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Practical Peacemaking Week 4: Working Cooperatively to Transform Conflict into Peace (Intro to Mediation)
During Week 1 of our Practical Peacemaking series, we discussed the idea of having five main choices for addressing conflict in our lives: avoiding, accommodating, compromising, competing, and collaborating. As the most skill intensive and character demanding of the five approaches, collaborating will be our focus this week as we learn to engage with others in the facilitative negotiation setting of mediation. Nelson Mandela once said, âIf you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.â Even in intensely trying circumstances, Mandela knew he needed to engage with those who opposed him to make progress toward his respective goals…
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An Open Letter to Arizona State Legislators from the Arizona Chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government
Dear Senators/Representatives: We urge you to vote NO on HB 2248, HB 2737, SB 1175, and SB 1459. Our democratically elected commissioners on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), who are experts in Arizona energy, have spent years developing Energy Rules for our public utilities. These rules, which will require energy production from public utilities to be 100% carbon-free by 2050, proceed from public comments, compromises with interest groups, meetings with industry experts, and buy-in from utility companies. With these rules, Arizona will join other western states, including California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, in transitioning to clean energy. They also position Arizona for long-term economic expansion via high-wage jobs, investment…
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Practical Peacemaking Week 3: Preparing to Understand Others to Create Peace â Listening, Perspective Taking, and Empathizing
In a world of increasingly loud and divisive voices of people, organizations, and governments, too few of us are truly listening well enough to really understand each other. As the Swiss psychologist Paul Tournier once said, âListen to all the conversations of our world, between nations as well as between individuals. They are, for the most part, dialogues of the deaf.â Yet even when we do desire to listen deeply to each other, we often lack the skills and attitudes needed to bridge expanding chasms of belief, facts, and purposes that lie between us. This week, to strengthen our peacemaking skills, we are focusing on three critical skills for preparing…
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H.R.1 â the “For the People” Act
H.R.1, the For the People Act, is a democracy reform bill that was introduced and passed in the House of Representatives in 2019. It passed 234-193, with one Republican representative voting for it. The bill was never brought to debate nor vote by the Senate majority leader, causing it to fail by default in the Senate. On January 4, 2021, the bill was reintroduced to the House. Even though many of these reforms are bipartisan by nature and have significant public support, current political polarization will make it challenging to garner widespread bipartisan support in Congress. H.R.1 is an expansive bill that champions improved access to voting for all citizens,…
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Practical Peacemaking Week 2: Individually Finding Peace
Jesus said, âA house divided against itself shall not standâ (Matthew 12:25). This means we must integrate our thoughts, experiences, and actions into a harmonious blend internally. When our actions and beliefs are out of sync with each other, we are essentially divided, or at war with ourselves. As peacemakers, we need to access and cultivate the calm, tranquility, justice, mercy, and connection associated with inner peace before we can expect to create peace in connection with someone else. There are many real sources of creating inner peace, which largely hinge on the idea of meeting human needs and bringing our souls into balance. We know Jesus Christâs atonement provides…
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Official Statement from Mormon Women for Ethical Government on the Vote to Acquit the Former President
Today, 43 U.S. senators chose to acquit the former president from any responsibility for the assault on the U.S. Capitol and on members of Congress. This violence on January 6, 2021, marked the culmination of a months-long attack on our system of elections by former President Donald J. Trump. His behavior was highly undemocratic and unethical. Unfortunately, he was joined by others who, through falsehoods, also attacked the integrity of our elections. Today, many who voted to acquit the former president did so in order to acquit themselves. For many months and years they had aligned themselves with his anti-democratic behavior. In the end, they were no longer able to…
