perspectives

IRAQ: Violence abated? It depends on your...

On CNN, I just heard a whole segment on how violence had been abated in Iraq.

I suppose this depends on one's definition of violence. 37 US/UK/Other Soldiers died this month in first 27 days. 505 Iraqi Security Forces and Civilians died so far this month. ...and these are just the ones reported.

The story below is buried in today's news on the back page somewhere. Perhaps you missed hearing that people like you and me, on their way to work, were killed. According to U.S. officials, US warning bullets ricocheted and might have killed at least two or three people and they weren't terriorists. I guess these excuses suggest that these deaths don't count as violence either:

Shootings at US roadblocks Kill 5 Iraqis

By LORI HINNANT
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. troops fired on vehicles at checkpoints in Baghdad and northern Iraq, killing a child and at least four other people, the military command said Tuesday. It also said it was checking a report an American patrol shot at civilian cars near a Baghdad bridge, killing two Iraqis.

Roadblock shootings have consistently fed anti-U.S. sentiment among many Iraqis since the arrival of American forces in 2003. U.S. troops have been hit by suicide car bombs numerous times since 2003 and act quickly to protect themselves when a driver ignores orders to stop.

Also Tuesday, two American soldiers were killed in an explosion in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. They were the first U.S. combat deaths reported in five days.

The roadblock shooting in Baghdad took place Tuesday morning in a northern neighborhood known to be a Shiite militia stronghold as a minibus driver picked up employees of the Rasheed bank, Iraqi police said.

U.S. troops fired warning shots when the bus reached the checkpoint and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers, including three women, police and hospital officials said.

"As I understand it, some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

What do you think?

What counts as violence today?

It makes my heart hurt.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com
http://www.debbekennedy.com

A Call to Action --- Change from within

Today, I woke up once again realizing my role is not to take on the world. It is to do my part, which always leads me to a kind of perpetual self-examination. The great sages, scholars and doers passed on knowledge of this great need:

• Plato proclaimed, "A life unexamined is not worth living."


• Lao Tzu also urged us to spend time in reflection. "Turn inward and digest what has happened."


• Gandhi told us that real education comes from continually "drawing the best out of yourself."

These insights have led me to believe that self-assessment is a perpetual call-to-action to be keenly aware----always listening, thinking, reviewing, evaluating, interpreting, discerning, deciding, being---reaching toward a stronger understanding of our own values and intended purpose---discovering a deeper sense of meaning in our lives each time.

Changing from within...
Start with questions.
Be grateful for the strengths you find.
And for the honesty in the weaknesses you identify.
Be truthful about what is standing in the way.
Re-set you direction.
Walk boldly!
Repeat these steps often.

How are you doing your part? I'd like to know.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com
http://www.debbekennedy.com

WAR & PEACE: Taking a Second Look at Ourselves

I've been short on perspectives lately. Oh, I don't mean I'm short on opinions. We all have plenty of those, but watching the war, destruction, senseless killing, and rumors of more has left me numb. Listening to news that you know is propaganda, half-truths, outright lies, or never told at all leaves me feeling we've all been duped for longer than we know. Perhaps, things have been this way all along, but I've chosen or been influenced to see the good that is there; to dream a bigger dream. I also realize that perhaps this is what life is for --- a laboratory of living and experiencing that leads to being confronted with your own values in the face of injustice and other sorrows.

What has become so real to me since the beginning of the IRAQ War, and other misjudgments, injustices, long-term failed leadership, and broken systems that have been revealed since, is that we as a nation, and has people, need to take a second look at ourselves and what we've allowed ourselves to become.

As I've written before, for reasons I cannot explain, I have always been drawn to old books. The books I like are not necessarily classics, but instead ones that someone wrote from the heart about life and lessons learned in their time. There is something comforting about discovering that people before us struggled too. They lived and experienced, leaving us with their wisdom.

In a book written nearly 60 years ago, Take a Second Look at Yourself by John Homer Miller, he shares a poem about three monkeys talking about us humans:

Three monkeys sat
In a coconut tree,
Discussing things as
They're said to be

Said one to the others,
"Now listen you two;
There's a certain rumor
That can't be true,

That man descends
From our noble race.
The very idea!
It's a dire disgrace.

No monkey ever
Deserted his wife,
Starved her baby,
And ruined her life.

And you've never known
A mother monk
To leave her babies
With others to bunk.

And another thing
You'll never see,
A monk build a fence
Around a coconut tree

And let the cocoanuts
Go to waste,
Forbidding all the other
Monks a taste.

Here's another thing
A monk won't do---
Go out at night
And get in a stew.

Or use a gun
Or club or knife
To take some other
Monkey's life.

Yes, man descends---
The ornery cuss---
But Brother, he didn't
Descend from us."

--Author Unknown

What do you see in taking a second look at yourself and our nation?
I welcome your insights.

Debbe Kennedy
Founder of the Global Dialogue Center

Come visit us ... www.globaldialoguecenter.com