arabia continues to punish same sex acts with flogging, the Obama administration announcement leaves no doubt of the United States’ stand on the issue.  Making this point, Clinton stated that gay rights transcends national, political and even cultural boundaries. They are universal rights akin to those acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by 48 nations in the aftermath of World War II. Putting their money where there mouth is, the administration then announced a $3 million program to finance gay rights organizations to combat discrimination.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry reacted to the announcement by saying that “President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.” Contrary to principles of peacebuilding, this statement alludes to a world where we can stop short of acting on the hate we hold dear to our heart. The reality of human nature is that whenever a group of people bond with one another over the devaluing of another group, it is only a matter of time before hate turns to violence.

For a comprehensive New York Times article on this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/united-states-to-use-aid-to-promote-gay-rights-abroad.html?_r=1