Message-ID: <9602288280.AA828030809@hudsmtphq.hud.gov> Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 08:33:29 EST From: Michael Patterson <mailto:Michael_O._Patterson@HUD.GOV> Subject: Re: anti-racist, anti-sexist Internet resources for multicultura To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Kristin Brown, Jim Cummins and I are writing for your help in compiling an annotated list of Internet resources for anti-racist, anti-sexist multicultural education.your suggestions to <mailto:dmsayers@ucdavis.edu> and be sure to tell us in which ----------------------------------------------- Sinclair Lewis reportedly once said that if America became Fascist, it would do so by being anti-fascist.
What you concentrate on grows. Why are you concentrating on the negatives? Those who fight dragons eventually become dragons. Why not also have the positive reverse of the coin? The negatives you cite come from dysfunctional community. There is a large community building effort in many parts of the country. mailto:munn@interaccess.com has a lengthy list of such sites.
Remember the old Aesop's fable about the Sun and the Wind having a contest to see who could get a traveller's coat off? The wind howled, and the traveller clutched at his cloak all the more tightly... and the Sun just shined, and shined, and the traveller got so warm the coat came right off? What if you had an idea- like the community building concept of the Foundation for Community Encouragement [mailto:FCEonline@aol.com][cited also in M. Scott Peck's books] - so enticing, so attractive that the racist &c. organizations simply lost most of their membership?
I know Americans love adversarial contests, and fights, and being morally right against totally evil opponents, but does anyone win in a war? Really? Koichi Tohei [who documented Aikido] was in the Japanese Army in WWII, in China. That army was one of the most brutal in modern times. He decided that it was his duty as commander to bring his troops through alive. So he got their respect, by following his heart and taking risks, and then ordered them to not kill any Chinese troops unless absolutely forced to in direct self-defense. If they caught Chinese troops, they took them back to their own lines, cut their bonds, and pointed them in a safe direction. Chinese troops opposing them knew the unit, and let it pass by unharmed. And he achieved his goal- his unit came through the war with no casualties. [Cited in "The Magic of COnflict"] I don't know, this concept may be too Oriental for Americans- [cited also in the Tao Te Ching, and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"]
I wish people used this paradigm, instead of conflict, though.