Happy 4th of July

Another 4th of July has come and gone. Well almost. We are having a few friends over in about half an hour to finish out our rather low key celebration of the 4th of July weekend. I needed an excuse to stay out of the kitchen for a few minutes and posting a blog on celebrating the 4th is as good as any. My question is what are we celebrating on the 4th? The official holiday is to commemorate our founding father’s declaring independence from Britain. For sure it is a day for fireworks, speeches, celebration of patriotism, and freedom seems to be a common theme. This is usually the day that we hear and read a lot of people expressing their pride in America and being American.

Let’s explore that last thought a bit. Is pride in America like pride in the tribe or is it something else? A few years ago I had dinner, in Paris, in the home of Xavier Eiffel, great grandson of Gustav Eiffel. In the course of our conversation (all conducted in English, in which he is fluent) the talk turned to nationalism and pride. That conversation gave me yet another opportunity to express my pride in being American. Not that Xavier was being a rude host running down America. But that was the era of “freedom fries” in the Congressional cafeteria.
What I told Xavier and still believe is that America has been and continues to be great. But the greatness does not originate in our economic might. Nor does it find its genesis in our having the most powerful military in the world. Our greatness as a nation is found in universal ideals that were powerfully expressed in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I said to Xavier that I am proud to be part of a country that was not founded on tribalism, ethnicity, or uniformity of religion. The United States of America was founded on principles. Principles that we have not always followed. Equality of all men. Liberty – suspension of habeas corpus periodically when we get so scared that we forget who we are and what we say we stand for. But at least the founding fathers took the time to document principles of universal human rights and responsibilities that were being explored and articulated during the Enlightenment.

Belief in those principles led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Get this! The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, four years after the ratification of the Constitution. What governments in the history of the world have willingly, even pro-actively, limited their own power without a coup or the threat of one. Ours did when we adopted those amendments to our Constitution.
But how many of our citizens really understand the principles this country was founded on? The ones that I fear we least understand include: Separation of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The principle of religious liberty set out in the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The protection against unreasonable searches and seizures: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

I cringe when I hear some of my fellow citizens calling for English to be declared the national language or when my fellow Christians bemoan that we are have left our roots as a Christian nation. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an outspoken follower of Jesus, but I would fight and die for the right of my fellow citizens to have the freedom to choose their own religion and not have my religion forced on them through legislation or presumption. But that is the subject of another blog: practicing what we preach about the free market, including the free marketplace of ideas.

In conclusion, happy 4th of July and God bless America. God help us be even truer to our ideals and principles. Help us to be ever more cognizant that to whom much is given much is required. We have been in the past a shining city on a hill, a symbol of hope for liberty to the oppressed of the world. Let that light shine and remember its source. We hold these truths to be self-evident...

Report: Agitate, Integrate, Co-create - Leadership Development Workshop - May 29-June 7

We spent the first six days of our recent Leadership Development Workshop, helping 26 leaders from all regions of Sudan “build a relational container strong enough to hold their differences.” Then we spent the better part of our seventh day together putting the strength of that container to the test as we talked directly about an issue that had been haunting the workshop almost from the outset.

The issue? Should southern Sudan, now a semi-autonomous region under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, separate from the rest of Sudan and function as an independent country? I say haunted the conversations because as soon as this question surfaced, the participants would quickly move to submerge it lest the conversations turned ugly.

After all this is a peace project! We have to be nice and polite to each other. It is as if an unwritten rule is passed that to preserve peace we cannot bring up an issue we know will be divisive. Instead of peacemaking, most groups only engage in peace faking. We could not have a serious dialogue about how to build a future of peace without confronting the issue of separation vs. unity head on.

On Friday we did just that but in the most constructive, respectful dialogue that I have ever been part of. Of course when I started the conversation I had no assurance of a good outcome. What we were doing was high risk, but then we knew that. Which is why I thought long and hard about how to make a positive beginning.

What we started with was celebrating the hard work we had already done to build the relational container. I gave the participants the opportunity to affirm their friendships by stating what they had come to appreciate about each other. And they did, in many instances with great specificity, thanking each other and complimenting each others’ strengths.
Next I asked them to name the strengths of the Sudanese people that could be utilized in building sustainable peace. They filled up two pages on the flip chart.

Then we turned to the ultimate question that occupied us for the next several hours. I asked them to talk about their visions for a future of peace for Sudan. That brought out the different positions on unification and separation.

Over a five hour time period, our friends from Sudan used all of the skills and practices introduced earlier in the week. They talked openly and directly about the relative merits of unification and separation and in the process engaged in a level of civil discourse almost unheard of in the world today. They listened so intently and respectfully to each others’ narratives – taking the time to understand the thinking that caused them to take their positions. And they were amazed by what they did.

As one of the SPLM leaders from Sudan put it: "I have never experienced anything like this. When Sudanese come together, these kinds of conversations last at most 30 minutes and end with shouting and even punches being thrown. This was amazing." Not only had they shared deeply about the big issue, they had found real common ground as they named the strengths of the Sudanese people and identified the elements essential to building sustainable peace. They had managed to speak to each other in a way that strengthened the fabric of their fellowship. They even discussed how peace might be built and sustained under either scenario of unification or separation.

Their dialogue opened the door on Saturday for co-visioning and co-creating new practical initiatives for building sustainable peace. One group planned how to get out the vote among the Sudanese Diaspora in the upcoming presidential elections in Sudan. Another group planned the creation of a new school in Ayala, Darfur. Another group, representing all regions of Sudan and including a high ranking SPLM official, planned the opening of a branch office of the Institute for Sustainable Peace in Sudan. They want to be trained to conduct similar workshops all over Sudan.

That night, gathered around a campfire under starry Colorado skies, one by one they stood to bear witness to changes within, real transformation of attitudes toward former enemies, and a commitment to work together across their regional, ethnic and religious differences for sustainable peace. The relational container was built…and when tested... it held.

(For more, see www.2peace.org)