If only we all found ways to extend simple acts of compassion and kindness.

It would change the world!

A great tribute to one man's kindness in the news! 

Don Ritchie, 85, who lived across the road from The Gap – a treacherous coastal cliff in Sydney's east - would stop people in distress and say: "Is there something I could do to help you?" Hundreds of strangers subsequently stopped for his "kind word and a smile" and then changed their minds about jumping to the rocks below. Some had laid their shoes, wallets and a note on the coastal rocks and were poised to leap before being gently coaxed back from the edge. Officially, Mr Ritchie saved 160 people over the past 50-odd years, though his family believe the number is closer to 500.

Peace and conflict, war and rebuilding, violence and pacifism.

Complex categories of opposites that frame complicated issues.

The individual conflict that takes place between two lovers - in their fight - can be fractured by multiple layers of missed and missing communication, unmet expectations and unclear intentions, fraught with emotions.  How much more difficult are situations between large groups of people, caught up in decades of extended civil mistrust and outbreaks of fighting!

The situations of Palestinians and Israelis is one such situation, fraught with complexities that can not easily be discerned. 

And yet, I am convinced that more peace is needed, greater communication is needed, and solidarity with peacemaking efforts needs to be discerned.

In decades past, individual persons like Ghandi or MLK, Jr. were "at the right place at the right time" (in many issues of engagement, over years - not just in a single event) to help reframe situations of bias, prejudice, exploitation and violence. 

In the context of the situation of Israeli-Arab-MiddleEast-Palestinian issues, people have been hoping for some kind of Peacemaker - a single, social activist who can gain sway to mobilize social, media, political action.  For years, many, many individual persons of various status and identity have been working toward more wholistic and healthy relationships in this region.

Right now, May 14, 2012 - One-thousand-five-hundred-and-fifty Palestinians are on hunger strike in Israeli detention.  Two persons have been on hunger strike for more than 77 days - the longest known hunger strikes by any human.

Of course, this has been going on for weeks!  Weeks!  See this May 7th report.

When will the world take notice of the extremity of this collaborative, intentional, non-violent action as a means for the world to notice the situations they are protesting. 

If the world does not take notice of non-violent, passive, protest, how can we reasonably expect persons with such extreme protest to get the world to take notice of their claims!?  Heaven forbid we ignore these actions, and create a framework within which people think bombing building or persons is a better option!

We need to take notice - so we can work toward a better world.

Toward eupan.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Among some quotes:

Because we live in a pluralistic, global world we need to be able to listen to other viewpoints, place ourselves in the shoes of others, and respond fairly, magnanimously and pragmatically.

God is not a factionalist. Surely St. Peter does not stand at the Pearly Gates and  grant tickets only to Lutherans or Hasidics or Sunnis or Jains… or to Christians, but not to Buddhists?

The ethic of reciprocity enjoins us to treat others as we would like others to treat us.

I've had a personal interest in the Pacific Ocean's "Pacific Gyre" - a marine debris and trash area - also known as the North Pacific Garbage Patch. 

Every year when I teach on issues of the ethics of ecology,  my University learners read about this specific issue (among many other issues!)

From Oklahoma, this seems a long distance away.  And yet, it is our plastics and our consumption that contributes to global, natural, trans-national problems like this.  We should be mindful, thoughtful, aware and active in working toward better ways to use and resource.

If you've driven across Texas - the attached image gives some perspective on the huge-scale of this trash problem!

More on the recent news with this BBC article.

Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Justice is a difficult thing to discern as it extends toward peace.

The recent conviction of Charles Taylor - of Sierra Leone - certainly does hold him accountable for crime!  Good!

But, it does not immediately or simply "bring peace" to those whose lives are now gone - nor to those whose lives remain fractured because of his crime and all too many complicit with his crimes!

As we celebrate persons being held accountable to crime, I note that we also need to work toward a world where persons and cultures are framed such that this kind of atrocity can not develop and emerge. 

We need to work toward a world where the kinds of persons who would perpetrate this kind of violence are constrained and restrained earlier, better, and in patterns of a just peace that is generative and hopeful and reformative of culture and life!

We are glad to have shared advocacy in these issues through past activities sponsored by the Eupan Global Initiative!

But the prospects are not looking good right now.

Very sad.

Hoping for peace!

Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

My friend and fellow Rotary Peace Fellow, and professional international photojournalist - Richard Wainwright - was there on election day in Burma.

He captured this image of Aung Suu Kyi, along with his own short report and many other great pictures.

Toward eupan for Burma!

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.