Sunday Musings - May 5, 2024
Gaslighting.
Today I want to briefly discuss the role of local and national leaders in educational institutions and the body politic.
First, I want to be very clear that I strongly believe that hateful speech or behavior against groups or individuals is not only morally and ethically wrong but counterproductive. Disagreement should not include hateful words or statements. Any statements or behavior directed at others which is intended to question or limit their status as humans deserving of respect will never lead to moral or ethical results.
Having said the above, I would like to suggest that the current response to demonstrators questioning the action of the Israeli state toward Palestine and the action of countries, such as the United States in providing weapons and other military aid to the government of Israel is gaslighting. In this instant I am intending to use the term to denote blaming the victim. The victims are those who have taken to the streets and college campus facilities to force our so-called leaders to, at the very least, lead the debate on what is moral or ethical in the behavior which has resulted in the death of not only many Jewish people but nearly 35,000 of those living in Palestine.
My understanding is that the staff and boards of educational institutions are responsible for:
o Teaching skills which will allow students to become proficient in assuming the tasks necessary to build and maintain communities which serve the basic needs of all life forms, including we humans.
o Teaching critical thinking and problem-solving skills
o Leading by example.
I was in college and graduate school during the era when we students were forced to ask the questions our educators, politicians and other leaders were not asking. Even though I attended graduate school at an Ivy League university, I cannot recall one instance of the President, administrative staff, board members, or teachers taking the initiative to facilitate debates on such important topics as the role, if any, the United States should have in such places as Vietnam or if one was complicit in the military action or in other mistreatment if one was investing money in the companies which supported such action. Those are basically the same questions the students and other young people are asking regarding our direct and indirect support of what some are calling a genocide of the Palestinians.
We know:
· The issue of a Palestinian State needs to be resolved.
· Since the horrendous attack by Hamas the current government of Israel has respondded by taking a page from the post 9/11 history of the United States.
· The Israeli government is determined to indiscriminately kill all Palestinians to locate and kill members of Hamas.
· There has been a systematic denial of the historic mistreatment of the Palestinians.
· The history of the Jewish people includes numerous polygons and the unthinkable reality of the Holocaust.
· There are some groups which would gladly push all Jews into the sea.
· There are and have been groups of Jews and Palestinians sitting down together to find ways to ensure a peaceful co-existence for many years.
· There is much we know and, perhaps, much we do not know.
When public institutions, including educational bodies, want to prevent the student takeover of buildings and sometimes destruction of buildings and equipment, they initiate:
· Organized debates about whether it is moral or ethical to make money from unethical or immoral actions/endeavors. Many responsible for ensuring the financial survival of schools and the nation have suggested it should be the sole goal of the money managers to make money regardless of the morality of the business in which it is invested. Others correctly state it is sometimes very difficult to track the specific organizations associated with investment groups or portfolios.
· Debates initiated by politicians and political entities with students about these and related issues when it is common knowledge future leaders have valid concerns.
Nothing excuses the gaslighting of students and others - often young people - who are forced to do what we adults have been unwilling to do. This is especially obvious when we present ourselves as educators and educational institutions. I have in this brief blog ignored the inaction of most - not all- religious institutions. In the mainline Christian church, I attend I have yet to hear one word suggesting a debate about our participation in the killing of nearly 35,000 Palestinians. The local temple did host a lecture defending the actions of the Israeli government which did include some time for audience comments and questions.
It is time we adults took responsibility for initiating and hosting open, civil, respectful debates about how we as a nation should invest our time, money, and weapons of mass destruction; about the morality/ethics of our actions as a nation.
Written May 5, 2024
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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