Civility

Is it even possible in politics? The new game is, “Be as nasty as possible toward the OTHER”. As I watch our American neighbour I am struck by how it always has to have something or someone to be against to affirm its own identity. When that stopped being Russia, it turned inward and was against gays and then moved on to trans-sexuals. But now it is anyone in the other party. And politicians say it is ok for a presidential nominee to denounce the military just because the other party is equally nasty. Has it really come to this?

As observers of events in other parts of the world, some Canadians perhaps are less judgmental but we have not the same history as many others who live here. That’s why I would highly recommend a book I came across recently with the title The Wall Between, What Jews and Palestinians don’t Want to Know About Each Other. The authors, who represent both faiths turned their own conversations into a useful book that details history that most of us have neither lived through nor understood. What they have tried to share is a principle of justice. We’re at a very early stage of awareness let alone judgement. It’s a place to start.

Subject - not Object

In a plenary session of a course this week, a participant observed that she watched a news report with an interview of a Russian soldier. He commented that he didn’t know who to shoot - because “they look like us”.

There is something obscene in this report. Is it all right to shoot someone who doesn’t look like the speaker? Is it all right to shoot anybody at all? Not only are we being asked to reflect as we stand by and watch the needless slaughter of others. We have lived in a dream world too long.