[Vision2020] the sitler affair

[Sally Perrine]

hello all,
I've been following the thread of the Sitler controversy, feeling like
there can be no resolution to this.  The whole thing is so sad.  Of course,
I can relate to the anguish of parents whose children were molested.  I can
also relate to the anguish of the 21-year old molester and his parents.  I
have 2 20-something kids; I have a good imagination.  If one of my kids
were involved in something like this, I would be overcome with grief.  I
would also not stop loving them.

Anyway, my point in getting into this discussion is this: after reading
a number of v2020 posts, I went to a forward from Ghazi (thanks!), and
read an amazing article by John Pilger
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13529.htm
(here's the website if anyone is interested), in which he is interviewing
an Israeli parent whose daughter was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
Here's the passage that struck me:
"I asked him: 'How do you distinguish the feelings of anger you must have
felt as a father at losing your daughter from the feeling of wanting to
reach out?'

'Very simple. I am a human being; I am not an animal. I lost my child, but I
didn't lose my head. Thinking and acting from the guts only increases an
endless circle of blood. You have to think: our two peoples are here to
stay; neither will evaporate. We have to compromise in some way. And you do
that by the head, not by the guts.'"

Now we are not Israeli-Palestinian, but we are certainly polarized - in this
community,
in this country.  How can we live together, talk, connect, reach out in a
healing sort of way?  Any ideas?

Sally Perrine