Integrity
“As I
have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can
never have an impact on society if you have not changed
yourself...Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty,
and humility.”
Nelson
Mandela
The Dalai Lama had this
to say about the subject of peacemaking: “The planet does not
need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more
peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all
kinds.” A week or so ago, our president rolled out his peace
plan for the middle east, brokered by his son-in-law. One party to
the agreement was left entirely out of the process and, as you might
imagine, they rejected the plan. There is no such thing as one-sided
peace. That is simply conquest and subjugation—the opposite of
peace.
The first thing, as
Nelson Mandela said, is to be honest with yourself. Mandela believed
that you can never have a positive impact on your culture without
changing yourself. He believed that leadership requires honesty and
humility. Mandela was exactly right about that. Our president is not
capable of that, as we know, but perhaps the rest of us are. I wrote
on this blog in 2012: “Making peace is the job of every single
one of us, and not just our leaders. Not engaging in the rhetoric of
war, of revenge, of hatred is the way to enter into peace. Being
peace, carrying peace in our hearts, speaking peace with our
words—that is our job.” I still believe that. At the time,
Trump was not on the horizon, we had no idea that he would become
President. But, as a nation, we made a choice to follow his lead even
though he divided us and encouraged hatred among us. That says more
about us than about him.
Our current president
does not want peace. It serves his political interests to keep people
riled up, and angry with one another—whether we are Palestinian and
Jew, or Democrat and Republican. If people are angry and filled with
hate for one another, they will not unite and stand up to bullies and
autocrats. So keep them at war, not in love or in peace.
Someone said on NPR this
week that if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. I
disagree with that. A lie is a lie, whether you tell it once or a
thousand times. If I do not have integrity, I should not be accepted
as a leader. It's as simple as that. If we agree to follow in the
wake of someone who lies with regularity, exacts revenge on anyone to
crosses him, and keeps the whole world angry, then we should expect
to fall from grace. It is not acceptable to say God is great, God is
good, I love God, but I will support and elevate a dishonest leader
because it's good for my bank account. God has nothing to do with
that. When chaos reigns it's all on us.
Trump will not change. It
is we who must. We must once again reflect the light that we have
always claimed for ourselves. Devolving into divisions at war will
not get us there. Fortunately, we know how to do this. We can take
the lead. The world “needs peacemakers, healers, restorers,
storytellers and lovers of all kinds.” And that's us.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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