On the Middle East
The current situation in the Middle East is one driven by distresses formed over many years by the oppression of its peoples , including colonization and manipulation by countries far from the Middle East. The unthinking attempts to solve a problem by hurting the other side with enough death and damage that they will accept one's position cannot work, but these distress patterns are now playing themselves out, yet again.
Fresh thinking is needed to find solutions to the real problems that exist, not the repetition of old, failed and unworkable policies on all sides, not terrorism nor mass retaliation nor oppression. Such actions simply lead to a reinforcement of the distresses involved, make it ever more difficult to find a real solution, and must be abandoned.
Any real solutions cannot be enforced by one side on another, nor by outside forces manipulating the peoples of the Middle East, or those will not ever be real solutions, just another set of enforced inequities that will foster more violence, death, and destruction in the future.
All peoples involved in the present conflict are good humans who have been oppressed and hurt, and none should be blamed for the distressed actions of their governments or other groups operating in their territories. The fears we all feel at the situation should not be used to justify our giving in to any pull to act oppressively at any people.
The actions in the Middle East are understandable, given the history of the peoples involved and our understanding of the effect of undischarged distresses. But if past injustices are accepted as sufficient reasons to manipulate, oppress and kill others, then there can be no end to war, oppression, or terrorism. Injustices must simply end and just solutions must be sought.
A just solution, including a lasting peace and a secure and prosperous country for each people as a first step into the future, can only come through fresh thinking by the peoples' representatives, each committed to finding a good life for all peoples, not for one at the expense of another, nor one involving the impoverishment of most for the wealth of a few. Many aspects of those future lives require the ceding of things long held as important by one people or another and bound up with great emotional attachment based on old undischarged hurts. The more of us who face our distresses in this area and so can hold out a good, rational, and just future as a direction against the reactive pull of old hurts, the more quickly the situation can move forward.
It may be that in the openly putting forward our choice of this future over the pull to settle old scores and to try to fill frozen longings, and by listening to others' struggle in doing the same, we can play an important role in moving the world forward.
Tim Jackins, 7/19/2006
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.