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Posted on Tue, Aug 23, 2011 : 11:31 a.m.

Remembering those who serve our country in peace

By Wayne Baker

GeorgeLakelyTraining.jpg

Who do you think of first when you hear the expression 'Remember those who serve our country?' What about those who serve our country in peace as well? 

Photo Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons

Editor's note: This post is part of a series by Dr. Baker on Our Values about core American values. This week, Dr. Baker is out of town, but Daniel Buttry, an international peace negotiator for American Baptist Churches and the author of the new book Blessed Are the Peacemakers, is discussing peace making.

Last week I was at a park in downtown Birmingham, Mich. with some friends. We paused at a large memorial stone embossed with a bronze seal of the United States. Underneath were the words “For Those Who Have Served Our Country.” The memorial was placed by the local chapter of Rotary International.

We had a discussion about the words on the memorial, noting that they did not specify people in the armed forces. Rotary International has a huge commitment to peace, including its ongoing program of naming World Peace Fellows who are given several-year terms to study peace.

We wondered: Was the broader phrasing of the words on this memorial in the park intentional?

Who serves our country?

Is it just the men and women in the military?

Of course, as 9/11 rolls around again, we all remember men and women who serve our nation locally — fire fighters, police officers, certified first responders.

What about someone like John Lewis?

Was there ever a soldier who served our country better or with more courage than John Lewis? I wrote a chapter on John Lewis in my book Blessed Are the Peacemakers, recently published by ReadTheSpirit Books.

Fifty years ago the Freedom Riders traveled as an integrated team on segregated interstate buses in the South. They were in violation of Southern “Jim Crow” laws that tried to separate blacks from whites.

John Lewis was one of those Freedom Riders. He was already a veteran of the civil rights movement, having risen to prominence among college students for his participation and leadership in the Nashville sit-in campaign to desegregate downtown lunch counters.

In a stop along the Freedom Ride in Rock Hill, S.C., Lewis was the first casualty among the nonviolent activists. He was savagely beaten as he got off the bus. When violence halted the ride, Lewis called his companions from the Nashville campaign to send a fresh wave to keep the ride rolling. He left the hospital to get on the bus at another stop along the way.

As the riders pulled into Montgomery, the police had given a mob of white toughs 15 minutes to have their way with the riders. John Lewis and the white activist Jim Zwerg were first off the bus, knowing what awaited them. They were savagely beaten until they were unconscious. There was no Medal of Honor for Lewis or any of the other Freedom Riders.

Lewis would be beaten unconscious yet again at the Pettis Bridge in Selma when club-wielding police charged unarmed nonviolent demonstrators. Lewis was in the front row — or as the army would call it, at the point, the most exposed position. He was marching for the right of American citizens to vote, protecting those who were denied their basic rights by other American citizens.

We often express thanks for those who protect our freedom from outside threats. What about those who have fought nonviolently for our freedom from inside threats, even threats backed up by our federal and state governments with their legal sanction?

Who should be included in the heroes who serve our country?
How should we honor such heroes?

Bringing peace to our country can start with the conversations we have about political issues. Are you sick of all the toxicity of our political discourse?

From the local to the national level it seems we have sunk to new lows of viciousness. Ideology seems to rule the day instead of constructive dialog and problem-solving. Politics used to be defined as the “art of compromise,” but it seems a lost art today. The way we talk to each other in public life is not serving our country well.

George Lakey frequently breathes a prayer that is worthy of emulation: “Help me to see this from a different point of view.” George says this is a prayer that has always been answered positively in his experience. It sounds like a prayer we desperately need in our political lives today.

George is a social activist and educator featured in Blessed Are the Peacemakers. He is a trainer who uses what he calls “direct education” to open people up to the possibilities and power within them to effect social change. He certainly has strong values and opinions to the point of often engaging in civil disobedience, most recently over the destruction of mountain tops to rip out the coal underneath.

But for all his passion and commitment George is no ideologue. His prayer opens his mind and heart to the experiences of others, even those whom he opposes.

During the Vietnam War he stopped by to support a peace demonstration by women. Across the street from the women were men in an angry counter-demonstration.

So George set up a little table with a sign “A Man Willing to Listen to Men.” After sitting there a while, a man came over to talk. Finding George sincere in his offer to listen, the man began to talk.

George asked probing questions that invited the male demonstrator to go deeper. As the man talked, he became more thoughtful as he pondered what was going on within him and around him. He moved from ideology to at least openness. As George listed to more men, the level of hostility in the demonstration dramatically decreased.

We don’t have to agree to be able to listen to each other. Sometimes we might find that the person on the other side holds real values, concerns, fears and hopes. We might even discover echoes of our own hearts in the hearts of others that get expressed in very different views about various issues.

Are you willing to risk that prayer, “Help me see from a different point of view”?

Are you ready to be open to the new perspectives that might emerge and shake what you once thought was so solid and sure?

Are you ready to respect people who take very different positions from you?

Dr. Wayne E. Baker is a sociologist on the faculty of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is out of town this week, but welcomes Daniel Buttry, an international peace negotiator for American Baptist Churches and the author of the new book Blessed Are the Peacemakers at Our Values this week. He can be reached at ourvaluesproject@gmail.com.

Comments

Townie

Tue, Aug 23, 2011 : 6:17 p.m.

You might wish to add Peace Corps volunteers in your list.

Bogie

Tue, Aug 23, 2011 : 4:52 p.m.

Great piece. I am going to try to share this with my children. Sorrowfully, their bombarded with images of "reality" tv (which is anything but), on conflict resolution. I thank God, I grew up without cable tv.