I'm reading Samantha Power's memoir The Education of an Idealist, and I think she is a bodhisattva. She is Catholic, so I won't try to put another tradition label on her, but I think she is fascinating.
I'm only 1/3 done with the book, but usually when I'm done with a book I'm not motivated to write.
Spoiler alert: Here is her story so far. She became a journalist to find out what was going on in Bosnia. She wrote a book about the history of genocide in modern times, and what practical things can be done beyond just sending in the troops. Obama read the book she got a Pulitzer Prize for, and they struck up a friendship. When he ran for president she worked on his campaign but she screwed up and after flying to London and getting off a call that irritated her, she misspoke about Clinton, but her comments were recorded. So she had to sit out the campaign until she apologizes to Hillary.
She's working for Obama and there's a big fight to call the Armenian genocide a "genocide". Don't tell me speaking truth to power isn't powerful. Obama didn't use the word against Turkey because they wanted to support diplomacy with them. He felt that the chance that Turkey would improve relations with Albian was more important. I'm not saying it isn't important. It was Power's fight to get the word genocide to be used that is fascinating. The word genocide was invented because of this event.
Power invented the word upstander to contrast bystander. She was struck by how people would say "never again" and yet it keeps happening. What can we do?
I've been struck by the Rohingya genocide because the hope was that a "Buddhist" country wouldn't be capable of such things. But of course countries don't practice a religion, individuals do. Countries that have a kind of unified culture that could be inspired by Buddhism--haven't really seen that.
Ahsoka was inspired by Buddhism and he's held up as the guy who used to go around murdering and conquering, and then converted and became peaceful.
Obama's speech for getting the Nobel Prize for Peace is a defense of the just war doctrine. I'm personally as peaceful as I can be, and chide myself for my errors. I remember going to a talk at the University of Wisconsin where a philosopher talked about the ethics of the just war. The idea that we sit out World War 2 and not liberate the remaining Jewish people where were not yet exterminated is morally repugnant.
Powers asks if we could have bombed some of the railroad tracks that led to Concentration Camps, to slow down the slaughter. Thus Powers is not much of an idealist, she wants to do anything, small practical things, to fight even if it's in small ways, against genocide.
Wikipedia has a list of genocides. The Holocaust, Ukrainian, Poland, China, Cambodia, Kazakh, Bangladesh, and then we get to Armenian. Then Indonesia and Rwanda. It seems that every continent is full of these events. I haven't read Power's book, but she discusses how she discovered and learned about these things. She also does a lot of bearing witness, going to place and interviewing people, and then talking about it.
We like stories like Hotel Rwanda or Schindler's List because they portray people fighting against genocide, and yet they can't mask the horrors.
I heard about the Ukrainian genocide when I met a Ukrainian mother at the park. I recently read Buried My Heart At Wounded Knee about the American genocide of Native Americans. I'm not going to say I need to be educated about every single one, but I also need to not bury my head in the sand.
At a certain point in Power's struggle, I realized she was fighting unabashedly for not killing people and was therefore a bodhisattva. She took risks, her husband didn't want her going on a trip that was dangerous. She fought to have truthful language. She became a journalist to find out, she went to law school to increase her power, she worked in government to work on these issues. She became what was needed to fight these issues. She learned Serbo-Croatian.
I'm sure she's not perfect and people could criticize her mistakes in life, or quibble with aspects. But I am highly impressed with this woman, and I find her efforts and memoir fascinating.
I watch Community. Britta is all about knowing about these genocides, the murder of journalist. She tries to date one of Abed and Troy's friend. She ruins their friendships by giving details about these guys. So she witholds that one of their friends was a terrible murderer in the Bosnian genocide. She holds her tongue because she doesn't want to ruin it for Troy and Abed, but later when they find out, they yell at her for not thinking that was significant enough.
Power discusses bringing Ratko Mladić to justice, and the hunt to find him, holding people accountable in this modern age where information is more available.
Endnote: I don't think the USA should be the cops of the world, we are too imperfect and selfish in our deployment of military. But I really like having this aspect in the government working by all practical means to fight against genocide.
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