Big news: Mubarak steps down.
Encouraging news: Gabby Giffords is improving daily.
Surpising news: The Cavs won!
Business news: Stimulating meeting with city-wide group today.
Personal news: An act of kindness I received.
My friend and I were driving to the meeting, and she slowed the car to look for street parking. An older man who was leaving a nearby building saw us and motioned that he was leaving his spot. I rolled down the window, and he said he'd wait for us to drive around the block until he exited the parking place. It was a simple gesture of charity that only this stranger and we knew about.
Amidst all the other news of the day, this is my take away. Now to pay it forward.
Showing posts with label Gabrielle Giffords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gabrielle Giffords. Show all posts
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Peace on earth: "Let it begin with me"
The old hymn, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me" seems a perfect one to consider as the events in Tucson, Arizona last week unfold in greater detail over the attempted killing of Gabrielle Giffords and others.
Politicians and pundits talk of "toning down the rhetoric" and "civility" and "coming together as a nation." Haven't we heard all this following every tragedy in the last hundred years?
And yet every election, we see most politicians using smear tactics in their ads that seem to get only bolder. We hear of children being bullied (some suiciding) in schools that turn a deaf ear to pleas for help from the targets. We witness rudeness by others (sometimes by ourselves) with little regard for the impact that words and actions may have.
Civility is the responsibility of each one of us. We aim for this in every mediation...that disputants may speak their minds respectfully even when emotions run high.
Why is being civil so hard? Because we put ourselves first. People used to wave a hand to gesture a thank you when a driver would let them out of a gas station into traffic. I don't see that so often any more. Shoppers in grocery lines are in such a rush that they don't always notice the person behind them with only a few items compared to their cartful. We used to invite them to step in front of us. Malls are often scenes of drivers racing to get the closest spot, sometimes even leading to violence.
These and hundreds of other examples of daily incivility remind me that peace on earth doesn't just happen. It's not just for the lawmakers. It begins with me.
Politicians and pundits talk of "toning down the rhetoric" and "civility" and "coming together as a nation." Haven't we heard all this following every tragedy in the last hundred years?
And yet every election, we see most politicians using smear tactics in their ads that seem to get only bolder. We hear of children being bullied (some suiciding) in schools that turn a deaf ear to pleas for help from the targets. We witness rudeness by others (sometimes by ourselves) with little regard for the impact that words and actions may have.
Civility is the responsibility of each one of us. We aim for this in every mediation...that disputants may speak their minds respectfully even when emotions run high.
Why is being civil so hard? Because we put ourselves first. People used to wave a hand to gesture a thank you when a driver would let them out of a gas station into traffic. I don't see that so often any more. Shoppers in grocery lines are in such a rush that they don't always notice the person behind them with only a few items compared to their cartful. We used to invite them to step in front of us. Malls are often scenes of drivers racing to get the closest spot, sometimes even leading to violence.
These and hundreds of other examples of daily incivility remind me that peace on earth doesn't just happen. It's not just for the lawmakers. It begins with me.
Monday, January 10, 2011
When mediation won't help
Divorce mediators try to help couples as they end their marriages more peacefully. Elder mediators try to help families who have critical decisions to make with their older loved ones. But no mediator could have helped the 22-year old Jared Lee Loughner who horrified most Americans and others when he launched his brutal attack on Gabrielle Giffords, her staff and other bystanders in Tucson last Friday.
"Extreme mental illness" is one condition mediators cannot ethically take on. Loughner's rage over American politics as reported in his blog and elsewhere and his paranoia are beyond the scope of a mediator's skills. How sad that no one in this young man's life could have intervened before it got to his breaking point and forever changed the lives of Representative Giffords, the many he wounded and those he killed.
As this story unfolds, we are learning of many heroes who stepped in to assist the wounded. These heroes inspire us to get involved, to do the right thing, to bring some semblance of peace at the deepest human level no matter what the potential cost to self.
As mediators in our practice, we know we cannot help everyone. But we are more determined to continue working toward peaceful resolutions in our conflict-laden world. And we continue to pray for healing, not only for the wounded in Tucson, but for the families of those who were killed.
"Extreme mental illness" is one condition mediators cannot ethically take on. Loughner's rage over American politics as reported in his blog and elsewhere and his paranoia are beyond the scope of a mediator's skills. How sad that no one in this young man's life could have intervened before it got to his breaking point and forever changed the lives of Representative Giffords, the many he wounded and those he killed.
As this story unfolds, we are learning of many heroes who stepped in to assist the wounded. These heroes inspire us to get involved, to do the right thing, to bring some semblance of peace at the deepest human level no matter what the potential cost to self.
As mediators in our practice, we know we cannot help everyone. But we are more determined to continue working toward peaceful resolutions in our conflict-laden world. And we continue to pray for healing, not only for the wounded in Tucson, but for the families of those who were killed.
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