Re: Congo-Kinshasa: End Sexual Violence in Eastern Region

Gosh, that isn't 'war'.

That's rampant depravity...uniforms or no uniforms.

Why?


I think two remarks are telling...

...The doctor's comment...“In peacetime, the demands on Congolese women are limitless." And,

...The comment that abused women and girls are ostracized by the rest of the community.

Also, the whole concept that 'frustrated' and 'angry' men 'usually' take out their emotions on women.


I've heard this before, several times. Once from a former WW II soldier..."I defy anyone to try to stop soldiers from raping."

In another case, a German woman told of the atrocities visited on a school of children by an invading army.

Starving Dutch girls who traded favors for food for their families had their heads shaved, publicly, after their country was liberated.

Why?

Could it simply be that the perpetrators think they are 'allowed' to...even that they are 'supposed' to?


With all our advancements in 'civilization', why haven't we solved this enigma? Why isn't it a shame on the everlasting souls of men that ANY such transgression, against anyone, curses the trangressor eternally? ...And equally curses the group that allows it?

Because it does, you know...what kind of a family or community can grow out of a mindset like that? Whose child can grow up healthy and intelligent in a climate of aggression and fear and 'permission' to inflict horror?


We feel powerless, so far away, and only one person.

But, are we?

What would happen if a thousand of us walked with school children in the Congo? ...Or with any child anywhere who is afraid?

...Or, two thousand of us, all carrying our own lunches?

Or, what would happen if a thousand, or two thousand of us prayed for, or directed energy toward the protection/safety/peacefulness/happiness of all?

What if we 'disconnected' all weapons, everywhere, with our minds?

What if we stood at our front gates every Monday evening at 7, and declared our preferences for every kind of world peace, aloud?


Look what Gandhiji accomplished with peaceful resistance. Look at his walk to the sea to make salt. Look at spinning his own thread to make cloth, and the burning of foreign-made clothes.

Politics fell before his onslaught, and differences between rival religions.

Anger and shame fell before his peacefulness. Personal pride rose in everyone.


We all want peace, and friendship...and diplomacy.

We could argue 'how' till the cows come home, and still not come up with effective solutions. Discussion and 'influence' have not worked...since we first heard about horrors.


It's time for each of us to stand up and say what we are FOR, aloud...and to live it.

We won't know the 'how' in advance, but there is great power in even one of us declaring for peacefulness, for everyone, without judgement or specifying what another 'should' do.

Enjoy peacefulness, my friends. It's the greatest capability we have.


Fledgling