Conversation with Hamid

Notes on a conversation with Hamid, my data-analysis professor, in his wonderful half-French, half-Iranian accent;

“Business can be a tremendous ally for peacemaking”

Think of all the notices and communications from all kinds of sources that run across our desks as business people; not one of them is inviting us to engage in peace, to point out all the objectives we share with the peace movement ~ why aren’t we one of those notices.

Hamid says, not the workers, the CEOs, the teachers, the people who can influence hundreds or thousands…

We need to engage the business community as peacemakers because we do have common ground, the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount
~we all recognize we don’t know everything and are looking for further knowledge and understanding all the time, awareness that our knowledge is deficient
~we all mourn, can feel the pain and suffering of others; unfortunately sometimes this leads business to create products to ease the pain of the world, but sometimes the results of the business world add to the pain of the people
~we want to be meek, to be patient and gentle, to listen and to be non-violent

“Transformation cannot be abrupt; it must be knowledge based, recognize that there will be inertia, practical…” we need to vision what it takes to get from here to there, no matter how fantastic it seems (art class 101 exercise of turning a cello into a fingernail clippers)

“Peacemaking energy is of limited supply,” it must be used for noticeable violence reduction, it does make a difference what the impact, a difference on burn out, a difference in change, beyond self-satisfaction of doing the “right” or “nice” thing.

“How can these energies be amplified?”

Think of the impact if the energy of CPT is put into closing down a weapons facility.

Trains through Bluffton carrying tanks.

If you shut it down, it will move somewhere else…the need for national groups like CPT to continue to shut down until it can’t hide anymore…unexpected targets, uncharitable, unpredictable peacemaking warfare

“Peacemaking is absence of swords. Ask what did you do to get rid of the swords?”

The wind tunnel. The noise. A different tone, a new vibration that will not get drowned out, will not try to over-noise the noise.

See activism as any other business proposal. Make a data analysis tree, make a business plan, do product assessment, enlist organizational dedication.

“To attract the attention of others, you have to do something that attracts the attention of others!”