Is violence necessary to prevent violence? The narrative that there are no other alternatives to violence must be altered to adapt to our complex world. My heart races thinking about this situation. I wish I had a magic wand to undo the centuries of pain and suffering from people of color around the world and in our country. What is it going to take for us to work together to find common ground? What is it going to take to finally come together as one? I go back in history, and I see examples of greatness in the combat of violence. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela. But do we really know them? Perhaps some of us do, but perhaps some of us don't. Whatever the situation is, there should be space for changing this narrative of violence.
Angry voices cry out in the streets with feelings of tiredness and distress because it looks like the only alternative is to act with fire or destruction in defense of the same wrong action. VIOLENCE.
I strongly believe in conflict resolution and peace. I have enough knowledge in my mind to say that there are some alternatives to take into consideration before we light up our torch to pay back maltreatments and force.
Sustainable peacebuilding comes with NEGOTIATION, ACKNOWLEDGMENT, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE, AND CIVIL ENGAGEMENT.
Roberti Ricigliano, in his book Making Peace Last, A Toolbox for Sustainable Peacebuilding, offered a unique model of negotiation called the SAT model. The SAT model is composed of three systems: Structural, Attitudinal, and Transitional: the main components in creating a roadmap for change.
The Structural System:
This refers to our leadership representatives in our society who are the ones in charge of designing how we are going to meet our basic needs. Some examples are the economic reconstruction of our financial systems, our political parties, the rule of law, etc.
The Attitudinal System:
This refers to addressing common ground on the norms and beliefs around our intergroup relationships that affect the level of cooperation between communities. Tools such as trauma healing techniques initiatives, community dialogues programs, and multiethnic media programs are some of the examples of these tools.
The Transactional System:
This refers to the level of preparation our front leaders possess. Leaders at this moment must work on how to manage their internal mindset, emotional intelligence, negotiating techniques and styles. They must also learn to collaborate with others who don't share the same values and beliefs or simply don't agree. Leaders must find common ground and resolve problems collaboratively and turn ideas into peaceful actions. Some of the tools used in these processes are leadership mindful skills training, formal mediations between key leaders, the creation of development councils, coming back to the use of dialogues to build confidence, and transforming those conversations into peaceful, legal AGREEMENTS.
All of these may sound impossible, but if we think of long-term solutions and want to continue growing instead of losing more than what we already have, it is worth trying to create lasting peace. We can’t afford to keep losing lives. We can not let our wounds or our arrogance step in front of us. It is time to sit-down as courage leaders and have a profound talk!
Leaders must show their followers their greatness as leaders by showing their people the road to peace and prosperity. In my case, I am ready to become a catalyst for peace. I don't want to use social media and scream like crazy; I am not interested in wasting my time making the point that I am right. That I deserve better because I am a woman of color or poor. I want to sit in front of the other side and listen to how we can work on this together. How can we save more lives in this pandemic? How can we train our officers to deal with those issues with better emotional intelligence, and without bias? How can our government present solutions to complex problems with the sole intention of putting citizens first and not political ideals?
We don’t have to reinvent any wheel to discover alternatives. We already have so many tools! Let's use them and put them into practice!
