Check for web archive captures
Change Wears Many Guises
By lindamuralidharan on 2009-03-17 23:30:39
I wrote some time back in a blog about personal transformation. I wrote in the context of how such transformations may
have an effect on how one acts and impacts the world around us. I have been thinking about this again as it relates to both
my own changes over time and over years and in relation to some news stories that have recently appeared. As I think about
change, I am reminded of people who have changed in any number of ways, and I have thought of folks who seemed stuck
in their ways and did not appear to the outside observer to change very much. I don't know of any evidence, for example,
that the cruel dictator Idi Amin softened in his determination to live according to whatever pleased him no matter whom he
hurt. In his later years, his actual power was taken away, and he lived in exile in another repressive society. This week we
have learned of the death of a fine actor, Ron Silver. He was one of the ones who seems to have changed. It has been
reported that for many years he supported liberal causes and the Democratic Party. After the attacks of 9/11, he switched
parties and became a major cheer leader for President George W. Bush and for the Republican Party. I don't know very
much about Ron Silver outside of his appearances in movies and on TV so I can't say how much he changed. Perhaps he
was always a hawk on international affairs - many Democrats are - while being a liberal with regard to domestic issues.
The evidence does show, however, that he changed his behavior in a major way. Recent tragic events reminded us of another
group of individuals who have experienced a significant transformation in their lives. Last week violence erupted in
Northern Ireland in a very sad and disgusting way. People presumed to be associated with the unreformed and militant
factions of the IRA are said to be responsible for the murder of two police officers. Nonetheless members of the current
government that believe in maintaining the peace and finding ways for the two sides to the conflict to continue working
together said that the murders will not change the determination to see that the peace holds. One spokesman is him self a
reformed militant member of the IRA. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is a former IRA commander. Somewhere
along the way he was transformed from a person who believed that his cause could be won only by violence to a person who
sees the advantage for his people and his cause in utilizing other means than killing. Fortunately he is not alone and the
peaceful efforts are widely supported. One can only hope that his group prevails. Another very moving testimonial to the
power of change was featured on TV and on blog pages a few weeks ago. A man named Elwin Wilson apologized to US
Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a black man, for the beating Wilson gave Lewis 48 years ago when Wilson was a
member of the Klu Klux Klan and Lewis was a civil rights worker. Wilson was very eloquent in talking about his
recognition today that the violence he engaged in as a Klan member was wrong, and there is no reason to attack a person
because of the color of his skin. He was not entirely clear about how his transformation occurred although he seemed to
suggest that he heard a particular traveling singing group that opened up his mind and heart to change. Although I cannot
say for sure, there was a hint that it was a gospel group that touched him so deeply. In any case, Wilson said he recognized a
number of years ago that his behavior as a Klan member had been wrong and now his conscience requires him to speak
publicly about it and the people he had wronged. Rep. Lewis was shown stating on TV that he forgives this man since his
own tradition teaches the principles of redemption and forgiveness. Just today still another hint of significant change was
reported in my local paper. It was reported that one of the major candidates for election to the presidency in Iran is a former
"hard liner" now running as a reform candidate in favor of opening up positive relationships with Western countries as well
as liberal reforms within Iran. This man is former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. Sometimes transformation starts
with an internal process of recognizing our common humanity. Sometimes we simply learn something that changes our
understanding of another person or group of people. I was listening on the radio to a tour guide speak to the Commonwealth
Club of San Francisco the other day about his recent visit to Iran. He spoke of being stuck in a traffic jam there when a near
by car asked his driver to roll down the window. Then the occupants of the other car handed him a bouquet of flowers and
made a statement of welcome to their country since they had recognized the tour guide as a foreigner. The tour guide's car
was stuck in traffic for some time longer, and at one point the driver said, "Death to traffic!" The tour guide was puzzled,
and so the driver explained that Iranians commonly express themselves that way when frustrated and/or angry. Obviously
the driver was not going to jump out of the car and try to do anything. It was just an expression. Well, that certainly changed
how I view some of the slogans we hear reported from Iran about crowds chanting "Death to America". After all, it is all too
common over here as well for people to make threats of bodily harm to people they are angry with. Almost never do people
mean they are going to carry out the threat. I already understood that about Americans, and yet I was inclined to take what
Iranian citizens said literally. I think it is pretty funny that it was a threat against that amorphous yet universal scourge, the
traffic jam, to create this change in me. Since I believe change is possible and see examples of it in many areas of life, I
continue to support a US policy of seeking those amenable to change in the diplomatic sphere, whether in Iran, Pakistan,
Afghanistan or elsewhere. I support policies which will set up conditons making a change to peaceful resolutions desirable
for all. I don't, however, support making any automatic assumptions about who might be willing to change and who might
not.
