Finding Common Ground on the Glienicke Bridge
Finding Common Ground on the Glienicke Bridge
The Glienicke Bridge was made famous again in the recent Tom Hanks Movie "Bridge of Spies". If you've not seen the movie, this famous bridge was the site of prisoner exchanges between the East and West, I.e. - the Communist East and the Allied West, during the Cold War.
I am of that age that remembers the bitter hatred and diametrically opposed philosophies of Communism and Capitalism. There were thousands and possibly millions of casualties in this nearly 50 year war - a war that begin at the in the latter years of World War 2, and ended in 1990 with the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
If you are not a student of history, let me assure you that you cannot find a struggle with stakes any higher - or sides with less common ground. Both sides had the air of righteousness and the language of revolution.
Stalin could point to the millions of impoverished Americans during the Great Depression, and America could point to the millions killed during the Stalinist purges from 1936-1938 where the estimates of those murdered ranges from 600,000 to 3,000,000.
Both sides could point to the carnage brought by the other and feel quite smug and righteous while doing so.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision that legalized abortion in America. Now, 44 years later, the battle is as bitter and divisive as it was in the beginning - with both sides as dug in and unwilling to compromise as when women marched in the streets with bloody coat hangers.
In the mid-1980s, a much older version of myself was a self-righteous religious zealot who was deeply ensconced in a Charismatic Cult, the Dartmouth Area Christian Fellowship (DACF). And in the tiny town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, to my chagrin, I and many of my fellow cultist regularly protested in front of the office of the only doctor who performed abortions in our small town.
Although my memory is spotty on the topic, as I remember it - the older surgeon near the end of his career, eventually retired from practice to avoid the negative publicity. As you can imagine, my regret now is at least as strong as was my blinded zealotry some 30 years ago.
My sin, then, was arrogance - and the inability or unwillingness to see, consider - or even listen to - the concerns and counter arguments of the other side. Today, with the election of Donald J. Trump and solid GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, most pundits consider America to be at least as divided as was the world during the Cold War of our fathers.
There is little listening or consideration in Congress or the Nation as a whole. There is, instead, much posturing and press releasing. There is constant yelling, name calling, and vilification of one another.
What there is very little of - is listening, or humility, or consideration of the concerns of the other.
In the AP article above, we have a great example of the war that is still raging in our culture and the courts - related to a woman's right to govern her own body. Having known several women who have chosen to end their pregnancy by abortion, I know that they are nothing like the evil women I imagined at DACF - and nothing like the cold-hearted humans portrayed by anti-abortion foes today.
Then, I called myself "pro-life". DACF even launched a "Crisis Pregnancy Center" in our small town, where our "bait and switch" tactics were to snare young pregnant women with the bait of feigned concern, and then drown them with reasons they should offer their babies for adoption and avoid abortion at all costs.
I may have called myself pro-life then, but I certainly was not compassionate. I was unable or unwilling to acknowledge the yin and yang of the issue.
I think we all understand that the placenta is not a human. We all understand that it is merely tissue - but tissue that is critically important to the life of the baby. I suspect Maori women know this, too.
And yet they choose to honor the place of the placenta in the circle of life, and they choose to honor that circle by returning that "tissue" to the earth from which we will all return some day.
In the war that is the Abortion Battle, we would do well to find some common ground with our opponents.
Women fighting for their right to choose must remember the deeply-held beliefs of Evangelical Christians who consider abortion truly a matter of life and death - the death of a human being.
Evangelical Christians would do well to acknowledge the suffering and anguish that mothers might feel when they choose to terminate a pregnancy.
Even in the Cold War, bitter enemies could find enough common ground to meet on the Glienicke Bridge and exchange prisoners.
Had they been unable to compromise - to be willing to give as well as take - then those prisoners would have languished in the prisons of the enemy. And while in those prisons, they would have been denied freedom to choose, freedom to be with family, the freedom to live their life according to their own beliefs.
Our nation is now as divided as it has ever been. There is sufficient cause for such divisions to exist. There are deeply held convictions and past injury and injustice that are difficult to forgive.
But unless we can find that common ground - unless we can for a few moments lay down our weapons and find some way to compromise, then we will all be prisoners of bitterness and hate.
Both we and our children will suffer from our stubbornness.
dg
1/28/17
A federal judge late Friday again blocked Texas rules mandating burial or cremation of fetal remains, in a victory for abortion rights groups.http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/01/federal_judge_again_blocks_tex.html
Austin-based U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said that the health department regulations would remain suspended until further notice and that a trial date would be set in coming weeks.
Sparks had previously suggested in court that the proposed rules had public health benefit. Opponents argue they could unduly shame and burden women seeking abortions." From the Associated Press
The Glienicke Bridge was made famous again in the recent Tom Hanks Movie "Bridge of Spies". If you've not seen the movie, this famous bridge was the site of prisoner exchanges between the East and West, I.e. - the Communist East and the Allied West, during the Cold War.
I am of that age that remembers the bitter hatred and diametrically opposed philosophies of Communism and Capitalism. There were thousands and possibly millions of casualties in this nearly 50 year war - a war that begin at the in the latter years of World War 2, and ended in 1990 with the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
If you are not a student of history, let me assure you that you cannot find a struggle with stakes any higher - or sides with less common ground. Both sides had the air of righteousness and the language of revolution.
Stalin could point to the millions of impoverished Americans during the Great Depression, and America could point to the millions killed during the Stalinist purges from 1936-1938 where the estimates of those murdered ranges from 600,000 to 3,000,000.
Both sides could point to the carnage brought by the other and feel quite smug and righteous while doing so.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision that legalized abortion in America. Now, 44 years later, the battle is as bitter and divisive as it was in the beginning - with both sides as dug in and unwilling to compromise as when women marched in the streets with bloody coat hangers.
In the mid-1980s, a much older version of myself was a self-righteous religious zealot who was deeply ensconced in a Charismatic Cult, the Dartmouth Area Christian Fellowship (DACF). And in the tiny town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, to my chagrin, I and many of my fellow cultist regularly protested in front of the office of the only doctor who performed abortions in our small town.
Although my memory is spotty on the topic, as I remember it - the older surgeon near the end of his career, eventually retired from practice to avoid the negative publicity. As you can imagine, my regret now is at least as strong as was my blinded zealotry some 30 years ago.
My sin, then, was arrogance - and the inability or unwillingness to see, consider - or even listen to - the concerns and counter arguments of the other side. Today, with the election of Donald J. Trump and solid GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, most pundits consider America to be at least as divided as was the world during the Cold War of our fathers.
There is little listening or consideration in Congress or the Nation as a whole. There is, instead, much posturing and press releasing. There is constant yelling, name calling, and vilification of one another.
What there is very little of - is listening, or humility, or consideration of the concerns of the other.
In the AP article above, we have a great example of the war that is still raging in our culture and the courts - related to a woman's right to govern her own body. Having known several women who have chosen to end their pregnancy by abortion, I know that they are nothing like the evil women I imagined at DACF - and nothing like the cold-hearted humans portrayed by anti-abortion foes today.
Then, I called myself "pro-life". DACF even launched a "Crisis Pregnancy Center" in our small town, where our "bait and switch" tactics were to snare young pregnant women with the bait of feigned concern, and then drown them with reasons they should offer their babies for adoption and avoid abortion at all costs.
I may have called myself pro-life then, but I certainly was not compassionate. I was unable or unwilling to acknowledge the yin and yang of the issue.
In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (also yin-yang or yin yang, 陰陽 yīnyáng "dark—bright") describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang.
From Wikipedia
Welcome earthside sweet little Harper
As a Maori baby his placenta will now be returned to the land. The word 'whenua' relates to the placenta and to the land. Whenua (placenta) is returned to the whenua (land) with the pito (umbilical cord) the link between the newborn and papatuanuku(mother earth). With this affinity established, each individual fulfils the role of curator, for papatuanuku (mother earth), which remains life long.
(info credit to http://www.mothersmatter.co.nz/Culture/Maori.asp)I think we all understand that the placenta is not a human. We all understand that it is merely tissue - but tissue that is critically important to the life of the baby. I suspect Maori women know this, too.
And yet they choose to honor the place of the placenta in the circle of life, and they choose to honor that circle by returning that "tissue" to the earth from which we will all return some day.
In the war that is the Abortion Battle, we would do well to find some common ground with our opponents.
Women fighting for their right to choose must remember the deeply-held beliefs of Evangelical Christians who consider abortion truly a matter of life and death - the death of a human being.
Evangelical Christians would do well to acknowledge the suffering and anguish that mothers might feel when they choose to terminate a pregnancy.
Even in the Cold War, bitter enemies could find enough common ground to meet on the Glienicke Bridge and exchange prisoners.
Had they been unable to compromise - to be willing to give as well as take - then those prisoners would have languished in the prisons of the enemy. And while in those prisons, they would have been denied freedom to choose, freedom to be with family, the freedom to live their life according to their own beliefs.
Our nation is now as divided as it has ever been. There is sufficient cause for such divisions to exist. There are deeply held convictions and past injury and injustice that are difficult to forgive.
But unless we can find that common ground - unless we can for a few moments lay down our weapons and find some way to compromise, then we will all be prisoners of bitterness and hate.
Both we and our children will suffer from our stubbornness.
dg
1/28/17
Sent from my iPad
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