A Transformational Moment

As I write this, America is hours away from what is likely to be an historic, even an amazing day. Twenty-two states will hold Democratic Party primaries and caucuses, so for the first time in American history, millions of people will be voting for an African American or a woman as the party's nominee for President.

That men of all races, ages and classes will vote for a woman, and that people of all races will vote for an African American, is already a giant step towards the kind of change required for a world in which peaceful means become the default method for solving problems and disputes.

But what excites me, and frankly amazes me, is the opportunity this nation, and this world now has in Barack Obama. He is a transformational leader. He and his wife Michelle and his campaign are talking in ways that this country has never heard before.

Obama spoke at Dr. Martin Luther King's church about the national deficit--but not the budget deficit or the trade deficit. "I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny."

Michelle Obama spoke about it as a change of soul. When has a presidential candidate talked so much about the inner change necessary to create outer change? Empathy is a a matter of the individual heart, supported by community and social structures. Now we're hearing a potential President supporting it, calling it forth.

It is manifested in the outer world in cooperation, altruism and the working knowledge that we are all in this together, which requires social justice and communication. Obama talks about how there is more than unites us than divides us. He talks about bringing people together to solve problems. He speaks of his comittment to principles of social justice and equality. He speaks of shared responsibility, and calls upon everyone to join in these endeavors.

In terms of the outer world politically, he calls for diplomacy first, and for America to take its place again in the community of nations. As an African American who has lived in the Third World, he begins with a new credibility, and embodies a new image of America. Much of the world is watching this election with great interest.

Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq from before it started. He will end it, and he will not repeat the abomination of making war as an instrument of policy.

He is the most compelling communicator in a generation. And this is what is perhaps even more amazing--the response to his message has been overwhelming. The enthusiasm among young people in particular has doubled the number of voters in early primaries and caucuses. He has won major endorsements and support from more than 100 newspapers across the country.

"Yes, we can!" is the mantra of his campaign, an affirmation with its own renewing power.

I frankly did not think I would ever see a transformational leader like this. Someone who understands what I've called "the skills of peace" and can communicate and touch so many people. As President, he could be the transformational leader I've frankly not even allowed myself to dream would emerge.

I'm voting for Barack Obama in the California primary tomorrow. It may be the most meaningful vote I've ever cast.

Inner, Outer, Interface: New Ideas

The skills of peace, I maintain, are skills applied to the outer world, the inner world (of individuals, groups, cultures) and the interface--communication.

So I read with interest a piece in Monday's SF Chronicle called "Inviting Everyone to the Party to change the world" by Ellen Freeman Roth, about innovative ideas and actual accomplishments discussed at the annual Pop! Tech forum, its purpose being "to fuel positive social change through innovation and technology."

Some approaches were "outer peace" and technical :Victoria Hale described how she created this country's first not-for-profit pharmaceutical company, OneWorld Health, whose drug to treat the parasitic disease Leishmaniasis could save thousands of lives annually. Marine ecologist Enric Sala discussed the devastating human impact on the oceans and the potential to reverse the damage. (Consumers can start by limiting fish purchases to those certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.)

Other approaches were "inner peace" attitudes: Carl Honore, author of "In Praise of Slowness," said we're so connected electronically that we're disconnected emotionally from each other. "We need to create new cultural norms around technology," he said, touting the spiritual and creative benefits of slowing down. "I, for one, have rediscovered my inner tortoise."

In an approach that combines "inner" and "interface," Nina Jablonski, evolutionary biologist and head of anthropology at Penn State University, warned that in this abstract electronic age we must remember we have bodies, and touch is important. We're still primates.

The need to integrate these skills came up in the presentation by Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind. He suggested that in addition to logical thinking, we're going to need imagination, empathy and synthesis.

The piece ended with some ideas for homemade carbon offsets. You can read the whole thing here and there are podcasts with more ideas and inspiration from that conference at the Pop!Tech site. Yeah, some of it may make you squirm with suburban NewAgey cooties, but on the "inner" peace, we never did learn the real lessons of the 60s before it all got distorted, and there's been considerably more info and refined ideas since on integrating body and mind, feelings and spirit: the constituents of soul.

And it's hard to argue with many of the "outer" innovations--including heartbreakingly cheap solutions to terrible problems in the vast areas of the earth where people are poor and sick, for want of a few simple medications, and a pair of cheap reading glasses. Some of these were discussed in the latest in the Charlie Rose Show Science series (Episode 10 on Global Health.) It may be a bit hard to get past the Pfizer sponsorship, or for quite a few Mac and indie computer people to accept what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are accomplishing, but let's face it, some much needed money and attention is going to dreaming up solutions to some of the worst health problems on the planet, that plague the poorest. Not to mention what the Gates Foundation and the millionaires involved in Bill Clinton's projects are doing for the natural environment. Criticism is part of the process, but so is doing what needs to be done for real.

Student learning mindfulness in Oakland, CA. NY Times.

Beginning With Mindfulness

Largely unheralded in the daily media, schools have been successfully experimenting with various methods for resolving conflicts, and preventing violence. I mention several in my original Skills of Peace article. They include such innovations as the "jigsaw" and Peace Games.

But outer peace and the interface of communication to reach it require inner work as well. The self-knowledge that allows for psychological awareness, for example. And the ability to calm the mind, to center and concentrate. The New York Times writes about one school in Oakland, California using a very ancient technique: meditation. In their case, it is derived directly from Buddhist practice. The Times story starts:

The lesson began with the striking of a Tibetan singing bowl to induce mindful awareness. With the sound of their new school bell, the fifth graders at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School here closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, as they tried to imagine “loving kindness” on the playground.

Just another Bay Area fad? Well, first of all, Oakland is not San Francisco. The school is mostly black and Latino. And more to the point, real results are in the very next paragraph, from out of a student's mouth:

I was losing at baseball and I was about to throw a bat,” Alex Menton, 11, reported to his classmates the next day. “The mindfulness really helped.”

The story continues: Mindfulness, while common in hospitals, corporations, professional sports and even prisons, is relatively new in the education of squirming children. But a small but growing number of schools in places like Oakland and Lancaster, Pa., are slowly embracing the concept — as they did yoga five years ago — and institutions, like the psychology department at Stanford University and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, are trying to measure the effects.

Years ago, Jon Kobat-Zinn revolutionized medicine with his program of meditation and yoga applied to the most intractable back pain patients at the University of Massachusetts. Now these efforts in schools are adapting his methods.

Like the back pain efforts, this also zeroes in on a felt need: the ability of students to concentrate. “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention,” said Philippe R. Goldin, a [Stanford] researcher. “But we never teach them how.”

It also applies to other problems students have, caused by anxieties and peer pressure. Dr. Saltzman, co-director of the mindfulness study at Stanford, said the initial findings showed increased control of attention and “less negative internal chatter — what one girl described as ‘the gossip inside my head: I’m stupid, I’m fat or I’m going to fail math,’ ” Dr. Saltzman said.

The mindfulness program didn't begin in Oakland. Although mindful education may seem like a New Yorker caricature of West Coast life, the school district with possibly the best experience has been Lancaster, Pa., where mindfulness is taught in 25 classes a week at eight schools. The district has a substantial poverty rate, with 75 percent of students qualifying for free lunch.

Teachers report mixed success, which wouldn't surprise anyone who has tried to meditate. Even those who have been meditating for many years have problems--it is a vital part of the process, which is not always obvious to the inexperienced. But the need is so great in a generation surrounded by violence, even among their peers, that even a small help constitutes progress. Above all, linking outer peace with inner change is a crucial step forward toward equipping us all with effective skills of peace.