Mar 3 2019
My attention turned Eastward this week, as America and North Korea sat down for their second denuclearization summit. It got me thinking about the age-old tension between East and West, and took my research and reflections in some unexpected, and profound, directions.
(Too busy to read and click through all the article links? Listen to this podcast episode, for highlights on the go.)
As The World Turns
Fool’s errand, or longstanding distrust?
Expectations, and stakes, were high for the second summit between America’s President Trump and North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong Un this week. After watching their first summit in real time, which was held in Singapore in June 2018, I knew that intelligence experts and diplomats wanted something substantive to emerge from these talks.
The result? No deal was made, and there was even some domestic backlash from President Trump’s refusal to blame Chairman Kim for the death of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was imprisoned and tortured in North Korea.
But, in a week where I became curious about the origins of modern-day East-West relations, I felt there might be more to the story. At their Singapore summit last year, it was reported that Chairman Kim asked President Trump if he trusted him.
To my mind…no trust = no honest talks = no deal. And so, if we assumed for a minute that he’s a rational (if dictatorial) actor, what reasons might there be for Chairman Kim’s distrust?
For a start, America does not have a great track record of honoring its international commitments. Recent multilateral nuclear, environmental, and trade deals have fallen prey to America’s polarized domestic politics – one political party’s foreign policy inclinations is anathema to the other party.
And in looking back on America’s first foray into establishing diplomatic relations with China, I found this passage from President George H. W. Bush’s time as America’s liaison officer in China:
“It is a tough situation we are in but I am confident that this country can and will prevail. We just must not lose sight of our own perspective and of our own raison d’etre as a nation. So much of the world depends on the United States, So much depends on our own self-confidence in our ability to cope. If we project this confusion and failure and discouragement, it will show up all around the world.
People wonder anyway when they see commitments unkept. I think of Cambodia, and I think of Vietnam, and I think of what that means to the Chinese government and others as they see us unable to fulfill commitments made. I happened to be concerned about Cambodia and Vietnam and think the American people don’t care about them anymore.
But that isn’t the point. The point is that if we make a commitment we ought to keep it. We must deal straight forward so we can have trust. I hope that the Chinese continue to trust the United States. It is important to our relationship that they believe what we say and that we deal truthfully and openly and honestly with them.
In spite of the fact that they in history did not always deal direct, much of their dealings have traditionally been through nuances and in great subtleties. I don’t think we must adopt the same method in dealing with them.
We must be Americans, we must be what we are. We must be sure they understand what we are. And that we not be devious or be indirect in dealing with them. I think they would appreciate it if we are more frank.”
George H. W. Bush
from 'China Diary', penned on George Washington's Birthday February 17 1975.Om Is Where The Heart Is
Moved by Parkland
In Episode 4 of my Peace Matters podcast – which you can listen to at the top of this page – I shared my thoughts and revelations from watching a panel discussion with survivors and family members of the mass shooting at Parkland, Florida’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb 14 2018. (I also covered the one-year anniversary in this issue of the Peace Matters newsletter.)
The moving, and healing, discussion helped me see that America is grieving, in many deep and profound ways, and on many levels.
Between a system of government that has been hobbled and compromised; and issues like gun violence, healthcare, endless foreign wars, and crumbling infrastructure going unresolved for decades, it’s hard to feel proud of that system of government. And since other countries and powers in the world are rising, what does that mean for America’s standing in the world? What is America’s role in the world now? It’s been spreading and talking about democracy and human rights for decades. Is that still at the core of what America is in its own eyes, and in the eyes of other nations around the world? Should it be?
I believe America is at a crossroads right now. As a country, it needs to dig a little deeper, to reconnect with the core of its soul, and to start to do that in a more intentional way before the next election cycle comes around. The 2020 presidential race is already starting to heat up. And this is the moment where Americans, individually and collectively, need to take some time to answer these soul-searching questions for themselves.
News and Views
Let’s engage in some Citizen Healing
As you might tell from the two stories I’ve told above, I’m in that tender space of seeing a nation’s deep hurt and wanting to help with its healing.
And as you can tell from the way I cover stories in Peace Matters, I search relentlessly for the essential (human) truth of what’s happening, not for a tribal or partisan slice of that truth.
So…I’m developing a workshop titled “Citizen Healing Sessions.” It will be a place for you to explore, uncover and begin to heal the hurt you’ve accumulated through the years, in trying to make your way in the world, and feeling disappointed or disillusioned by how your country may have dimmed the light in your citizen soul. Republican or Democrat, disengaged voter or active citizen, this workshop will hold keys and tools to bring you back into that place of purposeful participation in your democracy.
My peace-building heart will hold a safe space for you in this workshop. I’ll keep you posted when it’s open for enrollment.
In the next issue:
A two-part documentary titled “Leaving Neverland” is being televised in the US and UK, starting tonight and going into next week. It focuses on molestation allegations made by two men against the late pop icon Michael Jackson. As a longtime Michael Jackson fan, I know I will feel called to weigh in on it somehow.
Watch this space.
Till then…
Live well and lead large – Maya