I took a magazine camping with me last weekend (Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures), on the off chance I would get bored at some point. I didn't read it, and it has been sitting on my kitchen table all week. Tonight, as I was eating, I started reading. I found something that was very apropos of today's events.
...a man named Deganawidah, "the Peacemaker". He was born into what is now called the Huron Tribe in the American Northeast some time between the 11th and 16th centuries.
The tribes of the region were then locked in a vicious cycle of war and blood revenge. Deganawidah longed to bring peace to his people. Through meditation and dreams he arrived at three simple but profound realizations:
- Violence makes people crazy. When people are brutalized, they become either fearful and withdrawn, or angy and aggressive.
- Violence breeds more violence. Attempts at revenge only make matters worse.
- True peace comes only with social equity. A peace founded on forcibly maintained dominace eventually breeds more violence. Peace can only be maintained indefinitely if everyone has a share in decision making.
Deganawidah eventually succeeded in persuading surrounding tribes of the truth of these simple propositions. The result was the Iroquois confederacy, whose democratic decision-making procedures and principles of federated governance brought peace to the realm.
claping hands!!
Date: 2001-09-13 10:18 pm (UTC)From:the world need to meditate more!! ;]
[[[GreaT Freekee FriEnD]]]!!
outstanding!
Date: 2001-09-14 02:00 am (UTC)From:Thank you so much for sharing that...
no subject
Date: 2001-09-14 06:39 am (UTC)From: