HumanKindMedia

Peace blogger gets mugged

There's no other way to say it, because that's what happened. I got mugged. Even though I'm a peace blogger, I don't feel particularly forgiving of my mugger, or understanding of his situation. I don't even know what his situation is, since after pushing me down a flight of stairs and grabbing my bag he just looked through it, dropped it, and walked away.

But of course, after getting my broken wrist set and talking to the cops, I started to think. About his life and mine. About the reasons I'm so interested in peace and the reasons he felt it was okay to hurt someone. It made me think that all stories of violence exist in a context that's not obvious at first, whether you're talking about a mugging or a war. And that all our small interactions with each other, and especially with kids, affect the development of that context and the choices we make later in life.

Here at HumanKind Media we don't talk much about war, suicide bombings, or murders. We figure you can get all that somewhere else. We're trying to give you something good to take with you into your daily interactions, in the hope that those stories will help you act more often out of hope and a shared intention for peace. But we don't want violence to be ignored, either. Today I'm telling you my small story. It shows that yes, there is violence in the world, but I hope it also shows that I still think there is always more good in the world, more hope. And that we can all help make more.

Proposed Military Spending Is Highest Since WWII... or, Kenya is Blogging

Just kidding. I wouldn't write a post about military spending. You can find those everywhere if you want to read about that. I just wanted to write about the power of the media to evoke a response in us. If that headline elicited any kind of response from you, you know what I'm talking about. My headline should really read:

Can bloggers in Kenya help us go beyond headlines and tell a story that evokes possibilities?

Lately, as Liz and I have been writing about people and initiatives to renew the parts of Africa that are struggling, I have realized how little of the whole picture we get about anything that happens more than a few feet from our doorsteps. While headlines can be stirring and evocative, they do little to provide the kind of information that can open possibilities, or as Martin Luther King said, "Make a way out of no way."

Look out, Wichita! Here comes Dayton

Liz and I are over-the-top excited about our cool little Frappr map, which, last time I checked, has logged more than 1,000 visitors (we subtracted our visits). Though we still don't understand everything about how Frappr maps work, we now know that the Wichita area really only had a couple of visitors -- we're pretty sure the rest of the many "unknown location" dots that appeared there were visitors who clicked on the map but didn't actually sign in or leave a picture. If there are any Frappr experts out there, here's a job for you: design an FAQ for Frappr (whom we really love for making this map).

Some wonderful visitors added themselves but their dots disappeared later; we think people whose dots stay put include their names (or aliases) and a picture when they sign up. So if you don't mind, sign up again, and add a name (or alias) and any image you like, even a pic of your pet. A little extra effort for peace, but how cool is it to see yourself and so many others in this funky, fabulous peace demonstration? To look for your friends, pick a region and zoom way in. You can see streets and rivers, and our readers in Arhus by the sea in Denmark. (I would love to have a look at that view!) I was sad when Texas, Washington, New York, and lots of London dots showed up for a few days, then disappeared. But hello and welcome, Tokyo and India!

New word in my peace vocabulary: pronoia

Have you heard of pronoia? According to author Rob Brezny, it's the opposite of paranoia. It's when you assume that the universe is constantly trying to shower you with unexpected blessings. (Thanks for that tip, Audrey.)

The story goes that Brezny was driving along a California freeway when he found himself embroiled in some road rage with the female driver of a Jaguar. He became furious, then unexpectedly calm. He tossed into her car an eight-pointed star made of hundred dollar bills, a treasured talisman made for him by a friend.

[Ed. note: If you click that link, you'll have to ignore or forgive all the instances in which these two people almost cause car accidents, and remember that we at HumanKind don't literally advocate throwing things into strangers' cars while driving, especially at freeway speeds. The lesson here, though, is bigger. Bear with us.]

Hometown Baghdad

When I'm reading a news story about Iraq, I always wonder what the heck the normal people there are experiencing and I wish they knew that I, and everyone I know, don't mean them harm. I'm thinking of the people who own the stores, who live in the houses, who argue passionately about religion and politics, and who at the end of the day just want to be able to go to the market or to school without feeling terrified. What's their story? Why does it seem missing from the rest of the news? I start to wonder if the only way to know is to go to Baghdad and find out.

Then I think of car bombs, kidnappings, and beheadings, and I feel terrified. Even reporters with whole news organizations behind them aren't getting many of those stories out. Those stories must be impossible to get! Those people must be impossible to interview!

But an amazing thing has been happening to me since the start of HumanKind. Almost as soon as I write off something as impossible, I hear that someone is doing it. "Hometown Baghdad" is a web-based TV show that follows three Iraqi young men -- Adel, Ahmed and Saif -- through daily life during some of the worst of the violence. A production company in New York City called Chat the Planet has been editing and airing the footage, filmed by Iraqis, and hundreds of thousands of people have been watching it online and now consider themselves to have three Iraqi friends. The series premiered in March 2007 with the matter-of-fact "Brains On Campus" and the last episode went live in June. I was going to write some of my favorites in here, but there are too many. You'll just have to find your own.

Peace: the majority finds its voice

When I first had the realization that probably every impossible problem on planet Earth had a solution, I admit I remained skeptical about one in particular: peace. I wasn't doubting the premise that humans can be peaceful (more on this another time), but I couldn't imagine Arabs and Israelis ever making peace, ergo I couldn't imagine how a peaceful world could exist.

But because Liz and I had so boldly declared that media could and should tell stories about possibilities, I kept my radar up for people and organizations who hadn't given up on that particular problem and were actively engaged in solving it.

After discovering OneVoice, I am no longer a skeptic. I'm hopeful and in a high state of curiosity to see when it will work, not how.

Peace: Connecting to self, connecting to others

Before you read this post, take a second and check out this mind-boggling visual reminder of the immensity of the universe (thanks to Kirk Rogers).

Got that? If you're like me, after you pick up your jaw off the floor, you experience a fleeting feeling of hopelessness that sounds something like this: What's the point? What's the point of the hurts and achievements that I find so important? What's the point of anything I do when in this immense universe I am so small?

With that much perspective, the stuff we sweat the most and assign so much meaning to -- our late bills, our irritations, our cherished things and our longings -- don't seem so meaningful, do they? I'm beginning to believe that the real possibility for us to create meaning -- the one thing of value we might actually leave behind -- is the connections we make with others.

World peace: Changing the conversation to connection

World peace: two words that evoke tremendous longing and profound overwhelm in that part of the human heart that wants to see an end to suffering in the world. At HumanKind Media, we've been talking about possibilities in the face of seemingly impossible tasks in our world -- ending poverty, eradicating treatable diseases, and raising women's and children's status. But Liz and I were a little intimidated at the thought of taking on world peace. It's so big and seemingly impossible. And how would we even articulate what each of the many billions of people on the planet means by world peace?

We most easily describe peace by saying what it is not: conflict, abuse, oppression, war, and genocide. In the media we see protests, embargoes, sanctions, boycotts, people standing against the things that peace is not. A high school student, when I asked, said, "Peace would happen when someone surrenders." Argh.

Making that one-to-one connection

Check out our interview today with Trish Tobin, chief marketing officer for Women for Women. Before Trish took that job, she went on a trip with Women for Women to Rwanda, where she met women who were participating in the program. Looking back, she calls that making "the ultimate connection." She was so surprised by how she and the women she met related to each other that she ditched her corporate job and hasn't looked back.

Now, she's using her amazing marketing skills to try to create those moments of connection with people all over the world -- those of us who can't necessarily meet a Rwandan woman in her home, but who can connect with her another way: through global media.

What would inspire you to run 31 miles?

If you know me, you know I don't run. Sure, I can do a few minutes on the treadmill. Okay, maybe 10 minutes. So you can guess how impressed I was at Lisa Shannon's decision to help support women in eastern Congo -- who are suffering from almost a decade of violent conflict -- by putting on a pair of sneakers and pushing herself to run a 31-mile fund-raiser of her own invention.

That run became Run for Congo Women, which over the past few years has raised money to support hundreds of women through Women for Women International.

Check out our interview with the inspiring Lisa Shannon.