Maria Arpa
Donald Trump is President of the USA. Let’s think about that for a moment. Donald Trump was elected by the people of America. He didn’t get the most votes. Hilary Clinton got the most votes but Donald Trump won the most seats so that makes him President.
No matter how you feel about it, this could be a massive opportunity. This outcome is very clear feedback. Enough people are so fed up with traditional political systems they would rather have a man with no political background be their president than continue with the same old system.
His campaign opened Pandora’s Box. It allowed people to vent their frustrations. The problem is how we choose to vent those frustrations. We can choose to express our frustration in ways which heal or harm.
In a world where we gag people so they can’t tell us they’re pissed off until they can’t hold it in any longer, giving people a chance to vent could be transformational. The potential for healing is huge.
But, because our systems work on adversarial and competitive processes, people usually duplicate what has always been modelled in mainstream; them and us, win or lose, fight or die, pick your side. There is another way of working with hostility, resentment, violence and frustration which deals with trauma, healing and transformation.
I heard Mr Trump solicit feedback so here’s mine: “Well done for getting to the root of what is bothering people and giving them a place to vent it through the election. Now, you really have your work cut out but you wouldn’t have taken this on if you didn’t think you could do it and as a business man, I guess you know the value of good negotiation and the benefits of deals that work for all the stakeholders?
I’m pretty sure what you don’t want is people against police, race against race or a downward spiral of increased violence. In fact, I heard you say that you want to serve every American citizen and I heard you use words like partnership and unity.
So having offered the people a real alternative, how about you really follow through with a sustainable alternative? Welcome to the Dialogue Road Map.”
After all, if we want people to take responsibility, we need to give them something that’s easy to learn and feels better than what they’re doing now.
We’ve just registered the ‘Center for Peaceful Solutions’ in the USA. Maybe our timing is bang on!!
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