Travel Life

Here is the support discernment committee that is helping me sort things out as to what and where to share these days. Starting at left, David Hovde, Ron Johnson, me, Julius Belser. They’ve been a helpful  group. Dear Friends, “I think, Jim, you should consider attending the “Center for Justice and Peacebuilding” at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA.  I think you could learn a lot and they would be interested in hearing and learning from you too.” Thus spoke Julius at a discernment meeting. The others affirmed it. So I looked into it and signed up for a pertinent course. Here’s the encouraging letter I got back from a professor.                                                                                                                             DearJim, It is a pleasure to hear from you about all of the incredible activities and efforts you are leading to build peace in communities and in our world. It is truly amazing!... It would be wonderful to have you on campus and in the course… I am sure that many other faculty would also be excited to be in touch with you about opportunities in which you can share your experiences with the CJP and EMU communities. Blessings, Johonna First I want to say I have not gone to Colombia this winter because in light of the peace accords I wasn’t sure what to share that would be helpful to Colombians.  Recently, however, I read in the book “Beyond Revenge: the Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct.” There it tells of lasting Peace accords from seven civil wars. So what came to me is to share how the Colombian accords compare to these other successful peace agreements. This would particularly be pertinent for about half of my audiences who do not support the accords in the Colombian plebiscite.  Hopefully this will persuade them to reconsider their position.  I feel that for peace to be successful and its huge hurdles easier to overcome,  it will be very helpful if more of the population are behind the accords. Here are my plans for my sharings and discussions in Colombia and the USA . In St Louis and Iowa 3/18-3/27 I will do 5-10 sharing’s on either “Making Peace with Isis Nonviolently”, or “The Present situation of the Peace accords in Colombia” and how the Colombian accords compare to a study on seven lasting Peace accords from other civil wars. Half of Colombians voted against the peace agreement, so my sharing is to help these see that for the social peace it is good that they support the peace agreement. Here is a quote on the accords study from “Beyond Revenge, the Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct.” Interestingly all of the points are in the Colombian accords. “Forgiveness May Require a Strong Dose of Truth But endless war, motivated by sectarian hatred and the desire for revenge, doesn't have to be the end of the story in Iraq, or anywhere else. A day will likely come, as it usually does, when Iraqis grow too tired to continue fighting. We now understand better than ever what will be required to make forgiveness and reconciliation happen when that day finally does arrive. William Long and Peer Brecke, social scientists at Georgia Tech University, systematically analyzed the interactions between warring factions in ten recent civil wars, including three that ended with the reemergence of conflict (Colombia, North Yemen, and Chad) and seven that ended with a lasting peace (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador, Mozambique, South Africa, and Honduras). They concluded that the civil wars that end in forgiveness, reconciliation, or both are characterized by four processes. First, the countries that achieved lasting peace succeeded in redefining the affected people's identities. How do you redefine people's identities in a civil war? By helping them return to the lives they led before they were drawn into the conflict. Plans must be implemented to reconstruct people's homes and the infrastructures of their towns. Soldiers must be given help so they can resume their former lives as farmers and bank tellers. The role of the military must be redefined from that of an enforcer of government policy to that of a protector of the nation and all of its people. Second, nations that successfully reconcile after civil war implement countless small actions (I'd call them signals) designed to announce and memorialize warring parties’ desires to establish new, better relations with each other. Third, they orchestrate a process of public truth telling through which warring factions can reach consensus about how to understand the injustices they've suffered and the harms they've perpetrated upon each other. The truth and reconciliation commissions that have been used in South Africa, Cambodia, and elsewhere exemplify what Long and Brecke have in mind here.13 Fourth, they're able to enact a “justice short of revenge” in which “retributive justice [can] neither be ignored nor fully achieved.” Full retributive justice simply isn't a realistic goal in these situations because you have to be careful not to disturb the nascent, fragile peace, in which  overharsh retributive justice might provoke the factions that are still able to wield military power. Moreover, if the judicial system has been torn to shreds, there may be no legitimate body left to carry out retributive justice in a principled way. In addition, the legal authorities themselves are often complicit in the human rights abuses that occur during civil wars, making them unsuitable as arbiters of retributive justice when the war comes to a close. And sometimes, full retributive justice is impractical because combatants remain firmly convinced that their actions, however awful, were justifiable acts of war. Nevertheless, in every case of successful reconciliation that Long and Brecke studied, partial justice was provided through a combination of three ingredients: (a) legal consequences for some perpetrators and losses to their moral standing and reputation, (b) amnesty for other perpetrators, and (c) reparations to some victims. Echoing my earlier point about people's surprising willingness to accept partial rather than full compensation for their losses, Long and Brecke write, “Disturbing as it may be, people appear to be able to tolerate a substantial amount of injustice by amnesty in the name of social peace.”15 We must remember that in many circumstances, people really, truly don't need an eye for an eye to give up their desire for retaliation: sometimes, half an eye, or even just a sincere apology, some public shaming, a credible pledge not to repeat the behavior, and a meaningful attempt at compensation will suffice. Justice short of revenge is a price that most people are willing to pay for peace.” Shalom to you, Jim