Stephanie
As we come to the end of this fraught year, I’m thinking about how we as Americans can make 2021 a truly “new year.” Can we recognize past and present injustices and start repairing hurts? What does it mean to “make amends”? And finally, what is justice? This TED Radio Talk explores these questions in historical, social and personal contexts, and suggests some possible paths forward. What can we do locally, individually or as a group? Let me know what you think.
Stephanie
3 Comments
kristina flanagan
12/15/2020 02:59:42 pm
I am so glad to know about this! Several principles from my own life came up...apologiy and amends are really different. Eve (or V) in her 4 points really gets to amends, which really are meant to repair, mend if you like, what has been damaged. They are as important for the perpetrator as for the person who was harmed, in fact, may be more important. When I make amends for a harm done I mustn't expect a parade or "good job" or even forgiveness. That's just another burden on the person who has been hurt. I am also thinking about the Lakota 38 movie https://vimeo.com/45619690 which is so timely for the month of December. In it, actions are taken by generations still harmed by murders from long ago, and the actions themselves (a memorial ride of over 300 miles in December in the Minnesota plains) heal. So much to say....This also wants me to imagine a world where 'atonement' isn't the goal...acknowledgement and repair and personal responsibility are....compassion, in other words...V is right on track I believe!
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Irene
12/19/2020 03:11:30 pm
Kristina, your concluding words: "This also wants me to imagine a world where 'atonement' isn't the goal...acknowledgement and repair and personal responsibility are.." resonated powerfully with me. Years in Africa taught me the existential worth of acknowledgement, repair, and personal responsibility. Witness most recently Rwanda, Sudan, the contrast between founding leaders Kaunda in Zambia and Mugabe in Zimbabwe. And on a tiny scale, my own lifetime work in education where I learned by experience the vital necessity of truly making amends.
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Virginia
1/3/2021 02:46:51 pm
With full agreement I am interested in what specific actions- individual, state, national- would accomplish the goal?
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July 2021
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