Get to Know This Book!

| June 27, 2011

For the past year or so, Winds of Peace has been anxiously awaiting the completion of the photojournalism project by Paul Dix and Pam Fitzpatrick entitled, “Nicaragua:Surviving the Legacy of U.S. Policy.”  It’s a remarkable effort wherein the authors revisited war victims some twenty years after their first interviews at the time of the U.S.-backed Contra initiative which so ravaged the country, both physically and emotionally.  Dix and Fitzpatrick had the monumental task of first locating some of the victims and then chronicling their lives during the intervening years.  It’s an insightful journey into the psyche of the subjects as well as a telling post-mortem of a U.S. policy of war and its aftermath.  It’s particularly timely given the makeup of U.S. foreign policy strategies today.

This book will impact readers on multiple fronts: it’s a beautiful yet heart-rending pictorial, featuring both the physical torment of the victims, but also the soaring spirits of innocents who have managed to survive, reconcile and forgive.  It’s an historical account of an undeclared war of our time, one about which many U.S. citizens know little.  It’s a compendium of beautifully-written stories of everyday people confronting the uninvited horrors of war.  And it’s an invitation for us to leave the comforts of our easy lives just long enough to meet some amazing neighbors to the south and know a bit of their lives.  There aren’t many books that can lay claim to so many gifts!

I am not prone to telling people how to think or what to do; life decisions are our own and that’s what we know as freedom.   But in this case, I enthusiastically encourage anyone reading this entry to access this book and come to know it.  You can find ordering information at www.NicaraguaPhotoTestimony.org.  It will touch your heart and mind and cause you to wonder and ask.  It’s what being a U.S. citizen, and a human being, is all about….

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Knowing and Doing

| June 3, 2011

A man drowned in San Francisco Bay yesterday.  By all accounts it was the suicide of a 52-year-old man, distraught with life and the apparent lack of answers for whatever despairs were driving him.  He simply waded into the waters and drifted out into the bay until exhaustion overtook him.  What made the episode even more tragic was that many others on the beach watched it all take place without intervening.  And even more tragic was that some of those onlookers were actually members of the Alameda, California first responders, police and rescue personnel.  They had come to the scene in response to a 911 call, but by city policy were prohibited from entering the water for a rescue.  It seems that the city had adopted a cost-cutting measure in recent years which prohibited rescue personnel from conducting water rescues.  The policy rendered the rescue personnel static as the man bobbed, floated and eventually succumbed over the course of an hour’s struggle.

It’s a sad and infuriating story.  Sad because a man faced such despair that he chose death as the best of his options in facing whatever demons were confronting him.  Infuriating because so many people- even those trained to intervene in such cases- allowed it to happen, because of a policy. By evening of that day, the Alameda community was in shock and an uproar about a policy about which most were unaware.  By the next day, the story had made national news.

The story became newsworthy because deep down, we all recognize that the policy in this case was just plain wrong.    When everyday folks step into a threatening circumstance to rescue a life, as they often do, there is no question of policy or budget: it happens because it’s the right thing to do.  When trained professionals are directed to not render assistance due to budget constraints or political expediency, we recognize the fallacy of such thinking immediately.  The first responders knew it, but felt helpless in the face of the directive.  As intentional as the victim was, he deserved someone’s best efforts to pull him back from the brink of death.  He did not receive it. We know it was wrong.  Apparently the Alameda community leaders know it was wrong, as well, as they have subsequently found funding to pay for water rescue once again.  Unfortunately, it’s too late for the man in the water.

Upon hearing such a story, it’s easy for us to shake our heads at the seeming lack of compassion shown by all of the bystanders on the beach, whether they were trained professionals or not.  Each had their reasons for not rendering assistance, whether such reasons make sense to us or not.  We know the right thing, whether we could have performed it ourselves or not.  Often there is a wide gap between what we know to be right and what we are willing to do about it.

As incensed as I felt at hearing this story, I recognize that the apathy demonstrated by the beachcombers is little different from the inaction that I demonstrate when faced with people in equally dire circumstances.  I know of the intense poverty and hunger that exists throughout many regions of the world, and yet, like the beachcombers, I can muster little activity to help the dying.  I can know the injustices being carried out in the name of local or national policy and remain silent in the belief that I’m following the rules.  Many of the witnesses to this episode were interviewed and expressed disbelief in the callous attitude of the rescuers, without recognizing their own inactions in the face of even greater distress and tragedy that exists around us every day.

There is a big difference between knowing and doing.  The case can be made that knowing without doing is an even greater moral outrage.  For most of us, we know the right thing to be done.  We simply need to do it….

 

 

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