Credit: Stephen D.
\nMelkisethian. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.<\/p>\n
This
\nmorning I woke up and made breakfast for my daughter, and thought to myself: we
\nhave entered the age of terror.<\/p>\n
Terror But Today, through consumption, complicity, and silence, our country I\u2019m As I In But We Every When In \u201cWe can\u2019t accomplish anything without healing. For Does Does Movement A Alicia \u201cCollective transformative practice is not some \u201cWe \u201cEmbodied practice is how we get to the \u201chow.\u201d Transformative It puts the qualities of who we are as It moves with the depth of love and purpose of And it is open source This Leaps Leaps to\u00a0a just economy\u00a0that embodies resilience, Love, An earlier version of this article was first published on Let's Talk<\/em>, the blog of the Movement Strategy Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Credit: Stephen D. Melkisethian. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. This morning I woke up and made breakfast for my daughter, and thought to myself: we have entered the age of terror. Terror is not new to the USA. Terror\u2014the infliction of extreme fear\u2014runs deep in our economy and political system, from the enslavement of African…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nis not new to the USA. Terror\u2014<\/em>the infliction of extreme fear\u2014<\/em>runs
\ndeep in our economy and political system, from the enslavement of African
\npeople to the genocide of Native people to violent oppression of any Americans
\nnot defined as white. Terror is not new to US action around the globe, where
\nour tax dollars have long underwritten war and brutal repression.<\/p>\n
\ntoday terror has become the explicit and recognized force dominating public
\nthought and action. In horrific ways the Right has legitimized terror, as we
\nsaw in the\u00a0shameful responses\u00a0of Republicans after a man opened
\nfire in the deadly Planned Parenthood shooting. Terror\u2014<\/em>by white
\nsupremacists, by extremist fundamentalists, or by police\u2014<\/em>now dominates
\nour political landscape.<\/p>\n
\nhas helped create an unprecedented level of desperation and disruption within
\nour own communities and around the world. We live in a world of ecosystems
\ndestroyed in the stampede for fossil fuels, in economies collapsing under the
\nweight of inequality, in cultures cut off from their roots, in communities that
\nare repressed and brutalized. We live in a country where deaths from white
\nsupremacist guns remain\u00a0the most frequent and deadliest form\u00a0of terrorism.<\/p>\n
\nnot going to lie. In this moment I feel afraid for my daughter and for all our
\nkids. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nsomeone who believes another world is possible I ask myself: what do I do in
\nthis moment? What do we do? What does movement building look like in a time of
\nterror? How do we develop strategy in a world that\u2019s animated by fear?<\/p>\n
\nam grateful to come to these questions grounded in years of work by the Movement Strategy Center with
\npolitical strategist and Zen teacher\u00a0Norma Wong, and with dozens of inspiring leaders in what we
\ncall\u00a0\u201cTransitions Labs.\u201d The Labs are designed to explore how we
\ncan transition from a world of domination, violence and extraction to a
\nregenerative world of interdependence and resilience. <\/p>\n
\nthe weeks\u00a0that followed our most recent lab,\u00a0white supremacists shot\u00a0Black Lives Matter
\ndemonstrators in Minneapolis; the city of Chicago released the\u00a0video\u00a0of police murdering Laquan McDonald; an\u00a0armed misogynist killed\u00a0a mother, a war vet, and a
\npolice officer in Colorado Springs; an ISIS-inspired husband and wife\u00a0gunned
\ndown coworkers\u00a0at a holiday party; and the fascist campaign of Donald
\nTrump accelerated its\u00a0wave of violence\u00a0and organized\u00a0hate in visible political form.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nthe victims of violence have challenged racist reactions to terror in beautiful
\nways, like the\u00a0Parisians\u00a0who held off anti-Muslim disruptors\u00a0, or in the
\nwords of the partner of Larry
\nDaniel Kaufman\u00a0who died saving others in San Bernardino.\u00a0In ways
\nfilled with hope and possibility for change, the movement for Black lives
\nhas\u00a0shined\u00a0a spotlight on the daily terror of police in Black
\nneighborhoods. <\/p>\n
\nsometimes speak of our movements engaging in the \u2018battle of ideas,\u2019 a violent
\nconcept with winners and losers armed with tools of analysis. We need to move
\nbeyond this. If it was ever true that ideas moved masses of people, it
\ncertainly isn\u2019t now, as people grapple, individually and collectively, with
\nthe\u00a0powerful emotion of fear.<\/p>\n
\nsingle one of us needs to be healed enough and grounded enough to build and
\ncreate with anyone, even people who don\u2019t share our ideas. We can no longer
\nseek to work only with those who are \u2018like minded.\u2019 We must, as Wong says, seek
\nto build with those who are \u2018like-hearted.\u2019<\/p>\n
\na white solo mom tells me angrily that I care more about Syrian refugees than
\nabout her, I need to listen and engage, not tune out and dismiss. I need to
\nstand with integrity and find possibility in what our hearts share. I can\u2019t do
\nthan one of us can\u2014if we\u2019re triggered and reactive, or if we\u2019re listening only
\nfrom our heads and not our hearts. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nthe Transitions Lab, racial justice organizer, policy advocate, and cultural
\nworker\u00a0Tammy
\nJohnson\u00a0said this:<\/p>\n
\nme, any of the issues we deal with can come up with great policy strategies. If
\nthey don\u2019t have a framework presenting alternatives to\u00a0the\u00a0dominant
\nframe, if they don\u2019t involve healing and reconciliation, then we\u2019re back at
\nsquare one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthis mean we are nice but weak? No. It means we are smart enough to understand
\nthat our collective existence on this planet depends on our mutuality and the humanity
\nof each and every one of us. It means we are courageous and bold enough to lead
\nand love even those who aren\u2019t yet seeking our love and leadership.<\/p>\n
\nthis mean we all stop working and go up to\u00a0the\u00a0mountain to meditate?
\nNo. It means we start\u00a0being<\/em>\u00a0aware and present right now, in
\nwhatever we are doing. It means we start acknowledging, valuing, and embodying
\nwhat has, time and time again, over and over, worked. It means we start\u00a0being<\/em>\u00a0Ella Baker\u00a0and\u00a0Grace Lee
\nBoggs\u00a0and\u00a0Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n
\nbuilding\u00a0grounded in\u00a0love and purpose looks and feels different. It
\ntakes a different set of muscles, including\u00a0taking on intentional
\npractices as individuals and groups. Practice allows us to take small,
\nimmediate steps to nurture shifts that are larger than we might imagine in the
\npresent. <\/p>\n
\npianist runs through the scales daily, developing capacity that makes an entire
\nsonata possible. A runner puts in daily miles, developing muscle strength,
\nendurance, and memory that can be called on in a marathon. Conscious practice
\ncan be applied in other areas of life, allowing us to cultivate new qualities
\nand capacities\u2014<\/em>and interrupt ingrained habits\u2014<\/em>even when we are
\nunsure or unclear about our future.<\/p>\n
\nGarza of Black Lives Matter talks about it\u00a0this way:<\/p>\n
\nhippy dippy thing. It\u2019s about how we are together and how we are successful as
\nmovements. \u00a0This is how Black Lives Matter thinks about transformative
\npractice: It\u2019s about transformative relationship building.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nneed embodied practice,\u201d says\u00a0Tom\u00e1s Gardu\u00f1o, a leader at the nexus of climate and
\neconomic justice who was part of the Transitions Lab community, \u201cthe conscious,
\nsteady physical development of awareness that makes cooperation, connection,
\ncompassion, and effective movement strategy possible.\u201d He continues:<\/p>\n
\nEmbodied practice \u2014 whether it\u2019s\u00a0somatics\u00a0or\u00a0Forward Stance\u00a0or just
\nbreathing together \u2014 is how we proactively develop the strength, insight, and
\njoy to transform a world that includes the injustices of\u00a0Ferguson\u00a0and\u00a0Ayotzinapa\u00a0and\u00a0Bhopal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npractice helps us get to\u00a0transformative
\nstrategy\u2014to strategy
\nthat generates leaps that seem unimaginable but are utterly necessary. As Wong
\nand others teach, what\u00a0defines
\ntransformative strategy is that it moves\u00a0from the inside out.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nindividuals and groups at the core.<\/strong>\u00a0The possibilities
\nof this echo in the words of\u00a0Rosa\u00a0Gonz\u00e1lez, a champion of deep community democracy
\nwho recently who recently helped groups impacted by the 2010 BP oil disaster
\nto\u00a0articulate a collective commitment to the leadership, sustainable
\nlivelihoods, health, and wholeness of frontline communities. In the Transitions
\nLab Rosa told us: \u201cWe need to create space for people\u2019s whole selves to show
\nup. Our linear logic says that the change people are visioning isn\u2019t possible.
\nHow do we expand what we believe? How do we hold space to allow for that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthose who identify as ready for transformation,\u00a0<\/strong>while staying welcoming and open to those who aren\u2019t. \u00a0Jacqueline
\nPatterson, who leads the\u00a0Environment & Climate Justice Program of
\nthe\u00a0NAACP,\u00a0spoke to this in the Lab. \u201cI\u2019m working with communities to
\nmove from the inside out, developing their own vision and modeling that.
\nCommunity by community we establish an approach until it becomes the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nand nonlinear.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe need to get
\nbeyond planning processes, to dream bigger,\u201d said\u00a0Nwamaka\u00a0Agbo, leader of MSC\u2019s Our Next Economy effort, in the Lab.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s not just make plans; let\u2019s create the capacity to make them happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nkind of transformative strategy\u00a0is what can generate leaps that currently
\nseem impossible:\u00a0leaps
\nto\u00a0food\u00a0systems\u00a0that
\nare\u00a0healthy, affordable, fair to workers, good for the environment, and
\nkeep farmers on the land.<\/p>\n
\nto schools, communities, and laws based on\u00a0restorative justice\u00a0and systematic fair treatment of
\npeople of all races; leaps to a world free of\u00a0gender-based
\noppression and violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ninterdependence, regeneration and collective well being; leaps to climate
\npolicy based on\u00a0keeping it in the ground<\/em>;\u00a0and leaps to foreign policy\u00a0that keeps the planet in
\nbalance and peace.<\/p>\n
\ncommunity, and connection are the only things powerful enough to overcome fear
\nand terror. In the face of fear I choose love.<\/p>\n