Peace Keeper
Training
At FACES of the East Bay - East Bay Church of Religious Science, 4130
Telegraph Avenue, Oakland CA
October 29, 2010, 6:00pm – 9:00pm - Friday
Barack Obama Promotes a
Culture of Empathy
The last piece of advice is to cultivate a sense
of empathy. There's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit.
But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to
put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are
different from us - the child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the
immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.
The fact that you're here and participating in Campus Progress means that
most of you have already done this better than most ever will. But as you go
on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not
easier. There's no community service requirement in the real world; no one
forcing you to care. You'll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who
are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow
your concerns to what's going in your own little circle. Not only that - we
live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us
our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and
entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish
impulses.
Photos Jack Brison, the father of
two sons who were with Oscar Grant and witnessed the killing, reaches
out to police officer at the event. Shaking hands and hugging.
Article about meeting:
With Mehserle sentencing approaching, peacekeepers train to avert
violence
Empathy Exercises
One of the evenings activities was to do role playing in groups of two.
To put ourselves into the shoes of the different sides of the
discussion. One side was with the justice for Oscar Grant
community and other side
was for those supporting the freeing of Johannes Mehserle. Some people
then shared their feelings with the larger group.
Mutima Imani:
Our president says it's time to build a culture of empathy and
compassion. "cultivate a sense of empathy - to put yourself in other
people's shoes - to see the world from their eyes. Empathy is a quality
of character that can change the world.", So in your pairs I'd like one
of you to to be on the side of Justice for Oscar Grant, and the other
one on the side of freeing Mehserle. That means that on Nov 5 he gets to
go home with time served. He gets to go home to his wife and children.
So take a deep breath and feel how it feels to be on opposite sides. And
between the two of you, I'm going to ask you to switch to be in both
roles. We're building empathy here....
At FACES of
the East Bay - East Bay Church of Religious Science,
4130 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland CA
October 29, 2010, 6:00pm – 9:00pm – Friday
At the Meeting
Jack Brison, the father of two sons who were with Oscar Grant and
witnessed the killing, reaches out to police officer at the event.
Shaking hands and hugging. See the video.
Empathy
Exercises
One of the evenings activities was to do role playing in groups of two.
To put ourselves into the shoes of the different sides of the
discussion. One side was with the justice for Oscar Grant community and
other side was for those supporting the freeing of Johannes Mehserle.
Some people then shared their feelings with the larger group.
Barack Obama Promotes a Culture of Empathy The last piece of
advice is to cultivate a sense of empathy. There's a lot of talk in this
country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about
our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's
shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us - the
child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman
cleaning your dorm room.
The fact that you're here and participating in Campus Progress means
that most of you have already done this better than most ever will. But
as you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become
harder, not easier. There's no community service requirement in the real
world; no one forcing you to care. You'll be free to live in
neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your
kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what's going in
your own little circle. Not only that - we live in a culture that
discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle
goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained.
A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish
impulses.
Let's Find
1 Million People Who Want to Build a Culture of Empathy and Compassion
Community Organizing, Education and Advocacy to Build a
Culture of Empathy and Compassion
http://www.causes.com/causes/541051
Warmly,
Edwin
-----------------------------------------------
RE: Saw the video of the Peace Keepers
David and Edwin, (please also share with Rev. Imani)
I saw the video of the last Peace Keepers meeting. This is not something
that we have had a chance to talk about but I think that this is a
display of a miss-perception of empathy! I believe that this is a
limited empathy. I believe that a true feeling of empathy can be
perceived but limited empathy idealizes but does not achieve true
empathy.
What was demonstrated and attempted in that meeting was this limited
empathy and limited empathy, if it is seen as the end or goal of the
process, is a barrier to justice.
When I think of this, the figure and life of Thomas Jefferson comes to
mind. I think of Jefferson and other slave holders who exhibited this
limited empathy. No question, it is better to be enslaved by a slave
holder who has, at least, this limited empathy. You get to go to Paris
with them. You get to go fight their wars. But when you come back, you
are still a slave.
Limited empathy is the same thing as sympathy. Sympathy will never be
enough to achieve justice and one needs justice to get to true long
lasting peace. In Malcolm X's terms: the knife is buried deep in your
back; the sympathetic person will pull it out half way and expect you to
stop struggling and feel grateful; a truly empathic person would pull
the knife out all the way, help heal the wound, and not expect
gratitude.
The Indigenous saying is 'you can not know a person until you have
walked a mile in their moccasins.' This is a truism but it can not
really be done - in the way that it is meant - accept in the ideal. I
could hug all the police officers on the Oakland police department -
those that would let me - and it would not change one thing in terms of
the injustice of the system against African American males. Thomas
Jefferson can write beautifully of individual rights but still not
release the mother of his children, Sally Heming, from slavery. Whites
can sit on a jury and be sympathetic to the plight of black males and
still vote to let their killers off with a slap on the wrist.
Besides the fact that you do not have the real perpetrators of violence
- from any side - in the Peace Keepers rooms, you are - in my opinion -
doing a feel good session that is not 'touching' the 'knife' that is the
cause of the struggle. I like feel good sessions. I enjoy feel good
sessions when I have the luxury, time, and privilege.
True empathy is a internal feeling like love. Each person must find it
within themselves. Like most things of this type, they can only be
pointed to with the hope that the seeker will not confuse the pointing
device for the thing. Folks who think they are among 'the chosen ones'
have a hard time feeling empathy. Folks who think they are invincible
also have a hard time. I can pretend all day long that I am Mehserle or
a person who wants Mehserle released free. There may be some value to me
in doing this exercise. However, I will never stop wanting to radically
change - to vigorously struggle - to pull the knife out, to change the
system, and heal the wound. I can pretend to be Mehserle but I also must
change a system that produces Mehserles. I refuse to be comfortable or
comforted by understanding Mehserle's life; it is not enough.
Peace is not the absents of conflicts; it is the presence of justice.
Some of those police officers will have to lose their jobs, at least.
Wilson Riles
--------------------------------------------
RE: Saw the video of the Peace Keepers
Dear Wilson
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feeling about
this. I posted your comments on the webpage for the event.
I’ve seen that empathy can be a balm as people in pain
feel heard, but like you say, that does not necessarily solve the
situations that caused the pain in the first place. A deeper empathy is
when people take responsibility for how they are affecting others and
then take action to restore connection. It is when people take
responsibility for creating an environment where a shooting like this
can happen and work to take action to change the social spirit and
structures that fostered it.. I’ve heard empathy defined as being
‘when the blocks to action are removed.’ That is why I call for a
Culture of Empathy. I find that the social spirit, as well as system,
needs to be changed to support empathy at all levels; schools,
education, business, family life, social life, government, etc.
The empathy of hearing peoples pain is the first step,
but if it stops there, like you say, it is not complete. In your
example, Jefferson needed to dialog, to sit and fully listen to his
slaves and they listen to him. And when they said they didn’t want to
be slaves, that they felt humiliated, etc. he needed to truly hear and
empathize with that. If Jefferson had empathy, he would have put
himself in their shoes and looked through their eyes, and taken
responsibility for the pain his actions were causing by being a slave
holder and searched together for the solution until a true connection
was restored between them. The action would most likely have been
freeing his slaves and repudiating the system of slavery which
dehumanizes people and hinders empathy and true connection.
The other aspect you touch on is that when people are
outraged and are calling for a change in the social system that has
supported the lack of empathy, a superficial hearing of peoples pain can
dampen their energy from making the deeper social changes to create a
culture of empathy. Their pain will have been heard, but they will be
back the next day with the same pain because nothing has changed.
You mention the call for justice. There was a woman there
that night who said her son had been killed and she didn’t know what
justice was. I’ve also seen that the word justice has a lot of
different meanings to people. If justice is just balancing the books,
America already has punishment and sentences that are 8 times as severe
as in Europe! We are not a more peaceful and caring society for it.
"An-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye ... ends in making everybody
blind" Mahatma Gandhi. There’s also restorative justice, which has
empathy at its core and calls for restoring connections that have been
broken between people. Or perhaps creating connection were there was
none before. We need to heal the eye’s that we hurt and make sure we’re
creating a culture where no more eyes get damaged and people are looking
through each other’s eyes instead. When we look through each other’s
eyes, we don’t want to damage them since they are our eyes as well.
I’ve been talking with people at the different
demonstrations and hearing their views on empathy. Here’s some of what
they had to say. Seeking Empathy at Johannes Mehserle - Oscar Grant Demonstrations in
Walnut Creek, CA
http://cultureofempathy.com/Projects/Interviews/2010-07-19-Walnut-Creek/Index.htm Pain, Violence, Justice and a Quest for Empathy
at the Oakland Oscar Grant - Johannes Mehserle Verdict Protest,
-3. I feel grateful for you taking the time to share
your thoughts on this and look forward to further discussion and action.
Warmly
Edwin
Edwin Rutsch
The Center for Building
a Culture of Empathy
A portal for resources and information about the values
of empathy and compassion.
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com
Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each
other’s eye for an instant?
Henry David Thoreau
Let's find 1
million people who want to build a culture of empathy and
compassion. We can make that world a reality.
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