Difficult questions.

 

While discussing issues during a meeting I was asked where I stand on abortion. I was directed to give a for or against answer. I would not answer unless given sometime to explain first. Here is my answer.

Every time the Canadian Armed Forces, police, a doctor, paramedic, firefighter or healthcare provider has to make a decision that causes another persons death, as a member of a democratic society – I take that personally. I am hurt and feel great sorrow that such decisions have to be made. I also wish that such decisions would never have to be made. However, we live in a world that is not perfect.

In light of all that, I wish I would never have to be in favour of causing the death of anyone, for any reason. Sadly, such decisions are made everyday whether I like it or not and I regret every single time a person is harmed and/or dies from a decision made on my behalf by our government.

I would love to live in a world where weapons were not carried by police or have the need for an armed military. Every single death is one too many. If you are comfortable with the death caused by our military, police and etc…, yet bark about abortion – hypocrisy is where you sit.

I am against every other harmful act being levied against anyone else for any reason.

Community Peacebuilding

 

War is like a dog chasing its tail. Once the dog gets a solid grab, reality and shock takes hold. When a person starts or is lead down a path of criminality, the sustainability of society slowly erodes. As that one person begins to erode, there are victims and communities that will be impacted. Both the individual and the society will need supports to repair, improve, and sustain peace. That process towards a peaceful path will require a great deal of effort from everyone.

The efforts made at the right time are the same efforts made when everything is off the rails. The amount of work expands with the damage done. These efforts are education, communication, conflict management, mindfulness, stress management, and many other areas of concern. On that list of concerns will be the individual.

At some point the reality that some individuals are going to be left behind has to be understood. The choice is up to the individuals to make. The impact of guilt/sorrow felt by others for not being able to help those left behind will carry on for many years. This guilt is a pathway to improving societies.

Taking the feelings of wanting to do more, the ability to do more and the capacity to do more will take time to align. Mostly the time is spent to ensure we have the capacity to actually succeed with the changes we make. For example, there are programs for assisting homeless people called “Housing First”.

The “Housing First” program assesses a homeless person to determine what supports they need before they are given an apartment. Taking the information from the assessment process, once the person is in an apartment, support people come in to help with the day to day challenges. To engage in this program every one will need to employ a great amount of patience.

There will be set backs, failures, extreme challenges and in some cases physical violence. Taking the “Housing First” example we can apply the mindset to other parts of society such as law, politics, education, etc….  We can even apply it to building peaceful communities.

The idea of building peaceful communities starts with local ownership – those who live in any neighbourhood will have a strong say in what will take place in that neighbourhood. At some level there will be political representation of that neighbourhood that will have to be engaged and the people that live in the community must be very active in the maintenance of the peace. There will be moments of give and take as each community will have to work with all other communities to build the larger society.

Such things have to be understood as where sewage treatment facilities are placed, roads, hospitals, schools, parks and many other points that come along with societies. Not all neighbourhoods will function as well as others and some may not even function peacefully at all.

The point being is that when the dog finally catches its tail, all hell can break loose or the whirlwind just stops for a while. You can never really know what will happen until it does.

What is the right path?

 

“When I do not want to do something that I know needs to get done, that is when I need strength and courage to stay focused and get that done”.

In a peaceful world, that statement has a great deal of realism within it. For example, being kind to your enemy, more so when you are your own enemy. Being kind is knowing when you are about to give in to destructive behaviour and then stopping yourself.

Each day is an opportunity to understand more about how you function. Knowing more about the cues you give yourself is important. This knowledge will give you time to plan and make decisions to act upon. First off you need to know that this will not always be easy. There will be times when the actions that need to take place seems to be the most difficult path to take.

“There is no way I am going to talk to that person. There is no way I am going to that meeting. There is no way I am going to change my mind about this”. Each of these are points where the opposite course of action is often the path that is the path of kindness to yourself. This is where the popular phrase of “live without fear” is most needed.

In those moments where such statements are made, I do not want to seem weak so I stand my ground. However, in all reality, I am being weak by not talking, not doing something and.or not looking at things with another perspective. If I was being fearless, I would not care about how I am going to be looked upon by myself or by others.

There was this boy who was shown the truth of life. At the moment he was allowed to see the beauty of life, a great calm was cast around him. This moment had sparked the need to seek peace. As time passed and that moment faded into history, the boy lost his connection with the understanding that was given to him during the moment of great calm. What did stay was the question of how the world would become peaceful.

As years passed and knowledge gained, the boy wandered further from the path he was to take. Money, material, admirations and other things filled the mind in place of the real path. Of course with time, the boy who was now a young adult became lost without even knowing that he was lost. Although he was lost, there were many goals that brought wealth, friendship, excitement and what is seen as the good life. Sadly this was only masking the truth of reality.

Even though the boy who is now a man would appear to have everything, deep within rests the understanding of the boy that was crying out. Underneath all the appearance rests the truth. The man is not at ease, the pain of a lost life burns hot. The pain is great as the man is too ashamed, to much of a coward, too fixated on the perception of how difficult it would be, to get back to what he knows is the path he needs to be on. The man is afraid, tired and ashamed of whohe was, is and the may options of who he can become.