More responses...

You have a wonderful idea. It's like when one child hits another and instead of punishing him/her you give them a hug. It usually settles them right down and results in an apology. I applaud your kind hearted thinking. The only problem is you will never be able to sell that idea to the American public.

About two thousand years ago a man had a similar idea. At one time he fed the masses with loaves and fishes. He ended up on a cross for all his efforts.

If we as a nation were to engage in such an enterprise we would have to be prepared to end up the same way. I'm sorry, but I don't believe there are enough good hearted people like you in the world to allow such altruistic ideas grow and flourish.

Dan Arquette, Thailand

 

I have never been one to respond to e mails, but this one was sent to me without me having the power to stop it. That is exactly what I would have done. There are approximately 6,000 reasons why I will not justify your assessment of this situation. I will only respond by saying.....You dear man are not even an American, enough said.

 L. A. McGraw, USA

 

Thank you.

Your daughter is wise beyond her years. You were quite right to share her approach with us.

I was so impressed with the importance of your message that I violated Netiquette by forwarding it to a few friends as soon as I read it. Please accept my apologies.

Now I'd like to do it right: may I have your permission to share your message with others, including some LISTSERV discussion lists? Your daughter's answer deserves the widest possible distribution.  [ The ansewer is yes, by the way... ]

    Mike Salovesh, USA

Someone just sent me a copy of your e-mail about your daughter's suggestion to feed the monsters. First let me say that I am a spiritually minded person and professional. I believe in feeding love, and not feeding fear. I believe we have powerful choices that have powerful impact, by the way each of us lives thinks acts feels speaks. But your suggestion to expand on your daughter's idea has a few practical holes in it, and I find it therefore naive, I hope you don't mind my sharing my thoughts with you. This is not at all intended to offend. US has given over $143 million in aid to feed Afghanistan in the last year! To be literal. The biggest mosque that we could build would attract even more rage--they want us gone, not present in their lives at all. This is not a rational situation you are dealing with. These people are not sane the way you and I are. They seek to destroy. They are not looking for their needs to be met. The time for that for them is long past. Perhaps your ideas could have worked if they had been implemented decades ago. But as things stand on practical levels today, there is no act of kindness, no matter how huge which would influence the psychosis that is fueling these acts of destruction. They were not a symbolic message. They were meant to destroy the entire infrastructure of this country and the western world. Their plan was only beginning I dare suggest. 

Secondly, as altruistic as your plan is, the president's job is clearly first and foremost a job of keeping this country safe. Feeding and building and spiritually healing may have indirect results, down the line, but that man is trying to make sure that nothing happens tomorrow. And airport marshals and better doors for the pilots is not enough for him to face the nation and say I am doing what I have to to keep you all safe. He is not the Dalai Lama or Gandhi. He'd be shot if he tried that attitude. The changes that you suggest can be made. But they need to be made by each of us, not the president. Meanwhile, he still has his job, as designated by the constitution and by the people who still believe differently than you and I do. And they deserve to be heard also. When you and I can say that at a grassroots level the vast majority are a pacifist peace loving mind our own business kind of people, then you can ask him to respond in kind. It wouldn't be fair to ask that before. 

I'm willing to respect that Bush has a job to do, and I know there will be some level of violence and destruction, and perhaps even some major fuck ups. And I am living my life in the person to person game, planting seeds of consciousness and seeing how they sprout. It's possible that all things are unfolding in perfection, from a higher perspective. 

Irene Bojczuk, USA

I am delighted at how the story is moving around and growing. I am also spreading it.

Perhaps someone can publish the book in a variety of languages and use the sales revenues for the project that your daughter envisaged. I am willing to arrange this in Thailand. Can you let me know if someone wants to coordinate this publishing and book sale thing? I have (and will) invite some friends to translate the story into other languages (Thai, Afghani, Bangla, Urdu and French) and send it to you. Is this OK with you? I know you are busy. Perhaps it could be made available to Afghanis, Pakistanis etc with the beautiful illustrations. I have friends that can cover several other languages. Let me know before I go further with this.

Apart from the book publishing, I for one would contribute $100 to the mosque construction project. It should be a credible organization to run it. Perhaps the Aga Khan Foundation? A Canadian NGO.

As the Dalai Lama said the other day on CNN: Non-violence is only difficult and worthwhile when we are challenged!

Mike Adair, Bangkok, Thailand

That's nice but they are spiritually feeding their people a gospel of death. All we need is to raise another generation of faithful, devout, Muslim children who are taught from childhood to obey the Koran and all it's teachings. THE KORAN ENCOURAGES THE FAITHFUL MUSLIM TO WIPE OUT ALL INFIDELS (PEOPLE THAT DO NOT SHARE THEIR FAITH).

I think we need to show them a different gospel, one of love and forgiveness.

    Stuart Ross, Philadelphia, USA

Hi Aine and Chris,

I have played monster for years, and the kids always wanted me to be the monster. So I would growl and run through the woods chasing and catching kids and taking them to my home, only to have them rescued by other kids.

Us adults have monsters too, we have lots of things that we are afraid of. Most adults talk about killing monsters as the only solution, yet monsters are very strong and dangerous. We do need to deal with monsters, with our fears. From my experience with fear, the best thing to do is to make friends with what we fear, to feed the monsters.

We can feed them with whatever they need, if they are hungry then food, if they are lonely then friendship, if they are homeless then homes, if they have no good feelings about themselves then respect.

Everything seems to come down to relationships, to conversations between people. And by this I include the kind of relationships that are not relationships, human interactions where people pass on the street without looking or greeting each other is a kind of relationship.

All people in their essence as human beings are equal, our centers, our humanness is the same. Everything else about us is different is unique. There is only one me and you in the universe. However, you and I are exactly equal as human beings, our beingness is shared, our differences are to be celebrated. We can only celebrate our difference if we are in the kind of relationship that allows us each to be curious and respectful of the other. When we don't know about something, when we don't understand the differences a kind of fear comes up, and monsters our born in our ignorance.

Because people are all different we can be with other people in either of two ways. We can live with others from our place of sameness as human beings and enjoy the differences. Or, we can ignore our sameness and use our differences in a kind of game. The game is about winning and losing, and we attempt to play our differences against each other to see who wins and who looses. Once we begin playing this game it is important to not look at our sameness because then the game would have no more meaning.

So in the game of winning and losing we have winners and losers. The winners want to make the rules so that they can keep winning and make winning easier and the losers don't want to play the game anymore. The winners trap the losers into playing their game again and again so that the winners can keep winning. The winners dominate the losers and the life of the loser becomes difficult. This is when the loser needs to break the game of the winner, where the loser needs to strike out and destroy the rules of the winner so that the winner can no longer keep the game of winning and losing going.

Terrorism is a form of sabotage. Sabotage is what a loser does when the dominator gives the loser no way of changing the game through discussion. When the rules by which the loser must live are unliveable, when it becomes difficult to be human within the rules of the winner then the dominator must be spoken to through an act of destroying their way of winning. Terrorism is a desperate kind of communication, a way of getting someone's attention when no one is listening. Children throw temper-tantrums when they have no other way of getting their parent's attention. Tempter-tantrums are necessary and are a symptom of a relationship that isn't working. However, if we can create the kind of relationships where people are listening and caring for each other then temper-tantrums aren't necessary, they just don't exist.

There is really no difference between the way adults relate to each other and the way children relate to each other or the way adults and children relate to each other. Terrorism is an adult temper-tantrum. It should not be necessary if the adults are respecting each other. When one group of people take the rights away from another group of people the people without rights (the losers) want balance again. In France when the Nazis took over their country and in South Africa when the Europeans took over the blacks country they both resorted to sabotage in order to get their rights and balance back. Sabotage and terrorism are adults throwing temper-tantrums.

It is dangerous to pay attention to a child throwing a temper-tantrum. If we respond to a child, if the child realizes that this act gets our attention, gets a response, he or she will learn that temper-tantrums work and do them again and again. A wise adult, seeing a child throw a temper-tantrum, will realize that something is out of balance and will change the nature of their relationship with the child so that it is more equal. More equal meaning more open to communication. When an adult makes themselves more available to every communication of the child then they are preventing the child's need to throw temper-tantrums.

I wonder about what kind of parent George Bush might be. I wonder about parents who control and punish their children. Our society used to be full of controlling and punishing and still is in many ways. However, people who are much more successful and happy in their relationships with their families and others have changed to a much more successful way of communicating with others than control and punishment. The new way is about listening and respecting and expressing our wants and negotiating win/win relationships. There are still monsters in these relationships, our fears and difficulties still arise, however the monsters are much much smaller and easier to tame.

If the people who run our governments and our military would take a parenting course where they could play the role of children and learn that respectful and equal relationships allow everyone to win, then they could discover that their games of war and technology are just complicated toys and that human relationships are still the same. Human relationships are simple and are about feeling good. The underbelly of even a dragon, of even the most scary monster is soft, everyone including monsters need food and hugging.

Love to you both 

Brent Cameron, Vancouver, Canada

Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning

Thanks and blessings, Chris, for your daughter's message (forwarded by Jennifer Walton). It is a comfort that she and others like her will inherit our world.

    Roger Harrison, Clinton, USA

I sent a letter to Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon last week and said the same thing. Guess I think like your four year old.

I doubt if all or even if many of the hard core terrorist will be reformed by kindness, but I also doubt if the people living in those countries like them any better than we do. If we feed and support the Alliance fighters in northern Afghanistan, they will dig them out for us--while we are feeding their families. There are 22 million farmers and herdsmen and only 50 thousand Taliban.

You have a smart daughter and she has a smart mommy. (sic!  I agree...I'm her dad!)

    John Gowan, USA (I think)

I just received your letter as a forward from a friend. I will fax that to Bush and Chretien - AMAZING idea...tell your daughter thank you for having such a big heart.

Stacy Hangemanole, Toronto, Canada

 

Thank you Aine and Chris. For now, I've forwarded your ideas to my BC NDP email discussion list.

____________________________________________________________________

"Classism and greed are making insignificant all other kinds of isms." Ruby Dee, in Brian Lanker, I dream a World ____________________________________________________________________

Forwarded message:

In light of the Tuesday terrorism tragedy in the USA, I thought you might enjoy this proposal from a child on how to respond to monsters.

Ann Frost passed this on with permission from the writer, Chris Corrigan, to distribute widely.

Ann suggests forwarding it to Chretien and Bush, with a cover memo that says something like "Now here's an idea!"

In case you think that's a good idea, Bush's fax number is 202 456 2461 and his e mail is president@whitehouse.gov Chretien's fax is 613 941 6900 and his e mail is pm@pm.gc.ca

    Karin Hass, Victoria, Canada

I just wanted to let you know that last night I was speaking to the AGM of Sistering, a group that works with poor and marginalized women. I read them your story and they loved it. They said it was the first perspective on events of the last week that was uplifting and that they could relate to. I think you already know how you have struck a chord.

In addition to publishing your story on rabble, I was thinking that we might approach some of our union partners to publish it, including illustrations, in a booklet that could be handed out all over the place.

Judy Rebick, Toronto, Canada

 

We've not met, but I wanted you to know I've named your essay about feeding peoples spirits as the subject line of this correspondence & have proceeded to distribute it amongst my email pals. Decided it was important to let you know how grateful I am for your well written creative essay! 

I joined with 1500 or so like minded folks this last Sunday in the park, here in Portland, OR to raise our voices for PEACE. I was tickled to realize I still remember all the words to the peace songs of 25 years ago! (But don't ask me what I had for dinner last Friday! HeeHee.) It was satisfying & heartwarming to see old pals, I just marvel at how OLD, they all look! Where did all that blue hair come from???? 

Thanks for lending your eloquent voice to the mission of peace. I wish you & your Aine & your other loved ones restful sleep, serenity of heart & LONG rich lives punctuated with LOTS 'o LOVE.

    Tracy Waters, Portland, USA

I visited your site and really enjoyed most of the comments. Although I was concerned that the psychologist would be writing that and still counselling folks. I think he needs to take some time off. But other than that there is that other opinion out there isn't there. The sad part is that many of our neighbours think that sending buckets of cash to help people recover from natural disasters is all that's needed. Personally, I prefer the Mother Teresa kind of charity, where you actually help hold the spoon that feeds, just to extend the metaphor a bit. This means you actually have to get right in there with others to make things work; not do for but do with: one holds the nail and the other swings the hammer, that sort of thing.

Certainly, from this Indigenous perspective, blind charity is patronizing. And patronage in the form of the "protection of global corporate interests" interferes with the self-determination of peoples. Perhaps, as Paul Lacerte's story suggests, now is the time when all the strings on all the puppets will be cut, leaving the puppet masters impotent. "Free the puppets, now." Wouldn't that be a big change?

Bruce Leslie, Victoria, Canada

Your daughter's story is brilliant and right on. The whole with the pictures should be published. They are so wonderful.

Thank you so much for sharing them. 

    Esther Ewing, New York, USA

A friend of mine forwarded your email. The story of your innocent little girl and her reach to understand such a horrible and life changing event is endearing. Her sweetness and goodness shine through her question and ideas.

I think your agreement with her and your obvious naiveté in the face of evil is difficult to understand if you've had much life experience, read newspapers and looked at the many sides of the complicated issues that face us in this very complicated world.

You and your daughter are fortunate that you are living in a country and a world, where man and women have given their lives in the face of evil, to allow you to live such an idyllic and naive life. You are so fortunate to be backed by men and women who are willing to give their lives in the future to protect you from harm and evil. You are so lucky to have the freedom in the world that you have today, thanks to not only those under arms, you are fortunate that your government, the US and other freedom loving countries have been giving both food, education and protection to so many other countries over the years.

You are not living in a country where the women must live in fear of their lives for being too educated, showing any part of their skin or hair, or doing something that displeases their husbands or other male figures and who are often tortured at least, for doing so.

Tom Justin, USA

I shared your email with some friends and family and thought you might be interested in some of the feedback they shared in return. I think we all like the idea of a non-violent solution, but there are always many sides to a complicated situation, are there not?

From one of my best friends... 

Hasn't the United States already done so - there's the saying about biting the hand that feeds you. Remember the Marshall Plan? This is idealistic and sentimental and touching, but I'm not sure it would have the desired effect. I do, however, believe strongly in the power of prayer and ideas.

And from my brother in New York...

 i guess that woman and her child live somewhere in the west. if she was to walk around manhattan, she might be able to better visualize the monster. The whole island of manhattan, not just lower manhattan but the whole island, smells like burning plastic, burning wood, and decomposing AMERICAN BODIES.... thousands and thousands of them. There is an enormous hole in the earth where some 100,000 people used to work. They worked to feed their now mother and fatherless children, to house their families and to pay the taxes that now make up that $40 billion. Maybe if she could see the real carnage she wouldn't wax quite so poetic.

Antonette DeLauro, USA

I have been alone , it seemed, in my chosen response, until your Email. I see it as immaturity to REACT. I see my response, after consulting the heart and the mind , to arrange personal capture and brought to justice, as an appropriate response to this cult of suicide and homicide. It would be inappropriate to take out revenge, and kill other innocents. This was my conclusion. I love your ideas of responding with love and construction. 

Please include me in your dreams. It's time to stand up and be the actors of unconditional love. I appreciated your messages.  Thank you. 

Angel Bianca Agnello

 

Chris Corrigan

RR #1 E-3, Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada V0N 1G0

Phone/Fax (604) 947-9236   

chris@chriscorrigan.com