Reading about Hillary Clinton's recent visit to Laos brought back vivid memories of a month I spent in that beautiful country four decades ago and where I celebrated my 25th birthday.
It was 1974 when I flew into Vientiane with my colleague Suresh Khatri. We were the advance team for the Initiatives of Change stage production Song of Asia with a cast of young people from many parts of the continent. Our job was to record the dialogue of the show, which had been translated into Lao, so that the cast could perform the scenes to playback.
On arrival we were given the facilities of the radio station and a team of local actors. Without understanding a word of the language we recorded the scenes, marking the tape so we could identify the sections. The first performance for a huge crowd in a stadium was so successful that many of the audience actually thought the actors were speaking Lao. (The second performance had a few frantic moments when someone accidentally kicked a cable, disconnecting the tape recorder that I was operating.)
At the time, Laos was coming to the end of a long period of conflict. The leftist Pathet Lao insurgents were allied with North Vietnamese and had taken control of the northern part of the country. The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos between 1964 and 1973 – about a ton of ordnance for each Laotian man, woman and child. That exceeds the amount dropped on Germany and Japan together in World War II. Secretary Clinton pledged to help rid the country of millions of still unexploded bombs.
Song of Asia, with its dramatic sketches, dances, and songs portraying true stories of reconciliation and forgiveness gave a powerful message for a war-torn country. A Provisional Government of National Union had just been formed when the Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma and his half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong, who led the leftist forces, came together in a show of reconciliation.
Our chief host was Secretary of State Chanthone Chantharasy, who was committed to the principles of Initiatives of Change and was highly regarded for his integrity by many of the students who flocked to the performances. He arranged a special performance for the King and Queen in the royal residence. I still have the lapel pin given us on that occasion.
In the summer of 1974 a hand-picked group of Lao students were sent by Chantharasy to Asia Plateau, the Initiatives of Change training center in India. Many of them had life-changing experiences. I roomed with a young man named Oukham whose father was a high official in the Lao government. Oukham was a rascal of the first order who had led a fast life with girls and drugs as on one of the privileged elite of his country. During the days in Asia Plateau he decided to get honest with his father about how he had sometimes “borrowed" his Mercedes, skipped school and spent days in a hotel with a girlfriend.
Oukham and I corresponded for a while after he got home and he told me how he had put things right with his dad. Then we lost touch. Sadly, the Provisional Government was short-lived. The communists took control in 1975, and Chantharasy and his family were forced to flee, finally making a new life in Australia. His life was probably saved by a warning from some of the young people whose lives he had touched.
I was glad to read of Clinton’s pledge to help cleanse the country of the massive and deadly residue of our military intervention. The Lao people are among the gentlest and most gracious on earth. They deserve a future of peace and safety.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
The promise of new life
Last month Susan and I became grandparents for the first time and Susan's uncle celebrated his 100th birthday. The wonder of new birth and celebration of a life lived over a century.
The van Dykes arrived in New Amsterdam in 1652. They helped found five Dutch towns and were part of the birth of this nation. John Richardson van Dyke (Uncle Rich) has seen two world wars, the rise and fall of fascism and communism, the invention of television and the jet engine. He worked at IBM and RCA at the start of the computer age. His energy and zest for life continue to astound the family. He has friends of many generations.
Watching our son hold Lucy Hyde Corcoran, his newborn daughter, I imagined the million of bits of information being processed inside her tiny head as she gazed at him or surveyed the world around her while resting on his shoulder. What new wonders will she see in her lifetime?
Lucy inherits the genes of entrepreneurs, artists, writers, explorers, great homemakers, craftsmen, and fighters for social justice. What path will she follow? Where will she find her passion?
How will she and her generation face the challenges of this century? It will be a world very different from that of her great-great-uncle and she will likely see even greater changes.
Toward the end of his life, my father-in-law, the playwright Alan Thornhill, became a close friend of Malcolm Muggeridge, the well-known British journalist and broadcaster. The notoriously cynical Muggeridge had experienced a surprising spiritual awakening in his later years, even joining the Roman Catholic Church. Yet he remained deeply skeptical and pessimistic about society as a whole. In his marvelous book, Best of Friends, Alan describes Malcolm with a grandson laughing and playing on his knee while he proclaimed doom and gloom for every aspect of our civilization: "At last I could not refrain from asking, 'What about Matthew in all this?' Tears came into the old man's eyes. Quietly he said, 'Matthew will be all right.' It was not wishful thinking or grandfatherly affection. It was his profound belief in and reverence for the wonder and sanctity of human life. He might despair of our society but he was utterly certain of God's care and love for every individual…"
Likewise, I believe that Lucy and her generation will be all right. Call me an incurable optimist but I believe in the unbreakable power of the human spirit. Hope triumphs over fear. Love vanquishes hate. And, as Alan Thornhill was fond of saying, evil ultimately over-reaches itself. Despite injustice, cruelty, and corruption, good continues to surprise and overcomes in the end.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
A question for leaders: how is the circle being drawn?
I've just returned from the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation national symposium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This has always been a tough place for race relations. The first item of business of the new state in 1907 was to pass segregationist legislation. In 1921, Tulsa was the scene of America's worst race riot when a white mob destroyed the thriving black business community. Oklahoma was the only state where not a single county voted for Obama in 2008. Seemingly random killings of African Americans in April have been deemed hate crimes.
Despite all this – or perhaps because of it – Tulsa is making significant strides in uncovering the history of the 1921 riot that was effectively buried for decades and to develop honest community conversations.
Aptly titled “The Politics of Reconciliation,” this year's conference was kicked off by the astonishingly sprightly 90 year-old former governor of Mississippi, William Winter. His courageous and progressive tenure earned him the title of "the education governor." At his urging, President Bill Clinton launched his race initiative in 1997.
Winter recalled that at meetings across the country, people of every background were unanimous in telling the President’s One America Advisory Board that they wanted five things: good education for their children; a fair chance of getting a job; to be able to live in a decent home in a safe neighborhood; access to affordable healthcare; and to be treated with dignity and respect. “Why can’t we come together in a good faith effort to try to bring about these very reasonable considerations?” he asked. “We must make this our national political purpose.”
In a call for civil discourse he said that “honorable compromise” has always been an essential part of leadership. But it may involve great courage. It’s a paradox that we have made so much progress in America, yet, to quote the author David Cohn, “With heaven in sight, we insist on marching perversely into hell.” Winter told his audience, “We must have informed and responsible participation by everyone in the country, not motivated by personal and political advantage.”
Two former mayors of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor and Susan Savage, and Wellington Webb, who served as mayor of Denver for 12 years, displayed a refreshing balance of good sense, humor, and lack of ego. If they are typical of city mayors – and I suspect that they are – then we can be hopeful that local government is in good hands regardless of political posturing in Washington.
In a packed workshop, two colleagues from Initiatives of Change, Alex Wise and Tee Turner, talked about how they were able to build trust across racial, political and class differences. Alex is a life-long Republican and the descendent of a Virginia governor and Confederate general; Tee is an African American pastor and community worker. Alex remarked that for him it meant letting go of some myths. “For example, I always believed that if you just worked hard anyone could make it in America. I learned from Tee that this is simply not true for many people.”
Rajmohan Gandhi delivered the keynote address, noting that "a reconciled America may be impossible if the world is outside our thoughts.” America, he said is “linked inextricably and in a thousand different ways with the rest of the world; what is America if not the world itself in a unique, wonderful and hope-giving form? The old world helped create a new world in a new space, and the old world continues to recreate America, even as America continues to reshape the world as a whole.” (Full text of Rajmohan Gandhi's speech)
He called on Americans to disprove the thesis that “fear is a better bet than hope” and cautioned against looking for the “most rewarding enemy,” whether Islam or China, for political advantage: “If insinuating that President Obama is a Muslim -- or not tough enough against Muslim countries or against China -- is seen as an effective way of hurting his re-election prospects, then we have to ask whether America truly rejects the proposition that some categories of human beings are inferior to, or more dangerous than, other categories.”
The power of personal stories was evident throughout the symposium. I was honored to moderate a panel that featured George Henderson, the founder of the University of Oklahoma human relations department and the first African American to hold a distinguished professorship. His was the first black family to be property owners in Norman, a “sundown (purposely all-white) town.” He reminded us that “the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened.”
On the final morning, Beverly Tatum, the president of Spelman College, provided a powerful analysis of the meaning of reconciliation: “You can forgive and walk away, but you can't reconcile without a commitment to continuing the relationship." She noted that we live in an anxiety-ridden time caused by the rapid pace of change, economic insecurity, and for some the fact of having a black man in the White House. "The critical question for us as leaders is: How is the circle being drawn? Who is inside it? Who is outside it? What can I do to make the circle bigger and more inclusive?"
Despite all this – or perhaps because of it – Tulsa is making significant strides in uncovering the history of the 1921 riot that was effectively buried for decades and to develop honest community conversations.
Aptly titled “The Politics of Reconciliation,” this year's conference was kicked off by the astonishingly sprightly 90 year-old former governor of Mississippi, William Winter. His courageous and progressive tenure earned him the title of "the education governor." At his urging, President Bill Clinton launched his race initiative in 1997.
Winter recalled that at meetings across the country, people of every background were unanimous in telling the President’s One America Advisory Board that they wanted five things: good education for their children; a fair chance of getting a job; to be able to live in a decent home in a safe neighborhood; access to affordable healthcare; and to be treated with dignity and respect. “Why can’t we come together in a good faith effort to try to bring about these very reasonable considerations?” he asked. “We must make this our national political purpose.”
In a call for civil discourse he said that “honorable compromise” has always been an essential part of leadership. But it may involve great courage. It’s a paradox that we have made so much progress in America, yet, to quote the author David Cohn, “With heaven in sight, we insist on marching perversely into hell.” Winter told his audience, “We must have informed and responsible participation by everyone in the country, not motivated by personal and political advantage.”
Two former mayors of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor and Susan Savage, and Wellington Webb, who served as mayor of Denver for 12 years, displayed a refreshing balance of good sense, humor, and lack of ego. If they are typical of city mayors – and I suspect that they are – then we can be hopeful that local government is in good hands regardless of political posturing in Washington.
In a packed workshop, two colleagues from Initiatives of Change, Alex Wise and Tee Turner, talked about how they were able to build trust across racial, political and class differences. Alex is a life-long Republican and the descendent of a Virginia governor and Confederate general; Tee is an African American pastor and community worker. Alex remarked that for him it meant letting go of some myths. “For example, I always believed that if you just worked hard anyone could make it in America. I learned from Tee that this is simply not true for many people.”
Rajmohan Gandhi delivered the keynote address, noting that "a reconciled America may be impossible if the world is outside our thoughts.” America, he said is “linked inextricably and in a thousand different ways with the rest of the world; what is America if not the world itself in a unique, wonderful and hope-giving form? The old world helped create a new world in a new space, and the old world continues to recreate America, even as America continues to reshape the world as a whole.” (Full text of Rajmohan Gandhi's speech)
He called on Americans to disprove the thesis that “fear is a better bet than hope” and cautioned against looking for the “most rewarding enemy,” whether Islam or China, for political advantage: “If insinuating that President Obama is a Muslim -- or not tough enough against Muslim countries or against China -- is seen as an effective way of hurting his re-election prospects, then we have to ask whether America truly rejects the proposition that some categories of human beings are inferior to, or more dangerous than, other categories.”
The power of personal stories was evident throughout the symposium. I was honored to moderate a panel that featured George Henderson, the founder of the University of Oklahoma human relations department and the first African American to hold a distinguished professorship. His was the first black family to be property owners in Norman, a “sundown (purposely all-white) town.” He reminded us that “the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened.”
On the final morning, Beverly Tatum, the president of Spelman College, provided a powerful analysis of the meaning of reconciliation: “You can forgive and walk away, but you can't reconcile without a commitment to continuing the relationship." She noted that we live in an anxiety-ridden time caused by the rapid pace of change, economic insecurity, and for some the fact of having a black man in the White House. "The critical question for us as leaders is: How is the circle being drawn? Who is inside it? Who is outside it? What can I do to make the circle bigger and more inclusive?"
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Make Tackling Poverty Job #1
One of the most exciting experiences of recent months has been observing our team of community facilitators at work. Operating in pairs, they have delivered more than 40 presentations of Unpacking the 2010 Census: the new realities of race, class and jurisdiction. Most days one or two of them stop by the office to collect materials or to prepare for a presentation. They are drawn from different walks of life: social service agencies, small business, education, faith communities, and advocacy groups.
Poverty is increasing throughout metropolitan Richmond. The disparities in public education, access to transportation, healthcare, and affordable housing are the result of our history and they are rooted in the structures of our economic and political systems. Heroic efforts are made by countless organizations and volunteers to address the consequences of these unequal systems, but we need a deliberate, sustained effort to alter the basic structures that would enable residents to move out of poverty.
The goal of Hope in the Cities and our partner, the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, is to raise awareness among a large number of area citizens and to encourage courageous, innovative and significant policy changes. We are not advocating specific solutions, but we do believe that poverty is everyone’s problem and that everyone is needed to create solutions.
This groundbreaking documentation of poverty is making waves in the region and it is even gaining attention around the country where countless communities face similar challenges. It combines compelling data on the current realities in the Richmond region along with a short history lesson on exclusionary policies that have resulted in concentrations of poverty. It also explores some of the key areas where new policies are urgently needed. Attendees are often startled by the facts (“I thought I knew but I really didn’t” is a typical comment) and energized for action.
The Chesterfield Observer newspaper made the project front-page news after a committee charged with making recommendations for managing future growth and needs saw the data indicating a 71 percent increase in poverty in the county over the past decade. Previously, poverty had not even been on the short-list of the committee’s priorities.
So far, more than 600 people have seen the presentation and taken part in the accompanying dialogue. Dr Bonnie Dowdy, our evaluator, has toiled long hours entering and interpreting data from pre- and post-surveys. This week, many of the participants gather to report back and plan next steps. What started as a one-year project is now emerging as a multi-year initiative. The big question is whether the information disseminated will generate an unstoppable grassroots movement for change.
The challenges facing the region are significant but by no means insurmountable if we have the will to tackle them. In a time of budget shortfalls, it is evident that city/county consolidation of government and services (police, fire, trash, etc) would generate large savings. Forty years after the region’s refusal to consolidate the region’s school districts, condemning the center city to carry the burden of a hugely disproportional percentage of at-risk students, surely it’s time for a radical rethink of all our schools by asking ourselves: “If every child were my child, what would I do differently?”
Some other localities have found that mixed-income housing successfully reduces concentrated poverty – in fact some studies show that inclusive housing policies are the single biggest factor in increasing overall family health and do not harm property values. Will the region embrace this approach?
If the Greater Richmond Transit Co. can’t come up with a genuinely accessible and affordable public transportation system because of jurisdictional shortsightedness, surely the business community with its considerable resources could design and run a flexible system that gets people to where the jobs are.
This is Richmond’s moment to do something bold, something unexpected, something that will move the whole community forward by grappling with issues that for too long we have believed are beyond our capacity to address.
Poverty is increasing throughout metropolitan Richmond. The disparities in public education, access to transportation, healthcare, and affordable housing are the result of our history and they are rooted in the structures of our economic and political systems. Heroic efforts are made by countless organizations and volunteers to address the consequences of these unequal systems, but we need a deliberate, sustained effort to alter the basic structures that would enable residents to move out of poverty.
The goal of Hope in the Cities and our partner, the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, is to raise awareness among a large number of area citizens and to encourage courageous, innovative and significant policy changes. We are not advocating specific solutions, but we do believe that poverty is everyone’s problem and that everyone is needed to create solutions.
This groundbreaking documentation of poverty is making waves in the region and it is even gaining attention around the country where countless communities face similar challenges. It combines compelling data on the current realities in the Richmond region along with a short history lesson on exclusionary policies that have resulted in concentrations of poverty. It also explores some of the key areas where new policies are urgently needed. Attendees are often startled by the facts (“I thought I knew but I really didn’t” is a typical comment) and energized for action.
The Chesterfield Observer newspaper made the project front-page news after a committee charged with making recommendations for managing future growth and needs saw the data indicating a 71 percent increase in poverty in the county over the past decade. Previously, poverty had not even been on the short-list of the committee’s priorities.
So far, more than 600 people have seen the presentation and taken part in the accompanying dialogue. Dr Bonnie Dowdy, our evaluator, has toiled long hours entering and interpreting data from pre- and post-surveys. This week, many of the participants gather to report back and plan next steps. What started as a one-year project is now emerging as a multi-year initiative. The big question is whether the information disseminated will generate an unstoppable grassroots movement for change.
The challenges facing the region are significant but by no means insurmountable if we have the will to tackle them. In a time of budget shortfalls, it is evident that city/county consolidation of government and services (police, fire, trash, etc) would generate large savings. Forty years after the region’s refusal to consolidate the region’s school districts, condemning the center city to carry the burden of a hugely disproportional percentage of at-risk students, surely it’s time for a radical rethink of all our schools by asking ourselves: “If every child were my child, what would I do differently?”
Some other localities have found that mixed-income housing successfully reduces concentrated poverty – in fact some studies show that inclusive housing policies are the single biggest factor in increasing overall family health and do not harm property values. Will the region embrace this approach?
If the Greater Richmond Transit Co. can’t come up with a genuinely accessible and affordable public transportation system because of jurisdictional shortsightedness, surely the business community with its considerable resources could design and run a flexible system that gets people to where the jobs are.
This is Richmond’s moment to do something bold, something unexpected, something that will move the whole community forward by grappling with issues that for too long we have believed are beyond our capacity to address.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Notes from America Healing for Democracy
Last week I spent three days in New Orleans with 500 people who are passionate about racial reconciliation and justice. Twenty years after the Rodney King verdict that sparked the LA uprising, America Healing for Democracy was hosted by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation for its grantees as part of its racial equity initiative.
"Racism is the corruption that pollutes our democracy," said Sterling Speirn, the foundation's president and CEO. "Until we achieve racial equity we will not be able to create conditions where vulnerable children can succeed....We had the Civil War and civil rights movement. What we have not done is to uproot the tree, the belief that there should be a racial hierarchy."
Joining activists from across the country were prominent academics and the leaders of all major civil rights organizations who featured in several memorable panel discussions. I am still digesting all that we experienced together but some highlights for me included:
Belafonte recounted two stories. In the first he described a conversation with Martin Luther King, Jr. when he told him he had turned away from the church because, "I see so few who walk like Christ."
King: "Do you believe in God?"
Belafonte: "Yes, but I can't make God and the institution square, so I will stick with God."
King: "We will have a good time because I am in the same place."
Belafonte also recalled that when Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General, many in the civil rights movement were concerned as to what his policies might be. King said, "Somewhere in that man there is good. Our task is to find his moral center and bring him to our cause."
Gail Christopher, Kellogg’s vice president for program strategy, is the visionary leader of this growing movement for national healing. She sent us on our way with these words: "If we could model for the world what healing is, it would be a great thing.” Speaking from the depth of her own experience, she concluded, “Racial healing is the capacity to love ourselves and extend that to others... Healing is a process of accepting and embracing the truth and the essence of our being."
"Racism is the corruption that pollutes our democracy," said Sterling Speirn, the foundation's president and CEO. "Until we achieve racial equity we will not be able to create conditions where vulnerable children can succeed....We had the Civil War and civil rights movement. What we have not done is to uproot the tree, the belief that there should be a racial hierarchy."
Joining activists from across the country were prominent academics and the leaders of all major civil rights organizations who featured in several memorable panel discussions. I am still digesting all that we experienced together but some highlights for me included:
- Partnering with Liz Medicine Crow of Alaska in hosting one of 20 "healing sessions" where participants in small groups could share personal and often deeply emotional experiences on their journey toward racial healing.
- Being inspired by Rev. James Forbes: "This conference is about enlistment, enlightenment, and empowerment."
- Being challenged by Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans: "Lives of young black men are sacred, they are worth fighting for." About 7000 African American men, mostly aged 16 to 25, are killed each year. "It's the most devastating thing that is happening in America."
- Asking ourselves: "How to make sense of declining prejudice and increasing inequality." (43% of black and Latino children attend schools with 80% poverty rates compared with 4% of whites.) "To be non-racist in America now means not to talk about race. For whites, fairness and equality translate into trying to ignore race," said one panelist.
- Learning more about unconscious bias: The brain can process about 11 million bits of information each second; only 2 percent is conscious.
- Understanding changing demographics: The racial gap is a generation gap: the median age of non-Hispanic whites is 42, blacks 32, Latinos 27.
- Getting a new perspective on history from Doug Blackmon, whose book, Slavery by Another Name, documents how, after the Civil War, thousands of African Americans were re-enslaved into forced labor, a human catastrophe that continue until World War II
- Hearing the pain and weariness of those who cannot believe that they are fighting battles they thought were won decades ago. Legislative actions by state governments across the country represent “the most significant roll-back in voting rights that we have seen in a century,” according to Judith Browne-Dianis of the Advancement Project.
Belafonte recounted two stories. In the first he described a conversation with Martin Luther King, Jr. when he told him he had turned away from the church because, "I see so few who walk like Christ."
King: "Do you believe in God?"
Belafonte: "Yes, but I can't make God and the institution square, so I will stick with God."
King: "We will have a good time because I am in the same place."
Belafonte also recalled that when Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General, many in the civil rights movement were concerned as to what his policies might be. King said, "Somewhere in that man there is good. Our task is to find his moral center and bring him to our cause."
Gail Christopher, Kellogg’s vice president for program strategy, is the visionary leader of this growing movement for national healing. She sent us on our way with these words: "If we could model for the world what healing is, it would be a great thing.” Speaking from the depth of her own experience, she concluded, “Racial healing is the capacity to love ourselves and extend that to others... Healing is a process of accepting and embracing the truth and the essence of our being."
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