Hopes for 2021

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Hopes for 2021

1Tess_W
jan 5, 2021, 10:21 pm

What do you hope for in 2021? What do you see on the horizon?

2Tess_W
jan 6, 2021, 10:18 pm

I hope for normalacy and peace. However, realistically, I don't see either on the horizon. So I will continue to stay at home except for the grocery and doctor appointment. I did not think the beginning of my retirement (March 2020) would be like this!

3Verwijderd
jan 7, 2021, 11:52 am

Hi, I'm new here and glad to find some older peeps to hang with! Reading-wise, I hope to be less distracted and to read more critically instead of for total escapism.

42wonderY
jan 8, 2021, 12:38 am

>3 nohrt4me2:. Hi! I see you mention liking Bakelite buttons. Why just those? I do understand their attractions... my grand baby and I have been playing in my carton of them. At 2, she’s surprisingly agile at stringing them. But there are also horn, old glass, and livery buttons too.

5Verwijderd
jan 8, 2021, 11:23 am

>4 2wonderY: I like the heft of the bakelite buttons for felted bags. I have lots of other kinds, too, but I donated all but my very favorites at a yarn swap a few years ago. Some teenage girls were thrilled with them, and seeing them dump them all into their bags--"We can just HAVE these?? "--for craft projects more fun than hanging on to the buttons.

My Gramma had a button box that I loved sorting through when I was little. Enjoy!

6nrmay
jan 8, 2021, 4:03 pm

My mom had a button jar and gave me shoestrings to string them when I was a preschooler.
She also gave me marbles and the old-fashion metal curtain rods to make marble runs.
We cut out people and items from the Sears Roebuck catalog to make paper doll houses and furnish them.

7nrmay
jan 8, 2021, 4:05 pm

my hope for 2021
get the covid vaccine ASAP and take a road trip!

8John5918
jan 10, 2021, 12:02 am

My hope for 2021 is that there will be a greater global focus on both the intrinsic value and the practical efficacy of active and organised nonviolence as a response to violence, terrorism, polarisation, political conflict, oppression, populism, racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance (including Islamophobia and anti-semitism), xenophobia, environmental destruction and all the other ills that we see and experience around us.

In my own sphere I am part of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, and I'm aware that nonviolence is being actively and widely explored in many milieux in many parts of the world, including the US Institute for Peace. A well known US Catholic peace activist, Fr John Dear, writes the following in a US and Christian context, but remove the word "Gospel" and his sentiments apply universally, not just within those two groups:

After the January 6th white supremacist coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol, now is an especially important time to dig deeper roots in nonviolence, renew our commitment to positive social change and commit ourselves to doing what we can... mark Dr. King's birthday by reflecting on his great 1963 "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" this January... Together, we will walk through Dr. King's historic letter and reflect on what his key themes mean for us today in this critical, historical moment. I invite you to read the letter ahead of time, and to think of what concrete steps you can take in the difficult months ahead to heed his advice, help end racism and violence, war and injustice, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction, and become the "nonviolent gadflies" he calls us to be. The goal is to become more nonviolent, more just, more loving, more inclusive, and more welcoming, true anti-racist compassionate Gospel people. We can do this!...


Link

9Tess_W
jan 11, 2021, 10:39 am

>8 John5918: interesting that he would call it a white supremacist coup. Wonder what he called the BLM rioting, looting, killing, and calling for the end of the police?

P.S. I like to believe I'm a pacifist. However, if somebody hurt my grandchildren, I think that would be out the window.

10John5918
jan 12, 2021, 12:34 am

>9 Tess_W:

I can't speak for John Dear, of course, but from what I know of him I suspect he would be opposed to any form of violence, even in a just cause (which is one of the things which separates BLM's attempts to obtain justice and equal treatment for all from the recent attempts to subvert democracy). Part of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative's aim is to move us away from the concept that there can be a "just war", ie violence in a just cause, towards an understanding that violence by its nature is unjust. Martin Luther King's letter is strongly in favour of nonviolence. I would add that nonviolence is also more effective than violence in achieving justice. I often reference Why Civil Resistance Works, an academic study by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan which examines more than 300 conflicts over the last hundred years or so and finds that a nonviolent struggle is twice as likely to succeed as a violent one, and that the ensuing society is more likely to be peaceful, democratic and respectful of human rights.

I like to believe I'm a pacifist. However, if somebody hurt my grandchildren, I think that would be out the window.

Indeed. It might be worth noting that absolute pacifism is not an essential part of a commitment to nonviolence as a means to resolve political conflicts and to bring about positive change towards a more just society. There are many who would reluctantly consider using violence as a last resort to defend their own lives or the lives of their loved ones in a situation where they were personally attacked and there were no other options, but who would still oppose war, the death penalty, the use of violence to bring about political change, and other forms of organised and intentional violence.

But my apologies, I'm going off topic. Let's get back to the hopes that we over-sixties have for 2021. I repeat mine "that there will be a greater global focus on both the intrinsic value and the practical efficacy of active and organised nonviolence".

11Tess_W
jan 12, 2021, 11:48 pm

>10 John5918: You bring up something that I need to ponder! "Is there ever a just war"? I think so. For example, I think to defeat those that are perpetrating genocide would be just---I'm not sure if that would technically be a war or not?

P.S. Not criticizing you, nor making any type of political statement; however, "those that would subvert democracy" are also those who believe their voice does not count---much like the BLM movement. The tactics are the same-violence, destruction of property, and the hopes of effecting change.

12John5918
Bewerkt: jan 14, 2021, 6:22 am

>11 Tess_W:

Thanks. I won't comment on the second part of your post as there are numerous threads in Pro and Con which have far too much to say about that topic and I don't want to open a new can of worms here! But once again I would reference Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail.

Of course genocide must be prevented, but it's a complex issue. At the time when the Yazidis were being killed in Iraq, Pope Francis famously said that the killing must be stopped - but not by bombing. Usually by the time the international community notices it and works up the political will to do something about it, it is far too late, and military intervention may seem to be the only option. But there are other options. There are always precursors to genocide which can be (and are) identified by human rights groups, activists and analysts, and judicious intervention by non-military means can be very effective. If a fraction of the human and financial resources, as well as training and research, which are wasted on military preparedness and intervention were to be directed to nonviolent interventions, the results would be even more effective.

Coming closer to home, General Romeo Dallaire believed that the Rwandan genocide could have been stopped peacefully if he had been given a few more UN peacekeeping troops, and if the flow of arms to the genocidaires had been cut off - planeloads of weapons were being flown in from at least one western European government. But the international community were not interested. Despite their fine-sounding rhetoric, the foreign policies of big powers, whether western or eastern, are built on things like trade, political interest, the military-industrial complex, short-termism and a rather simplistic notion of perceived "stability", rather than a genuine long-term concern for human life, dignity and rights. Pre-empting a genocide which is about to occur doesn't make the headlines. It's only when the photos of dead bodies start appearing on the news media that western governments feel the need to act, and by then using violence appears to them to be the easiest and quickest option. But violence begets violence, in a vicious spiral which needs to be broken by radical and nonviolent interventions. Iraq is a classic example of how US military adventurism, cloaked in the language of "just cause" and doing good, has not led to peace or stability but rather created the conditions for ongoing violent chaos across Iraq, Syria and further afield - and for genocide against the Yazidis.

Sorry once again to be off topic in this thread, but I've spent the best part of forty years promoting peacebuilding and reconciliation, and more recently focusing particularly on active and organised nonviolence*, so it's close to my heart. I've worked in and on war and genocide in Sudan and South Sudan, my wife has been involved in post-genocide humanitarian work in Rwanda and post-election violence in Kenya, we've lived in post-apartheid South Africa, and I'm part of international peacebuilding networks that bring me into contact with grassroots peacebuilding activists, victims and survivors of violence from all over the world, including Iraq and Palestine. So my 2021 hope remains - an increased focus on nonviolence as the preferred, indeed the default, way to bring about peace and justice.

*PS: Worth stressing perhaps those two words, "active" and "organised". Nonviolent intervention is not passive, it is not "doing nothing". In many ways it is more complex than a military intevention as it needs to mobilise large numbers of civilians. It takes great courage (far more courage than sitting in a trailer in the USA remotely controlling a drone which fires a missile into an Afghan wedding party) and, just as in a military intervention, there will be civilian casualties. It may well fail, just as military interventions often fail (Chenoweth and Stephan's research shows that nonviolent struggles are twice as likely to succeed as violent ones, but that in a quarter of cases neither succeed), but if it succeeds it is more likely to bring about a just and peaceful post-struggle society. Sudan is currently the most hopeful example of that latter dynamic, after a nonviolent intifada (popular uprising) overthrew a brutal thirty-year Islamist military dictatorship. Another of my hopes for 2021 is for the continued success of the new political dispensation in Sudan, which continues to face challenges from the "old guard".

13Tess_W
jan 13, 2021, 7:50 pm

>12 John5918: Thank you for trying to be an active, peacemaker, John!