The Power of a Dream

There is a documentary film out that is playing in select theaters around the country that has a powerful message. I haven’t seen it as yet, but the reviews and discussions about it are moving. Bob Herbert is one of those who has seen it and wrote about it in his Op-Ed column with the NYT today. The name of the film is “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”. It is the story of a woman and her family had endured the agony of civil war in Liberia who speaks of a dream she had in 2003 in which someone urged her to organize the women of her church to pray for peace. “A crazy dream,” she said.

It must have seemed like little more than wishful thinking and surely not much to fight back the forces of Charles Taylor, who was tyrannical president at the time and the brutally predatory rebels who were trying to oust him from power. Herbert says that the violence was excruciating. People were dying the tens of thousands, rape was commonplace, and children were starving. There were scenes showing even small children whose limbs had been amputated.

According to Herbert, for him it was about much more than the tragic and the ultimately uplifting events in Liberia. It was about the power of ordinary people to intervene in their own fate. Perhaps we could all learn a lesson from this movie. Not that our current problems could in any way be compared to what the people of Liberia suffered, but it does show what people with a common goal can achieve.

The film captures the almost unimaginable horror that war imposes on noncombatants; the looks of terror on the faces of people fleeing gunfire in the streets; children crouching and flinching, almost paralyzed with fear by the sound of nearby explosions; homes engulfed in flames.

It’s the kind of environment that breeds feelings of helplessness. But Leymah Gbowee, the woman who had the crazy dream, would have none of that. And she should most definitely be a lesson to all of us.

Ms. Gbowee not only rallied the women at her Lutheran church to pray for peace, but organized them into a full-blown, all-women peace initiative that spread to other Christian churches and then to women of the Muslim faith.

They wanted the madness stopped. They wanted an end to the maiming and the killing, especially the destruction of a generation of children. They wanted to eradicate the plague of rape. They wanted all the things that noncombatants crave whenever the warrior crowd – whether in the U.S., the Middle East, Asia –wherever – decides it’s time once again to break out the bombs and guns and let the mindless killing begin.

When the Liberian Christians reached out to “their Muslim sisters,” there was some fear on both sides that such an alliance could result in a dilution of faith. But the chaos and the killing had reached such extremes that the religious concerns were set aside in the interest of raising a powerful collective voice.

They had sit-ins, stand-ins; they moved out of the churches and mosques to demonstrate, to protest, to enlist all who would listen in the cause of peace. Working with practically no resources save their extraordinary will and intense desire to end the conflict, the women’s initial efforts evolved into a movement, the Liberian Mass Action for Peace.

Their headquarters was an open-air fish market in the capital, Monrovia. Thousands of women showed up daily, praying, waving signs, singing, dancing, chanting and agitation for peace. And nothing could stop their rallies at the market, not the fierce heat of the sun, not drenching rainstorms, nor the publicly expressed anger of Mr. Taylor, who was embarrassed by the protests. Oh, I bet he was pissed – my words this time, not Mr. Herberts!

But it worked! A tentative peace was established, Mr. Taylor went into exile in Nigeria. The women continued their activism. Three years ago, on Jan. 16,2006, in an absolutely thrilling triumph for the mothers and wives and sisters and aunts and grandmothers who had worked so courageously for peace, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as the president of Liberia – the first woman ever elected president of a country in Africa. Hey, sound familiar? Remember what we have just done? Okay, maybe we should take notice and make sure Obama has the support he needs so that he’s not forced into actions that already have people complaining about being disappointed in him. For God’s sake, for our sake, give him time and the support that he needs instead of the already steady flow of friggin’ criticism!

Liberia is hardly the world’s most stable society. But “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” reminds us of the incredible power available to the most ordinary of people if they are willing to act with courage and unwavering commitment. And let me underline in red, no bad mouthing a president in office for less than a month who is trying desperately to bring people together from both sides to bring about the change that we need. Not to mention our own Democrats who are behaving about as badly as I’ve ever seen! When does the nitpicking stop? When do people and politicians, for maybe once in their life, try to do what’s best for the country instead of squabbling? I have lots of questions, but not so much for Obama as for the rest of us.

To read the whole article without my big mouth, check out Herbert’s column for today.