Our next meeting is next week on Tuesday January 12th at 7 PM at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. We will be meeting downstairs in the Youth Lounge this month.
Won't you please join us!.
What is the Potential for an American Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
Several countries have used a truth and reconciliation process as a tool in promoting healing and achieving justice for state-sanctioned violence committed on its citizens. The January meeting will explore whether a TRC can work in the United States. A report from Human Rights Watch on the need for truth and reconciliation said this about South Africa:
“If a country is to come to terms with its past and successfully turn its attention to the future, it is essential that the truth of the past be officially established. It is impossible to expect ‘reconciliation’ if part of the population refuses to accept that anything was ever wrong, and the other part has never received any acknowledgment of the suffering it has undergone or of the ultimate responsibility for that suffering.”
So there are many issues to consider. Is America ready for such a movement? What are the preconditions necessary for it to be effective? What model would particularly fit this culture? How can it make a difference to the financial and emotional lives of those who have been oppressed?
We will open the meeting with several panelists who will address critical components of a truth and reconciliation process. Then engage everyone with your thoughts on how to move forward. To stimulate your thinking, please take a look at this article by Fania Davis (sister of Angela Davis) that was originally published in Yes! Magazine:
Note: this posting did not go up until after the event.
Regrets!