Interpositionary Peacekeeping: Putting It All Out There (a little late... my B!)

Interpositionary Peacekeeping is arguably one of the most dangerous, gutsy, and profound actions of non-violence. I mean think about it. Traditionally it is putting yourself out there as a PHYSICAL shield! Letting it all hang out there. Not just putting your mind or words into a dispute, but physically trying to stop two conflicting forces from merging. It takes a HUGE leap of faith, a whole lot of moxy, truly you believe something 100% before you commit your physical body to the resolution of dangerous conflict. I watched a movie recently about the Liberian Woman’s Movement in… you guessed it… Liberia. To sum it up, there was a struggle between two factions for political power, and the result was a country torn apart by the carnage of war. It was such a moving thing to watch. Here were a group of average (arguably… you’ll see why) women who simply had had enough. Enough violence, enough poverty, enough fear. One woman was describing how she had to flee once from her home with her two small children to her and walking 7 hours to her parents village. When they got there they were famished. Her young son said all he wanted was a bite of a doughnut. All the woman could think about is “how do I get my son some doughnut?”. Inevitably this awakened a passion in the woman to cry out for the support of the fellow women to fight the war around them with non-violent action and protest. When she was giving her rallying speech, there also happened to be a Muslim woman in the assembly (church) as well. She felt moved and also called out to her community. The result was the coming together of woman of multiple backgrounds. OK, sorry, rant, long story short, the woman got the current president and conflicting rebels to agree to have peace talks, using non-violent tactics. However, at the meetings, the delegates tried to leave before they had reached any sort of agreement. The women said HELL NO and created a human chain around the building and FORCED the male negotiators to stay until the had reached an agreement. There was even a point where someone tried to violently jump over the woman, but they replied with pushing him right back in. (There is much more to the story, and I would recommend you watch Celia’s DVD on the subject… it’s really inspiring). Anyways, the ability for these mothers and grandmothers to take such a stand is really heart wrenching and inspiring at the same time. To see the pain they feel everyday thinking of the danger their children are in, and then having the courage to put themselves at risk. It makes me wonder a few things:

Do we understand the connections we have? As students? As whatever ethnicity we are? As whatever gender? Religion? Where do we have that connection? And even past that: where can we extend our connection to include others? Where do we find just ourselves as human beings? Would we have the power to call upon others and ourselves to do such displays of non-violence?

I guess the final thing I think to myself is: Would I ever be able to put myself on the line in the name of seeking a non-violent solution to injustice?