Please join your friends and neighbors at the monthly meeting of MRVARI (the Mad River Valley Anti-Racism Initiative) this Sunday night, 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Village Meeting House (ground floor of the Waitsfield Church). We have been meeting on the 4th Sunday of every month for over five years, to learn and grow together, identifying and seeking to dismantle the internalized structures of systemic racism. It's hard to talk about things we've been tacitly taught NOT to address, but it is a vital step in building a better world! Please join us, no matter who you are, even if you've never come before.

Relevant to our work, I'd like to share a recent reflection by Vermont author and psychotherapist Dr. Polly Young-Eisendrath (check out her work online!), who has maintained an earnest, lifelong focus on helping people understand themselves and one another in productive, non-violent ways:

"The most fundamental thing that I know about war is that it must be stopped. I know now that war will never end, but only repeat. Similar to rape and slavery, war requires legal and social institutions to stop people from engaging in it freely. I also know that war is grotesquely wrong: It creates intergenerational human trauma that survives for decades. War pollutes our climate and biological environments, and our social and cultural connections, more than any other human endeavors do. I also know that dehumanizing others, and reducing them to objects or animals, is the most egregious and harmful thing a person can do. I also know that we humans (you and I) are hard-wired to create enemies. From our infancy onwards, we learn how to bring others under our control in order to survive. We also learn to blame others for what seems to be wrong, unjust, unequal, painful, or overwhelming. We all create enemies at home, at work, and in the world in order to manage the reality of our limited and imperfect lives. We polarize in our opinions and beliefs about what is true and sacred about life on earth. BUT we do not have to destroy, maim and kill others because of this polarization. I know it's possible to humanize our differences, and even our polarizations. I know we can transform our savage motivations for war."

Whether we're grappling with violence played out upon an international stage, or here in our own country, state, or town, Dr. Young-Eisendrath's words ought to give us pause. One thing is certain: we must talk with, and listen to, one another, cultivating the capacity to see clearly, in order to protect our dear and shared humanity. I very much hope to see you all at our MRVARI meeting tomorrow night.

Respectfully,

Wrenn Compere, facilitator

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