Clemency
Clemency: (noun)1. A disposition to show mercy, especially toward an offender or enemy. See Synonyms at mercy.
2. A merciful, kind, or lenient act.
I've been meaning to write this since last week, but have felt I could never do the subject justice...well, now I'm sure that time will never come, so I'll just give it my best shot.
Last week, my coworkers and I were part of a tremendous event called "Worlds Apart, HeARTS Together," which brought 6 middle schoolers from Capetown, South Africa (along with their drama teacher) to various Seattle schools 3 weeks of intercultural dialog, workshops on tolerance and reconciliation, and some good old fashioned song/dance/fun! (for more info, see http://www.bridgesweb.org/NewFiles/about_events.html)
They came as representatives from the Amy Biehl Foundation (http://www.amybiehl.org/). Amy Biehl was a Fulbright scholar from the US who chose to work in South Africa to help register voters and assist with the reconcilation efforts in the early 1990s. She was murdered during a mob, and her murderer was later granted amnesty.
After the trial (and I'm not sure exactly how this happened), Amy's mother Linda forgave and reconciled with her murderers, and today she travels around with one of them to give powerful talks/workshops on the topics of forgiveness, tolerance, peace and reconciliation.
The foundation works to educate and engage youth in South Africa in hopes that their future will be one of peace rather than conflict. The 6 students who came here had been participating in an after-school drama program, and are also amazing musicians who bring laughter wherever they go! Despite being jetlagged, they participated with vigor in a week chock-full of activities, and were a daily inspiration.
I don't know what to say...the story really speaks for itself. I can't imagine a more powerful message of forgiveness than this story provides. I was familiar with the word, "clemency" before this event, but I never quite knew what it meant other than something vaguely peaceful. It makes me feel so good to know that our language holds a word for the specific purpose of denoting a proclivity to showing mercy particularly towards one's offender.
This is, of course, very relevent today, as just this morning we received news that the US forces had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There's a very interesting article on CNN showing an interview with Michael Berg, the father of a man killed by al-Zarqawi (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/berg.interview/index.html). His personal philosophy, which I tend to agree with, is that every human life has some inherent value and that there is no use in celebrating any death.
At our Town Hall event last Saturday, a man from South Africa spoke powerfully about the gravity of the situation there, and how much anger he has about it...yet, as he said, seeing the south african children perform their national anthem along with students from Seattle gave him hope and made him smile. I loved how he made sure that we knew he was still angry, but could smile through his anger.
That's where I am right now as well...I see so much to make me hopeful in the faces of our students, but I have to be careful to retain the sense of gravity so I can harness it, so it can serve as an inspiration to keep doing the little I can to help make the world a tiny bit better.
I'm so absolutely thrilled to have ended up working with an incredible nonprofit...we still have so much more we can do, and it drives me every day. I keep thinking, "how can we do it better? when will it be enough?"
I don't know how to inspire people to act..for a long time, words like "peace" and "tolerance" seemed so vague, like "self-esteem" or "try hard," something you'd see on the posters adoring your school walls.
Duh, peace is important, you know? That's what I'd think...but, I don't know, something about getting older, or exposing myself to more of the world or the news or something, has made those abstract ideas hold a lot more weight. I remember as a kid, hearing adults say things like, "you can do anything, be anything, you are the future," and I was like, yeah, but what do i do? i mean, literally, what do i do? There were so many options...
I was talking with a teacher from St. Louis the other day who wants to do a similar digital storytelling program to what we do (www.bridgesweb.org) and she told me about this amazing project she has her 6th graders do. They pick a topic of interest, a problem in their community, and write a research paper about it. Then, they make an "action plan" about how they can do something to help alleviate that problem and implement it. Then, they write a report to a local congressman/woman and include their research paper and a write-up of their experiences and ask them to take further action.
How amazing is that? I remember feeling like i had so much potential as a child, but didn't know where to put it...to have them focus on just one issue and actually take action is simply brilliant.
Anyway, I suppose I've meandered away from my original focus. I suppose I could frame the clemency showed by Linda biehl as one of many sources of inspiration to me lately. Now, if only I could make a pill that could allow me to feel well-rested without sleeping every night, I could do more to become a source of inspiration myself!
I've been "busy" lately, meaning I tell people I'm "busy" and can't do things because I'm too "busy," and I don't like that feeling...well, i should clarify: I like always doing things, but I don't like having to say "no" to anything that sounds meaningful or interesting. Ahh, such is life! Who doesn't have this dilemma? | posted by Cheryl, 6/08/2006 11:01:00 PM | 2 comments |
