Give everyone thine ear, but few thy voice. - Re-evaluation Counseling

Give everyone thine ear, but few thy voice. 

•-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Here's the October issue. We hope you enjoy it. It has been fun to put together for 

you. Many artists have sent drawings and photographs recently and you'll see how rich 

this issue is because of It. 

Almost every issue several people c all with workshop Information or address 

changes too late for us to include them, so I think It might be useful to tell you a bit 

about our schedule. Our published deadline to receive information and articles is the 

tenth of the month before Present Time is dated. (So the deadline for the January Issue 

is December 10th.) if you get your contributions to us by then, we have enough time to 

get the work organized and can do It at a reasonable pace. If you get workshop information 

or address changes to us by the 15th of the month, we may still be able to fit it In by 

re-doing some of the lists. Present Time Is printed in Seattle and that step generally 

takes two weeks, so our goal is to have our part of the work done by the 15th or 16th so 

we can get the issue back by the first of the next month and begin mailing it to you. Obviously 

we don't always meet this goal, but we keep trying. 

That's the long way of saying, please send your contributions for the January issue to 

us by December 10th. Thanks! 

Ann Steele 

719 Second Avenue North 

Seattle, Washington 98109 

USA 

CONTENTS 

Articles about Counseling —3-23 

Understanding and Using Organizational Forms Harvey Jackins - 

6Transcending 

Owning-Class Distress Nancy Kline - 

-1 

New 1 Commitments Harvey Jackins - 

8- 

1Thinking 5 Clear?) ! 

Co-Counseling 

1• , 

4 

A b o u) t in Training Social Workers Joke Hermsen - 

Liberation 1R 9 e l i 

—24-32 

g i 

Counseling 

- 

Practice —33-41 

o 

11 

n 

Wide 2M 2 

1 World i c Changing —43-48 

From h the a Mail e —49-68 

Teaching, 

6 

l Leading, and Community-Building —69.75 

Poems i —32, 75 N . - - 

Information J 

s 

o Coordinators —76-79 

Workshops h 

i 

n —80-81 

Publications M —82-85 

n 

Reference u Persons For Organized Areas —86-88 

Teachers C 

l 

Outside of Organized Areas —88-92 

Contacts h —93 

q 

a 

u 

r 

APPRECIATIONS 

i 

g 

n 

Layout: 

e 

- Ann Steele and Katie Kauffman 

7)pesetting: o Valerie Jaworski 

Proofreading, 

1 

f 

9 

shipping, and other help: Marie Hart, Carol Hennessy, Gordon 

- 

a Jackins, 2 Donna Johnston, Betsy Putnam, Marion Riekerk 

Corer 0 

S 

photo: Edinburgh, Scotland, by Harvey Jackins 

Draunngs by: Betty Becker, Jane Bunker, John &br inger , Dana Ilto- 

Rutherford, e Kati e Kauffm an, Fr ed Keller , M ichael Misgen, 

Maha s Rarnakrishna, Sarah Ross, Noyita Saravia, Li nda Schatz, 

Annebet s Stam, Ann Steele, Dave Sudbury, David Tatgenborst, 

Tamara Thiebaux, unknown artistk 

i 

Photographs by: Conrad Contzen, Wayne Lottinville, David Pascale 

o 

n 

PRESENT TIME Is published quarterly in January, April, July, and Oc- 

? 

tober for$10.00 for aono-year subscription Inside the U.S. arid 02:00 for 

a one-year subscription to other countries, InOluding postage, by Rational 

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Island Publishers, Inc., 719 Second Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 

a 

98109, USA. Application to mall at second-class postage rates is pend- 

r 

ing at Seattle Washington. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 

PRESENT TIME, PO Box 2081, Main Office Station, Seattle, Washington 

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98111, USA. 

e 

y 

Copyright 

J 

1986 by Rational Island Publishers, PO Box 2081, Main Office Station, Seattle, Washington 98111, USA 

$2•50 (USA), $3.00 other countries 

a 

c 

k

SOCIETY'S MOST IMPORTANT JOBS 

Parents do major work as parents in every society. We train, provide for, and nurture the next generation 

of workers and citizens. In some societies and at certain times in history 1 this job has been recognized 

and valued more than others. 

Historically, when a people have been devastated by war, disease, or famine, mothers in ,particular 

have been revered, protected, and even subsidized. 

Some countries, like the People's Republic of China and Sweden, pay parents a stipend for their work 

as parents. Some cultures in Africa pay a special respect to fathers and mothers. All work stops to inquire 

after the parents' well-being and mothers and fathers receive honored places at village events. 

There are a number of societies that give more than lip service to the fact that young people, their 

education, their well-being, and their future as Powerful members of the society is the responsibility of 

everyone. Young people are greeted by adults as son or daughter, and adults as uncle and aunt in 

numerous countries. In the USSR and in some U.S. neighborhoods, if adults see some young person 

misbehaving or being mistreated they naturally assume responsibility for correcting the situation whether 

they know the young person or not. 

In the People's Republic of China and parts of Israel there is good child care available to parents free of 

charge when they need to work or exercise or just be in adult company for a while. It is not even assumed 

that young people will live with their parents. The role of the parent is not usurped by the state, but rather• 

supported so parents have a better chance to do the good job every parent wants to do. Societies where 

this kind of support of parenting is most prevalent tend to be ones where classism is understood and permanent 

gains have been made for workers as a whole. 

In the United States some support of children has gained acceptance. Child support', aid to nursing 

mothers, and Head Start pre-school programs are proof of this. But even these programs are seen as a gift 

to children whose prents have failed, rather than legitimate social support of the work of parents. Parents 

are held accountable; legally, morally, and financially, for their offspring; yet it is the society as a whole 

that gains by their good work as parents. In the U.S, it is assumed that adequate support and compensation 

for parenting consists of the affection returned to parents by their children. This increasingly makes 

the work of parents more difficult. 

• 

More and more two-parent families find it necessary for both parents to work to get the same real income 

that a one-worker family had in years past. Single parents have it even tougher. This trend will 

probably continue as equal pay for equal work for men and women is experiencing setbacks and more and 

more U.S. workers are underemployed or will never find work again until the society is Changed, Today 

there are fewer resources available to support young children of working parents than in the recent past: 

There are fewer day care centers and larger class sizes; less money is spent on education. There are 

millions of young children every day who have no adult present with them at home during the day. In a 

society where you are a failure if you are not doing better economically and providing better for your 

family than your parents' did, most parents feel like failures. It is amazing that parents continue to do so 

well with their young people while they are under so much pressure and are blamed for the results of 

government policies that make their job so difficult. 

Patents can change all this. We are a powerful forbe because of the indispensable work we do. When we 

speak in a unified way, our voice is heard. We have the chance to &lite past all class, religious, national, 

and racial barriers. There is no stronger bond between people than their hopes for a better world and better 

lives for their children. We can start by not blaming ourselves, by realizing that all parents' are good 

parents who fight hard situations to do the job they do. We can choose a viewpoint of making things even 

more the way they should be for our children. We can organize to create the societal support we need to 

do that job. The time has come for a strong and effective parents' union. 

3 

CHUCK, ESSER 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA

REACHING WOMEN IN MICRONESIA 

The appointment of me as Regional Reference Person 

for the Pacific Islands was the key piece in the 

puzzle of "What next?" Becoming RRP pulls together 

everything I've done this summer and provides the 

framework by which to choose among the many options 

I have for the future. 

About six months ago I began teaching RC one-onone 

with a world leader, Alice Buck. She had found 

my name in the back of Present Time, Alice grew up in a 

missionary family in Micronesia, speaks Marshallese 

and Kosraen fluently, and is dedicated to the growth 

and re-emergence of the peoples of Micronesia. Four 

years ago, she created a series of workshops called 

SHINE (sincerity, health, intelligence, and enthusiasm) 

for the church women of Micronesia. In May she 

invited me to be one of seven resource women for the 

workshops. I thought carefully about my goals before 

I embarked on this adventure. They were: to enjoy 

myself and to learn, to act as a resource person for the 

other six' women and to form close relationships with 

each of them, to learn to present RC in a manner 

meaningful and respectful of the different cultures, to 

begin relationships with women leaders on each of the 

islands, to learn to teach through interpreters, and to 

scuba dive in the lagoons of Truk. Having these goals 

in mind was extremely helpful; they gave me an exceptionally 

clear focus for my actions and certainly 

gave me a great deal of satisfaction in my own evaluation 

after the jouiney. 

My classes were named "Conflict Resolution and 

Listening Skills." For five weeks, I taught basic RC 

theory and the framework for sessions in two countries 

(the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of 

Micronesia), at four different sites (Majuro, Truk, 

Kosrae, and Ponape). What a big smile I had upon 

watching 150 Trukese doing mini-sessions! People re'. 

sponded with joy (and much initial embarrassment) to 

being listened to without interruption. The questions 

and comments were plentiful, positive, and thoughtful. 

I was able to reach over 700 women (and a peppering 

of men) in those weeks. • • 

What did I learn? First, abstract theory crash-landed 

on my first day in Micronesia. Concrete connections 

with daily life are essential. Using visual tools 

worked well. When I re-thought my disastrous first 

day of classes, I decided to use a film I had brought 

from Hawaii made by Claudia Chotzen, "Molokai 

Family: A Gift to My Children." A Hawaiian woman 

of amazing strength and perception shows how she has 

dealt with tonaily strife and the conflict between 

Western and Hawaiian cultures. Every day I would 

talk five minutes of theory, show a part of the film, 

then have people do mini-sessions based on their feelings 

about the film. It worked very well. 

4 

Second, it helps to have the interpreter on my side. 

Subsequently, I spent time with my interpreters, and 

when possible either Co-Counseled or gave them oneway 

time. Third, once again, I saw how important 

trust is. When Alice worked with me, I could see 

everyone's faces open up in love. Because of the years 

and effort she has expended, they trust her completely. 

Fourth, translating the materials into each of the 

four different languages was a smart move. People appreciate 

the use of their own language. Assisting Alice 

with the translations gave me an initial feel for each 

language. Fifth, taking care of my mental and physical 

self is very important—eating rationally, resting 

well, spending relaxed time I had lots of feelings 

while doing these sensible activities. Not paying attention 

to the undercurrent of desperation about doing 

all things all the time was difficult but possible. 

Sixth, forming loving, caring relationships with the 

leaders is a big step towards the re-emergence of a people. 

Doing mini-sessions or giving one-way time (even 

a few minutes) can completely change someone's viewpoint. 

I enjoyed the exuberant love of the peoples I met. 

The incredibly strong family structures i n these 

cultures. The joy of singing that pervades Micronesia. 

The fact that parenting is accepted and supported as 

going beyond,the biological parents. The creative and 

deliciously prepared home-grown foods and fish. The 

loving strength of the women awl their insistence on 

searching for the best for their people. Scuba diving in 

the wondrous Truk lagoon among rainbow colors. 

My strong introduction to Micronesia will be the 

basis for more work in the 'future. My clinic, the 

Waianac Coast Comprehensive Health Center on 

Oahu, has been chosen a$ the resource center for establishing 

primary health care clinics in Micronesia. 

am on the committee to plan for this interaction. 

Later — 

'Yoking that time with you last week let me drop the 

"worry" part of presenting revolutionary skills to an 

unknown audience. I felt cotapulted into joy and confidence; 

my desire to impart this invaluable information 

took precedence over everything else. You also 

,interrnpted my "if I can,possibly (:;lo it, I MUST" and 

spy "do or die stuff. I did get a little tired over the 

three days of the conference when women flocked to 

me for , attention, , but I Would take a break in the afternoon 

and just walk in the soft breezes of Manoa. 

The box of materials you so kindly sent me in Truk 

were distributed in this way: the leader from each major 

village was given a copy of The Human Side of Human

Beings, Sisters, and several copies of Welcome to Re-evaluation 

counseling. The two precious copies of the Women's 

Liberation Policies: one given to a woman leader in 

Truk who is on the edge of making a move to be the 

first woman politician in Truk and the other to Alice 

Buck, the coordinator and founder of these workshops. 

So each 'village in Truk, Kosrae, and Pohnpei 

and the Marshall Islands has a copy of The Human Side 

of Human Beings and an issue of Sisters. 

I'm looking forward to spending several hours at my 

computer to write an article about Micronesia and my 

exciting work there. I 'm setting my sights on the 

teachers' and leaders' workshop the end of August. 

Still Later — 

I've been asked to conduct a workshop for the State 

of Hawaii's Commission for the Status of Women Conference 

in October. 

I also had the marvelous experience of forming an 

alliance with a powerful old-time union organizer at 

the conference. She's been fifty-five years on the front 

lines and thinks volumes per second. Also, I received a 

tentative invitation to an international women's conference 

in the Philippines this fall. 

Later— 

The Northern California Teachers' and Leaders' 

Conference was such an incredibly luxurious experience 

for me. The new conimitments are wonderful. 

Anne laughed up a storm just looking at the Commitment 

Against Pretense. Hearing a review of the tools 

we have to change the world was invigorating and 

prompted me to escalate my plans for my community 

to a large scale with more efficient use of my energies.. 

Two days after my return from San Francisco I gave 

a short workshop at the Waianae Coast Health Center, 

the clinic where I am employed as an emergency room 

physician and general practitioner. I taught some 

basic theory and the response was enthusiastic: one 

woman promptly went home and practiced taking 

turns for "several hours" with her husband; she was 

ecstatic about the results. So with that kind of feedback, 

I'm starting an "Exhaustion, overload, discouragement 

and what to do about it" support group on 

Mondays for the entire clinic. (We have about 120 on 

staff, about 85% women, 80% Third World, serving 

the largest native Hawaiian population on Oahu.) I'm 

also thinking about a Saturday morning workshop for 

the Emergency Room staff (by request of one of the 

head nurses upon hearing of my work in Micronesia). 

Actually, this is the beginning of a grand scheme that's 

been rolling around in my bean for the past five to six 

years about restructuring the medical system along 

humane lines. I n my fifteen years of work in medicine, 

I've been appalled by the callous treatment of all 

people (patients, providers, and administrators of 

health care) by a system purportedly structured to. 

"care" for people. The Emergency Room is like sexual 

distress; the ER draws the various distresses of the 

system into one physical place and everyone's distresses 

bounce off the walls, collide, gather more momentum 

and eventually explode. I am always jarred as I 

walk into the ER and am bombarded by high-volume 

clienting. So, anyway, another challenge waving from 

the balcony. 

I'm delighted by a recent invitation to present an 

evening to the Waianae Coast Business and Professional 

Women's Association in two weeks. I plan to 

spend an hour with the president before the meeting 

and to start our relationship off with fireworks as I 

give her unadulterated attention. I was pleased to 

spend time with Debbie Kimball to hear of her new 

projects on Kauai and to enhance our new relationship. 

I am compiling the translations and back-translations 

that Alice and I did in Kosrean, Pohnpeian, , 

Trukese, and Marshallese. I hope to enclose those 

with my next letter. I look forward to hearing about 

Hungary, Yugoslavia, and China. 

April Sasaki- 

Aiea, Hawai4 -USA •:

UNDERSTANDING AND USING 

ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS 

—Harvey „Pains 

In other places we have discussed the fundamental actions which you, as an individual, can take 

to begin the formation of a world-class community around yourself and the assumption by yourself 

of world-wide leadership and influence. 

STEPS TO WORLD LEADERSHIP 

These have been summarized as 

(1) Giving up permanently and completely the ancient and universal (until now) habit of seeking 

to claim other people's attention and their listening to you when with them (the only exceptions being 

when the other person or persons understand how to be an effective counselor and has or have 

agreed to be counselor to you at that particular time); 

(2) Substituting for the ancient habit a new active attitude, whenever with other persons, of paying 

attention to them, and listening to them, of enhancing their functioning (and possibly their reemergence) 

by approval of them, validation of them, iiiterest in them, confidence for them and in 

them, high expectations of them, contradiction of their distress (and directing their attention away 

from their distress) and sometimes, assisting them to discharge; 

(3) Teaching, expecting, and assisting the most responsible of the people around you to become 

leaders to the people around them by following your model of how to do it; 

(4) Teaching these leaders how to teach the other people to be leaders, in the same way as they are 

learning to be leaders from you; and 

(5) Communicating to these successive spheres of influenced and informed people the theory and 

practice of recovering our occluded intelligences and leading, inspiring, and organizing people to 

eliminate all practices by which humans harm humans, that we have called Re-evaluation Counseling. 

Theory, policy, goal-setting, organization, decision, and action are all necessary to attain the full 

re-emergence and the benign societies we all desire. Organization, in particular, is a field in which 

we have operated intuitively and without much rigorous discussion in recent periods. We have certainly 

been making organizational progress, however, and have accumulated many good experiences 

from which we can deduce useful generalities. 

ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS 

As we experienced Co-Counselors proceed with the construction of our individual world communities, 

we will need to organize our community members, will need to understand and use effective 

organizational forms. I have been trying to examine some of the basic forms that I observe us using in 

our work, We have familiar labels for them in many cases (and I think these labels will remain useful 

for us in defining them and in communicating with each other about them); but clarification 

and understanding of the content of these forms will be more useful than simply settling for the labels. 

6

THE SESSION 

The first form can be called the SESSION. Its content is two (or more) persons paying helpful, interested 

attention to one of the persons. Most of the action in the fourth paragraph of this article will,qualify as a 

SESSION. We already know of the possibility of, and already use, Co-Counseling sessions (two-way sessions), 

one-way sessions, three-way sessions, mini-sessions, telephone sessions', intensive sessions, correspondence-by-mail 

sessiOns, formal sessions, informal sessions, supervised sessions, and many others. The t e n 

-which 

one person says, "I feel depressed this morning," and another replies, "I'm sorry. You look 

s 

fine. 

e c 

Have 

o n d 

a nice 

e x 

day," 

c h 

qualifies 

a n g 

as 

e 

a SESSION, 

i 

in 

n 

My opinion. Two or more persons paying helpful, interested 

attention to one of the persons. 

THE CLASS 

Let's call the second organizational form the CLASS. Its content is communication to one or more persons 

of some of the knowledge of what people are like, what they can do and how they can do it (how they can recover their inherent 

intelligence and power) which we collectively have called Re-evaluation Counseling theory and practice. This 

knowledge has been hidden from people by patterns, by mis-information, and by the oppressive 

practices of societies. We have recovered a great deal of it out of occlusion and continue to learn 

more and more. Every bit of this knowledge is precious to every person who learns it. It has already 

dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. 

We are familiar with fundamental classes, ongoing classes, advanced classes, a great variety of 

special-purpose classes. I would include the informal communication Of even one piece of information 

under this label. "I've heard it's good to let babies cry. Let me hold her while you shop," 

qualifies as a CLASS. So does loaning a piece of RC literature. The communication of RC knowledge to one 

or more persons. 

THE SUPPORT GROUP 

The SUPPORT GROUP is the next most used form. The basic content of the SUPPORT GROUP 

is each person in a group having a turn at being listened to without interruption. An RCer may have to insist on the 

"no interruption" practice the first few times in a wide-world group, bilt the "no interruptions" will 

then be insisted on by the members as they experience the two great benefits of (I) actually being 

listened to and ,(2) actually hearing what other people are saying. 

We already have women's support groups, men's support groups, support groups of every kind of 

commonality, within RC and Without. Support group forms have spread from RC to wide sections 

of the population that have never yet heard of RC. 

In general, every RCer should organize the content of a SUPPORT GROUP whenever she or he 

finds herself or himself with two or more other people. This includes at the bus stop, driving to 

work, on the work break, the lunch hour, at other meals, on all social occasions. This is what all 

people hope for from each other when together, but, because of the ancient habit, don't know how 

to bring it about or how to take turns. 

Each person in a group having a turn at being listened to without interruption. 

THE LEADERS' GROUP 

The WYGELIAN-TYPE LEADERS' GROUP* is an organizational break-through. Its content is 

each leader in a group of leaders who share a commonality of purpose, having four basic needs of rational leadership met. 

Each leader needs a chance to review his or her past leadership before peers, needs to share information 

with peers, needs to set goals in the hearing of peers, and needs to receive counseling assistance 

where distress is limiting his or her leadership. These are the four points of the Wygelian 

leaders' agenda. c o n t i n u e d . . 

*See PRESENT TI ME No. 54, pp. 3-5 and No. 55, pp. 13-14. 

7 

_ 

A 

A 

* 

.

c o n ti n u e d 

Such a leaders' group format eliminates the traditional "group programs," "checking up on each 

other," "argning," "clienting," and "dramatizing at each other' which has been traditional in the 

best of previous functioning of leaders in the same field. 

The WYGELIAN-TYPE LEADERS' GROUP works well in coordinating the work of RC 

leaders. It works well in leading, and developing leadership for, the special background and special 

liberation groups within and without RC. It works well in the wide world with leaders who know 

nothing of RC, providing an RCer uses RC skills as the Consultant to the group. 

THE WORKSHOP 

An RC workshop involves many highly developed practices which guarantee these workshops 

almost uniform success. The "Organizer's Guidelines for International and Regional Workshops," 

which is in the possession of most RC leaders, covers many details of these forms. I shall not try to 

summarize them here, but, instead, I ask readers of this article to send me lists of the organizational 

forms they see present in an RC workshop, and the contents of these forms. 

THE PANEL 

The PANEL is an organizational form that has evolved steadily and has lately proven very effective 

at ending misunderstandings between the women and the men in RC. Part of the oppression of 

men is to condition them not to talk about themselves and never tell of their hardships or hurts. In 

general, women have not known this. At recent workshops I have asked four to twelve men to appear 

as a panel in front of the workshop, where I question each one in turn as to "what it has been 

like to be a male" at each period of his life, as an infant, as a toddler, early grade school, later grade 

school, middle school, college, young adult, and at present. As each period's hurts are recalled I ask, 

"Where did you go for comfort?" The answers reveal to women listeners a reality of males' lives they 

have never suspected and open the door to much better communication between women and men., 

Some questions that the panel moderator will find useful with panels of oppressed groups are; 

"What has been great about being a ( W y g e l i a n ) ? What has been hard about being a 

( W y g e l l a n ) ? Whatdoyouwishotherpeopleknewo r understoodaboutyourkindo f 

Wygelians? What do you wish non-Wygelians would never say again? What would a non-Wygelian 

who was a perfect ally for Wygellans be like? How do you wish Wygelians would relate to each 

other?" 

OTHER FORMS? 

What other organizational forms do you recognize in our 

What , econtent? v o l v How i n g can we Ruse these C in our contacts with other people as our world-class communities 

p 

grow 

r a 

around 

c t 

us? 

i c e ? 

W h a t 

l a b e l s ? 

8

WEDNESDAY 

AT THE KENYA WORKSHOP 

(LETTER FROM BARBARA LOVE) 

(After Barbara Love, International Liberation Reference Person for Black Persons, attended the Nairobi Interna, 

tional Women's Conference in 1985, she was asked to return to Kenya in 1986 to lead an RC women's workshop. 

Wanjiku Kironyo of Nairobi organized the workshop and women from seven countries, all new to RC; attended.) 

TUESDAY — 

Three new people have come today. We decided on these last that they can be here as observers. We 

, c a n n o t afford to pay for their Meals. 

I am thinking that some people have come because of the promise of a meal. Some have come because 

they heard there was a workshop where they teach you how to solve your problems. I believe some 

thought it was a workshop where their problems would be solved. Some had some idea of what the workshop 

is about, but came looking for traditional counseling. 

A few seem to really understand and some faces I look at and I just can't tell. Yet I am encouraged. If a 

core of fifteen people becomes committed- to Co-Counseling, I will consider it a great success. We have 

spent far snore with fewer results in other areas, so I am reminding me that the process is developmental. 

It doesn't happen overnight — poof, one big workshop and there's your Community. On and on the hard 

work must continue. 

• 

I have them doing Co-Counseling reports. Each person has one Minute to say what they did and said as 

counselor and how it felt being counselor. I hear who actually counseled and who did not I get clues to 

how well they are understanding. Many of them report, "I told her to tell God her problems and he will 

solve ' W h a t am I going to do with this? Well, I am trying to keep it light. I do lots of derhonstradons 

and validate and praise everyone who says, "I just listened and encouraged her to talk about her 

problems." , 

Again this morning, I seemed to know exactly where to begin, what to say and how to say it. It feels 

great to know exactly what to do at every moment and to relaxedly do it. 

• O n e problem is thatWanjikti, who organized the workshop, is unable to attend most of the workshop. 

She is constantly pulled out for this or that This morning she has to go to immigration to take care of 

matters for some of the people from outside the Country. It is only because she has a friencl,there that we 

don't have to pay excessive fees for officials who can't get anything done otherwise. 

Wanjiku has done a great job organizing. Next year„ we will be able to do snore screening and selecting. 

You Can help me on this M y attitude is completely stuck, I am sure. You see, I want to include only 

people who are eager to learn 

. R C . 

People who just sit and look during the mini-Sessions, I would send home immediately. If you don't 

want to do it, leave. Don't waste my time or this space. There are about ten people here: I would send 

home right away, I am sure that I would lose some real gems since you can't tell anything by looking at 

folks' faces, and you can't tell a lot by looking at what they do, certainly not at this stage of the game. If I 

had been in charge, applying these rules, I would probably not have lasted in RC' 

This morning was a miracle. I talked about internalized oppression in the context of Africa, colonization, 

neo-colonialism and imperialism and their effects. Then I talked about the levels of discharge, Then 

I did demonstrations and there was much discharge. 

In the counseling reports this afternoon, most of the people reported they had stopped giving advice 

and trying to solve the client's problem and were able to listen and encourage their client to talk. Several 

continued 

9

conti nued 

reported their client was crying. Others reported yawning and shaking. Some reported, "I found I was 

able to listen to my client and not interrupt her to tell about my problems." 

This all seems like a miracle to me after the first day. They are looser now and asking more questions. 

One man talked to me at break. He wants to teach KC to the youth group at his church and he wants 

me to run a workshop for the group when I come back next summer. 

He told me that I had a clear, simple way of explaining it so that people understand. Most of them cannot 

understand USers, but they cah understand me perfectly. He said his mother who speaks Kiswahill 

and Gikyku said she understood me just fine. They thought I was a Kenyan who had spent a lot of time in 

the U.S. and that was why they could understand so well. Halleujah. Halleujah. 

The language barrier was my biggest anxiety. I have passed the test. 

1 

0 

Barbara Love 

Amherst, Massachusetts, USA 

photo by W ayne Lotti nv i l l e

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: 

For the last few months I have been challenging a number of individual leaders in RC Communities 

who have owning-class backgrounds to begin to contradict and discharge some of the more "comfortable" 

patterns which the oppression of owning-class people', particularly as children, has left upon 

them. These are patterns which are often resented by non-owning-class people, but because they are 

contradictory to the patterns imposed on working-class people, are sometimes emulated by middle-class 

individuals and working-class individuals. They have begun to hold back the growth of the RC Communities, 

and the recruitment of large numbers of working-class people into them, because of the resentment 

often felt toward these patterns. 

Among thesb patterns are a kind of arrogance, condescension, "taking over," the assumption that 

what is good for the owning-class individual is automatically good for everybody, and seeing the main 

issue in progress to be the reaching of the "unenlightened" owning-class people by the "enlightened" 

owning-class individuals. I would suggest that just as any rational society will be class-less, that is, 

everyone who works manually will also work intellectually and will manage and will own the means of 

production, so the job of owning-class leaders in RC (and we have a number of them and they have done 

some excellent leading) is primarily to bring the working class into RC and into leadership of RC in large 

numbers and that if this is neglected, all the other good things they are doing are largely ineffective. 

Below are some thinking and some actions in response to these challenges by our cherished Nancy 

Kline. I think you will find her thinking very interesting, certainly if you are owning-class, and I think 

even if you are working-class-raised-poor, as are the majority of us. 

—Harvey jackins 

TRANSCENDING OWNING-CLASS DISTRESS 

Earlier this evening Keith Miller led a gather-in for wOrking-cliss, and oWnitt&lass Counselors, building 

alliances. It was very good. People said that the working-class workshop he led this weekend Was also good. I learned 

a lot about brevity and brilliance from him tonight. His firm knowledge that the job is always re-emergence and that 

we are going to make it out, were important to me. His working-class perspective and the concrete, hurnortitis nononsense 

way he held it out were also 

effective and easy to learn from. He is ing class w i l l b e arrogant a n d see that supporting working-class 

a good communicator. V c o u n t e r - p r o d u c t i v e ; and it came part- leadership directly and systematically 

ly, no doubt, out of owning-class in- i s entirely in the interest o f our 

T 

• •• 

you h— 

good things have happened the working class and of uselessness mean a reversion to earlier years 

since e o u r last phone conv'efsation• i n any movement to actually change when owning-class issues were not 

There 

r 

were several things you said the class system. u n d e r s t o o d or addressed. So the time 

which took root and have helped Me i s especially right for us as owningto 

e think more clearly and boldly. In A t any rate,: our conversation the class people to take this clear next 

fact, i nothing has been quite the same other night shifted that f o r me. step. Individual Orning-class people 

for s me since. Most important I think Thank you. .• •• „ . . . . h a v e been doing this somewhat, parwas 

myour 

reminding me in a way I t i c u l a r l y in England, but I think that 

heard f o r the first t ime that the A s a result I can now see much a s a whole now the RC owning-class 

primary u role of the owning class in more clearly the larger picture o f population can move in this direction 

changing c society is to support work 

owning-class work in. RC which has energetically. Owning-class leaders 

-ing-class 

h leadership. For a long time cOncerned you. I agree that it is time can focus our workshops and classes 

have 

- 

been assuming that our role was that owning-class work focus primari- o n the questions: "What are you do 

primarily to reach owning-class peo- ly on our supporting working-class in g to support working-class leaderpie, 

w"enlighten" 

them, and thus help leadership in every way we have ac- ship?" "How directly is your support 

pave a a less violent road to permanent cess to. And I think that we are in linked to the future establishment of a 

change, n This position came partly Sound shape.to do it. These past four worker-owned-and-run economic 

out c of knowing that, until owning_ years of owning-class work have cre- system?" " If you were to put your 

class people have understood and ated a base of understanding of the resources and abilities and advan- 

begun t work on their own internalized nature o f owning-class' oppression tages into helping to build workingoppression, 

e their support of the work- and a base of safety and ongoing close class leadership in the world, what 

r 

relationships which make it easier to would your plans be for the next 

conti nued 

n 

a 

l 

i 

1 

z 

1 

e 

-

contfnued 

period of time?" 

Since my talk with you, I have 

thought almost non-stop about what 

supporting working-class leadership 

means, correctly. There a re th e 

things I have already been doing, 

such as meeting with working-class 

leaders in my Region to encourage 

RC working-class leadership a n d 

making sure that class issues are addressed 

early on in RC classes and 

seeing to it that working-class people 

teach RC and that there are frequent 

working-class workshops and gatherings 

in the Region. These are important 

and I can do far more of them 

and do them more effectively. 

But I agree with you that it is very 

important also to get people into RC 

who are working-class activiSts o r 

trade-union members, people who already 

have access to groups or organizations 

of working-class people. 

And isn't it as crucial for owningclass 

people to challenge every working-class 

person actually t o effect 

radical change in their work place 

and to take leadership as a Nyorkingclass 

person in the wide world everywhere? 

For example, it is clearly important 

for people to be supported to 

lead and build unions, but isn't it true 

that the long-range picture of real, 

stable, a n d rationally-led wo rke r 

ownership is where the bulk of our attention 

should be? Much as Keith 

said tonight, class oppression is different 

from other kinds of oppression. 

When sexism is gone, for instance, 

we will still have men and women; 

when anti-Semitism is gone, we will 

still have Jews; and when racism is 

gone, we will still have people of color 

and whites; b u t when classism is 

gone, we will not have classes. We 

will have one population of people 

working and owning together. And 

so, isn't the owning-class role t o 

eliminate itself as an oppressor class 

and support working-class leaders to 

eliminate the working class as an oppressed 

class and to create a classless 

society, which is owned and run by 

those who do the work? 

To encourage working-class people 

not to turn from the challenge o f 

creating true worker ownership and 

power seems a comparable focus in 

economic change to that of complete 

re-emergence in RC. In fact, to settle 

for less 'seems like losing ground and 

is certainly inconsistent with o u r 

theory o f no limits. What do you 

think? 

So, since our talk I have done a 

couple o f things I had not done 

before, and it seems like the first time 

my role as a member of the owning 

class has made complete sense. 

One of the things I did was to seek 

out and work several times with a 

man at my Toronto workshop who 

has for seven years been an assembly 

line worker for General Motors and is 

in the union there. I encouraged him 

to lead his support group at the workshop 

and then worked with him in the 

leaders' breakfast meeting on shedding 

embarrassment, putting himself 

forward, and speaking out. Later I 

called a topic group called 'Working- 

Class Liberation,' d u rin g which, 

after I spoke briefly about the fact 

that the working class produces the 

wealth and is the force without which 

nothing moves, I did a demonstration 

with him as he made this 'decision: "I 

now decide to do whatever it will take 

to organize my work place so that we 

see to it that General Motors is owned 

and run by the people who do the 

work." He shook and sweated and 

cried. He said that his first step would 

be to make friends and to get people 

together in groups in which everyone 

could take a turn. He shook as he 

could see that he would have to supply 

firm, inspiring leadership. I don't 

know what he will actually do, but it 

seemed like a good start. 

The second thing I've done since 

out conversation was to lead the owning-class 

workshop this weekend in 

my Region using "owning-class support 

for working-class leadership"as 

the primary focus. O n Saturday 

night we asked the question: "What 

gets i n yo u r wa y o f supporting 

4 

„ 

„ 

. 

12 

, 

• 

, 

working-class leadership?" That demonstration 

was very exciting, particularly 

at the moment when the client 

who, in a role play, had wound up 

trying to think for the working-class 

person (a prevalent owning-class pattern) 

ultimately despaired, saying in 

a dam-breaking barrage of weeping 

and raging, "I am' completely out of 

my league. I know nothing; I am 

stupid. Why would any working-class 

person e ve r t ru st me?..." Th is 

humiliation and shame which are the 

underpinnings o f arrogance were 

revealed in the rawest state and discharged 

voluminously. Realizing that 

she was not to think for anyone, but 

could listen and support her workingclass 

friend to do his own best thinking, 

realizing that she could back him 

thoroughly to reclaim his own power 

and effectiveness, she looked more 

radiant and sounded more intelligent 

than I have ever seen her. There was 

even a hint of real pride in her manner 

after that, the kind of pride that is 

kin to confident, quiet humility. 

After that demonstration I talked 

for a few minutes about another, I 

think potentially even more powerful, 

approach to our re-emergence — 

the decision to return the money and 

advantages t o t h e working class 

which we received through inheritance 

or profits but which were produced 

with working-class labor and 

not through ours. This seems to me 

to be the core class issue and one 

which the owning class has not faced 

except unproductively through guilt 

and defensiveness. I said essentially 

this: 

We can now ask ourselves this question: 

'How Much of the resource we now live on 

or enjoy tvas produced with our labor? How 

much of the money given to us by our parents 

did they themselves actually labor for? 

How much of this resource, in other words, 

was produced by the labor of others, but, in 

the name of profit, was channeled to us?' 

We can answer this honestly. For years we 

have known that some portion (often 

100%) of our resource was not produced by 

us, but by others, and thus belongs not to us 

but to others. For generations, enlightened

owning-class people have been trying to 

figure out what to do about it. In a wash of 

guilt we have given away some of it to 

"charities"and to 'causes" or to our religious 

organizations in an effort to make up for the 

untenable discrepancy between the state of 

the world and our imearned wealth. But 

few of us have been satisfied that those 

Wts" were actually redressing the original 

injustice. 

So, let's consider for a minute what actual& 

would effect a return of resource to the 

working class. On ly the fundamental 

change in the economic system is eller going 

to mean that the exploitative wrongs of the 

pot 300 years of this system are righted 

and that the future well-being of everyone 

and of our planet is assured. So, let's consider 

that ff our money and advantages, including 

our available time and opportunity 

to choose what work we do, were channeled 

into people and organizations who actually 

produce and support world-wide workingclass 

leadership which is building a classless 

system good for everyone, we would 

be doing an effective job of returning the 

wealth to the working class. 

There are no doubt hundreds of ways to 

do this, and we can help each other think of 

those ways which are most effective and farreaching. 

Some' of us, for instance, might. 

pay ourselves a decent wage for work we do 

which directly and concretely, supports 

working-class leadership in Me World and 

channel the balance of our resource to others 

doing the same. Or, if we do not choose to 

do that work ourselves (and why we 

wouldn't is beyond me— there is little else in 

the world more meaningful or interesting), 

we might give our resources to those who are 

and become employed ourselves in other 

work in the wide world. • 

Now, some of us have been given money 

which we or our parents worked very, very 

hard for, some of us fourteen to eighteen 

hours a day. And therefore, it is reasonable 

to see part of our resource as money produced 

by us or as gifts from the money actually 

produced by the labor of our parents. But a 

question we should ask ourselves is: "How 

much of the total could be said to have been 

the fruits of the our labor (or our parents' 

labor) and how much represents the labor of 

others?" 

Those of us currently owning and making 

money from a business need to ask ourselves: 

'Are we making proportionately far 

more per hour for our work than are the 

other people on whose labor the company 

also depends? Did all the workers, in our 

business agree to the difference between our 

earnings and theirs?' 

The same questions can apply to our inherited 

wealth: How much of this gift from 

our parents or family did they themselves 

produce with their work? Did all employees 

agree to that income? How much then can 

be honestly said to be our family's to give to 

us? 

I then put on the wall the following, 

commitment (inspired again b y 

things you said in our conversation a 

few weeks ago): 

Remembering always that I am 

beloved, blameless, and real, that 

the class system was never my idea, 

and that my,people colluded with it 

only because of their own brutal 

oppression, I joyfully decide to use 

my leadership and those resources 

and advantages which I received 

but were produced by and thus belong 

to the working class, to support 

working-class leadership anywhere 

1 am, in order to help create 

an unoppressive society, good' for 

everyone, which is owned and run 

by those who do the work. 

(To tell you the truth, I had felt 

very apprehensive for days in anticipation 

of this moment. My terror of 

owning-class reaction was i n f u ll 

play, I think! B— had told me that if 

all hell broke loose I could take 

"refuge" at the working-class workshop 

across the county and M — had 

said she would look for me at her 

house down the road—a couple of reassuring 

responses to my dramatizations! 

But as is so often true with me, 

my fears were entirely unwarranted.. 

There wasn't even a ruffle of reac- 

tion. was relieved In fact, and everyone' thrilled ta to a hear person, this 

direction for owning-class people and 

for real societal change. So much for 

my "opportunity" to get the una- 

13 

greed-upon session of my life on my 

fears of massive abandonment!) 

The client who worked on the commitment 

in front of the group was a 

model o f complete commitment to 

doing what is right regardless of how 

torturing it may feel or how terrifying 

the implications might seem. We 

were all moved and inspired by the 

work done there. Once again, as with 

the clients earlier, this direction dug 

dependably down beneath arrogance 

and brought up for discharge deep 

humiliation and shame. In fact, the 

client said, in a spontaneously assumed 

position of humility, "I feel I 

deserve to be killed by the working 

class. I have for years been living off 

of what is legitimately theirs." I did 

not interrupt this line o f discharge 

with reassurances of the client's innocence. 

What was needed was a chance 

at last for this guilt really to express 

itself in its most agonizing forms and 

to discharge thoroughly. It was exhilarating 

and hopeful to watch. In such 

a session the counselor presents in 

many ways the goodness of the client 

while encouraging the discharge o f 

the client's feelings of worthlessness 

associated with this part of his or her 

life. 

In fact, I was reminded of the day 

last fall when you counseled me so 

well in a similar situation, having 

pointed out how my classist behavior 

needed concrete change and 1, completely 

in touch with your love and 

respect for Ille, writhed, wailed, and 

wept in agony, in despair that owning-class 

people would ever emerge 

from th e taints a n d scars f ro m 

owning-class co n d it io n in g . I 

remember my shameful posture and 

tone there, too. This material does 

seem to come up spontaneously in the 

fact of both the respect for the client 

and the concrete proposals for change 

which you offered me and which are 

present in the commitment we used 

this weekend. • 

The client in the demonstration 

had three pivotal insights: 

I) that he feels he is his wealth and 

continued

conti nued 

would be nothing without it; 

2) that he fears he cannot work for 

a living, having no skills or training 

or sufficient abilities; 

3) that to admit that the working 

class deserves the money more than 

he does is to say that he has done 

nothing with his life and to see his life 

as a wasteland of failure and meaninglessness. 

I suspect that we will find as we 

keep working with owning-class people 

on this commitment that these 

terrors lie beneath every decision to 

keep hanging onto and t o hoard 

money and resources which were not 

produced by them, It will be interesting 

to see how much faster we move 

as we uncover, admit, and fully discharge 

these fears. 

After t h e demonstration, M — 

made an interesting comment: "If it is 

true that owning-class people are, like 

men, oppressed by society, then the 

only way out of our oppression and 

into complete re-emergence, is to replace 

the society with one that really 

works for everyone. To support the 

vast, vast majority of the world's population, 

the working class, to take 

real power is exactly to effect our own 

liberation," 

• E a rlie r in the day Iliad convened a 

topic group called "Concretely Supporting 

Working-Class Leadership 

Wh a t Does It Mean?" In this 

group, twelve o f us came up with 

these posSibilities: • 

I) Seek out, make friends with, and introduce 

to gc. working-class people who are 

already in a position to influence many 

working-class people (working-class actitiists, 

union members or leaders, etc.). 

2) Put your money and time into activities 

and work which promote working-class 

leadership everywhere. 

3) See to it that our RC Communities 

become working-class CoMmunities, led by 

a majority of working-class people. 

4) Support working-class liberation policy 

in any organization or situation in which 

you have influence. 

5) Learn and communicate working-class 

history as the true history of any country. 

6) Regularly support working-class people 

out of internalized oppression by asking 

questions like: 

-Row would you be leading ifyou held 

nothing back and unequivocally put 

yourse(florward? 

-What areyou doing to see to it that your 

work place is owned and run by those 

who do the work? 

-In What ways can you reach more 

working-class people communicating the 

skills and theory of RC, and learning 

what we know about bringing people 

together to begin to create rational economic 

policy? 

-What would you be saying to the world 

if you were in a position of major leadership? 

What is your next step in that 

direction? ' 

-Where do you still doubt yourself? 

- Wh a t ways are you already leading 

effectively? 

7) Counsel with and think well about 

working-class people. 

8) Be dependable. 

9) Regularly ask how you can be of More 

effectiOe support. 

10) Establish close relationships with 

working-class ,people based not on guilt or 

shame but on real pride and pure interest 

and respect for the other person, , sharing 

with each other' everything about your lives 

and backgrounds and acting on a mutual 

commitment to each other's liberation. 

I want our next workshop and the 

owning-class leaders' workshop in the 

fall to be an accounting of what we 

actually are doing to support work- 

14 

ing-class leadership and a setting of 

goals for the next period. 

An important question wh ich 

seems always to arise from owningclass 

and working-class people alike 

when we say that the role of the owning 

class is to support working-class 

leadership is, "Does this mean that 

owning-class people will not lead?" 

No. Owning-class people as individuals 

will continue to lead in whatever 

situation they are competent . 

as b eindividuals c a u s ethey 

transcend any oppressive 

class connection. However, 

as members of the owning class, owningclass 

people will lead primarily by 

supporting working-class leadership 

and working-class policies. I think it 

is important fo r us as counselors, • 

while maintaining cla rity about 

everyone's innate leadership, not just 

to reassure owning-class people that 

orcourse they will continue to lead as 

individuals, but also to help them. 

face the fears that lie beneath that 

question, fe a rs o f working-class 

leadership and of their own uselessness. 

Th is fear heeds t o be discharged. 

On the other side of it is an 

easy recognition that t o support 

working-class leadership is one of the 

most meaningful and challenging and 

re-emergent ways to lead. Discharge, 

not just. decision and information, is 

essential if this attitude is to prevail. 

Well, I a m hopeful that many 

things in RC will begin to develop 

from this work: that the numbers of 

working-class people in RC will be in 

proper proportion to the w o r l d 

. lation; that we will gradually see the 

end of owning-class arrogance; and 

p 

that 

o p 

everyone's 

u - 

re-emergence w i l l 

take a step forward. 

You continue t o be central t o 

change and growth in my life. I want 

to keep talking with you, keep sorting 

out where I get distracted or scared, 

where the next steps need to he taken. 

I often wonder if there is anything 

more satisfying than even a moment 

lived completely correctly. 

• N A N C Y KLINE 

SANDY SPRINCI, MARYLAND, USA

NEW COMMITMENTS 

A CO M M I T M E NT AGAINST PRETENSE 

I am obviously completely incompetent and completely inadequate to handle the chat- 

, 

lenges which reality places before me. 

However, (fortunately or unfortunately), I happen to be the best person available. 

A COMMI TME NT TO RECLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY AND POWER 

From now on I will see to it that everything I am in contact with works well, and I will 

not limit or pull back on my Contacts, 

A CO M M I T M E NT AGAINST I DE NTI FY I NG ONESELF 

W I T H DISTRESS PATTERNS 

Recordings of past distress experiences have no power of their own at all. 

They only have the appearance of power and influence NI the extent that I slavishly submit 

to letting them use my power and my influence. 

(If I think of them as pieces of recorded tape, they have, at most, a trifling historical significance', 

unless I insert them in the tape recorder that is myself and allow them to play me, 

an action which I am free to decide to do or not to do.) 

THEREFORE 

I now decide to deny past distress any credibility in the present, any influence, or any 

operation in my life. 

AND 

I will repeat this decision as often as necessary to free my life completely from the influence 

of past distress. 

A CO M M I T M E NT TO UNI T Y OF ALL HUM AN ASPIRATIONS 

- • • 

From now on I will lead, inspire, and organize all people to eliminate every forth of 

humans' harming humans. 

This last could be added to our Guidelines definition of our one-point program to read: 

Through Re-evaluation Counseling to seek to recover the use of our occluded intelligence 

and to help others to do the same and TO LEAD, INSPIRE, AND ORGANIZE 

ALL PEOPLE TO ELIMINATE EVERY FORM OF HUMANS' HARMING HUMANS. 

It is a very generalized, unifying principle that should help to bring very large sections of 

humanity together for common effort. 

—Harvey Jackins 

15

Shedding illusions, Recovering Roots 

I seeni to have moved a lot on this issue of being middle class. Last year I was in The Netherlands 

for a few days. I was drinking coffee watching the crowds pass in the street. All the people were hurrying 

about their business. It was a very ordinary scene. But suddenly I knew I belonged! That is the 

only way I can describe it. There was so much movement, colour, hard work, and above all expertise 

In the scene. it was the same as could have been found in thousands and thousands of towns and 

cities all over the world, Just ordinary, but I knew it was mine, totally and completely Mine and had 

always been. And it always would be. I scanned my relatives and ancestors in my head. There are 

teachers and nurses and engineers and shop assistants, an architect and a couple of clergy, both as 

working class as you could possibly get. We were cotton l weavers, too, mill hands from Lancashire 

and a pattern maker in a factory. My grandparents belong there, not Just working class, but blue collar 

working class. I knew I belonged to the scene I was looking at a\ld that it belonged to me, and that 

the ClaSSISM I have attached to me is no more substantial than a cloud that keeps me from the sun. 

It was an exciting moment that has stayed with me. I have tried to describe it to people attending my 

workshops for "middle-class" people, but they do not get excited by it as I thought they would. 

1Perhaps 

they are Just not ready yet. 

I have increasingly begun to feel quite mystified as to how on earth we could possibly have 

thought we were anything but working class. Long before all this occurred to me, I had been puzzled 

when there were speakouts by working-class people at workshops or when I counselled with them. 

The things they described were either better than I experienced or else so similar that it seemed to 

be the same. I kept wontlering%what was going on and what they were talking about, saying they 

were working7class, but having the same experiences and possessions as I. I began to watch my 

parents with greater perception when they were both alive, or remember how they had been after 

they had both died. I kept being puzzled that their patterns kept fitting in with what I began to see 

were classic working-class distresses. The people they gravitated to and felt most at home with 

were definitely working-class. Also the people who described themselves as middle class, both In 

counselling and out of it, looked pretty posh to me and I kept angrily thinking they ought to describe 

themselves as upper class if anything. Then I started to realise that the upper class would be very 

large if everyone I thought of in that way actually belonged there. 

The long and short of it all, of course, is that I slowly realised that someone had made a mistake 

where I was concerned, not where they were concerned. I realised that i was working class and 

always have been! At first I did not dare say so; in fact this Is one of the first times that I ever have 

done so outside a session. But Just recently I have worked with two working-class counsellors on my 

feelings about the owning class and the way I have been treated by them. Both counsellors Just told 

me that I was working class. One simply said, "What does it feel like to be wbrking-class?" I was so 

surprised to hear that someone else realised it besides me. 

It is scary. Like so many things in my life it is fine whilst it is in my head, but feels dangerous as 

soon as it is spoken out loud. It is a strange sensation getting the theory that I have taught for so 

long to actually line up with a known reality in my own life, and to tie up with my feelings too, It is like 

a new identity. Very odd! I have been so visible as a middle-class leader for so long, too, that I feel 

scared that I won't be accepted by working-class people In a workshop. Other people would have to 

learn a new identity too. 

16 

Vivian Richmond 

Brimscombe, England

THINKING CLEARLY ABOUT RELIGION 

• One of the inspiring aspects of AO is that counselling 

is seen in relationship to the whole of life. The concern 

Is not just for a better or happier or more "well-adjusted" 

me, but rather for a better and more rational universe. 

All types of people are seen as each having their own 

unique contribution to this and all topics that concern 

human beings are thought about carefully. One topic 

that has been increasingly coming Into prominence is 

religion and some very useful discussions have taken 

place and helpful clarifications have been made. We are 

on the right track, and I'd like to suggest ways that we 

can move on. First, though, a few thoughts about AC 

and religion. 

• 

Religion is cleariy an Important subject, It is concerned 

with fundamental questions about the basic 

nature of reality. We may postulate that "Reality is 

benign" o r that "There i s an upward trend In the 

universe" and we may just leave it at that. Religion tries 

to look more carefully at such postulates, it asks: "How 

much can I find out about this benign reality?" "What 

are the implications of what I can find out for my daily 

life?" "What is an appropriate way to relate to this reality?" 

And so on. Such questions are of great value because 

the more clearly and accurately I perceive reality 

as a whole, the easier It will be to see and understand 

that particular aspect of it which faces me. 

Andther reason why it is worth paying attention to 

this subject Is that many people in the world follow one 

religion or another and many countries have legal and 

political systems based on religious considerations. All 

over the world reactionary political forces are expert at 

exploiting religion to maintain and extend oppression. 

On the other hand, many religious people and institutiops,are 

doing a lot Qf effective and constructive work 

in liberation and social justice based on their religious 

beliefs. So a clear understOding of religion is important 

as we seek to communicate AC to new populations 

and as we work for world change. 

Thinking more personally, this subject is importarit to 

us because many of us have been hurt at some time or 

other in ways connected with our religious background 

or convictions and,a clear understanding of the subject 

will help us to work effectively on discharging these 

hurts. In particular, those of us with deeply held beliefs 

need to be sure that our faith is the result of our own 

careful investigations and corresponds to what we have 

discovered about reality, and this can only come as we 

counsel in depth on this whole area. 

I find it helpful to consider religion as having three 

aspects: a thinking side, a nurturing side, and an acting 

side. The thinking side we call theology; the nurturing 

side is prayer, meditation, ceremonies, communal worship, 

and celebration; and the acting side Is ethics. 

These should form a very powerful combination. Religion 

sets out to give us a clear understanding of the universe 

and then to strengthen and nurture us so that we 

can boldly right wrongs and live each moment well. By 

17 

Its very nature it should be radical and world changing 

and there are many examples in history where It has indeed 

inspired great steps forward. Yet it is clear that 

often religion is Irrational and a "downward trend" influence. 

• 

One reason for this is that the reactionary forces in 

the world have always recognised the power inherent in 

religion. They have therefore consistently attempted to 

take over religious institutibris and by hurting peoPle, in 

various ways get them to acquiesoe to an irrational set 

of doctrines, to use prayer and meditation 'until they 

become an escape from the World rather then an inepiration 

to change it, and to accept rigid rules of behavlour 

which have no basit in rational thinking, Yet, in 

spite of this, some religious people in every' age have 

been able to see reality clearly enough to stand in the 

forefront of social change. If religion was once set free 

to be itself, there is no limit as to what could be accom-, 

plished. 

• Wh a t is standing in the way of 'my religion being upward 

trend? Why do I find it difficult to think rationally 

about these matters? AC has made clear the fact that 

thinking stops where there are undischarged hurts. Let 

us look briefly at some of the hurts we face as religious 

people. First of all, people often become religious at 

least partly as a result of hurts they have already received 

and in an effort to Meet a frozen need, it is obviously 

difficult objectively to look at and question a 

belief on which we are pinning our hopes. We need to 

discharge these frozen' needs before we can correctly 

evaluate the rationality of our beliefs. 

• A ll major world religions have either suffered'persecution 

some time in their history or are suffering it 

someWhere in the world today• and this is the source of 

other kinds of hurts. Because of this persecution, adherents 

of any religion, even when in actual fact their position 

is secure, always feel under threat from people of 

other religions. In many places believers actually are 

facing discrimination and even persecution for their 

faith.' 

• 

• • • • • • ••••.••• • • • ••• • 

Also our own religion' Itself Is often a source of hurts. 

For instance, there is often pressure to accept a package 

of beliefs as a•whole, To a certain extent this is necessary 

since religion attempts to present a coherent 

picture of the universe. However religions often contain 

some obviously irrational elements which the believer is 

expected to accept unthinkingly along with the rest. In 

many religions a high premium is set on faith' which Is 

presented in such a way as to make It difficult to acknowledge 

doubts. Thus we are forced to commit ourselves 

to certain ideas which we are not sure of deep 

down inside, or maybe which we even sense are wrong. 

There may also be a strong pressure to conform to 

certain behaviour patterns, some of which have nothing 

to do with the doctrines of a religion, (for instance dress 

codes) and yet which are heavily stressed, Many rollconti 

nued

continued 

gions have a hierarchical structure in which certain 

classes of people are considered as better or "more 

spiritual" than the rest, so condemning the vast majority 

of believers to a second-class position. 

We could list many other ways people can be hurt 

within a religion. Yet, in spite of all this, religion has 

proved to be a great source of strength for many people 

and a reminder of the beautiful and good in life. 

What, then, is the way forward? For those of us in RC 

who have religious beliefs, there is the need to give a 

priority to counselling on this area of our lives. Counselling 

will not necessarily result in much change in what 

we believe, but it will certainly give us a better foundation 

to our beliefs so that our convictions will be more 

truly our own. Counselling will also help us as we work 

to make our religious ceremonials and worship more 

nurturing and inspiring and in living more consistently 

(rationally) with our convictions. 

We will also be able to relate more naturally and relaxedly 

to people of a different faith than our own once 

our fears of other religions are discharged. Thus we will 

be able to learn more easily from each other and cooperate 

more effectively in world change. As for the RO 

Community, it seems to me that the next step is for 

more people to take leadership In arranging workshops 

and gather-ins on this topic and setting up Wygellan 

Speak Truth to Effectiveness 

I'm sitting on a plane at the Lee County Airport 

In southwest Florida. I just finished a speech to 

the District Convention of the Florida Association 

of Realtors. I've decided that if I'm going to keep 

this Job, I'm going to say what I know to be true instead 

of getting scared and trying to sound like 

The Wall Street Journal. 

So in this speech I did It. I challenged them to 

lead In the community in ending the kind of throwing 

away of people like migrant workers and minorities 

that has been a tradition. I talked about 

"real values" instead of "profit" and some other 

things. I thought they'd throw me out, but they 

loved it. People came up at the end to touch me— 

lt was odd. It's the first speech I've made where I 

was relaxed from beginning to end and sort of 

liked it Instead of getting scared, then "proclaiming" 

things to be true, then being exhausted and 

sort of disappointed—like a charlatan who won 

them with fancy footwork instead of reality. I took 

the position, "let them fire me, at least I'll have 

told the truth once." I hope t9 do it again next 

week (at the New Hampshire Bankers Association). 

Gale Picker 

Falls Church, Virginia, USA 

leaders' groups for religious activists. Specifically, I 

propose that liberation reference persons be appointed 

for people with religious beliefs. 

Religion is a big subject that affects all of us. Religious 

people are systematically oppressed and manipulated 

by the oppressive society. People of differing 

religious beliefs are set against each other, even when 

their differences are very minor. Reactionary religious 

movements provide much of the rationale for the oppression 

of women and people of colour, for the support 

of militarism and right-wing politics. So this is a 

thoroughly worthwhile subject for the attention of the 

AC Communities, and of each one of us. 

As effective work is done In the Communities, then 

the journal Transcendence will play a key role. As increasing 

numbers of Co-Counsellors 'work on the religious 

side of their lives and support each other in effecting 

religious change, then a lot of exciting information 

should become available to be shared through the journal. 

It shouldn't be too difficult for clear-thinking people, 

working together and supporting each other, to take 

charge of their own religious groupings so that decisive 

changes can take place. 

18 

What a great challenge. 

Michael John Mulquin 

London, England

CO-COUNSELING IN TRAINING SOCIAL WORKERS 

(A talk I gave at the Congress "Women and Social Assistance") 

—Joke Hermsen 

At our Social Training Institute, IVARO, we now, for some years, have been using methods that come from the 

theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counseling (RC). The central theme of my talk will be: "Which elements of 

RC can one use in a Training Institute for Social Assistance?" I want to tell you a little about what Co-Counseling is, 

and why it is interesting to use in a Social Training Institute. 

Teachers use it 'during lessons, i.e., in a didactic setting. 

Students use it when working with clients in a social 

assistance setting. I will use examples from both situations. 

In order to familiarize myself with, get some experience 

with, and be able to test my information, I have during 

the period of the project: 

—worked for four months at the research centre of the 

-RC Community in Seattle, Washington, USA; 

—practised a great deal with students at the IVABO; 

—worked outside of the IVABO, with Co-Counseling 

groups where these methods are being used. 

What is Co-Counseling? Co-Counseling is defined as a 

process for people to exchange effective help in freeing 

themselves from the effects of past distress experiences. 

RC theory assumes that all human beings (with very few 

exceptions) have a very large amount of intelligence at 

their disposal and that people are just not usually able to 

use the greater part of their capabilities because of the 

residue of accumulated distressful experiences and accompanying 

tensions that limit their flexible thinking and acting. 

These tensions express themselves as feelings of dejection, 

grief, fear, depression, despair, shame, guilt, ag- 

"Rage," she says, "I could knock their heads together. 

That's no way to treat a child. I get unreasonably angry. I 

don't know why." 

When I ask her, "What does this situation remind you 

of?" she is startled and exclaims, "Oh good heavens, that 

has been my own situation." She begins to shake and cry. 

"I was a two-year-old child with a Jewish mother, when in 

1942, I was taken away by a stepmother. After four years 

I had to go back to my parents, and I didn't want to." 

She keeps talking and discovers that she has identified 

completely with this child that is pushed and pulled by its 

• parents. It "reminds" her of what happened to her. After 

shaking and crying as she talks, she comes up with several 

new ideas for reaching the parents, for being an ally to 

both the parents and the child. 

The class observes that she obviously has carried the 

recording of the past traumatic experience; a new situation 

that resembles this experience makes her re-experience 

it. Her thinking stops; she is overwhelmed by her 

emotions. 

This example also reveals something about social oppression. 

The Jewish girl had been dragged about because 

gression, and they t a k e 

the social situation was dangerous, because she might be 

-also 

cause unproductive bdiavior and learning difficul- 

u 

ties. 

p 

When 

M u 

we 

c 

do 

h 

not get a chance to release these tensions 

and the recordings of distressful experiences, this distress 

owill influence f our thinking and our emotional life, as well 

oas our u behavior. r It will affect our perception and it will 

akeep t us t from e nreacting t i adequately. 

arrested, Anti-Semitism reigned unchallenged in 1942. 

In RC theory and practice, the social component is explicitly 

faced. The theory proposes that every Co-Counselor 

be aware that psychological problems are systematically 

b e i n g 

o n . 

T 

IN A STUDENT 

h e 

GROUP 

y Let me give you an example from my student group. 

The discussion is about "working on work." A female student, 

a social worker at a primary school, and her questions 

are the centre of interest. Her problem is, she says, 

she gets stuck time and again in talking to two particular 

parents. Their six-year-old child is a pupil in her school. 

The parents have a difference of opinion about what 

should happen with their child. The father wants to get 

rid of him. The mother does not agree. They tell her that 

they cannot handle their child any longer, that he throws 

his spaghetti around the living room, etc. I ask the student 

why does she not know what to do with these parents. 

, practice does not only focus on the individual and that in- 

cdividual's a u s e d past; practical steps are devised to deal with oppressive 

factors, and to restrict them and combat them in 

bthe future. y 

a n 

o RC p ptheory r assumes that we, as human beings, are in- 

eherently s s iable 

to dispose of the tensions we have had imposed 

on us. The physical processes which accomplish this 

vare every ' scomplex 

but are dependably indicated by laugh- 

oing, c crying, i e trembling, sweating, "storming," and yawn- 

ting. y These . processes are collectively called 'discharge 

TAll of hus 

are born with the complete ability to discharge 

distresses completely. 

e r 

e I do f not tell you anything new, and RC theory does not 

"What's in your way?" 

otell you r anything new. I tell you something that you have 

known e for years, that you have practised for years! 

conanued 

t 

h 

19 

e

continued 

Young children use this process as a matter of course: 

they cry, laugh, get angry, just as they need. Another person's 

attention is conducive to the process of discharging 

and necessary for complete discharge. Children who get 

frightened spontaneously begin to cry and tell about it, 

when there is someone present who will listen attentively. 

With many older children and adults the discharge process 

has become much more restrained and inhibited. We 

all know how much safety and closeness we often need 

before we dare to show our emotions. That natural ability 

to free ourselves from tensions and distress has been suppressed. 

I n our culture, this happens with everyone, 

though not with everyone to the same degree. It starts early 

in our lives and it has far-reaching consequences. 

EXAMPLES 

Marieke, my seven-year-old niece, calls me up, crying: 

she has been with Hansje, her brother, at the Health Centre. 

They both got a vaccination. Hansje does not cry, 

Marieke does. Hansje got a reward, a water-syringe, as a 

toy. Marieke did not get anything. She learns that she 

must not show her feelings, if she wants to get approval. 

A father with a whining child stands in the supermarket. 

"If you don't stop, t u r n you out of here," he says. 

The child starts whining louder. The father feels more 

and more tense, bystanders are getting irritated, the child 

is smacked and stays sitting sullenly in a corner of the 

store, while his father walks on annoyed. 

A colleague, a teacher at another institution, tells me: 

'Things don't go well with us. I am the scapegoat. The 

criticism they use against me is that I am 'too emotional.' 

They tell me, 'You are an emotional female.' I restrain 

myself, but I am getting bloody nervous." 

It is clear that injuries are being continually received in 

our culture, and that the natural healing process is interfered 

with and suppressed with far-reaching consequences. 

With the theory of RC as my background, I am 

clear that it is essential and important that students know 

that expressing emotions is not a sign of weakness, and 

that it is harmful to be punished for expressing them. I 

worked with a woman who was deathly afraid to cry because 

she had never heard anything else from her parents 

but, "If you start crying, we will go away; we will leave 

you.", That was sufficient to install fear o f emotional 

behaviour and discharge in a small child. It is important 

to be reassured that if you are being emotional, are discharging, 

you won't be abandoned, you won't be ridiculed, 

but that expressing motions is a wholesome, natural process, 

by means of which tensions flow away, and after 

which you can think more clearly, feel better, and act 

more adequately. 

RC postulates that every human being can completely 

recover his or her flexible abilities of thought and action, 

if there is enough support and time to completely discharge 

the painful emotions and tensions. 

It makes a great difference for students to have knowledge 

of this theory. Years ago, when I had not yet ac- 

quired knowledge °FRC theory I worked at an Institution 

of General Social Work. I was leading a women's group 

there. During the second meeting of the group, one of the 

women bgan to cry. The other women nervously lighted 

cigarettes, crossed their legs, and became tense. The 

woman in question apologized that she had been so emotional. 

I, as the group's leader, thought to myself: we just 

went through a difficult situation! 

In the student group which I am leading currently, it 

also occurs that somebody begins to cry. What is the reaction, 

when people have an accurate understanding of the 

operation of emotions? No more cigarettes or coffee or 

nervous behavior, but, as a first action, an arm around 

the shoulder, and support. The woman in question need 

not apologize. The leader thinks to herself: great, something 

gets worked through here. Sometimes the remaining 

students also get tears in their eyes. Personally, I 

welcome, rather than fear, such incidents. 

WHAT DOES THIS EXAMPLE TELL US? 

What is most striking is the difference in handling emotions. 

In the first case, the women are at a loss what to do, 

they get nervous and look for ways to hide their own tensions, 

by means of a cigarette. 

HOW CA N WE VIEW THE PRACTICE OF CO- 

COUNSELING? WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? 

It is a kind of self-help and mutual help movement. The 

focus is on mutual assistance and self-realisation. People 

of all classes and' social' strata, ethnic backgrounds, 

religions, and cultures come together in small and large 

groups, classes, support groups, two-way sessions, and 

workshops, in order to learn the theory and practice. 

They learn to listen to each other with interest and support 

and without judging. As this succeeds, they also learn 

to contradict the distress that has been revealed and to encourage 

and assist its release. The basic work happens in a 

session, where two people get together and alternately 

take the part of counselor and client. There is no question 

of a power relationship because both people have acquired 

the same knowledge and skills, sometimes from the same 

teacher at the same time. Also, there is no question of 

" 

acompletely 

equivalent. Each participant has the same 

amount of time, and finds him- or herself in the same 

u 

roles. Considering the reciprocity in the relationship, 

tthere 

is no question of payment. People pay each other 

hwith 

attention. 

o 

r 

In order to experience how all this really works, I propose 

that we practise a little. Let each person choose a 

partner, i agree on who is counselor first and who is client, 

and t let the counselor give attention to the client, without 

judging. y The only thing you need to communicate is that 

you " are delighted with the other person. Take turns of two 

minutes each, for this exercise. The person who is the 

client b decides on the subject he or she will talk about. 

e 

c (We then did a two-minute-each mini-session.) 

a 

Now that you have done this, let me share with you an 

u 

s 

20e 

t 

h

outsider's opinion o f the Co-Counseling process, as I 

overheard It at one of our training days. Someone asked 

the manager of the training centre, "You often have those 

Co-Counselors in your place; what is it exactly?" "I don't 

know much about it either," he said, "but usually they ate 

in pairs, often they start quarreling, one of them begins to 

cry, but it always ends up well." 

WHY IS CO-COUNSELING INTERESTING AND 

USEFUL AS A ME THO D FO R EDUCATIONAL 

VOCATIONAL TRAINING? W H Y L E A RN C O 

,COUNSELING WHEN ONE HAS ALREADY A 

WHOLE SERIES OF METHODOLOGIES AT ONE'S 

DISPOSAL? (as in the case with me and my students) 

I. Social Assistance means helping the client help himself 

or herself. 

During my very first lessons in casework at the Social 

Work College in Enschede, in 1959, [learnt that the main 

point in social assistance is helping the client to help 

herself or himself. I have never seen this principld being 

carried through so effectively as in the use of RC. People 

literally learn how to support each other, the knowledge 

and skills are not reserved for the professionals, and 

everybody is taught to use his or her natural counseling 

abilities. 

2. In working with people, one is oneself the instrument. 

A social assistant has only herself as the instrument of 

assistance. It is often said that the biggest obstacle in the 

process of social assistance is the undigested problems of 

the social worker himself, and it is too often true. By using 

Co-Counseling, the reciprocity of the relationship makes 

it possible for the worker to also have a turn as client, and 

to look at himself or herself regularly. As a social worker, 

you do not end up in isolation. This.• practice guards 

against the obviously frightened social worker saying with 

a frightened expression to•,the " Y o u really don't 

have to be afraid." • 

3. Being emotional does not mean being weak, 

Using the discharge process gives one the skill to handle 

emotions, to release them. The process goes beyond "talking 

about emotions." Compared with the "talking model" 

it is an accelerated form of getting through problems, and 

letting go of them, 

(For the sake of completeness I want to say that understanding 

the emotions is not a sufficient condition for a 

change in behaviour, just as insight alone is not sufficient. 

In my opinion, one always has to make 'a decision to 

change one's behaviour, and it is necessary to actually 

practise a different mode of behaviour.) 

4. Safety 

RC theory assumes that a person who does not feel safe 

in a group has difficulty in learning new information. 

During the lessons of my college, all social classes do in 

fact meet together. People bring along all the sentiments 

and prejudices that they have acquired with regard to 

other groups and other people. 

Example: 

Annemarie, a seventeen-year-old girl, is a pupil of a 

Social Training College, She tells that at school they are 

experimenting how they can best handle the relationships 

in the group, to stimulate safety between them. "We do it 

like this now: before our lesson on Wednesday, we have 

• twenty minutes to ventilate everything that comes up. 

You may tell anything, things that irritate you, things 

that worry you. But you know, instead of feeling relieved, 

I sometimes feel much more uptight; sometimes I get so 

scared. I hear criticisms of myself: that I talk a dialect, 

that I wear a skirt, etc. In fact I do not feel,safer at all. 

There is a lot of tension added." 

Prom my own Conlinuation Training, I know how 

often I used to go home tense, because we we had no 

means of untangling the emotional knots. The practices 

for handling emotions w,hich are available in RC where 

we do not allow people to criticise or attack each other, 

and where people listen to each other without interrupting, 

without judging, makes a decisive difference. 

5. Gain of time 

During my classes I find that using these procedures for 

handling emotional distress saves time. I no longer have 

repeated interruptions of my classes by interventions based 

on stress or irritation. Students now learn that they may 

choose to give attention to their emotions or not. They 

learn that they need not be dominated by emotions. 'As a 

teacher, this theory and practise gives me a handle to 

make sure that my class does not turn into a therapy session. 

Not every problem has to be turned into a therapeu- • 

tic issue, 

6. Social Background 

Let me give you another example. This is a complex 

situation, where racisrit, classism, and sexism each plays a 

part. 

An upper-class woman from Surinam says that there 

really is no more poverty in Surinam. Everybody can find 

a plate of rice. Upon hearing that, a working-class woman 

from Surinam says that it isn't true, that obviously the 

first woman has not had much to do with common working 

people. The first woman then becomes angry and says 

that in the Netherlands she continually, has contact with 

common working people, mostly with men. She says that 

the men obstruct her work, and she then calls them 

"stupid Javanese." "You are a stupid Javanese and that's 

what you will be forever," (Javanese are the most oppressed 

class in Surinam.) At that moment I see all the working. 

class women, black as well as white, become tense. • ,.• 

A complex situation, one might say. Black and white, 

working-class and upper-middle-class, women and men. 

Where to start, who do you let speak first, where are you 

aiming at? 

The black women are divided, and at the same time 

they do not want to let the white women catch a glimpse of 

their internal battle. The working-class women feel themselves 

more allies to the working-class men than to the 

conti nued 

21

conti nued 

middle-class women, and the white women want to show 

their solidarity with the black women. 

, The steps that have been developed are first of all taking 

time to personally validate oneself, then working on 

our solidarity as women, and then look to our connection 

with the men. We emphasize how important it is not to 

play one group off against the other. 

In my example, here is how I managed it: 

I praised the upper-class woman for the work she did 

with women, and I asked her to join us in thinking about 

a different way in which to interrupt the •sexism of the 

men, not by using their class background as a means to 

belittle and oppress them. A lot of grief, shame, and anger 

came to the surface and discharged, and this happened 

not only with her, but with the whole group. We learned 

in the process how subtly the mechanism of social oppression 

is 'operating. In this example, we could see, moreover, 

how colonialism left its traces behind, how oppressive 

ideas have been internalized by oppressed people and 

are acted out on each other, how racism becomes internalized 

racism. We also observed how students at our institution 

can teach each other how to handle complex situations 

in their working environment. 

7. Equivalence 

For women it is of special importance that relationships 

be equivalent. (I think that all inequality of power in relationships, 

which is based on something else than expertise 

and experience, originates from oppressive modes o f 

thought.) • 

8, Connection between emotional and cognitive levels 

The educational process is accelerated if we find an effective 

way to deal with both the emotional and the intellectual 

processes. An example: 

When women in our class try to picture for themselves 

what their lives would look like if they were to fully take 

charge, they meet with a lot of obstacles. There are internal 

psychological obstacles, and obstacles in society. 

There is a woman with working-class background, and a 

woman from owning-class background, Both women shy 

away from really taking a leading position. The workingclass 

woman finds Out that her social surroundings tell 

her; you are betraying us, leading is not for people like ps. 

The social background of the upper-class woman makes 

her familiar with leadership, but she is very afraid that she 

will make mistakes. "Everybody will watch to make sure 

that I do it well." Both women must let go of fears, but for 

reasons which are totally different. 

If I am able to help them get through these fears, there 

will be room to take in new information. Only then will 

there be room for developing vision and management. 

Only then can new information really be integrated. 

9. Support groups for the teachers themselves 

From experience I know how effective a support group 

can be for a teacher. A support group is a place where 

each person has a turn being listened to without interruption, 

without judgment, where one can release the emotional 

upsets one has received, so that one need not take 

distress home with one from the workplace. The problems 

arising from work can stay at the workplace! 

The methods of Re-evaluation Counseling can be profitably 

used in every personal and social interaction. The 

idea of Co-Counseling, of people exchanging the roles of 

counselor and client, is not always possible to use in a 

social assistant's work. 

From the social assistant's side: the reciprocal relationship 

of both RC partners cannot, without more education 

of clients, be transplanted into traditional social assistance. 

For the professional social worker who sees five 

clients a day, it is not possible to also be a "client" herself 

for five hours. It is possible, though, to use elements of the 

method such as listening attentively, offering supportive 

contradictions to the client's distress, differentiating between 

the person and his or her emotional patterns. 

From the client's side: people who are not able to give 

any attention back, cannot participate in a reciprocal process. 

In that case, the social worker can use the methods of 

RC, but the client remains a client. 

I might have created an impression thLt what we do is 

something novel and invented. Therefore I want to read 

to you from the 1985 Christmas issue of De Haagse Post (a 

Dutch magaine) which shows that this process is ageless, 

universal, and intuitive. The author, Jan Brokken, describes 

how he travels with the Trans-Siberian Express 

from Peking to Moscow. While travelling he tries to work 

through his relationship with his mother, who was a Russian 

by birth. At' the beginning of his journey he writes, 

"We are taught all kinds of things in our life, but we don't 

learn how to handle our sorrow," At the end of the journey, 

when the train halts at the station of Omsk, he suddenly 

wakes up from a nightmare and screams: "There 

she goes...." His co-passenger gets up from her seat, puts 

her hand on his knee, and says, "Tell me about it." 

• A m s t e r d a m , The Netherlands 

translated by Eva van Sonderen 

22

I've been meaning to write to you for 

some time about recent successes I've 

had in taking RC theory and technique 

into wide world practice. 

I work in the theatre as an actor and 

director. For a year or so I've been 

thinking about bow to turn the state of 

the theatre in this country around and 

get it back closer to its human roots. 

Finally, I decided I ' d done enough 

thinking about what to do and began to 

take action, 

•I began by acting the role of Lenny, 

in the play "Of Mice and Men," at a 

theatre in Detroit. This character, traditionally 

perceived and portrayed as 

"big, dumb, crazy, and dangerous," 

seemed to provide the perfect opportunity 

to apply some RC theory about 

men's oppression. Without going into 

detail about specific choices made in 

encountering situation after situation 

in the story, I can say the characterization of Leny was wildly diferent than 

most I've seen or heard about. He was 

truly. "c hild-lik e, " • as St einbec k 

describes him, and very "funny," That 

is, h e provoked lot s o f discharge 

through laughter. No one was really 

sore, except at obvious moments in the 

story, that "Of Mice and Men" had not 

become a comedy. ••• 

• • 

.• An additional goal was to view the 

acting experience as a traditional Co- 

Counseling relationship. That is, I was 

to function in the role of counselor-and 

the audience was to be my groUp client. 

Simple, basic counseling theory about 

making the client feel safe and using 

facial expression and tone of voice to 

facilitate discharge was invaluable in a 

very practical way. 

TRANSFORMING THE THEATRE 

Every performance was an adventure—as 

is every counseling session— 

in setting 'aside one's own distress and 

being there every minut e f or y our 

client. T h e rewards were obvious. 

Wave after wave of laughter, applause, 

and tears (my own as well as the audience's) 

greeted me night after night. 

As an actor, then, I was able to begin 

to alter some stereotyped perceptions of 

men a n d transform t he traditional 

theatre situation into a group counseling 

situation. 

More recently, Vve been in the role 

of theatre director and teacher. At a 

theatre i n California and another i n 

Connecticut, it was exciting to be in a 

position to set up the environment in 

exactly the right way. The goal was to 

create an environment where artists felt 

safe enough to discharge, think, and 

create. The latter job was particularly 

gratifying because it was working with 

young theatre artists. 

We started each day by hearing from 

each person about "what was going 

well." Learning to turn their attention 

away from any distress they were bringing 

into the new day was a revelation 

for them. Taking the time to hear from 

each of them in a situation where it was 

perceived there was "no extra time," 

also helied give them a sense of being 

cared about and listened to. 

We ended each twelve-hour day with 

a closing circle. After long hours and 

incredibly demanding work, the circle 

helped to maintain a sense of family 

and promoted the healing of many tiny 

hurts. The struggle to maintain a caring, 

nurturing, and productive atmosphere 

was extremely difficult. In a six- 

23 

"Te mpe s t" by J ohn Fe hr ' ge r 

week period there were four major productions 

and many other "performance" 

opportunities. It was most gratifying 

to watch young people begin to 

throw off their oppressions and take 

power by performing in a theatre situation. 

very much appreciate the support 

I've received from members of the Co- 

Counseling Communit ies . Mic hael 

Sweringen traveled from New York City 

to Detroit to view my perfortnatAe of 

"Of Mice and Men," and counsel with 

me about the progress on my goals and 

a multitude o f feelings around t he 

work. Mic hael and I are belovedly 

committed t o eac h ot her, Hi l a r y 

Sanders also traveled many miles on 

many occasions f rom h e r home i n 

Woodstock, New York td my location 

in Connecticut, t o counsel and think 

with me about my goals there. We also 

have a life-long commitment to each 

other. 

In addit ion, I received excellent 

counseling from members of the Detroit 

RC Community, who responded warmly 

to my requests for time. The struggle 

for those of us who travel a great deal to 

get adequate counseling t ime is extreme. 

Let it be known that the Detroit 

Community is alive and well and welcoming. 

• , 

I've just begun rehearsal i n New 

York City for a new play in which I 

function as an actor. My goals for this 

job are to continue to bring more and 

more counseling theory and technique 

to very practical use in the theatre. The 

story in this play concerns Jewish and 

other ethnic oppressions. •Once again, 

an opportunity to stop thinking about 

what to do and do it. 

MEL COBB 

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA

L IBERAT IO N 

GETTING A WINDOW OUT OF INTERNALIZED RACISM 

All of my daycare children have 

gone home for the day. I just put 

away the last toy and am finally sitting 

down to write about the Black 

Teachers' and Leaders' Workshop In 

Evanston, Illinois. It was a very positive 

experience for me and helped 

me realize what has been missing 

for me at other workshops. 

This was my first time ever to attend 

a black workshop and I can see 

that it was what I needed to be doing 

all along. The safety there was 

tremendous. I never knew I wa s 

missing it, because I had never 

before experienced It. 

I can't say that I came back and 

performed miracles in Wichita, but 

there have been some dramatic 

changes In my functioning and I 

believe "hypothetical" black RC in 

Wichita will benefit from them. 

One thing that wa s especially 

helpful for me was the commitment 

to see that all things I touch go well. 

It has surprised me to see that this 

has led to trusting my own intelligence. 

Again, the changes have 

been evidenced In little ways, but 

they indicate a major shift for me. I 

see myself following my hunches 

more, and taking seriously those 

fleeting awarenesses that I usually 

discount. Little things like "roll up 

the car windows, i t may rain" o r 

"forcing this child to nap Isn't working, 

try holding her." 

I want to focus in much more on building RC 

women's liberation activities organizationally. I particularly 

want to develop local women's liberation coordinators— 

women who will assist the development 

of women's activities for a given city or geographic 

area. In the next few weeks I will be writing either a 

letter or article about the state (and directions for) 

women's liberation. 

I have many more moments when 

I can recognize the complete humanness 

of the children in my care 

and can respect the advice of a two 

year old. 

It was helpful for me at the workshop 

to see such a wide variety of 

black people functioning very well. 

What this did fo r me was to contradict 

my tendency t o write o ff 

many black people • because they 

don't look smart or polished or whatever. 

I went home to Fort Smith, Arkansas 

last month and took some first 

steps toward re-connecting wit h 

four graduates from my old high 

school. Our school was torn down 

when Arkansas schools Integrated, 

so every other year there i s a 

homecoming fo r all Lincoln High 

graduates. This was my first time to 

go. (Of course this was after the 

workshop.) There are two people in 

Wichita who attended school with 

me. I have contacted both of them 

since the reunion and am initiating 

the establishment of an alumni support 

group in Wichita. I plan to just 

take it slowly and see how it goes. 

The thing that has made this possible 

for me was the profound awareness 

that brilliance and goodness 

come In all shapes and colors and 

hair textures and • Is not limited in 

any way by "blackness." This gave 

me such a new respect for some 

people I had not valued that I could 

see them differently. 

More Women Leaders Needed 

24 

I find myself sometimes feeling 

sad about how that kind of thinking 

has limited the quality of my life, but 

I remind myself that such distress 

was not my choice and I am very 

lucky to have put a small crack in it. 

This leads to another major shift for 

me. The idea that I am the best person 

available to handle the challenges 

I face was and is an excellent 

Interruption o f the hopelessness 

and self-pity patterns that 

seem t o b e tied u p with some 

chronic Internalized racism. It has 

kept me from giving up after returning 

to Wichita and looking at the situation 

here. 

I know there is a lot to be done 

and I wish I had more help, more 

support, better counseling, and so 

on, but the fact is that I really am the 

best person available in Wichita to 

do what needs t o b e done. My 

choices are to despair or to do the 

work, so I'm choosing t o do the 

work. This means also that I plan to 

get to every workshop I can, to continue 

to get what I need to grow. I 

am planning to make contact with 

the Black Student Union at the university 

here and do an Introductory 

lecture in connection with orientation 

of black students on campus. I 

haven't done anything about that 

yet, but that's my next step. 

Vishva Shanti 

Wichlts, Kansas, USA 

• I see the three key areas as (I) the development of 

dedicated women's liberation leaders who will lead 

women's liberation and who will lead everything, (2) 

the putting of women's issues in the forefront and at the 

same time in the context of all issues, and (3) during this 

period Of time much more work needs to be done on 

winning men over as allies from a position of female 

and trtale pride. 

DIANE BALSER 

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA

Enormous Help From Our Children 

I've been greatly motivated, lately, to think about the part of the parents' policy statement 

that challenges us with the reminder that we have a rare benefit when we consider our children's 

high expectations of us. It Is a rare benefit and a challenge. Our children expect us to 

live up to the ideals that we set forth in thinking about ourselves and them. They remind us, 

always, when a bit of hopelessness sets in and those goals (ideals) get temporarily occluded. 

They do this in some interesting ways. Some of them bring us instantly to tears. (The contradictions 

can be right on the mark.) Some of them enrage us on the spot. (What a perfect 

opportunity to discharge at a later date.with a beloved Co-Counselor.) The difficulty is when 

it happens and we don't have a counselor instantly available. Then, we get to practice our 

attention-away-from-distress techniques. We get to pull them out of our bag of "tricks" 

quickly and discharge later in a session. It gets easier all the time. I like to explain It in "discharge 

hours" terms. The more we have discharged, the easier we deal with being reminded 

that we have momentarily given upon ourselves and the entire human race. Our cynicism 

gets to operate less often, In general, when young ones are around. (I'm not talking only of 

parents' cynicism, but of the cynicism of friends as well.) We all get the benefit of the 

reminder to keep and live our high expectations. The best part Is that they love us so much 

and this love is the basis for the reminding. How can we not pay attention when someone 

who loves us so much reminds us to love ourself when we have forgotten how? 

Sheila Creed 

New Haven, Connecticut, USA 

he Advantages of Being Southern 

The second annual Southern U.S. Liberation Workshop 

held last spring was very successful. Besides the im 

-portant liberation work we did there, the new loves dis- 

•• O u r shame is deep, but our pride is deeper. We have 

been ridiculed and derided, and our families participated 

covered, the good singing and fellowship, we made sever- 

in a severely oppressive slave society. Yet, I do not think 

that we have ever forgotten our essential integrity and 

al important decisions which will affect U.S. southerners goodness.. 

and Reers for many years to come, 

• ' 

For those who have lived in other localities in the 

It was clear to me that the year since the first southern southern U.S. or who have lived outside the region, we 

liberation workshop had been one of significant change in can claim each of these places as our homes. Believing and 

southerners in RC, particularly those who attended last understanding this can involve grieving the homes we left 

year's gathering. Being southern in the Way we speak, or which Were destroyed, and it involves actively choosing 

think, act, lead, and love had grown to be a central focus our present homes. This was particularly important for 

in our lives. Our particular ways of speaking (different for those at the workshop who had chosen to live in the south, 

every person and region) were more apparent. Our pride 

and understanding of our history had grown. We were 

for those had moved from the south, and for Jews. 

more ourselves. And like the smart leader she is, Nancy * 

Kline took us the next step with her opening challenge to 

us: to live our lives fully as southerners. 

Several significant things emerged as a result: 

region, . we are in a position to teach others about it and 

how 

' 

to remove its effects on people. Indeed, the civil 

rights movement was, to a large extent, hatched and nurturBed 

i n the r egi on. 

e 

* Where you are from in the south, not only the state, 

but the locality as well, defines in large part our relationships 

with each other and with the land. I suspect this is a 

reflection of the agricultural and rural economies that 

have dominated the region. 

* cOu 

r art is an essential way in which we express our 

love, a delight, warmth, sensitivity, and vision as southerners, 

Eileen Hayes composed and performed a rap. Lisa 

Coker u sang the song she composed after last year's workshop. 

s Poems were read. Songs punctuated our class ses- 

* As happens for all oppressed groups, our real history 

has not been uncovered or told filly 

, 

in the 

a n 

face 

d 

of 

i 

the 

s 

misinformation about the south that is 

prevalent. We spent an afternoon and part of a class spe- 

e 

cifically 

a s 

on 

y 

telling our 

t 

history 

o 

to each other. 

f o r g e t 

sions e more often than mini-sessions—favorite old hymns 

and omovement 

songs, as well as newer ones. • 

Dale Evora 

f 

Tucson, Arizona, USA 

t 

h 

e 

25 

u 

n 

i 

q 

,:'e%

LIBERATION 

I have been wanting to write this 

article since the 1985 World Conference, 

But personal experiences 

between then and now have allowed 

me the opportunity to come, to a 

deeper understanding of the present 

situation of women in Nicaragua, I 

will now try to share these with you. 

In May 1984, I gave birth to a 

beautiful and strong baby girl. The 

pregnancy and the delivery were 

normal and the birth took place in a 

Ovate hospital. A year la te r I 

miscarried a seven-week pregnancy. 

I had to have a D&C done and this 

took place i n th e same private 

hospital, b u t t h e circumstances 

were somewhat different. By that 

time the U.S. government's actions 

had imposed more drastic economic 

measures upon our country. The 

economy was in very bad shape, and 

the lack of medical instruments at 

this hospital was evident. The 08,C 

was done in the emergency examining 

room, and the doctor did the procedure 

without using any anesthesia 

since they were saving it for 

more serious operations. 

In February of this year I miscarried 

again. Because of special circumstances, 

I was taken to a public 

hospital. Now I knew that the economic 

a n d milit a ry aggression 

against our country was having a 

tremendous impact upon our public 

health system (not to mention everything 

else); but having to experience 

It myself, especially under such 

stressful circumstances, was something 

different. Just to give you an 

idea of what that means, here is a 

brief description o f what I went 

through. 

When I first came into the hospital 

(around 1:00 pm), I had to wait for 

a good while before it was my turn 

to be examined by the intern. The examining 

table was still dirty from 

the many women they had examined 

before me. They would have done a 

test to see if my embryo was still 

alive, but the hospital had run out of 

necessary chemicals.' I was then 

taken to a room where ten other 

women were In the same situation 

that I was, all wearing our street 

clothes and lying on bare mattress- 

CARE ABOUT ME AND M Y PEOPLE 

es (the hospital is In extremely short 

supply of bedding, as well as eating 

utensils, t o ile t paper, sa n ita ry 

napkins, syringes, etc.). 

Around 11:00 pm, I wa s lucky 

enough to get a sheet. One hour 

later I had the opportunity to share 

my one sheet with a bedmate. They 

had run out of beds and started to 

put two women to a bed, As my bedmate 

was larger than I was, she had 

a hard time finding a comfortable 

position to sleep in (especially since 

both of us had serum bottles attached 

to our arms). As she turned 

over, she almost fell off the bed. The 

nurse came over quickly and said, 

"Careful, honey, don't fall," My bedmate 

sleepily said, "No, that's the 

way we sleep here." (Such calm acceptance 

of the hardships at hand.) 

26 

This was the Berta Calderon hospital, 

a hospital that was dedicated by 

the Sand mist government to provide 

specialized free medical care fo r 

Nicaraguan women. 

Women in Nicaragua, as well as 

the majority o f women in Third 

World countries, have had to bear a 

heavy burden for most of their lives. 

Our present government has been 

trying to improve their lot in many 

ways, first by Improving the general 

social and economic situation that 

would improve the basic conditions 

for the survival of all Nicaraguan 

people. Examples of improvements 

since 1979 are: 

* The nation-Svide literacy campaign 

reduced illiteracy from 55% to 

13% (women were the majority of 

the Illiterates). 

photo by Conr a d Contz e n

* infant mortality has been greatly 

reduced and polio, measles, and 

diptheria have been virtually eliminated 

thanks to massive • vaccineti 

on• , 

, paigns conducted' at the national 

level. (The only places where these 

adiseases nd are still • seen are • areas 

where h e Contra attacks have •made It 

aImpossible l t to conduct the vaccination 

campaigns.) „. ••• • ,•••,• • .• 

h 

*. Thera is a n ' agrarian' •reform 

project e c that • is providing Jana. to 

• thousands d u of peasants every year to• 

work 

c a 

either individually or in Cooperatives. 

(The 

- loans' t i and technical assistance.) • 

go *• on The v egovernment 

' also subsidized 

rc •• the basic: staples o f the 

Nicaraguan n m e diet (rice, corn, beans,' 

ncooking a t oil, milk, etc,), •so tha t 

i 

everyone m s 

would have access to 

food. The increased cost of the war 

'has - pmade r it virtually' impossible to 

omaintain v i these subsidies.... - 

d * iMore n people now have access 

to things as simple but as neces 

g 

-sary as running water, electricity; a 

health center nearby... • 

in addition to those measures, the 

government has taken special' interest 

in Improving the lot of women.. 

by: 

• Changing the laws tha t were 

oppressive to . 

wnow o •formally m e n . recognized a t .6qUal 

under the law; they Can'n0 longer be 

Wused oas msex objects e In advertising; 

n they have the right to a three-month 

amaternity r leave While' earning, their 

full salary; they. have the right to 

eequal 

pay fbr equal Work; fathers are 

obliged' to provide support for abah•h 

doned • families: and • children • born 

outside of Marriage. 

• Prostitution has been outlawed 

and programs to rehabilitate prostitutes 

are under way. 

• Women are being encouraged 

to participate in the government in 

all different levels. (Proportionally, 

there is a greater number of women 

occupying high- and middle-level 

positions than in the U.S. and many 

Latin American countries.) There is 

also a number of women who are 

Voluntarily participating i n th e 

military service. • • , 

• A good number o f daycare 

centers have been built around the 

country so that more women can 

enter into the work force if they so 

desire. (Childcare has been traditionally 

the women's job, and these 

daycare centers are especially necessary 

because 73% of Nicaraguan 

women start to have children between 

the ages of fourteen and nineteen, 

and have an average of six 

children each.) 

• There is a program of pre-natal 

and post-natal care where the 

health and the development of both 

mother a nd• baby a re carefully 

checked. Free medicine and vitamins, 

as well as infant formula, are 

provided when needed. Additional 

staple foods are available for babies 

and children who show even the 

smallest degree of malnutrition. 

In spite of these and other improvements, 

the situation for Nicaraguan 

women, as well for the rest 

of the people of Nicaragua, has 

been deteriorating as the economic 

and military aggression of the U.S. 

administration and its allies increases. 

One of the cruel aspects of the 

war that is waged against Nicaragua 

Is that money for much needed 

health, eduoation, a n d social 

welfare programs is having to be 

channeled into defense; this in turn 

translates into less adequate care 

for the population (such as the 

health care given a t the Berta 

Calderon hospital). 

Besides the pain women have to 

endure in seeing their sons, fathers, 

and husbands march off to war and 

later seeing the m come back 

maimed or in coffins, they have to 

bear the limitations that are also a 

result of the war— limitations such 

at an ever-increasing difficulty due 

to the lack of U.S. parts for cars and 

buses, a by-product o f the U.S. 

economic embargo. 

Along the borders, women have 

had to witness the murder of husbands, 

sons, and daughters (many 

of very young age), as well as watch 

the destruction of schools, daycare 

27 

centers, health clinics, cooperatives. 

Women have been tortured, 

savagely raped and often killed by 

Contra soldiers (President Reagan's 

"freedom fighters"). 

With the recent approval by the 

U.S. Congress of 110 million dollars 

aid to the Contras, the future wellbeing 

of the people of Nicaragua 

seems even more uncertain. The only 

thing that seems certain is that 

there will be more suffering, death, 

and destruction to endure in the 

years to come. 

The thought of the number of still 

badly needed schools, hospitals, 

health clinics, daycare •centers, and 

cooperatives that could be built with 

those 110 million dollars is painful 

and staggering. It seems that there 

should have been enough rationality 

around to have decided to put that 

money to much better use other 

than killing and destroying. 

But In spite of such great odds, 

there is a sense of courage and determination 

among the Nicaraguan 

people. We are determined to eat 

less and live with much less if It is 

necessary. We will live together or 

die together, and no amount of 

dollars is going to• change that. 

Such is the present situation of 

women in Nicaragua. 

I am now pregnant again, and as I 

feel this baby developing within my 

womb I - 

wgua obe n dlike 

when this baby grows 

e 

up? 

r : 

Will she be able to enjoy the 

free education and health care our 

Wpresent h government is still strug- 

agling t to Implement? Will he have to 

endure more limitations than we are 

wexperiencing i because of this war? 

Will l she l lose her father, a relative, a 

N 

friend 

i 

or her own life in a much 

feared invasion by U.S. troops? I personally 

c a do not know the answer to 

these r a questions. But I do know that 

this 

- 

baby, a nd my two-year-old 

daughter, as well as the rest of 

Nicaraguan children, young people, 

women, and men, are counting on 

you and me to see that the latter 

won't happen. 

Brenda Cones 

Managua, Nicaragua

LI BERATI ON 

GROWING THOUGHTFULLY AS A LEADER 

The Chicano counseling Community continues to grow at a steady yet slow pace. Highlights incluck 

a new class for Chicanas, led by Monica Torres and Sylvia Garcia. The Chicano men's support 

group has continued to Meet throughout the summer, although our participation has dwindled 

down to between three and five regulars. We changed the time, and possibly meeting through the 

summer' was not a good idea, due to vacations and schedule conflicts for many of the participants. 

Special highlights include my relationships with some of the men, and in particular Ramon Flores, 

watching him do his work as Artistic Director for La Compania de Albuquerque. I think I told you 

before that Ramon has this natural ability to apply counseling to his life, like no one else I have ever 

seen. His most recent production is a play called "Tierra Sagrada" (Sacred Earth), about "love and 

intimacy along the Rio Grande." Incidentally, one of the stars of this production is Jose Apodaca, (a 

Co-Counselor), whose voice inspires many front our community. An important highlight that was 

important to me after 

, inmates t h e at thecounty jail. I usually volunteer to speak to the group every five or six weeks, and I do 

a fair job. This last time I spoke I decided to try something different, and I put together a men's 

p e a c e 

panel of three men. It was very good, and once again confirming of this important tboi. I'm going to 

abe sharing c t i counseling v i s t with another person starting this week, and will be meeting with a friend to- 

sday, ' to review the Chicano Draft Liberation Policy. 

w o r k 

s Since h the o pease p activists' worlishop, I have been doing a lot of thinking. I have tried to sort out 

the implication of building a world community, trying to figure out what this means for me per- 

w 

sonally. I am 

a 

interested in making my decision 'a permanent one, and although a good deal of dis- 

s tress seems to pull at me lately, I plan to continue to do so, as it makes practical sense. I have 

a reviewed some RC literature, as I want to make sure my footing is solid. I w'as asked to go to East 

pGermany, r eand sto 

Denmark, as part of a delegation from the United States Freeze, and decided that 

e 

this was 

n 

not 

t 

a good 

a 

idea at this time for me. It seems like there are many paths I could take in terms 

of leadership, but the most important. path for me has to do with developing a solid network of 

tfriends i here o in n New Mexico, and concentrating my work here. 

t 

h My recent work in the Chicano political arena includes putting together a debate for the two candidates 

a who are running for governor. I was involved as chairperson from a local coalition of groups 

concerned with Chicano issues. I learned a good deal front this experience, about myself, and about 

t 

the political process in general. For me, I learned that I can take some leadership, yet define my 

terms, I not fall into the trap of either doing everything, or feeling like I should, and then worrying 

about m it compulsively to no good end. I learned that it makes sense to apply the 'Wygelian leaders 

group a format, but have not figured out how just yet. In terms of the political process, I've concluded 

d 

that it is like the system, at the point of bankuptcy, yet offers an opportunity to address issues, 

and raise consciousness, as I think you've said. 

e 

t I started re-reading The Morning Deluge, something I should have done earlier. The book makes me 

cry, o and inspires me over and over, helps me place my priorities back in the right places, sort them 

out. s What has inspired me today is Mao's patience, his ability to wait, and to smile and notice the 

mountains, to look cheerful in the face of impossible odds. 

o 

m 

e 

o 

f 

t 

h 

e 

28 

Lorenzo Garcia 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

The importance of being an ally 

is one o f the most significant 

aspects of RC theory for me. It has 

helped me immeasurably i n my 

political work to build bridges and 

coalitions for social change. 

Recently I had a wonderful opportunity, 

in a period of two days, 

to receive excellent information 

about an oppressed group, to discharge 

heavily on my distress and 

fear, and then to take my resolve 

and direction into the wide world 

and apply it. 

Several months ago I attended 

an Allies of Arabs workshop led 

beautifully b y Eileen Ka a dy , 

assisted b y Ka r e n Mura d, a 

wonderful Lebanese-American 

woman from Seattle. Over the last 

several years I have been working 

with individual Palestinians and 

their supporters i n the Rainbow 

Coalition and have been aware of 

the feelings that come up primarily 

because I am a Jew. My commitment 

has been to "be a committed 

ally t o Jews a nd Palestinians 

simultaneously at all times." 

The excellent workshop allowed 

me to re-commit, from my heart, to 

this commitment and in my session 

in front of the group I was able to 

identify the key distress which was 

holding me back. During the workshop, 

I remembered some information 

from one of Ricky Sherover- 

Marcuse 

1 

attended. She had said that the 

hardest aspect of racism to confront 

,s 

is the information given to us by 

the w oones r we love—our parents. In 

my k ssession h I was able to identify 

the o pdistressing s message given to me 

by 

w 

my 

h 

beloved (and scared) parents. 

The message (although not 

expressed i c explicitly) was that "the 

Arabs h a r e o u t t o g e t u s . " 

Remembering I 

thi s brought u p 

some 

b 

of the deepest sobbing I've 

experienced in a long time. Later 

in a fhe workshop, others from other 

ethnic d backgrounds identified this 

as a barrier f o r the m. " The 

a r c outtogetus"brought 

discharge from several people. 

This was a huge leap forward for 

me as an ally and the next day I 

A Jewish Ally of Palestinians 

was able to act. For an educational 

conference, I had been asked by a 

local Palestinian group to be one of 

five Jews to give a brief personal 

statement of my position on Israel 

and Palestinians and, 

lar, , i mn y support for Palestinian 

self-determination a nd a homeland. 

p a r t i c u - 

I first described who I was. I 

said I was not a n historian or 

scholar on the Middle East. I said I 

was a Jew, a democratic socialist, a 

third generation atheist, a nd a 

pragmatic political activist. 

I the n listed the conclusions 

(many I willingly admit to being 

tentative) I had reached from my 

study, conversations, and thinking 

over the last few years: 

1. Palestinians have been and 

continue to be treated in an oppressive 

manner b y the Israeli 

government 

2. Palestinians have a right to a 

homeland and to self-determination. 

3. The PLO is the legitimate 

representative of the Palestinians 

and mus t b e negotiated w i th 

directly. 

4. Jews are a people, not a religion. 

(I said this is how it felt to me 

as a third generation atheist and 

they laughed.) 

• 5 . Israel s hould n o t b e a 

"religious" state governed b y 

religious laws, b u t a state for 

Jewish people may be okay. 

6. As a pragmatic activist I 

believe peace in the Middle East is 

dependent on negotiations, mutual 

recognition of Israel and a Palestinian 

state, and I support efforts 

in this direction. 

7. I f I had been around when 

the idea of Israel as a state was proposed 

I may have been one of the 

Jews, like the Bundists, who identified 

more with international socialism 

than a Jewish nationalism. 

Who knows? 

29 

8. Ultimately I have real questions 

about the usefulness of nationalism 

but as long as there is oppression, 

national security may be 

needed. 

9. The role of U.S. imperialism 

makes things much worse. 

I then talked about where these 

conclusions led me, which was my 

interpretation of RC ally theory. I 

said I commit myself as an ally for 

Arabs which means to me: 

1. Responding t o a nti-Ara b 

stereotypes with correct information 

a nd learning more about 

Arabs. 

2. Talking to Jews and others 

about the importance and justice of 

self-determination for Palestinians 

and pointing out this is not anti- 

Semitism. 

3. Being a public example of a 

Jew in support of a homeland for 

Palestinians. 

4. Listening to the legitimate 

anger of Palestinians without taking 

it personally. 

I also said I committed myself to 

being an ally foriews which means 

to me: 

1. Standing• up against a nti- 

Semitism whenever it occurs and 

correcting misinformation. • 

2. Taking pride in the accomplishments 

of other Jews and my 

culture. 

3. Deepening my understanding 

and compassion for the deep psychological 

hurts experienced b y 

Jews from a history of oppression 

and learning how to contradict the 

fears and hurts. 

I concluded with my hope for a 

world where Jews and Palestinians 

would commit themselves as total 

allies for each other and work 

together for justice for everyone 

and a world free of racism and anti- 

Semitism. 

BEVERL:Y STEIN 

PORTLAND, OREGON, USA

LI BERATI ON 

Fears of Heights and Fears of Torture 

I've been jumping off mountains 

lately, so I'll try one more and write 

to you. • 

I'm in Argentina because the government 

has changed, and my husband, 

a former Argentine labor activist 

In exile, was able to return. I'm 

working as a free-lance foreign correspondent 

for ABC Radio, United 

Press international, a nd Dallas 

Morning News. 

As for jumping off mountains, I 

had a particularly special experience 

last week in which I was able 

to enjoy what could have been a terrifying 

experience by keeping my attention 

away from my distress: I 

learned to ski. 

I found that my fears—of heights, 

of getting hurt or dying — crystallized 

at the edge of a mountain in 

the Andes. I was there covering the 

Alpine Ski World Cup for UPI. The 

area provided free skis and access 

to lifts to jounalists, and a friendly 

and inspiring Swiss skier offered to 

teach me. How could I refuse? 

My new friend took me up right 

away— I had only experimented with 

the skis once the day before—and I 

almost physically thrust the fear 

aside as I started down the mountain, 

into turns per my instructions. 

As we took lifts to higher and 

higher slopes, I felt the fear, but 

pushed past it, shaking, but in control, 

although I did once ask my 

friend if he would belerribly embarrassed 

if I took off the skis and 

climbed down. But I continued, even 

when my unprotected eyes stopped 

distinguishing features on the snow 

in the flat light and I was forced to 

ski snowblind, following my friend. 

Finally, I was laughing and dancing 

through my turns. I fell twice and 

rolled into a somersault, unable to 

contain my laughter. 

My third day on skis, I successfully 

skied a difficult slope. My friend 

had discreetly radioed for another 

friend to ski down with us, with me 

In the middle. I didn't fall down or 

even lose control. I accepted praise 

all around. 

The putting aside of that fear was 

an important move for me. The move 

to Argentina had brought up many 

fears (wasn't that why I came?) and 

here was a chance to deal with them 

in a very concrete way. I recommend 

it. 

My big project right now is a book 

on the trial of the military juntas, 

which ended with two former presidents 

and three other junta leaders 

in jail. 

I attended almost all of the trial, 

which consisted largely of people 

telling the stories of their kidnapping, 

torture, disappearance, and 

subsequent reappearance a t the 

hands o f Argentina's forme r 

leaders. 

I'm writing the book from the 

point of view of one who attended 

the trial and what the experience 

was like. Woven into the account of 

the trial I've written my husband's 

story of his kidnapping, torture, and 

Illegal imprisonment, with a focus 

on what motivated his choice to 

become politically active. 

I sometimes wonder why I feel so 

compelled to write this story; the 

stories of what was done to people 

are horrible. But it seems that even 

here in Argentina it has been easy 

for people to forget and start talking 

about "the good old days of the 

military when subversion was under 

control." I understand now why German 

Jews did not want to return to 

post-war Germany. 

I also find it important to recognize 

and celebrate the ways i n 

which people were able to act rationally 

and creatively under the 

most extreme conditions. in the trial 

again and again, former prisoners of 

Argentine concentration camps 

described the ways they were able 

to reaffirm their humanity when 

everything around them was set up 

to deny them even their existence. 

I learned something else in the 

courtroom. Just as I later realized 

while skiing that the worst that 

could happen to me would be to fall 

and get hurt, I realized during the 

trial that the worst anyone could do 

30 

to me would be to torture me, and I 

might just survival Many people did, 

including m y husband. Others 

didn't, but the mystification of torture 

a nd de a th w a s removed 

through repeated descriptions of 

people's experiences. 

In addition, I s a w the clear 

manifestation of the upward trend. 

This powerful military threw everything 

they had at any manifestation 

of growth and goodness. They say 

they won "the dirty war" because 

the left was "annihilated" (their 

word) under their regime. But they're 

wrong. They may have killed 30,000 

people, but, arici 

iit, 

we are still here. And they are in 

Jail, and dying of cancer, with their 

destructive i f e e l patterns finally destroy- 

ling i them. k e 

I I'm not minimizing what happened, 

but c I awant n to say that there Is 

nothing o welse 

to do but re-emerge, as 

individuals or as a society. 

n 

I am thinking of starting a support 

group for those of us who returned. 

as family of returning political exiles. 

There are organizations that offer 

support for children of exiles, but 

no real organization for those of us 

who came back as companions, married 

or otherwise. 

spent a wonderful day at Pancho 

and Melissa's workshop last week. 

was so impressed with the people 

that Pancho had assembled. For the 

first time since leaving the States, I 

felt like I was in a counseling Community...hot 

stuff. You'll find out 

when you come. 

I'm getting ready to start teaching. 

It won't be easy to teach in 

Spanish; I've found I assume a different 

personality when I change 

languages, which is something to 

work on and discharge about. I'm 

sitting in on Alicials first fundamentals 

class to see how to do it in 

Spanish. 

Margaret Grammer-Vallelos 

Buenos Aires, Argentini

M — returned in April from a six-month visit to Chile, the first since she left as a political refugee 

twelve years ago. She has made productive contact with a -women's community organisation working 

for families of the "relegados —people who, for reasons of political oppression, are banished to 

other localities as a form of internal exile. To finance their work they want to produce high-quality 

woolen knitwear and market it in Europe. Through M —'s initiative, the idea has been taken up by 

Traidcraft which is a non-denominational church organisation based in the north-east of England 

and with branches through Britain and many European countries, They have agreed to market the 

products and to provide a loan towards the starting capital. Again through M — 's initiative, the 

local Council of Churches has agreed to pay back the loan to Traidcraft and in autumn M— will be 

the guest at their fund-raising events where she will be giving talks and showing slides she brought 

back from her visit. 

Although M i s not actively involved in the 'RC Community, she finds the theory useful in 

many ways and derives a lot of inspiration from the literature. She sends you her love. 

John David Simnel( 

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England 

I have recently been using this commitment, fo r 

myself and with other mental health system survivors: 

Unforgotten Chile 

From now on w i l l always be proud of myself and 

other mental health system survivors. 

will remember that I can choose the viewpoint on my 

experiences which gives me the most satisfaction; and 

that have precious knowledge to share with all liberation 

groups. 

can be in complete charge of my mind and fulfill my 

wildest dreams. 

it has produced good results. Here are a couple of appreciations 

from people who used it at the mental 

health system survivors leaders' conference in New 

Hope, Pennsylvania, USA, August 1986: 

The mental health system survivors' commitment Is a brilliant piece of thinking, 

powerful enough to change the direction al our liberation dramatically. Thank you 

lot your pioneering work. 

Donna Givens, Lynchburg, Virginia, USA 

FOR MENTAL HEALTH 

SYSTEM SURVIVORS 

31 

ENINEMEESMIN 

The mental health system survivors commitment has got to be the most powerful 

contradiction to all my distresses which I have ever encountered. Using It puts my 

attention on everything I need to discharge. I am presently dedicating myself to 

sharing it with other survivors and modelling it as a brilliant, incisive counseling 

tool. 

Pam Maccabee, Stastonbury, Connecticut, USA 

Having talked to other counsellors and done some 

more thinking, ll've come up with a new version, as yet 

untested: 

From now on I will be my best loving friend, and be 

proud of myself and all other mental health system survivors. 

I will remember that! can choose the viewpoint on my 

life experiences and current situation which gives me 

the most satisfaction. 

am the perfect person to lead everyone, and end the 

threat of nuclear war. 

I can take complete charge of my mind and fulfill my 

wildest dreams. 

jinn Read 

London, England

LIBERATION 

I am still excited about Charlie Kreiner's men's from military training to lead against the oppresworkshop 

in Albuquerque. s i v e society itself. 

Veterans got closer than ever. I have been calling 

vets groups at workshops for the last three 

years, but this was the best. Several men "came 

out of the closet" about their veteran status. We 

shared tales of us and our buddies from our military 

experience. 

I made two important advances in my thinking 

about veterans during the weekend. First, people 

who were In the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training 

Corps) are veterans of the military as surely as 

any of us. My invitation to former ROTC cadets to 

Join us at the vets dinner table contradicted a 

common pattern that many of us carry. We don't 

feel veteran enough. If we were only in two years 

rather than four, then we aren't a real veteran. Or if 

we had a desk Job or if we didn't get wounded (or 

killed!) in Vietnam, then we aren't real veterans. 

That's baloney! If you were in the active duty 

military service of any country, or the reserves, or 

the guerilla band fighting for national liberation, 

or the ROTC, or a military academy, then you are a 

veteran. Welcome, Be proud of that part of your 

life. 

I felt the reserves o f strength that the oppressive 

military conditioning has left us with. 

The military taught us, pounded into us in many 

cases, the ethic of getting the Job done, regardless, 

no excuses. The military taught us to work 

together, teamwork so close that your life and the 

lives of your buddies depended upon it. We gained 

experience in leadership. We exercised our courage 

and initiative. The military repeatedly challenged 

us to go beyond our previous limits. 

These same traits are still available to us to use 

In the task of eliminating oppression from our 

world. I love the irony of veterans using their skills 

o• 

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• 

ON BEING A VETERAN 

For years we listened to and took part in the 

harsh tones which try to approximate power. We 

were lucky to be exposed to role models of people 

at least attempting to reach for power boldly. But, 

In addition there were some specific distresses 

we picked up in the military. 

• 

One obstacle for many vets is a quality of living 

in the past rather than in the present. This reveals 

Itself in different ways. One instance is excessive 

national chauvinism— gaudy military parades, 

flags, aggressive rhetoric. Other vets are stuck in 

the past in that they disown or don't reveal their 

veteran status out of a sense of shame or guilt. 

(For a more complete look at veterans, see Pres. 

ent Time No. 59, pp. 49-51.) 

Another obstacle is not being able to tell otjr 

stories. We need so badly to tell our loved ones 

and our Co-Counselors what happened. We don't 

want thes e memories. We aren't tight-lipped 

about our time in service because there is nothing 

to tell or "that's Just the way veterans are." In 

order to overcome this obstacle veterans need to 

seek each other out for listening. in addition, we 

need to train friends and Co-Counselors to listen 

to us without interrupting. 

I am optimistic about the future for vets, it is an 

exciting prospect to think of us reclaiming our full 

pride, clarifying a veterans' liberation policy, and 

moving decisively to end oppression. • 

One of my Jobs in AC is veterans' Information 

Coordinator. I f you are a veteran, I would be 

pleased to hear from you. Please write or call. 

Tony Switzer 

1616 West 10th 

Austin, Texas 78703, USA 

Tel. (512) 476-3294 

Imagine an untarnished world 

A place to live and grow. 

% • A fearless loving gentle place 

• For all of us to know. 

• 

: A place beyond your wildest dreams 

To cherish and to share 

The essence of abundancy 

Where everything is fair. 

Take one step down this brand new path 

It's very close to you. 

It's something which we can all achieve. 

Not lust the privileged few. 

CLAIR VENUS 

32 

ST, LOUIS, MISSOURI, USA

COUNSELING PRACTICE 

WHO IS IN CHARGE OF A SESSION? 

• I have heard discussions at workshops and have had the question raised in correspondence as to "Who 

is in charge of the session?" It has sometimes been proclaimed that "the client is in charge of the session." 

Various irresponsibilities on the part of counselors or poor results from counseling have sometimes been 

excused on that basis. 

On the other hand, from the time of the early article "Who's In Charge?" we have held to a general position 

that each person is in charge of everything, as the only possible rational attitude for entities possessed 

of intelligence. Also people have applauded and admired "tough," demanding counseling which broke 

through difficulties for the client. 

Who is really in charge of the session, the client or the counselor? I would say both. 

If we look at the session process as a whole, I think we're bound to recognize that two (or more) intelligences 

being involved is the central feature of effective counseling. We've been emphasizing that the ineffectiveness 

of much past counseling was caused by the counselor having his or her attention on the counselor's 

distress instead of on the client's during the session. We now have a commitment, that has had fine 

results in the last three years, to end this ancient habit-pattern. 

• I f two intelligences are involved in a process, can one intelligence be subordinate to the otheir and only 

carry out the thinking of the other person? I think not It's true that a person can function as a helper to 

another person. It's true that one person can function under another person's direction. Any symphony 

player knows that the exquisite cooperation between a hundred people present in a good performance only 

comes when the directing is done by the director and individual players don't set their own tempo or interpretation. 

Nevertheless, the violin players are in charge of playing the violins, each one of them, and 

the trumpet player is in charge of playing his or her trumpet. The full intelligent in-chargeness of each 

person is required in this kind of relationship. 

The same thing is true of the counseling relationship. It is an exquisite and extremely rewarding cooperation 

between two intelligences. Each one of the people is necessarily going to be in charge of the session 

if the session is to be optimally effective. The client is in complete charge of the session from the client's 

point of view and in terms of the client's functions. The counselor is in complete charge of the session 

from the counselor's point of view and in terms of the counselor's functions. Any idea that one should 

be subordinate to the other misses the fact that there are two distinct roles which have to be carried out 

here. 

What are the specific roles of the counselor and of the client? What in-chargeness lies in each one's domain? 

THE CLIENT 

The client is in charge of anticipating and planning his or her role in the session; is in charge of combatting 

the three tendencies of patterns to confuse you, to persist, and to make you forget; is in charge of 

assembling and keeping in touch with written directions, frameworks, and commitments that have worked 

well; is in charge of thinking about what can be the most crucial factor for the client's re-emergence if it 

can be, worked on successfully. The client is in charge of recalling and reviewing (before the session or at 

the beginning of it) the importance of decision, not necessarily decision following discharge but, more 

powerfully, decision preceding and amplifying discharge. The client is in charge of thinking about the 

particular counselor, and about what distress, if any, is likely to not be handled successfully by the particular 

counselor. The client can choose to work on distress that is likely to be handled successfully rather 

than be unrealistic and push a kind, of distress at the particular counselor which he or she is unlikely to 

handle well and so weaken the relationship and accumulate disappointment. c o n t i n u e d . . 

33


conti nued 

It is the client's responsibility to choose to be a successful client as far as the client's own role will carry 

the day. The client is in charge of trying each direction the counselor offers at least a time or two before 

arguing or rehearsing the distress the direction is intended to contradict. The client is in charge of thinking 

or remembering that the counselor is another human being with complete goodness, power, and freedom 

of decision. The client is in charge of not writing the counselor off or "being disappointed" in him or 

her. 

The client can properly keep in mind the possibility of exchanging roles, at least briefly, (or, if one is 

engaged in "training one's own counselor," for an extended series of times) in dealing with any of the 

counselor's difficulties. 

The client is very much in charge of being on time, being courteous to the counselor, being appreciative, 

and, in reviewing the session after it is over, being sure to emphasize the positive aspects of the session, 

the counseling, and the counselor before making any "helpful" suggestions as to how they could 

have been better. 

THE COUNSELOR 

The counselor is in complete charge of coming to the session determined to take (and practiced in taking) 

his or her attention away from his or her own past distress (using the commitment against the "andent 

habit pattern," or the commitment against lending a pattern one's own power or influence.) 

The counselor is in charge of reviewing his or her memories of the client and what he or she has heard 

about the client from other counselors or teachers. The counselor is in charge of coming to the session 

with a clear expectation of paying enough attention to the client to see the distress clearly, of thinking of 

all possible contradictions to the distress, and of helping to contradict it sufficiently to bring discharge by 

the client. The counselor is in charge of realizing that a good counselor thinks about the client not only for 

the one session but for the client's entire existence. The counselor not only thinks of what attitudes, directions, 

or commitments will bring discharge right then, but also which series of actions or perspectives will 

move the client toward continuing re-emergence. The counselor needs to think of the client from the 

perspective of the rest of the life of the client and plan on leaving the client with attitudes, commitments, 

directions, and relationships that will enhance the client's continued re-emergence after the session, 

towards having more sessions, and towards good work in later sessions. 

The counselor is in charge of putting aside any other feelings in order to love the client deeply, depending, 

if necessary, on the theoretical assumptions about what any human being is like underneath the distress. 

With that unpatterned human being in mind, and loving that human being, the counselor's thinking 

will be enhanced. The counselor is in charge of having relaxed, but high, expectations of the client. 

The counselor assumes that ,this client has a full capacity to be the greatest thinker the world has ever 

known, and to function in the most loving and totally supportive way toward other human beings, the 

world of life, and the upward trend in the universe. The counselor assumes that the client has complete 

freedom to make decisions and carry them out, and that the client has an inherent sense of complete 

power which needs only to be challenged and uncovered for it to begin to operate. 

The counselor is in charge of remembering and holding the seven attitudes toward the client of approval, 

delight, respect, confidence in and for the client, relaxed high expectations, commitment to the client, 

and love to and of the client. 

The counselor is in charge of challenging any patterned attitudes toward being a client that have accumulated 

on a client. 

I find, for example, that I often work at workshops with clients who, in the absence of effective counseling 

support, have worked out a routine of "running their own sessions" in an effort to make their counseling 

work without much support. They often, unawarely, rehearse their distress over and over thinking 

they are contradicting it. 

34

Confronted by a good counselor they then will tend to make one of two kinds of mistakes. (1) Feeling 

that there is now support against their distress, they abandon the effort to contradict the distress themselves. 

This leaves the situation pretty much where it was previously when the client was trying to contradict 

the client's distresses alone. Again only one of the team is contributing. It is now the counselor alone 

trying to contradict the client's distresses, while the client rehearses the distress over and over. (2) The 

other tendency is for the embattled client, who has been trying to "counsel herself" because of lack of adequate 

participation by previous counselors, to stay in the rigid routine of "counseling herself' by arguing 

with every direction the counselor offers before trying it. In these cases I find it is part of my role as counselor 

to "retrain" the client to reassume the client's role by offering information about theory, by persuasion, 

by formulating good directions or conunitments that define the client's contradiction to the distress. 

(Directions and commitments are, basically, tools for helping the client function well in the client's roles') 

A top-notch session will have both the client and the counselor contradicting the client's distress, the 

client in the client's roles and the counselor in the counselor's roles. 

Who is in charge of the session? The client is in complete charge of the session. The counselor is in complete 

charge of the session. Each has completely. distinct roles to play. When both sets of 1•oles are well- 

. played, then memorable sessions take place and re-emergence is rapid. 

- HARVEY JACKINS 

2 1 1 2 . , A T T E N T I O N ON OTHERS' 

I'm just back from the Pennsylvania/New Jersey 

teachers' and leaders' workshop and I'm excited 

about what I learned there. 

Your suggestion that we each put our attention 

on other people all of the time has sharpened up 

and improved the quality of my relating to people. 

Ever since you mentioned the idea, I've kept it/n 

mind during every interaction I've had with another 

person—Co-Counselors, train passengers, and 

now my family. 

At first it sounded a little absurd. What can people 

possibly talk about without clienting to some 

degree? isn't it too much to expect anyone to be 

counselor all of the time? However, when I think 

about it carefully, and after having tried this new 

attitude, I realize that it is actually easier when I 

approach each conversation as counselor. 

Sometime in the past I developed a way of 

"breaking the ice," or avoiding long silences, by 

talking about myself or my feelings. This establishes 

some connection between myself and the 

other person but still leaves a good chunk of me 

focused on old distresses. It's kind of like a turtle 

yelling, "Hello!" from inside her shell. Your idea of 

putting one's full attention always on the other 

person makes for a quicker, more engaging connection. 

.3 5 

One of the best parts of this idea is that it 

means making sure that something of quality 

comes out of my time with the other person. It 

doesn't mean that I let the other person drone on 

about all of his or her problems. That's not what 

thinking like a counselor means. it may mean giving 

the other person a chance to talk about some 

feelings, but it may Just as well mean getting his 

or her (and coincidentally my) attention away from 

distress. Once both people have themselves firmly 

planted in the present, there are all kinds of 

ideas to discuss and fun things to do/ 

Another implication is that interactions between 

people will have less chance of being 

weird. If I start out aware and in charge of what 

goes on, I can head oft weirdness before it takes 

over and instead guide the conversation in a good 

direction. 

If enough people are thinking as counselor, 

most contacts between people will be easy and 

interesting. Subtle chanting is a hard habit to 

break, but an easy one to decide to end over and 

over and over. There are a lot of "Co-Counseling 

behaviors" that are now second nature to me. I am 

hoping for this to become one of them. 

JEVERA TENISKY 

WASHINGTON, DC, USA


A COOLER PERSPECTIVE ON "ALL AGES' 

; 

' W O R K S H O P S 

All ages workshops, pioneered by Chrissie Morris at 

Sheldon in Devon, have been very popular in England. 

They have spread to other areas of the country and have 

been done with great excitement and success, attracting 

enthusiastic followers of all ages. 

I can see that for adults to do non-permissive counselling 

with young people they need more than good intentions. 

They need to have discharged a good chunk of their 

own hurts in this area and they need to learn how to 

counsel young people—what to look for and what to do. 

This requires practice and experience. I can also see that 

the single purpose and sole focus of workshops with young 

people needs to be the counselling of young people: an 

end in itself. 

I think that what's been good about all ages workshops 

has indeed been good, but that what's been wrong is actually 

at the very heart and core of adultism (perhaps why it 

has been so effectively obscured until now) and is too important 

to allow to continue. There may be other reasons 

why all ages workshops aren't as good an idea as they have 

seemed, but I think this one single flaw outweighs the 

Cathy Itzin 

many gains and that we need to go about our re-emergence 

as parents, allies, and young people in new and different 

ways. 

I have developed an all ages format for workshops and 

The traditional RC family workshop is one way of providing 

counselling for young people. It obviously requires 

its leaders to be free of a great deal of the distress from 

written about it with enthusiasm (e.g., Present Time No. their own early years and experienced in counselling 

64, July 1986). 

young people. Play days are another' way of counselling 

young people and providing the opportunity for adults 

Now, after a series of meetings and workshops with who've been to family workshops to get in better shape 

Patty Wipfler and Tim Jackins (including my first experi- and gain experience in counselling young people. Patty 

ence of an RC family workshop), I have come to a new Wiptler has provided some guidelines (Contact Patty 

and different point of view about All Ages Workshops Wipfler for more information about play days. Her ad- 

and, as a result 

dress is 2328 Santa Catalina, Palo Alto, California 94303, 

1 h a v e 

d 

The 

e c 

main 

i d 

reason for this change in thinking is coming 

to understand that it is not sufficient just to offer permis-. 

esive d counselling to young people. If young people are of- 

USA.) for doing play days. I think they make sense and 

sound very challenging too. My next step is to have a 

series of three play days in my Area over the next six 

months: one for ages birth to four, one for ages four to 

fered n the o safety and good attention of a group of adult eight, and another for ages eight to thirteen, drawing on 

counsellors t in the context of an RC workshop, then they 

are 

t 

effectively 

o 

receiving an invitation— and being given 

the opportunity t o bring up their heaviest distress for 

discharge d with counsellors who may be able to provide 

good o permissive counselling, but who usually do not have 

the t experience h or information they need to do non-permissive 

e m 

counselling with yciung people. 

a At the n very least this will restimulate a young person's 

disappointment y m and hopelessness. At worst it will lay in a 

new o hurt r with a new piece of misinformation: that it is not 

okay e to . bring up your heaviest distress for discharge, even 

in the theoretically safest of all places, an RC workshop; 

and that there is no one to'counsel you if you do, not even 

the people who "ought" to be in the best position to do it, 

leadership outside my Area and developing leadership in 

my Area. 

think from this base other ways of counselling young 

people will probably emerge, as we all continue to reemerge. 

As Patty says: "Of course you can experiment 

with die format — you'll get good ideas as you go along 

and when you do, let me know." I also think that the all 

ages work in England has laid the foundations for fast 

moves forward in this area, for it has created a real commitment 

to counselling young people and for the re-emergence 

of everyone from the hurts of adultism. It has also 

developed a group of leaders with some good thinking 

who can be good counsellors for young people and who 

are in a good position to go on from here. 

Le., experienced adult RCers. I think this muse be damaging 

to young people. 

Cathy Itzin 

London, England 

36 

'OP 

° 

NEW! NOW AVAILABLE! 

PRESENT TIME INDEX 

A , January 1977 - April 1986 

$3.00 U.S. 

Order from 

Rational Island Publishers 

PO Box 2081, Main Office Station 

Seattle, Washington 98111, USA

Report from a topic group of single surviving 

twins. Leicester, England Liberation Workshop 

1986 

The topic group was attended by 

single surviving twins and parents, of 

single surviving twins. We shared our 

thoughts in this area, and realised the 

importance of clear information in our 

re-emergence from the distress of this 

particular experience. 

With modern technology, it is possible 

to detect pregnancy very early on, 

and some sources state that a high percentage 

o f conceptions (up t o 70%) 

may be twins. This idea is certainly 

borne out by society, which encourages 

a longing f o r o u r "ot her half ' i n 

romance and pop songs, f or instance. 

The following series of points characterise 

how the distress may affect us, 

together with some directions and contradictions 

for use by ourselves and our 

counsellors. All but the last one is written 

from the point of view of the surviving 

twin. 

(1) The loss of our t win is likely to 

have been our first major distressing 

incident, and so it will underlie and affect 

everything in our lives. Powerlessness 

and isolation will be eliminated in 

all areas of our lives as we discharge the 

distress. 

(2) I t is important to tell our story, 

follow any leads we have about what 

happened and assume we are correct. It 

is understandable that we may have 

great difficulty in expressing ourselves 

verbally. The mental health system oppression 

may affect us deeply, as we 

may be told or believe we are "crazy" to 

take • such early memories seriously. 

Our counsellors need to be relaxed and 

encouraging about our experiences. 

(3) We may need a great deal of time 

to grieve and mourn. There is often 

nothing tangible to mark the passing of 

our twin and we are short of good information. 

We have probably never said 

goodbye. I t is good for us to give our 

twin a name, talk about their lives, and 

say goodbye in our sessions. It may be 

useful t o evolve a rit ual f or saying 

goodbye, or use existing ones like the 

Jewish custom of sitting shiva f or a 

dead person, to help us take our twin's 

death as a reality. 

(4) By contrast, bey ond s ay ing 

goodbye lies the balancing idea that in 

Single Surviving Twins 

a sense our twins are always with us, 

that we can "summon them up" any 

time we feel we need them. 

0 ) Sometimes we have spent our 

lives searching for our twins, yearning 

for them, particularly at certain times 

(and it is useful for us to acknowledge 

when these are). We may be waiting for 

them to come back, feel we cannot reclaim 

our power without them. A good 

contradiction is that we are whole, and 

complete, and we can do anything we 

choose to, and right now. 

(6) We may have been left wit h intense 

feelings of isolation, and a deep 

resolve that no one will ever be allowed 

that close again. When our t win left, 

half our immediate world did go, hence 

our feeling that we cannot reach or be 

reached by others. As client, we may 

have stumbled through our sessions not 

really k nowing o u r counsellor was 

there. We need assurance that we can 

make contact, however and whenever 

we choose. We can remember that we 

have actually experienced deep i n - 

timacy, f or however long or short a 

period of time. I t is important to talk 

about what t hat intimacy was lik e 

before our twin left. 

(7) When we get close to someone, 

we may prefer certain physical conditions. 

I t is important not t o censor 

these, but to take the time and let our- 

Selves choose exactly the positions of 

closeness we want. I t may be useful to 

be reminded that there is no longer a 

life and death struggle going on. 

(8) We often have self-destructive 

patterns, hurting ourselves physically. 

We may believe it was our fault our 

twins died, that there was something 

wrong with us, or that we killed them. 

The contradiction is that it wasn't our 

fault, and that we can celebrate our 

strength and our decision to live. 

(9) We often have very distorted images 

of our body size, and a false sense 

of body odour. One explanation for the 

former could be the fact that we continued 

to grow once our twin had gone, 

and filling the space served to remind 

us of our loss. There may have been a 

tremendous struggle f or us t o ensure 

our own survival, and it may have been 

hard to get enough "food" for a long 

time. Now, we may be out of touch 

with the reality of the space we actually 

occupy. I n addition, some of us have 

37 

noted that we feel that something is, 

growing inside us, giving us sensations 

of swelling. The feeling that we exude 

bad smells, and that we are physically 

unpleasant to be close to, may be related 

to the fact that we continued to grow 

and develop in water and surroundings 

that someone else had died in and had 

"contaminated," 

.(10) We may have a v ery strong 

sense of control over ourselves and our 

environment. We feel we have to hold 

it all together, that if we let go everything 

will fall apart. At the point that 

our twin went away, we may have used 

physical stillness as a tool for survival, 

as our own safety was threatened. On 

occasions, we may still feel immobilised 

physically, and need encouragement 

to move and thrash about and do 

physical exercise i n our sessions and 

life. 

(11) We may have feelings to discharge 

about having been "left" and 

"betrayed," and about the "weakness" 

of others. These may greatly affect our 

relationships w i t h eit her o r b o t h 

genders. 

(12) We may have tried very hard to 

prevent o u r t wi n f rom dy ing, W e 

moved heaven and earth at a time when 

we expected to be very powerful, and 

have found it difficult t o understand 

why it didn't work. This may leave us 

with a "trying, not succeeding" pattern. 

From the parents of twins of whom one 

has died: 

(13) I t is important to have realised 

what happened, after coming into RC. 

We needed to celebrate the birth of the 

live child, and grieve the dead one. A 

number of circumstances might accompany 

the death of one twin, such as an 

apparent miscarriage. I t is possible, 

though, that the mother might not even 

bleed, and hence not know what had 

happened, as the fetus can be re-absorbed 

by her body. 

There seemed to be great benefit in 

meeting together, to piece together the 

apparently contradictory information 

we all had, and for discharge. I t was 

helpful for the surviving twins to see 

parents discharging their feelings over 

this matter. It was also a fine thing for 

the parents to see surviving twins in 

such wonderful shape. 

reported by Leah Thorne 

England

C OU N SEL IN G PR A C TIC E 

, A problem for many incest survivors seems to 

be how to get from feeling overwhelmed and dysfunctional 

t o being totally free of the "painful 

emotion" that accompanied the experience. 

Here's one possibility: at the Midwest USA 

Teachers' and Leaders' Workshop in June of 1986, 

I witnessed the evolution of a new commitment 

that goes like this: 

Recordings of past distress experiences have 

no power of their own at all. They only have the al). 

pearance of power and influence If! slavishly submit 

to letting them use my power and my influence. 

(If I think of them as pieces of recorded 

tape, they have, at most, a trifling historical significance, 

unless I Insert them In the tape recorder 

that is myself and play them, an action which I am 

free to decide to do or not to do.) Therefore, I now 

decide to deny past distress any credibility, any 

influence, or any operation in my life and I will 

repeat this decision as often as necessary to free 

me permanently from the influence of past distress, 

APPRECIATING PRESENT TIME 

I'VE JUST GOT THE JULY PRESENT TIME, AND AFTER A QUICK 

FLIP THROUGH, I CAN'T WAIT TILL I HAVE TIME TO READ IT ALL! 

e 

c 

Jonathan Shaw 

Annandale, New South Wales, Australia 

The July Present Ti me is better than MT! I especially laced Callo 1121,, as • 

MARJORIE HOLIIIII,R4; 

TUCSON, ARIZONA, US A 

Present Time makes 'a concrete difference i n my life. 

Thanks. 

Deborah Zucker 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 

I just came home after being away all summer and found my 

July issue of Present Time waiting. It was a joy to read and it 

acted as a spur to get me moving on certain projects both in 

RC and the wide world, That Is a fine magazine you put out. 

Stine Steele 

Socorro, New Mexico, USA 

Just to add my word to the appreciations, the July Present 

Time had the most valuable articles I've ever read. The atten• 

bon is so consistently away from the distress. Great! 

Mike Misgen 

kr eer „ 

. 

B o 

u l 

d e 

r , 

C 

o 

A Useful Viewpoint 

38 

The section that I find particularly powerful for 

Incest survivors Is the idea that the hurt is of "at 

most, a trifling historical significance." What do I 

picture? I envision (in a matter of twenty seconds 

or so) evolution. I picture chaos, suns and moons, 

darkness and light, water, land, cells swimming in 

the ocean, amphibians, reptiles, emergence from 

the water, apes, and people. I see the land rise 

and fall. I see mountains and earthquakes and 

deserts. Then I think of Incest. And the power and 

viewpoint for me is that no matter how bad it was 

(and there's no debate but that it was), if I put it 

against this background of billions of years, then 

Indeed it has, "at most, a trifling historical significance." 

I suspect that if people will use this commitment, 

interspersed with telling the stories of their 

Incest experiences, that they will find-it easier to 

not feel overwhelmed. All is well. We simply have 

enough safety and support in our environment to 

remember how bad it was before, and we can 

choose to feel that only in sessions. 

JUDY LAZARUS YELLON 

CLEVELAND, OHIO, USA 

Nothing quite shines like one of Harvey's "overvins 

ample, , the recent "Taking Our Bearings" i n the July 1986 issue). 

Reading 

" a r t 

it 

i 

over 

c l e 

lunch 

s ( 

recently 

f o 

turned 

r 

my clay from restimulation to a 

rational view of things! 

e N - 

Jenny lie/bras 

San Francisco, California, s USA 

Just received the April Plifent losu. I like what Sally Potter, wrote 

• about her support group and counseling artists, Also the clarifications 

of "control patterns" and "frozen needs" are excellent and much 

needed. 

gt'W cOrs\ 

• 4 

. 

, T 

A 

4 

" 

, 

Itrnrc:c.s Strom: 

— C i fi c Ano, irrixots, USA 

Present Time is excellent and so is its distribution. Bravo. 

• 

Shirley Russ 

'Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

I enjoy all of Present Thue—aetietes and artwork. Keep up the very 

line job, 

Nor its, Saravia 

Mamma, I larcall, 

Thank you for the subscription renewal reminder! PRESENT 

TIME is my favorite of all the magazines I receive and I don' t 

Warn to miss a single issue. 

Ghtny Bates 

North Branitud, Connet ih ut, USA

TAKE BACK OUR FULL LIVES 

For a woman giving birth, a tremendous release of power comes with the permission to go ahead 

and push. Until this moment the job has been to relax and endure contractions. During the most recent 

stage of labor, she has had to resist powerful Urges to push. When it's time, a woman can use 

her enormous strength voluntarily. Pushing is very strenuous and very satisfying. At this moment, no 

matter how tired or discouraged she may be, there Is nothing a woman would rather do than push. 

Ail of us — Men, women, and children a r e waiting to hear that now we can push. All of us have 

used too much energy holding back. We have been told, untruthfully, that we must not live full-out, 

love full-out, think or act with all that we have. Very early in our lives, because of oppressive Situations, 

it was not always safe to push. 

We may not feel as if we've been holding back. We'may feel worn out, ground down, listless, 

apathetic, numb. In fact, we are tired from holding back our tremendous energy. 

To change the metaphor from birthing to imprisonment, we have been effectively chained down, 

strapped down by internalized oppression, Much of our energy has gone into struggling in our 

bonds, even when the bonds are no longer there. Some of our muscles have atrophied from forced 

disuse. 

Every oppression, once Internalized, has the effect of making us hold back, and the holding back 

exhausts us. As a woman, I've spent much of my life restraining my full intelligence because of internalized 

sexism. Everyone has adopted the habit of holding back. What does It do to you to witness 

the scolding of a child in the street without interrupting the mistreatment? Or to read about another 

nuclear test, then fold the newspaper and reach for your Habitual addictive substance? That kind of 

weariness is very different from the pleasantly aching muscles, the sweat-salted, jelly-kneed satisfaction 

after running your hardest for the challenge of it. 

We know how people really are: enthusiastic, exuberant, alive, playful, adventurous, irrepressible. 

By nature we are not polite, quiet, moderate, timid, tired, bored. Advertisements appeal to us largely 

because they show people living zestfully. The popularity of sports, both participatory and spectator, 

shows how keenly people want challenge. All of us yearn to live life fully and for real. We 

haven't quite known that we can. 

It is safe for us to push now. Nothing real can stop any one of us from going full-out. (13y•going fullout 

or going all-out, I mean giving something your full effort and enthusiasm.) Because the restraint 

Is a distress recording, pushing against it will cause discharge. Feelings of discouragement and 

wanting to give up will surface as we push hard; ask any marathon runner. Here's where we need 

both discharge and the word from the outside that we can do it. 

We can go all out, but there is no obligation. We get to choose where and whether to go 'full out. 

We need rest. We can use some variety and a scale of priorities in our lives. Going all-out is one of 

our possible choices in any situation. 

As counselor we can go all-out. Recently Harvey has been challenging us to be what he calls "pro 

counselors." This means pointing the client toward re-emergence and doing whatever is necessary 

to see that she will stay on course long after the session. It means really loving the client. It means 

offering directions and commitments and remembering them, perhaps writing them down so the 

client will remember them. A counselor may invite the client to call or write and report in. This kind of 

a counselor exbects every session to change the client's life. 

As client in - 

and a decide as client. We can decide to trust a competent counselor enough to show what we've had 

to hide, to look straight at old terror, to glimpse the goodness of reality. We can also use our intelligence 

s e while s s iclient 

so that two of us are thinking during the session. After the session we can choose 

to oremember n both the new perspectives from the session and the closeness of our connection with 

the wcounselor. e 

c 

n 

g 

a 

o 

a 

- 

l l 

39 

o u t


continued.. 

Human beings love enormously, passionately, profoundly. We have a rational need to love. 

Remember the young orphan girl Harvey mentions In "The Rational Needs of Human Beingsm? 

Denied someone to love, she throws a message-wrapped stone over the orphanage walls, and the 

message is this: "Whoever finds this, I love you." As children, all of us loved enormously, but many of 

our parents were not comfortable being loved by us. They got embarrassed or needy or busy. Almost 

everyone turns client when we show how much we love them, so there has been too little room for 

our feelings of embarrassment, terror, grief, Joy, awe. We have had to hold back, be appropriate, feel 

less. 

• Most of us have found ways to experience some of the fullness of love—the rush of it, the amazement 

at the preciousness of a human being. We have fallen In love repeatedly. We give birth to 

children, partly because we want a place to love completely, unabashedly. Babies know how to stay 

present while we love them. By the time young people become teenagers, they mostly have to be 

client a lot in order to let us love them. Of course we persist, but often it must be as counselor. 

Loving deeply is part of knowing the goodness of reality. It Is not in any way a distress, but 

distress Is packed around it. As we love full-out, we discharge loneliness, terror, grief, and more. As 

some of this clears out and we love more and more fully, we discharge on the goodness of reality 

and the privilege of loving one another. All the counselor needs to do is stay present (not eager, 

grateful, excited, awkward, touched, or scared) and let the client love him or her—and profound discharge 

will follow. As we discharge more and more of this in session, we can love more fully everywhere. 

To go all-out for someone we love, and t o 

fact, 

l 

it Is a pleasure to use our strength assisting someone we care about. "Easy" and "hard" have a 

new meaning; it would be hard on us nOt to get to come through for a loved one in time of need. It 

doesn't h a v much e i matter t mto us a whether k e the task seems hard Or easy, but surprisingly often it's not hard at 

all. a 

d i f f e r e n c e , 

Though we can only glimpse it so far, using our full power must be similar. We get the privilege of 

using i all we s have in order to make things go right. Recently I've decided to throw my weight into ending 

a the possibility of nuclear war. Except for the "hard" part of feeling presumptuous, it has been 

surprisingly 

t r e 

easy 

m 

to think, 

e 

act, 

n 

and 

d 

lead. 

o 

Mostly it has been a huge relief to tackle this common 

enemy of all people. 

u s 

pEach human r i being v starts i out l like ea 

free-flowing river. We green valleys, carve gorgeous canyons, 

rush 

g 

over 

e 

waterfalls. 

. 

Then, against our will, a series of dams reduces each of us to a tame stream. 

But the dams are not so'strong-now. They will yield to our gathered force, and we can burst through 

them I with a roar. n 

In thinking about ourselves and our clients, let's remember the true nature of human beings: we 

like to push. 

Anne Toensmeler 

Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, USA 

Thinking About the Notion of "Gocr 

Although I grew up Quaker, went to a Quaker school, 

went to Meeting and Sunday School, God was presented 

in my family as being part of the decor, not as a real entity 

with whom one expected to have direct dealings. It may 

turn out in the long run, after plenty of discharge on all 

our parts, that God is not a real and relational entity, but 

it is clear that that view as it was lived in my family came 

from distress, from the owning-class pattern of isolation, 

rather than from rationality. Logically, then, one way for 

40 

me to explore the territory and discharge, is to act as if 

God is real and an ongoing relationship is to be expected. 

When I'm in distress, I turn to God as a "one-way counselor 

of unlimited resource." There are also times when 

Pm present and aware, when I get a sense of a possible 

two-way relationship. 

Marjorie Smith 

Meadows of Dan, Virginia, USA

Appreciating the Literature 

I HAVE JUST RECENTLY FINISHED READING THE HUMAN SIDE OF 

HUMAN BEINGS. I FOUND THE BOOK ENLIONITENIND AND RIGHT ON 

KEY. I LEARNED MANY THINGS ABOUT MYSELF AS I WENT ALONG. IT'S A FAN- 

TASTIC CONCEPT-ONE 'CAN RELATE TO AND AM VERY•MUCH INTERESTED IN 

LEARNING MORE ABOUT, I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE GROUPS ALL OVER 

THE WORLD WHO PRACTICE THE CONCEPTS OF RE-EVALUATION COUNSEL- 

ING OW A REGULAR BASIS. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE 

AVAILABLE GROUPS IN MY AREA. 

Raquel Hazel 

5 Phoenix, Arizona, USA 

• 

2 

When the downward trend is pressing , In on me and It's difficult 

to keep my perspective, reading the literature, remember. 

Ing this perspective and all the people making a difference can 

bring me out again. Thank you. 

• W. Byrn 

•- , - Bennington, Vermont, USA'k 

- 

Disabled doesn't mean 1. nable 

A report from the "Relaxing" support group at a 

1985 teachers' and leaders' workshop led by Ann 

Starr. 

Relaxing is not 

• S e x i s m 

Ageism 

Adultism 

Classism 

All of these do not help us to relax. 

Relaxing is not operating out of our fear. Our 

fear of getting.close and our fear of doing those 

things that are most effective, interfere with our 

relaxing. 

Relaxing Is: 

Being in present time! 

Thinking. 

Health and attractiveness. 

The program to promote world-wide relaxing 

Is already in place in RC! 

People everywhere are already actively pursuing 

relaxing, but in the widespread use of 

hurtful substances, and also by intense physical 

exercise. 

People just need some correct information, 

affirmation, and support. 

THANKS FOR MORE WONDERFUL READING. THE REST OF OUR 

LIVES Is GREATI 

Averil Williams 

Sz a= f t 3 7 1 : 1 = = 0 373m0 C 

Christchurch, New Zealand 

I'm delighted to be reading Rough Notes from Buck Creek I. So 

many wonderful one-liners like, "—patterns. D on' t walk ar ound 

ashamed of them. Think, well, that's an interesting pattern that comes 

up." (p. 13) 

RELAXABILITY 

41 

The Rest of Our Lives has given me much pleasure and provided 

a vast store ot knowledge on which to draw. I have it for 

bedside reading in the early morning. - 

, Lyn Fine 

, New York, New York, USA 

Ted Dickenson 

Stafford; England 

We need to offer the information that relaxing 

won't mean a loss of productivity and is 

healthy and attractive. 

We could develop light, cheerful Jingles— 

tunes that convey this message. 

We could put public service announcements 

on RC and radio. 

We could have a radio message that Instructed 

people to turn off their radio for five 

minutes and gave them suggestions of ways 

to spend their time (relaxing). 

Leadership 

Being relaxed is an,excellent way to model 

being a leader. 

We can lead the world as relaxed models— 

the world is looking for relaxed leadership 

and would be relieved. 

We can say: "Here I am relaxing and ending 

the nuclear arms race. Why don't you join 

me?" 

Our work is too important to waste energy on 

anxiety and patterned business. Let's promote 

Nancy. Kline's direction of achieving the 

"greatest possible change with the least 

amount of effort." 

Relationships 

Being relaxed in relationships will deepen 

them.

O ili 

i 

gh 

0A 

0 

* 

0 

0 

qi&yr, 

041' 

, 

•

WI D E WO RLD CHANG ING 

At the Disarmament and Peace 

Workers' Workshop i n Waltham, 

Massachusetts, in July 1986, Fenella 

Butler asked parents over lunch what 

the relationship was between parenting 

and other kinds of peace work 

they did. In talking with her, I realized 

that my eighteen-month-old son, 

Daniel, has profoundly affected the 

work I do in the Nuclear Weapons 

Freeze Campaign. This work is in 

addition to a full-time job and teaching 

RC. Here are some ways being a 

parent helps me be an effective freeze 

activist. 

We all know that we can make repeated 

verbal decisions not to pay attention 

to distress, Another approach 

is to do anti-nuclear work and realize 

that the survival of civilization is at 

stake. That's enough to make you do 

what needs to be done, putting aside 

distress all the time. (The alternative 

would be deciding that my chronic 

patterns, like shyness, should be respected 

rather than going ahead and 

preventing nuclear war.) But it's easy 

to slip unless you decide again and 

again. That's where My relationship 

with Daniel comes in. 

I decided not to pass on to Daniel 

any of my distress, and that this required 

that I never act on distress 

around him. So whenever I'm with 

him, I have another opportunity to 

practice ignoring distress. Here's an 

example. I still haven't fu lly discharged 

my fear of bees and wasps 

and stinging insects, but when I'm in 

the backyard with my son, even if 

one is right near us, I resist the urge 

to run away so he won't see distress 

modelled. Th is constant practice 

makes it easy for me to suspend the 

ancient habit-pattern while doing 

anti-nuclear work. 

Daniel models effective action. He 

is cheerful, loving, persistent, observant, 

fearless, goes for help when necessary, 

curious, experimental, surmounts 

difficulties. F o r example, 

watching h im learn to go up and 

PEACEWORK AND PARENTING 

down stairs I've seen all these qualities. 

(I have cried in session as I 

thought how I could be like him.) 

I believe that one reason the citizen 

action has been small-scale to date is 

the passivity of many adults. I hope 

Daniel does not acquire this distress, 

and so we rarely watch television. My 

wife, Emily Sack, thought it inappropriate 

for Daniel to grow up overhearing 

discussions about "millions of 

agonizing deaths" and proposed that 

we not discuss this issue in terms of 

"doom and gloom," The result is that 

we don't talk "doom and gloom' with 

anyone in our freeze work, and we're 

even more effective than before. 

As director of education and outreach 

in a very conservative area, I 

speak frequently to local church and 

civic groups. My talks about the flaws 

in the Strategic Defense Initiative are 

given with slides, I always end the 

show with a picture of Daniel and talk 

about wh y stopping the senseless 

arms race is a joyous part of the role 

of every parent, grandparent, and 

children's ally. 

At first, I didn't want to cut back 

on my freeze work after Daniel's 

birth. However, instead o f paying 

babysitters t o watch Daniel as I 

worked, I decided to pay an assistant 

to take over the routine freeze work 

of writing letters, making phone calls, 

and so on. A little later, I realized 

that as Daniel got older, he would 

want more of my time and I would 

want to spend more time with him. 

So I made more changes. First, I 

declined many offers of large positions 

in the Freeze where a lot of time 

and/or travelling would be needed to 

do the job well. I simply said, " My 

son comes first." 

Second, I made my highest priority 

the development of new leadership 

in my freeze group. With in nine 

months, I gave up my role as group 

chairperson to a set 'of very capable 

officers who previously were shy, 

43 

low-profile members. All they needed 

was some information, validation, 

and encouragement. 

I have a new criterion in deciding 

what tasks to take on. I apply the 

same criterion in deciding what conferences 

to participate in, and what 

meetings to attend. My criterion is I 

only do it if the task is crucial to our 

success and if I'm the only person 

capable of carrying it out. The result 

is that 'I still have a lot of work, but 

the amount is manageable, and I 

don't have feelings of resentment that 

someone else should be helping. 

A •wonderful result Of our freeze 

group has been that several nonparents 

in the group have formed 

deep relationships with Daniel. Some 

have said that if we don't call *them 

first when we are looking for someone 

to stay with Daniel while we are 0(14, 

they feel jealous.. 

I became a committed disarmament 

worker when Emily became 

pregnant with Daniel, because I felt 

that over the next fifty to a hundred 

years, something had to be done and 

could be done. No w that Daniels 

here, I'm having to focus my work 

and that's been extremely beneficial. 

, B o b Schloss 

Mahopac, New York, USA

WI DE WORLD CHANGING 

This summer I took a voice training class at a nearby community college. Over a six-week period 

I got to sing eighteen solos in front of the class with piano accompaniment (some of the songs were 

in Italian, which I loved). For our last assignment we each chose whatever song we wanted to sing. 

I picked "Solidarity Forever" and it created a mild sensation (hardly anyone knew the song and 

people were singing it on breaks and asking me where I found it). One of the results of taking this 

class is that I've discovered what a resource community colleges can be to me as places to meet 

potential friends and allies from all parts of the local community. I'll be starting Voice Training II 

in a couple of weeks. 

One thing happened recently that encouraged me about my work with blue-collar people here. I 

was at a church meeting that was holding a discussion about anger, and I explained how one way I 

handle my anger is by beating up a pillow and saying terrible things until I laughed at how 

ridiculous it was. This brought a great burst of laughter from the group, but one woman wasn't 

satisfied that my suggestion was helpful and asked for other suggestions. So one by one, the bluecollar 

people started to say how crying and talking helped them get things out of their systems and 

think better. I could hear how people have been making sense out of this information and using it 

well. Also, one of the people I have picked out as a leader keeps coming back for more of our "talks" 

and that encourages me too. 

One challenge for me among Catholics (especially Catholic activists) is the resistance to 

designating individual leadership. The attitude is "let the Holy Spirit lead." I've been meeting this 

resistance in at least three groups I'm involved with, and I can see how it limits effectiveness. In 

our parish peace and justice group, I suggested we have a half-day "retreat" to deal with the issue of 

leadership. We did this, and I shared leadership theory in every which way I could think of and did 

some counseling with people, yet we were unable to reach agreement. My friend Mary says that she 

has the same difficulty in the groups she works with. Of course it makes sense that Catholics would 

, have some distress about being dominated by leaders. My plan is to work at gaining people's trust 

in other areas until they reach the point of being able to hear leadership theory from me. ( I also 

plan to clear up the distress that gets in my way of communicating well.) 

This month my co-workers and I held the first employees' picnic in the history of our company. 

About half of us came; people brought family members, had barbecues, and we played some good 

volleyball. All this got around to the managers, and my role as organizer was mentioned, but since 

nobody had talked about unionizing, it was left alone, We're planning to do it again, and I feel good 

about that, and good that my allies came through in certain ways and I know better who they are. 

One piece of good news is that the Los Angeles Jobs' With Peace initiative has officially qualified 

for the November ballot with the highest number of signatures for an L.A. city initiative on record. 

Also, one of the people I've registered to vote is my thirty-five-year-old cousin who has never voted 

before. It's always nice to have family with me. 

4 , • 

GAINS ON M A N Y FRONTS 

44 

V-- 

Los Angeles, California, USA

It has just been announced that I have been awarded 

an International Year of Peace "Australian Peace 

Award." These awards are purely symbolic, but they 

have been made by the Australian government to 

twenty Australians who have made "outstanding contributions 

to the cause of peace." 

The announcement was made last Friday by Bill 

Hayden, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The citation 

referred particularly to my activities'in Scientists 

Against Nuclear Arms. In SANA, as well as presenting 

accurate information to the public, the media, and our 

politicians, we have persistently pointed to the need 

for alternatives to war as methods of resolving international 

problems. I t is good to have that approach 

validated. 

I was very pleased with the tone and content of the 

Peace Activists' Workshop. I was delighted with the 

group of people assembled there, Probably because 

they were activists, there was very little dramatized 

helplessness or powerlessness, I liked many of the people 

very much. I realized (and I realize tills with the 

peace activists' journal, too) what an opportunity It was, 

meeting this particular group of people, to affect the 

future of the world. 

The piece of theory that got me tingling most of all 

was the one about the "pro" counselor. I used that with 

great results in a workshop I gave the following weekend. 

The workshop was on'"Going All-Out" (as counselor 

most of all, but in living fully, loving deeply, deciding 

as client). M y counseling improved considerably 

because of it, and several people seem to have moved 

from it. I've been thinking about getting clients out of 

the victim position. Is it ever useful for the client to 

discharge from inside the victim position? 

The following are what I see as the purposes of the 

new AC peace activists' Journal: 

• t o put an end to the possibility of nuclear war, as 

part of the one-point program: in order for people to reemerge, 

they need to be alive; 

• t o inspire, keep people going, get people going; 

• t o inform, to share successes and assessments of 

organizations; 

A NATIONAL AWARD 

NEW JOURNAL, NEW EDITOR 

45 

The Co-Counselling Community here is sharing my 

delight. They have naturally been most supportive of 

me in my peace activities. The award to me ,is also a 

tribute to them and indeed to RC as a whole., The 

ability to act powerfully is something that has helped 

me enormously and is an ability which I have promoted 

within the peace movement and the wider community. 

One key RC contribution to setting me on the 

road which had led to this Award was Mac Parker's 

"Wide World Changers" class which I attended i n 

Burlington, Vermont in 1980. 

I am sorry to have missed the international peace 

activists' workshop in July. I'm looking forward to being 

at the workshop Paul Whyte is running in Sydney 

at the end of August. 

Ian Newman 

South' Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 

• to direct the peace movement, if indirectly, by proposing 

policy, setting a brisk confident, expectant, 

relaxed, life-loving tone, providing a perspective based 

on our understanding of human beings, of oppression, 

of the present society, of rational leadership; to see the 

peace movement as "client" and set about contradicting 

its distresses; 

• to encourage and • share thinking about how to 

make peace and how to reach great numbers of people 

(not lu st people who already agree) with rational 

policies; to keep an emphasis on what really works 

while appreciating any efforts people have made; 

• to Improve quality (and quantity) of counseling on 

nuclear issues for peace activists and for everyone so 

that we Can empower people to end the possibility of 

war; 

• t o connect peace activists with each other and to 

encourage our close connection with human beings 

everywhere; part of the value Is in corresponding with 

the editor and being encouraged to contribute; 

• t o emphasize the internationalism o f the peace 

movement; 

• t o be readable and understandable for people all 

over the world. 

ANNE TOENSMEIER 

LAFAYETTE HILL, PENNSYLVANIA, USA

WIDE WORLD CHANGING 

An Effective Ethicist 

I spoke to the International Association of Women 

Ministers. It was smaller than I expected (thirty to forty 

people), but a great group of women and quite diverse, 

There were four older, black, ordained ministers, two 

Lesbians, one Filipino., lots of elders who had been serving 

in India and China, the first Episcopalian female 

priest, and so on. It's a hot group. I did well, too. I challenged 

them as women and as Christians and as leaders. 

Today I did a TV show on issues in medical ethics. It 

was a talk show—just me and two Catholic priests. I look 

great on cameral I rose to the occasion and said lots of 

things well that I wanted to communicate. I said that my 

biggest job was to inspire people's confidence that they 

could think about anything—nothing was too big to tackle. 

I said the biggest issue that troubled me was the attitude 

that some lives aren't worth living. I said that we'd be 

better off getting rid of the attitude that severely disabled 

people are better off dead, than we would getting rid of 

those people. I said that loving people didn't necessarily 

mean using medical technology to the hilt. I said lots of 

good things. it feels so good to think well. 

I am being more "out" about being Christian. My best 

direction for the past year has been "God has always loved 

me. 

I am on the finance committee and board of directors of 

the Center for Women and Religion. Our chairwoman 

always opens the budget meetings with a meditation that 

begins "Oh God, who loves women...." I'm hanging out 

with the right crowd! 

Judy Kay 

Berkeley, California, USA 

46 

Uniting Full- and Part-Time 

Colleagues 

I have been asked to speak in October in San Francisco 

about long-term policy for part-timers. Across the country colleges 

hire part-time instructors in high numbers so That they 

don't have to pay full-time wages or benefits. It seems like the 

key issue here is to unify the full-time faculty and part-time 

faculty, and show full-time people it is to their benefit to support 

fair treatment of part-timers. .Where I have a hard time 

is that I'm not sure it is to their benefit, at least in the short 

run. In colleges where the part-lime faculty is kept at a 

minimum, all faculty get paid lower wages. In the long run 

of course, it's true that it will benefit everyone for people to be 

treated fairly, but that is sometimes too abstract for people to 

hear. • 

Perhaps the first step would be to really study those coleges 

where part-timers are in low numbers and see how well the 

colege runs and what the morale is like at those institutions. 

MARVA AXNER 

PORTLAND, OREGON, USA 

BETTER KINDS OF ASSERTIVENESS 

Did I ever tell you about the lovely opportunity I had to smuggle some RC concepts into the Cotrectional 

Officers Training Course here in Delaware? When I went through the training myself in 

1981, the instructors at the Academy liked me and later offered me the opportunity, to develop a twohour 

segment on assertiveness for the Correctional Officers. Naturally, I accepted the chance, and 

got permission to take the time to do this. I taught about four times a year for two and a half years. 

Under that label I taught what I considered useful information, such as validation, peer support 

discharge, restimulation (the "contagion" of painful feelings), Identification around authority 

figures, cultural patterns around anger, acting on thinking rather than out of feelings, and whatever 

else I could slip in in the two hours. 

• 

I used a lot of asking the class to look at and share their own history and attitudes in these areas 

and had some great role plays. These always generated laughter and animated discussions. It was 

always a great experience for me. I got to go and validate the cadets and remind them what good 

people they are and what demanding and useful work they would be doing. It was clear that they 

liked the positive, enthusiastic way I validated them and their choice. This whole episode is all the 

more piquant in that I have never had any "assertiveness training" myself. 

Mona Bayard 

• Wilmington, Delaware, USA

PRACTICAL TRADE UNION WORK 

I am just travelling back from Newcastle after 

attending a trade unionists' workshop for RCers, 

led by Doug Miller. There were five of us. We spent 

time sharing the history of the trade union movement 

in England, which made me very proud of 

our people and proud of myself for being part of 

this organised group. 

I have taken over as union representative of the 

school where I work and have held a meeting to 

discuss the present Industrial action that the National 

Union of Teachers are taking at the moment. 

We have been Instructed by the leadership 

to withdraw all goodwill, which is seriously im. 

peding the functioning o f the school and is 

alienating the teachers from each other and from 

the parents of the young people we teach, but not 

from the young people themselves! There are four 

of us In the N.M. and I got us all to address four 

questions. What is the present situation for 

unions In England? What Is the present situation 

for the W h a t needs to happen next? What 

are we going to do next-about that? 

One member, the deputy head, wanted to complain 

and join a right•wing union. This always 

seems to happen for some working-class people 

when they feel hopeless about a situation. I decided 

to encourage him on any decision he made, 

which made him very unhappy because he just 

wanted to argue with me. One of the other teach. 

ers raged about being "sold out" by right-wing 

teachers and discharged quite a bit. She was interested 

in her response and my attention and 

wanted to know more about what I was doing, so I 

have decided to teach her counselling one.on. 

one. The result of the meeting was a decision to 

unite on issues that we had general agreement 

over and to get information from other primary 

school teachers to find out what issues were im. 

portant for them that we could all unite around. 

For the present we will continue the action with a 

view to giving Information to parents. 

, I am building on my relationship with the local 

branch president and I have now been co-opted 

onto the 'East Devon executive committee and 

have my first meeting next month. I have made 

friends with two ancillary helpers at school who 

are in their own union and I have started teaching 

one of them how to Co-Counsel. She is great and I 

have marked her down as a prospective leader of 

her union. I'm finding all this such fun and very exciting. 

47 

I met with three local self.employed men. The 

meeting was good for them and terrific for me 

because I was getting a glimpse of what good 

leadership potential I have. 

One man, a builder named John, stood out as 

the leader of the group so I have decided to go 

after him. I contacted him a week after the 

meeting and suggested I teach him t o Co. 

Counsel. He was interested and started suggesting 

other men we could have in the support 

group. I can see they will need me to lead the 

group initially, but my aim will be to get John to 

take it over. 

My general delight and confidence at school 

sometimes makes the head teacher of the school 

feel threatened by me. This Is not new to me 

because all my previous head teachers have felt 

the same. The difference this time is that I am not 

so restimulated b y her threatening gestures 

towards me because I can't be intimidated so 

easily. All I can see Is her desperate need to 

discharge her Isolation and being overworked. I 

think I am just the safe person she has been 

waiting for, but I can also see my own need to 

discharge how I have been treated by these 

dramatisations In the past and how I thought 

there was something wrong with me that I needed 

to alter. When I choose to get restimulated, I feel 

like we are all on different sides, but the rest of 

the time I can see the distress for what it is. 

I have also started to learn more about the 

history of the trades union movement In England, 

to get a good picture of how we arrived at where 

we are and also get a better perspective on what 

needs to happen next. I want to remember at all 

times to trust my own thinking, not rely on past 

methods or past ideas. I can see that I need to be 

involved with the education officer of the N.U.T. to 

get the thinking of the grass roots membership, 

like myself, who feel we are stupid, have nothing 

to offer and just need to follow other more importent 

people. Well, at least I used to feel like that 

and just have a little more discharging to do with 

each step I take. 

Thank you for your warm letter. I am always encouraged 

by your support; it helps me to tread 

more firmly and reminds me of the pride I have in 

myself and my achievements. I believe the world 

hasn't seen anything yet. 

Debbie Wilson 

Exeter, ErNiand

WI DE WORLD CHANGING 

MATRICULATING IN STYLE 

I've left Washington, DC and become a freshman 

at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Classes began about a week and a half ago. 

I just saw Taking Charge No. 4 two days ago 

and I've taken the advice as best I can about building 

a community. It works! I Since Sunday I've 

given three people spontaneous sessions where 

they discharged long and heavily. Now people 

keep coming to my room to either thank me for the 

strange thing that happened when they cried with 

me for thirty minutes in the middle of the coffee 

shop, or to deal with their hopeless feelings about 

learning Euclidean geometry, or to work on ending 

isolation. As you predicted, I'm having to learn 

how to let people know I need to get on to other 

things. But they just keep on coming. (At first I 

was scared that if I didn't keep counseling people, 

they would forget about me, But I'm getting over 

that.) 

Rebecca, the one person I've been formally 

teaching "time-sharing doodads" to, and I were 

doing a se6sion in my room earlier this evening 

and so many people streamed in that we ended up 

Block Parties, Support Groups, and Peace Activism 

This spring I organized a block party on my street. I 

got most of my neighbors out to meet each other and meet 

the people from the Christian Science Church on the 

block, who were lovely and let us use their front steps for a 

rock band. People were wary at first, since this is a "high 

crime" area and they don't like to go out at night. But I 

kept encouraging them and held a planning meeting at 

which we decided to invite our police officers to the party. 

• I t was 'absolutely wonderful. Two groups of neighbo'rhood 

musicians played, there was volleyball in the street, 

and a highlight was a beautiful, though chaotic, May pole 

dance we all did. There were all kinds of people, young to 

old, &cling around and around, laughing loudly. People 

loved me for it and I made some good contacts.- A block 

directory and continuing meetings on neighborhood 

issues came out of it. 

Then I set up a show of my flags—the first show I've 

ever done of my artwork. I worked hard and saw how 

amazingly prolific I can be if I sit down and do it. 

At my son's school, I started a support group for young 

women and it will be continuing this fall. They really liked 

it. I would talk briefly about some topic like good listening 

or women's liberation and then we'd take turns, more or 

48 

with a five-way support group. s eao pers on 

came in I explained complete appreciation of the 

client, encouraged the current client to giggle-out 

the embarrassment about having yet another person 

pay attention to them, and we all worked on 

our particular aspect of what's hard about the college 

environment. 

I'm letting everyone know how good they are, 

how much they deserve unconditional love and 

support no matter what, the basic concept of past 

hurts affecting our present feelings, and how 

good it is to share, giggle, and cry. I leave each• 

person I get close to with the idea of choosing to 

be "counselor" for people around them, particularly 

in the situations where they themselves are• 

having trouble. 

Maybe, as you say, if I keep this up for three 

weeks (I have nineteen days to go) not only will I 

have more close friends than I can imagine, but 

St. John's College will have a whole new atmosphere. 

Wish me luck and good sessions! 

Philip Davis 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA 

less, for talking and discharge. 

I found they were resistant to structure, so I experimented 

with different levels of control. It seemed not right 

to expect them to sit quietly as they do so much in school. 

There was a lot of spontaneous moving around, talking, 

and interrupting, but the spirit was so eager that I didn't 

want to stop them all the time. I tried occasional reminders 

but I'm not sure what's the best way. I think that if I 

can just be spontaneous, bold, and natural enough to 

keep with them, thenI will be more effective. 

These last few weeks I've gotten involved with a peace 

project called the Children of War Tour. Its focus is to 

empower young people to take action on issues that affect 

them. I've started introducing some RC techniques to 

meetings when I can, and I am excited about the project. 

Well, that's my story for now. Reading about what people 

in the RC Communities are doing is very inspiring. I 

got a chance to meet some more of the faces behind the 

names this summer when I visited Michigan and attended 

Charlie Kreiner's workshop in Evanston, Illinois. 

Ingrid Good 

Venice, California, USA

FROM THE MAIL 

'AWAY FROM DISTRESS" HERETIC 

I've had various solicitous enquiries since I got 

back to England from people asking, "Are you still 

counselling?" in the tone of voice in which evangelical 

Christians might ask: "Are you still saying 

your prayers?"!! I find it all a bit tacky/ Interestingly, 

I find counselling sessions to be the last 

thing I have time or patience for at the moment. 

When I need to discharge, I just do it. Other times* 

just get on with living. if I have some rare 

precious my-time, I'd rather spend it looking at the 

trees or listening to the birds. I'm very impatient 

with distress, hurts, my history, "difficulties," etc. 

There are more important things to get on with. 

I now have a job which is going to be demanding, 

but also useful, stimulating and rewarding. 

Coming back here has been an odd. experience— 

harder than going t o Zimbabwe, strangely 

enough. In many ways I've now "re-adjusted" but 

Trifling Historical Significance 

The workshop in Baltimore went well. I am amazed at 

how each one opens doors for people, covers so much 

material, and yet stands out unique. 

I shared the newest version of the commitment about 

giving no Credibility, etc. to our past distresses. I think it 

is a masterpiece! I covered this just before I worked with 

people about incest. I think it should be a part of anyone's 

tool kit when they decide to work on incest, for it gives a 

perspective to allow discharge but interrupt feelings of being, 

overwhelmed. 

With the increase in the number of these Workshops, I 

find my mind accelerating at gaining a clearer perspective 

about where we're headed and what we need to do to get 

there. 

, J u d y Lazarus Yellon 

University Heights, Ohio, USA 

49 

In other ways, my thoughts and perceptions have 

been changed forever. And it doesn't feel possible 

that shan't some day go back to Africa. It's a 

fascinatingly rich place, and has taught me so 

much, some of which I suspect haven't yet realised. 

I start to feel amused by people who say "tell 

me all about Africa" (Implication — and please tell 

me in not more than two minutes and in a way 

which won't disturb my view of myself or the 

world!!). 

Well, I carry on being my heretical self, and I've 

been taken on for my new job precisely because 

they want someone to shake the organisation out 

of its ruts! I hope they know what they've taken 

on! 

IT-IL • 

kwo P A M LUNN 

KENILWORTH, ENGLAND 

RATIONAL FUNDRAISING? 

On the fundraising question, this is how I see it. 

Fundraising, when done well, is appreciated by 

people because it gives them an opportunity to be 

a part of something they believe in. There are a 

few traditional fundraising techniques that probably 

are not consistent with AC: membership for 

example doesn't seem right to me because it implies 

that I l l s okay to be exclusive or cuitish 

about the Information we have about human be. 

Ings. Also I wonder how you would feel about getting 

grants from foundations. Do you think it 

would hinder or expand us to get money from 

foundations? There are other possibilities to think 

about besides membership or foundations. 

My Director of Development for the Ohio Freeze 

(also a Co-Counselor) suggests very specific appeals, 

either by direct mail appeal or in person to 

large donors, for specific things like additional 

staff, new or more frequent journals, and outreach 

projects. Perhaps we could have a think and listen 

time with people from a variety of class back. 

grounds to figure out ways of asking for money 

that people would appreciate. I have a hunch that 

working through the fundraising question will 

help us in our efforts to reach the wide world and 

think big in general. The Alcoholics Anonymous 

twelve-step program is a useful model for me in 

terms of a program that reaches a great number of 

people and has very good quality literature and 

knickknacks (RC bumperstickers?1). 

Sara Kirschenbaum 

Columbus, Ohio, USA

Tall Ships and international Friendships 

I am finding the articles in Present Time very 

useful in my work in political education in my 

branch of the Labour Party. The key article on 

class which appeared a few issues back was excellent. 

The idea of eliminating patterned attitudes 

alongside changing policies is now gaining 

ground amongst our membership in the Party and 

I plan to use RC much more widely in the political 

education classes with which I am involved. 

My commitment to promoting peaceful co-existence 

between people of my country and of the 

Soviet Union received a big boost last week with 

the arrival of about eight sailing ships, crewed by 

young people from many European countrief, to 

the River Tyne in Newcastle on the first leg of the 

Tall Ships Race between ports in the North Sea 

and the Baltic. Star attractions were two magnificent 

ships from the Soviet Union and an instant 

bond of warmth and friendship developed between 

the crews and the tens of thousands of 

50 

local people who visited the quayside. I spent the 

week working as liaison officer on the "Tormalind," 

a small and speedy sloop from the port of 

Tallinn in Soviet Estonia. I received a hearty congratulation 

one afternoon for "educating the 

Queen." This happened when two crew members 

were introduced to her as "Russians" and I cot% 

redly informed her that they were in fact Estonians 

and citizens of the Soviet Union. The final 

event was a Parade of Sall down the river and as I 

stood on the deck, with the red flag flying in the 

breeze, a million people lining both banks of the 

Tyne for eight miles to the estuary cheered us on 

our way. During that week many deep friendships 

were made between the peoples of Europe and we 

from the northeast of England will be talking 

about our visitors for a long time to come with 

gratitude and affection. 

photo by David Pascale 

John David Simnett 

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England

I'm at a math conference at Humboldt State University. There are over 150 topologists from all 

over the world here for about six days prior to the international Congress of Mathematicians at 

Berkeley. I gave one of the plenary addresses on Wednesday and It was extraordinarily well received. 

My work has reached a sort of plateau. I was able to prove a theorem that five years ago was only a 

vague dream and Is now a reality. It will appear in a hundred-page manuscript I'm writing right now. 

I'm astounded and shocked by my power to turn the course of events my way. I guess I'm doing a 

few things differently these days, I'm aware of when I'm restimulated and then I move away from it a 

bit. For example, at this conference I slept quite a bit, played tennis, and took lots of walks in the 

woods. These people all want to express their affection for my talks, but at times I get overwhelmed 

by the affection and feel swallowed up. So I've looked for people who'll go a little plower and things 

work out fine. 

rve invited one person to come and visit me at San Diego in the fall. We'll be collaborating. I've 

also taken on a couple Ph.D. students and then I'll be very much a part of running the department, 

too. On the Asian American Studies side, I've been negotiating with the Vice Chancellor and it appears 

that I can hire someone for two quarters next year. For me, the reward has been finding out 

how to deal with people politically, speaking out in public, being more visible as an Asian. 

My Math lectures I think I've really mastered. Some said it was "nice," but most of the comments 

were referring to the aesthetic beauty of my work. I agree, I really find my work more like art than anything 

else. 

I took you at your word during your last workshop here in 

St. Louis. You said that you looked forward to us coming 

together as a gathering of eagles, each of us with our own constituency. 

For the last year I have been leaching RC to my 

local Bakal's. It's biek:challenging to find the similar points 

of agreement between the Bakal faith and RC. (Actually 

enough principles are similar enough. What was challenging 

was moving out of my timidity.) In the past year, I have 

trained one while female, Joyce Owen, who is currently 

teaching her first class. She has already taught at least ten 

other Bahai's one-to-one. Al Dolan has come a long way. He 

is one of my most trusted counselors. Aljust came back from 

Charlie Kreiner's workshop in Chicago. He really moved. Al 

is Joyce's assistant and is responsible for helping to organize 

that class. Last but not least is Billie Mayo, the black 

woman that you worked with in Chicago recently. Billie is a 

natural for counseling other blacks. • , 

Billie and' just came back from Indianapolis where we 

did three workshops for the Black Expo. Most of the audience 

was black. We were overwhelmingly successful. The participants 

were excited about the work that we did together. We 

THE ART OF MATHEMATICS 

TAKING INITIATIVE 

51 

J i m L i n 

La Jolla, California, USA 

made many contacts, Several people from different organizations 

got our card and asked if we would be available to work 

with their groups. Billie and I were interviewed on TV, 

radio, and in the local newspaper, Joyce Owen came with us 

and videotaped two of our workshops. It should be interesting 

to see ourselves in action. 

In addition to the Black Expo, we did a workshop for 

about sixty Indiana Babes. That was mostly white. They 

were overwhelmed by tlee information in our brochure and 

quite,, receptive to the 'communication process," known to 

Rcers as discharge and re-evaluation. We call our process 

"self-evaluation." I hope that is far enough away from Reevaluation. 

Billie and I have incorporated, not for profit, and are going 

a,fter funding from corporations for minority businesses. 

We hope to be doing this work full time, going into the school 

systems, etc. We have yet to figure how we are going to train 

others to train others. We are already getting requests. • 

RITA STARR 

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, USA

FROM THE MAI L 

REALLY LEARNING TO BE AN ALLY 

, • Nyirrippi is on Aboriginal lands that 

have been reclaimed through land rights. 

It's a hundred fifty ,kilometers - 

place 

f r o m 

called 

. 

Yuenclumu.which,has.art 

a 

Aboriginal 

population of 1200.... Yuendumu 

was, where all the Aboriginal people in 

because it's fun, good, and economical in 

, terms of survival. I t doesn't touch the 

religious enormity of their cireamtime and 

links with the land in anything but a 

token way, 

Later 

It's six weeks since I began this letter. It 

feels like we've been here six months! 

Every day is St) rich and full it's like a 

Week. • 

this area foC.New Territory. were herded 

,.up when , the land 

. :around , . w athe i beginning of the 1930s. Origipally 

it was a mission-run place with an 

fi 

incredible 

r s t 

European • infrastructure • and 

c. o l o n i 

s. People e d were , brought to Y u e n d u mu 

l. 

various situations. Some were brought in 

from the.desert,starying as the cattle erod- 

if 

ed 

r o 

their 

m 

food sources and stations•being 

testablished 

gave them, less access to their 

t.land. 

Some came from gold mine work or 

work for the war effort and were carted to 

l 

Yuendumu and dumped when mines 

e closed down. Some families came in from 

rtt,lee 

desert as recently as 19.68..and some 

e 

havy been at Yuendumu since the 1930s., 

• T h e people.themselves are remarkable, 

especially the old people. Many aspects of 

their, culture remain intact—the skin 

name system that places every person in a 

particular relationship to all other Aboriginal 

people. r 

, ries who and who 'relates- to who. This 

wit 

feeds 

h 

into the organisation of access to 

God so a janpajimpu male would by first 

.choice c o n marry t r o a Napangardi woman and 

ltheir s God coincides so both could main- 

otain their n lifelong integrity with the land. 

Wives are still promised to.men at birth 

w 

and many 

h 

men have two or three. Each 

child/person o here is identified first by 

mtheir skin a name, then by their relationship 

to r every - other person, then by name. 

I'll tell you a bit about our living situation. 

We've got a caravan, quite tasteful 

and wooden but missing windows and 

door latches and no hot water and intermittent 

power and no toilet. Most people 

here live in Intmples— there are a few 

shelters, mainly used as large cupboards 

at present. A "building program" is just 

beginning but the difficulties of combining 

an Aboriginal lifestyle and European 

buildings are quite complex. 

So there's not a large lifestyle and 

amenities barrier between the people here 

and ourselves. We have told A.D.C. (Our 

funding) we don't want the $00,000 house 

they've offered us because we don't think 

l As land rights made areas accessible to 

athe 

traditional owners again, groups. of 

tpeople 

who had traditional ties and "own 

i-ership" 

of various tracts of land have 

moved out to ,live,on, outstations, on. the 

oland 

many of them : 

nw 

Land a l krich e d in , their Specific dreaming and 

sthe 

dreaming , of t heir 

a s 

h. 

fathers.. . r n Land o t hthey e r have s responsibility for 

cand hdeep i l ties d with. r e n • , 

ia 

n d 

. • 

p This mob at'Nyirrippi 

fphi 

people a l l closely related.. Some. are 

Pintabi people and the land here is on the 

- 

edge of their dreaming or has .tracks of 

0 their .dreaming .through it., 

A, 

, 

• 

b, 

•„ 

•We 

hav,e. come here to start a conpnik 

nity 

• 

store, as the .people, here have been 

ogetting 

food from Yuendumu a hundred 

rkilometers 

away. It's operating as a re- 

isources 

centre for all the..outlyingroutstadons., 

• • • 

g , , • • • 

i Prayer meetings are held each evening 

nin 

which there's a lot of,erying, ,raving, 

aand 

gabbling in tongues—hallelujah and 

Praise the Lord and fire and brimstone. 

l 

. When I first got here I was Mled with 

'revulsion 

to see the religious domination. 

cand 

how the Aboriginal people have been 

tamed and Europeanised. But gradually , 

u 

Isee for myself and talk to the European 

lteachers 

who are here four days a week 

tand 

who are not Pentecostal. It's like a 

usuperficial 

donning of a European cloak 

r 

e 

. 

We have been given skin names and 

now know our other mothers, fathers, 

husbands, brothers, sisters, cousins, 

aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, a n d 

grandparents. I am Napangardi, Das is 

Jarmajimpu, and the children are Nangale., 

.The people who visit us, to teach , us 

Walpiri, or ask us to take them hunting to 

the mountains f or red ochre are all 

aligned correctly to us. The majority of 

children who flock around us constantly 

are Nangala and jangalas csons), because 

they know they have a spectal relationship 

to us and can expect special.care. 

Words cannot really describe the experience 

of being plopped within another 

culture. In the last two weeks we've eaten 

goanna, itunda (a grub parasite), witchey 

grubs, camel, and biky tee for the first 

time. We've all had conjunctivitis and 

trachoma,, dysentery, and lice. We've 

gone days, carting water from .a neighbouring 

outstation a n d not washed. 

We've looked up into a sky, so full of stars 

at night it's breathtaking. We've travelled 

in -Toyotas with not less than twenty or 

thirty people packed in and more on the 

bonnet. , We've sat holding children we'd 

virtually just met with the love and trust 

of family bonds. Old people have beckoned 

us and , said "Nyinami" ("sit here') and 

traced, in the. sand the journey of the 

dreamtirne kangaroo—where he rested 

and the hills that still hold his sleeping 

form. 

they should build houses for Europeans 

on Aboriginal land. We should live here 

as long as these people need. to develop 

skills to run the store themselves and do 

the other things we do now. If a house is 

built, Europeans will end up living here 

for fifty years to justify the cost. We are 

asking for some improvements for the 

caravan and hot water. • 

Politically the situation, here is a rat's 

nest. The Pentecostal minister has provided 

this mob with transport, liaison 

with government departments, food,, and 

liaison with social security almost singlehandedly 

for seven years. He's also been 

building a kingdom out here, a kingdom 

of the•holy spirit. (I'll try to write objectivelyr 

I feel very strongly against fundamentalist 

Christianity practised With no 

checks within an isolated culture.) 

We're the only other Europeans to e'er 

live out here, and it has been like our arrival 

was a "cat among the pigeons." We 

are simply being ourselves, relating to the 

people here as positively as we can and affirming 

them not consciously or in a 

patronising way. But our motivations for 

being here are to share skills, learn, share 

life experience, and as they become 

autonomous in a business sense move on. 

The missionaries' motivation is different. 

Their basic outlook on life (especially 

God) is different, and their attitudes 

towards power and Aboriginal people are 

different. 

52

The situation polarised; in fact, even 

before we arrived it was so. Our original 

'plan was for Das, my husband, to run the 

shop and myself to set us up domestically 

and teach the children 'school of the air. 

Then in six months Das was to move on 

to a job as community advisor, as the 

community became more powerful in itself 

and needed one. 

Well, within days of our being here the 

most important men here, on behalf of 

the tribal council (the elders), which the 

missionaries said didn't exist, asked Das 

to take them to Alice Springs so they 

could have meetings with various government 

departments, people that, unt il 

now, the missionary had controlled most 

access to. The first three attempts to talk 

to public servants in Alice were fobbed off 

so the Nyirrippi men, with Dos's support, 

went to Aboriginal Legal Aid and got letters 

drafted and delivered by lawyers to 

the heads of departments that all seemed 

to be sick whenever appointments were 

made. 

Things are really moving now. Money 

will start to flow into this community. 

The "building program, " European 

houses built by European people, has 

been interrupted. Funding has been approved 

for several of the men here to 

travel around different communities 

assessing different styles of housing, to attend 

a light-weight structures conference 

in Sydney this August, and to have legal 

help to submit Nyirripplis own tender for 

any future houses here, designed by the 

people themselves, and built by a contractor 

they choose who will provide the skills 

and equipment and on-the-job training. 

This way Nyirrippi people can provide 

their own housing, be paid for it, and increase 

their skills. The situation before, 

for the two houses already built, was that 

Europeans built them, although the contract 

stated, "use of Aboriginal labour 

where possible." Of course the builders 

deemed it economically impossible. 

All this happened against the advice of 

the missionary but the Nyirrippi people 

are ecstatic about it. 

Later— 

It's several weeks later. We've been here 

three and a half months now. 

Despite guaranteed funding from Social 

Security through training schemes 

and despite the full support of Tangentyrere 

(an Aboriginal building organisa- 

tion), the head of the Housing Commission 

kept balking at giving Nyirrippi community 

the building contract. It was really 

sickening. Luckily the local Minister 

for Housing is a moral man and is supporting 

the Nyirrippi mob. Also Aboriginal 

Legal Aid, in the form of the first Aboriginal 

women's lawyer, were representing 

us. The men in the bureaucracy that 

"services" Aboriginal welfare give the 

tenders to friends and it's all lip service to 

Aboriginal autonomy. The existence of 

"needy" Aboriginals creates jobs. and 

power but as soon as Aboriginal people 

really start to have initiative the system 

puts Obstacles in the way. 

The Aboriginals here said, 'Okay, put 

the money allocated to us for building into 

a building fund. We'll decide how, when 

and why according to what we really 

want." I n the interim period the community 

decided by consensus that they 

didn't want four more "houses' to house a 

few people but would use the money to 

build twenty-one 'shelters" that would 

house the entire community immediately, 

be simpler to build, transportable and 

flexible. Tangentyrere bad suitable dwellings 

and expertise to train the people here 

to build them. It had reached a peak of 

tension where the Housing Commission 

had no choice but to bow down. At this 

time Alice, one of the Pentecostal missionaries 

here, picked up Mosquito (the 

council president) unexpectedly and said 

the H.C. had changed their minds and 

would do it, he just had to come and sign 

a form. (Mosquito, since Das has been 

here, has been constantly in Alice Springs 

representing this community with Dot's 

support and transport. During this period 

he's renewed his contacts with Aboriginal 

organisations and recently he was voted 

vice-president of the Aboriginal congress 

there.) Anyway, • Das and he had gone 

in —Das to pick up me and Mosquito to• 

attend a congress meeting. Alice picked 

'Mosquito up from there and took him to 

the 11.0. where . 

Hfor aNew r r y Territory, , got Mosquito to sign a 

paper. • 

t h e 

h Mosquito e a d cannot read, but Harry told 

him o that f it was to approve everything he 

wanted, 

M C 

t he twenty-one shelters, etc. 

Mosquito was very pleased and signed it 

in 

. 

front of Alice and Harry. 

It turned out to be a letter authorising 

that tender for the building of four new 

block houses at Nyirrippi be given to a 

building company well known to be friends 

of Harry's. 

53 

Pretty disgusting. When Das met Mosquito 

after congress to drive back out 

here, Mosquito told him excitedly what 

happened. Das • asked to see the letter. 

Alice had kept Mosquito's copy and H.C. 

was closed, so they came home. Mosquito 

gave the letter to Das and when Mosquito 

found out they lied to him he was really 

confused. Mosquito and Paul went back 

to the KC, after visiting the Minister and 

Legal Aid. Their best option is to sue the 

H.C. i f they don't give the twenty-one 

shelters. At present there is a possible 

cOrhpromise, consisting of the four houses 

being built by contractors plus the H.C. 

immediately doubling Nyirrippi's allocation 

of money so that simultaneously and 

immediately twenty-one shelters are built 

by Nyirrippi themselves. I t seems the 

K C. would rather give more money than 

be publicly shamed, 

You may wonder about the missionary's 

investment in all this. She has asked 

the community if she can have one of 

those houses to be built. Also she, or they 

as a church body are ultra conservative. I 

don't think she likes t o see the flock 

becoming entpowered. 

The Housing Commission are not the 

only government department to be like 

this. We've only been here three months 

but we've been shocked at what we've 

found. Looking back through funding 

allocations, we see that 818,000 allocated 

to Nyirrippi went unspent last year and 

was reallocated elsewhere. Yet this community 

asked for a community vehicle 

and was told there was no more money. 

Government departments hate giving 

vehicles, but they are obliged to, especially 

considering we live in one of the most 

isolated of all Aboriginal outstations with 

no air strips or mail service or emergency 

evacuation facilities.- 

Essential services is yet another department 

which is not serving this community. 

Since We've been here the community 

has "run out" of water four times. That 

means no water at all for two hundred 

people. We ferried it from Emubare ten 

miles away and my family got diarrhea 

from it. Yet the government continues to 

deny there's a water problem here! From 

Das's constant hassling, they are now going 

to advertise to get a contractor to fix 

the water here. Das is applying for Nyirrippi 

itself to get that tender so Nyirrippi 

men can be employed and trained to fix 

their own essential services, but already 

there is a resistance to the idea. I t all 

seems obvious. Funding for Aboriginal 

continued

continued 

people should go to Aboriginal people, 

not just to service them. 

• 

It has been an incredible experience to 

come and live out here. The centre of 

Australia really does have thousands of 

Aboriginal people living on their own 

country and to varying extents living with 

their rich culture intact. I've been an urban 

person my whole time in Australia, 

Although I have always known intellectually 

about Aboriginal people's tie to this 

land (in fact ownership of this land) and 

supported them from afar, it is different 

to live here, building close and Inving 

relationships with old people who walked 

these plains as children, living a traditional 

nomadic life. 

Last week I drove to "old Nyirrippi"— a 

creek bed about ten kilometers f rom 

here — with two elders, George Jampajimpa 

and his wife Molly Nakamewa. It was 

a beautiful day. On the way they showed 

me some Emu dreaming places from the 

dreamtime. When we got as far as we 

could drive, we walked to a creek bed 

beside an enormous kangaroo dreaming 

tree. George showed me where his father 

used to sit on the bank and his brothers 

and his uncles. He was a little boy when 

they used to camp here and they 'grew 

him up" along that creek; there Molly's 

and his children were born and they 'grew 

them up. " He showed me where he 

recently camped (ten years ago). 

I often go hunting with the middle-aged 

women, I drive a dozen or so women and 

a pack of children into the bush. There 

the •children light a big fire and gather 

witchety and kunde. The women walk 

miles with digging sticks, checking tracks 

and digging out goanna. Then it's all 

eaten around the fire before we go home, 

with liberal amounts of tea, sugar, and 

damper. 

Things have crystallised for me since 

being here, We've been creating peer 

relationships and encouraging people to 

lead, Before we came here these jseople's 

only contact with Europeans was virtually 

one missionary. He organised and controlled 

their lives as much as he could, 

physically, emotionally, intellectually, 

and spiritually. Their social security 

cheques came to him; he cashed them, did 

their shopping in Yuendumn, had the only 

reliable car, the only two-way radio — 

he'd confiscated t he community one 

because he didn't like the group women 

"talking dirty" to young Aboriginal men in 

other communities. So he had the only 

radio contact out of here and the Aboriginal 

people were out of radio contact with 

their own people. He banned Aboriginal 

business (spirituality— in fact wholistic interpretation 

o f life), banned "s orry 

dbusiness" (the Aboriginal grieving pro 

cess) banned chewing tobacco, banned 

Aboriginal ' singing except - church songs, 

In return, he enabled them to keep living 

here by maintaining enough government 

interest to keep the water running. He 

became their unofficial community advisor 

and link with the source of income. 

And he brought them Jesus, a Is United 

Pentecostal Mission. He brought dead 

people back t o life, cured ill children, 

even claimed God told him who sniffed 

petrol, who slept around, who got drunk, 

played cards or any other evil thing. He 

stopped ceremonies and ordered "evil" 

paint off people, tried to talk men out of 

their second wives. 

We arrived here because the community 

needed a store. The day we got here 

there was a big meeting and we were asked 

if we'd cash their cheques at the store 

because (privately) they don't want the 

missionary handling their cheques any 

more. I organised a community mail bag 

separate from the missionary's and found 

that the community had applied for it 

months ago and it had been "neglected." 

We later found out that the missionary 

used to pocket twenty dollars from each 

cheque he cashed, "reasonable" really for 

all the stress involved but unproclaimed, 

Most people didn't know it was happening. 

He also had control of council funds 

allocated for municipal-type duties. The 

jobs, all filled by the "Christians," were 

given and supervised by him. His favourite 

person was in the top job (tractor 

driver) and paid whether the tractor was 

going or not. Also on the books was a 

non-existent John Japaljari (the missionary) 

paid a hefty wage. No one knew 

because no Aboriginal saw the books. 

When we were asked to do the cheques 

my husband Das said, "Okay as long as 

someone of your mob does it," so they 

• ----/Y.5"' / 

\••• c ••• 

•• 

•• 

54 

could train them to take it over. Now one 

man, Gibbo, is acting as social security 

officer and general community bookkeeper. 

Das sits with him and carefully they do 

it all. I t takes five times the amount of 

time but it means that Gibbo is trained 

and paid to do a job someone has to do. 

Hopefully, when he can manage easily 

the mail and cheque and the council 

work, he can be trained to do the shop 

bookkeeping and open a Community 

Savings Bank branch here. He's fantastic 

and the community's really happy with 

the situation. The missionaries aren't. 

They think Aboriginal people will never 

be honest and capable in a European 

sense t hat family pressure and a different 

values system will mean they'll never 

have the business sense to manage their 

own shops and affairs,. We don't believe 

that. We're committed to this community. 

We'll live here three t o five years or 

however many years it takes for them to 

be confident they can run the shop and 

deal with unscrupulous government departments 

without a close live-in ally. 

Then we'll leave. This Is Aboriginal land 

and not a place for Europeans to live out 

their lives 'helping." 

Another difference between us and the 

missionary is he is in the centre of any 

dispute and doles out punishment. I figure 

this mob has been working out its fights 

before I was here and as I understand so 

little of the language and culture I am best 

keeping my nose out of it. 

There's a lot of fighting. A lot ofjealout 

fights are due to the fact that the society 

used to be structured in small extended 

family nomadic groups and now it's largely 

sedentary with lots of incompatible skin 

groups together and many opportunities 

to act outside Aboriginal law. 

One interesting thing to me is how 

Aboriginals treat t heir children. I 'v e 

found it really affirming as a parent and 

mother living here. All that seems natural 

and instinctive is taken for granted. No 

child cries unattended. Even adolescent 

boys carry the babies around, cooing at 

them and loving them. No person, let 

alone a child, would dream of sleeping 

alone. With the skin system each child has 

several mothers and father and receives 

care from everyone. 

Claire Bruhns 

Nyirrippi, New Territory, Australia

REALITY AND STRENGTH AGAINST SUICIDE AND Loss 

The husband of a friend of mine committed suicide last week. I have just gotten home from spending 

four days counseling everyone in sight. That was a good experience for me. The power of what we can do 

with RC became clearer and clearer to me as I remained counselor hour after hour, day after day. I succeeded 

in keeping my friend discharging for twenty-four hours straight by setting the example, giving 

good "policy," and doing on-the-job-training with some of her sharpest friends. She and everyone else 

continued to discharge for the next four days. As a result she moved from lying on the couch whimpering 

like a hurt puppy to thinking well about her life and taking good care of others around her in an amazingly 

short period of time. 

I was pleased and reassured to see how much of what we know about the need to discharge is readily 

available in the society now. It only took my confidence and occasional redirection to keep things moving 

well. 

People referred to me as a tower of strength, a stone, as I successfully counseled one person after 

another. The wives of several of the man's friends mentioned their husbands had not let out any emotion. 

So I smiled reassuringly and moved in beside each one of them and they discharged easily and well, I 

think partly because they sensed my strength. 

A tower of strength— I got a new view of what is strength in that context. It's merely staying counselor. 

I could do that by decision and because I have discharged so much about the loss of loved ones. 

Particularly since this was a suicide, my information about oppression was very helpful. At many 

deaths people tend to cry, "Why?" and apparently feel guilt. In this case, the "why's" were particularly 

poignant, and had to be dealt with quickly and effectively. He was a working-class man who had grown 

up in a poor and violent home. He was a Vietnam vet. He was Franco-American in a state, where that is 

one of the most heavily oppressed minorities. He had gotten heavily involved in alcohol and drugs. It was 

easy for me with my knowledge of oppression to express pride in him for how valiantly he struggled to live 

a good life. With his wife, who felt she had failed him, I offered the perspective that the years with her had 

been the happiest of his life and that he probably would not have survived as long as he did had it not been 

for her and his friends. 

I thought of Harvey often as I watched the strength, courage, and intelligence of these working-class 

people operate under such hard conditions. Their love for one another and their determination to be 

strong and to be someone others could depend on was wonderful for me to watch. I found myself yearning 

to lay down some of the middle-class ways that I had learned in order to survive. My love and respect for 

working-class people, and my identity as a working-class woman grew immeasurably. Through the last 

few days I got to know and love many members of the Millwrights and Carpenters Union, Local — — I 

got a greater sense of why we can confidently and proudly say of us working-class people, "...And the 

future is in our hands." 

The need for us to learn to provide a place for men to discharge their fear and their anger was so evident. 

It appears to me that a major piece of the despair that led to his decision to kill himself was despair 

about being able to keep a commitment to his wife that he would never batter her again. He had succeeded 

in not touching her violently in about five years. That pattern resurfaced.the week of his suicide. He 

went into a deep depression, expressed his deep love of her, swore he'd never hurt her again, and quietly 

left the house and killed himself. I'm convinced that, though the whole thing is terribly twisted by distress, 

his motive was to protect her. 

— , USA 

55


RETURNING TO HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI 

If I were not needed in Maine this next week, you can 

be sure I would be attending the Pennsylvania/New Jersey 

teachers' and leaders' workshop. However, I am 

committed to co-leading a conference in Maine on feminist 

values and non-violent action. 

• 

The next day, I fly to Japan, where I will once again be 

In Hiroshima. You may remember that I went there last 

summer b ra month, and you kindly sent a little support 

lett- Th a n ks for that letter; it made things brighter 

when I felt lonely. 

I learned last summer that some of the atomic survivors 

in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima have discovered 

(created?) in themselves sources of profound strength 

and energy, really, not far from zest as we use the term 

In RC. After thinking about it all winter, I committed myself 

to return to learn more. Through happy circumstances, 

I am returning to be the foreign director for six 

months at the World Friendship Center. It's the same 

place where I worked as a volunteer staff member for a 

year twenty years ago, and where I stayed last summer. 

I will be temporary staff until the American Committee 

finds a longer replacement. 

The work of running the center will be what I am expected 

to do; what I'm really going for is to learn more of 

recent developments among some atomic survivors. I 

expect to listen a lot. I hope to spend at least a month in 

Nagasaki as well. It may take longer than six months; 

we'll see what is there to learn. 

In early July, I was one of a number of resource people 

at a conference of peace educators in Edmonton, 

Alberta, Canada. This was the second time I was invited 

to be a resource person at this annual conference. They 

worked me hard, and I met some good people. I got a 

chance to explain the basic principles of RC as AC in a 

small group, and two women, one of them my hostess 

for the week, have decided they want to begin RC in Edmonton. 

Reading The Rest of Our Lives and Present Time 

reminds me over and over again how exciting it is to be part of 

all this! 

Such brilliance has kindled my own. I am leading a 

superb life, touching many people. Often my heart overflows 

with the joy of knowing and loving. 

The Community is growing well — a number of new 

teachers and good assistants assure solid development. Coun- 

LOVE LETTERS AND PEACE 

The next week, I attended the bi-annual conference of 

Movement for a New Society, which was held outside of 

Boston. Sixty or so members attended from all over the 

U.S. and Toronto, Canada. Paul Whyte, an RCer and 

Area Reference Person from Sydney, Australia, also attended 

as a guest. ried an RC support group each day 

all week long, so the half dozen of us kept in great 

shape throughout the conference. Paul was' wonderful 

support. With his help, I was able to analyze some of the 

dynamics using RC as a base. I learned that MNS members, 

and from extrapolation, most social change activists 

and organizers, have a.great deal of low-level fear 

and worry. They also criticize each other all the time. I 

hypothesize that both are forms of internalized oppression 

since organizers are objects of fear and anger and 

criticism. At any rate, I saw my brothers and sisters 

from a new perspective, and I plan to develop some 

fresh perspectives on social change work in MNS as a 

result. 

A major development in my sessions is that I have 

been counseling steadily on being a child of alcoholic 

parents. In sixteen years of counseling, nothing besides 

discharging on being a woman can account for so much 

movement for me. Peggy Pastore and Joan Flannery 

locally have been great leaders on this Issue. Peg has 

led quarterly evening workshops, and Joan has led a 

support group, both of which I have attended. Did I miss 

articles written earlier about counseling on being a 

child of alcoholic parents, or am I correct in thinking 

that concentrated work in this area Is a fairly recent 

development? 

You can be sure I'll be in touch with RC teachers in 

Japan. I'll need to teach RC to someone in Hiroshima 

quickly, since I want to continue to counsel regularly. 

Lynne Shivers 

Hiroshima, Japan 

seling skills are improving, and I have a sense that Long 

Island is heading in the right direction. 

I think you would like this quote from Thick Nhat Hank, 

the Vietnamese monk: "The peace movement can write very 

good protest letters, but they are not able yet to write a love letter." 

How true. 

MARION DAVIS 

SHOREHAM, NEW YORK, USA

41, 

16 

- 

4 

, 

4 

. 

4 

; 

D 

O 

I 

N 

G 

S 

I 

N 

D 

O 

N 

E 

G 

THE WHOLE OF GOODNESS 

A 

L 

Greetings from me and from Ireland. In the last few days I've been out around the Fanad Peninsula 

north of where liv e. Sun shining, sea calm, sky blue, hills green and brown and all colours in between, 

In one place a skene of swans passed low overhead coming in to land on a small lake with 

great grace and order. The daffodils are opening up with their sunny yellowness, saying spring is 

here. 

The Rest of Our Lives Is so good. I'm dipping In every day. The stuff about men is accurate and 

well gathered together. 

I'm well. Calm. Doing twice as much with half the effort. Minding myself. Trusting my own thinking. 

Not worrying. Taking time every morning to plot the day. Cleaning out the distractions. The process 

of re-emerging is my finding the natural way the world is. What Is happening for me is that being 

the centre of my own life is taking on an immediate present time reality. Family, local, national, 

and international levels dissolve and merge into each other continuously. I meet someone and fall In 

love and that has international repercussions. 

Later-- 

In September I'm meeting with a number of colleagues who work in the Church of Ireland. I suggested 

the meeting and called them together with the support of the bishop. We're going to spend an 

afternoon thinking about how we can support each other and be more open to each other in our 

work. I'm also Involved with an unemployed gtoup that has started in a local town and is making 

progress in organising and providing information for unemployed people. a m supporting the leader 

of the group well, encouraging him to take risks In his relationships, and standing by him while he 

deals with the results of a previous situation. He has lots of energy and thinks well, and he Is beginning 

to take a new viewpoint on how to handle himself and the world. I'm going to teach a class for 

men in the local Regional College under the auspices of the Donegal Mental Health Association in 

the autumn. 

I am counselling regularly using the direction to continually decide to stay outside the distress. 

The Community here is growing slowly. I appreciate the July issue of Present Time, especially the 

"Taking OW Bearings" piece;! loved the bit about offering a comfortable viewpont on death. I have 

used that one about never dying even though I might be killed. It is like never giving up. I was sharing 

information with the people here that this is the way Jesus Christ looked at his death, getting killed 

but not dying, not giving up ever. "Untangling the Oppression of Physicians" by Pam Oatis is good 

stuff for me and I see connections in that as to how it is for clergy. I'm reading and re-reading the 

whole magazine and each time I pick up some new insight. Reading Present Time is like looking at 

the sky on a clear night and seeing all the stars and knowing there's no end to it. Thank you all for all 

you are. I love your confidence and clear thinking and the way you've shared it. I am reminded of the 

saying In the Bible, "Let your light so shine that all may see your being...." 

BRIAN SMEATON 

RAMELTON, iRELAND 

As I've been reading through the latest issue of Present 

Time, I am reminded again of what sound thinking and 

clarity of expression we have in our midst— for example, 

Dale Brown's thoughts on "time" opposite Becky Shuster's 

on being thoughtful of our RC/non-RC ways of being— 

both excellent, pithy, and "correct." 

Nancy Collins 

Helena, Monlana, USA 

57 

- 

z 

_ 411411Millir 

li 

! , •


Working from a Privileged Position 

I loved the April Present Ti me wit h the numerous 

reports of people getting out there and living RC in the 

world. It is exciting to be in RC at a time when so many 

people are reclaiming their power. I also loved the way 

my poem was set out and the beautiful illustration alongside 

it. Just in case you print anything from me again, 

could I get you know that I live in Newcastle-under- 

Lyme, not Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I t is confusing, but 

these are two different cities in two quite different parts of 

England. My Newcastle is in the Midlands, and the other 

Newcastle is in the - •.rtheast. 

Two things happened in the last week which gave me 

great hope. The first was a chance meeting with a notparticularly-close 

male acquaintance of mine. I had met 

him several times before at the home of a relative, and 

had greeted him with a hug, since that seemed a natural 

thing to do with him. Apart from this we had not shared 

anything very deep. When we met last week, he expressed 

an interest in RC, and I immediately agreed to tell him 

the basic theory and give him a session. By the end of the 

session he had reached a point of profound discharge, and 

told me he had been waiting for exactly this for years. 

After our second session (in which he counselled me 

superbly without any "techniques") we have achieved a 

closeness which I have with very few long-standing counsellors. 

It really seems like this relationship just fell into 

my lap, but the truth 

- passed m uroe s t by unless I had in some sense been in touch 

with 

s u 

my 

r 

power. 

e l y 

It is just so exciting to know that it can be 

that easy. 

b e 

t The h second a profoundly t hreful event came at work. In 

our i university t we are currently providing training courses 

w 

for the 

o 

managers 

u 

of all the Unemployment Benefit Offices 

in the country. They come to us in groups of twelve and 

spend l d a week updating their skills and knowledge. One 

h a 

v e 

FRENCH-FLAVORED RC 

lam in the first day of a seven-day summer workshop of 

Daniel LeBon's. The place is exquisite—an old castle in the 

middle of the French countrysitu with the right combination 

of beauty and rusticity that makes for a pleasant atmosphere. 

It is hot, but the rooms are cool. A good place to reflect on RC 

and the different trends of the French and American ways of 

thought and of being within RC. I feel highly privileged 

because of my dual upbringing: at this moment in my lffe, 

about exactly hag' was spent in the USA and half here in 

France. It is good to be able to appreciate the flavor of both 

approaches. 

JESSICA COLMAN 

BEI, PECH, FRANCE 

58 

afternoon is designated to study "creativity and problemsolving" 

and I jumped at the invitation to run one of these 

afternoons. I decided that the most important thing I 

could do would be to give them some RC theory and practice 

to take away with them. In just over three hours I 

managed to get across all the basic ideas of RC (with persistent 

emphasis on the importance of discharge). Contrary 

to all my fears, most of them were eager and excited 

by what they heard, ready to come in with experiences of 

their own which fitted. In fact, we had a tea-break just 

before I introduced discharge, and several of the group 

spontaneously started talking about discharge and how 

important it was. 

I shall probably never see any of them again, but I can 

be sure that they will all have been influenced by what 

they heard to work out their best ways of giving and getting 

good attention and appreciation in their lives. They 

are all fine people and I was proud to have been with them 

for an afternoon. If twelve quite randomly chosen people 

can respond to RC ideas with such enthusiasm, then perhaps 

I can believe that any group would, as long as I go in 

there acting as though it is going to be easy. 

\ 

I am eager to share with you all my achievements and 

plans for building my world community from the base of 

being a university teacher and researcher. I am beginning 

to realise what a privileged position I am in to reach people 

with RC and get paid for doing it. I am constantly in a 

position to influence new students who will then go out into 

every walk of life. I have access to important channels 

of communication among teachers and scientists, and can 

capitalise on the large degree of respect that academics 

still receive among people in industry and commerce.. 

John Sloboda 

Newcastle-under-Lyme, England 

WE ARE ALL RICH' 

Stella and I just returned from a short holidaY in 

France. I saw many pictures; the Louvre Is perhaps 

the best gallery in the world and it had a 

wonderful temporary exhibition of pastels. I remembered 

your remarks that we are all rich when 

we can, for a small sum, see such work, eat 

enough delicious bread and milk and, as we did, 

sit in the sun' In the public gardens of Paris. 

Howard Jeffrey Mason 

London, England

Discharging Patterns Around Organizing 

I did my sums a while ago and realised that one 

thousandth of the Irish population has been exposed 

to RC by now. Probably about a fifteenth of those remain, 

but that's not too important. Most of those who 

have drifted off have done so for reasons which have 

left the door half open, and the best still keep in contact 

and turn up from time to time in all sorts o f 

places, as excellent leaders in their own right with the 

eternal commitment to a better planet for us all. 

At the moment I am very interested in efficient, 

human, energising organisation, a bit like Raymond 

Cadwell's idea of doing away with hierarchy. Here's a 

simple, very everyday example. Whenever I am involved 

with any group of people, organising for example 

around childcare Or catering, which we women get 

a lot of experience at, I treat the situation as a good 

opportunity to encourage all to participate and enjoy 

the work. I reckon the days of people waiting on each 

other are a hangover from slavery and servant practices 

and I'm fast clearing the backlog. Needless to say 

this has a great burrowing effect on sexism. 

Alongside this work, which goes on every day in 

many different ways, I am leading a support group in 

RC on organising. We have discharged a lot on early 

organising in our lives, how we handle tasks, where 

the patterns take over. As our task focus we are organising 

Tim's August workshop here. Having some real 

work to tackle gives the whole thing an edge. The real 

panic around organising only surfaced when the tasks 

and deadlines loomed. At this stage we'te discharging 

the patterns that are likely to restimulate each other 

within the group. So, we've all identified our deepest 

Many things have been going on for me and I 

would like to share a few of them with you. 

I applied for and received permission to teach 

RC. I taught a winter class of six men and a spring 

class of four men and two women. 

I have found a job that is in line with my dream 

for the world. I work with the state of North 

Carolina's program that provides volunteer advocates 

for abused and neglected children whose 

cases are in the court system. I supervise half of 

the volunteer program coordinators and edit a 

state-wide newsletter that goes to legislators, 

judges, attorneys, and volunteer advocates. The 

59 

distresses in this area and have logged them. Already 

we are interrupting each other's patterns as they crop 

up. The result is tremendous laughter and a growing 

feeling of closeness, respect, and cooperation. It's the 

best group I have ever been in, let alone led. 

• Our next step is t o continue strategising about 

organising the rest of the country. I t seems like it 

could be simplified and made much more expedient. 

One of the things I've set up in this respect is a few 

evenings on managing money for a non-RC group of 

women. There w i l l be, some information fro m a 

woman who works as an accountant, followed by some 

from me on how the oppressions are cemented in by 

money dealings. 

Meanwhile, I live i n a beautiful place wit h a 

wonderful view of the Dublin mountains. My home is 

spacious and bright, with a good balance between 

beauty, order, comfort, and live-in-ableness. My husband 

and sons are loving people whom I enjoy being 

with and when I want to do my own thing I can, either 

in my little office or out in the wide world. There are a 

lot of good people who love me and many more who 

respect me and look to me for wisdom and support. 

Last year I started my own company and to my surprise 

not only is the challenge great fun, but I am extremely 

successful. I am constantly amazed by how 

easy it is to be successful and the contradiction keeps 

my hopelessness quivering. 

NORTH CAROLINA INITIATIVES 

CHRISTINE OWAHONY 

DUBLIN, IRELAND 

newsletter is an excellent forum for giving good 

thinking about children. I have already replaced 

the word "kid" with "young person" or "child" in all 

of our brochures and forms. 

I am taking charge in my communities— FC and 

others. Today I led a workshop for residence hall 

counselors at a small southern college. It was 

great fun and I built the entire day on RC principles. 

I began with introductions in which I insisted 

on a proud statement of something the 

students did well, information about what they 

wanted to learn during the day, and a question 

they had about me. This was great for present 

time and getting close, and, I was able to gear the 

(ontinued


continued • 

workshop to answer the things they wanted to 

learn, Of the forty students, four were black so I 

spent some time giving information about racism. 

(One of the black students volunteered to role 

play a residence hail situation in front of the 

group. When she finished I asked her If she would 

stay up front with me and help me talk about 

some ractallssues. She agreed and the results 

were marvelous.) All of the students seemed appreciative 

of my candidness and clear thinking 

about blacks and whites in interaction in the 

South. They seemed relieved to hear someone say 

that our prejudices are just distress and that our 

being close is something we are all craving. One 

black student mentioned that my bringing up the 

issue was the workshop highlight for her. 

Basically, I am living my life from as much a 

60 

position of power as I can and am working in sessions 

on moving forward 

Earlier this summer I went on a five-week study 

vacation with my husband to Costa Rica. What a 

place for attention away from distress. It seems I 

had a period of not putting attention on distress 

and had some extensive time for re-evaluation. I 

had another summer like this a few years ago, 

where for a period of over a month I was travelling 

and did not counsel. I experienced tremendous 

growth during that time also. It's as if when I 

didn't have the opportunity to put my attention on 

my distress in a session that I went ahead and 

lived in present time which proved to be noticeably 

re-emergent. 

Cindy Mays 

Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 

CHANGING THE THINGS 'I WANT TO CHANGE 

Things are going well here in Irapuato. The fundamentals class is In Its seventh week. People have 

attended regularly and have had regular sessions. Now they discharge easily. 

We met Azril Bacal and some others from the RC Community in Puebla some days ago and 

discussed about future classes, workshops, and meetings. Azril will come from Puebla and lead a 

one-day workshop the third week of August. After it we're planning to begin another fundamentals 

group. Some people couldn't join this group and some others have become interested. 

I'm considering keeping the group I'm leading now meeting regularly. We'll discuss it in the next 

session. Maribel probably will be leading a support group for women. We're finding out people who 

are interested in It besides the women in the group. 

After the six weeks we have gone through with the fundamentals, we see how people have 

changed. They also tell us about their changes and that they want to have more people know RC. 

I can see and feel how I've changed too. At this moment I have two Co-Counselors and sometimes 

I Co-Counsel with somebody else from the group if he or she asks me to and if I have the time. And 

the result is that I can decide about things I couldn't before; I'm also becoming more patient. I'd 

always fought against Impatience; I'm learning not to be too serious about everything. For a long 

time I couldn't enjoy many things as I'd like, especially my relationships with others. 

I just had a great experience. Last week I attended a course in a city about twelve hours from here, 

I have to go every year because it's part of my job. I was there last year and it was a sorrowful time. I 

Just couldn't make any friends; I hardly talked to anybody. I remember the people joining in small 

groups and having meals always with somebody. I stayed and had meals alone all the time. When I 

came back I thought that for the next year I'd look for an excuse so I'd not have to attend. But I had to 

and I was there last week. This time was different. I met people, spent most of the time with others, 

and talked to them. I really enjoyed the time I was over there. I realized I like and enjoy being alone, 

but I also like and enjoy being with others. I could decide whether to be alone or not, and enjoy both. 

I didn't have to wait until they came to me. I looked for people and stayed close to them. I feel different 

now. 

I'm using RC to change things I wanted to and I've been discharging and working against my patterns. 

And I'm sure this has helped me to teach, RC better. I've been seeing how people have responded 

in the classes. I'm more confident and positive about RC and myself working in and with it. 

Rogello Acosta C. 

trapuato, Mexico

f 

f 

r 

52A/ M O T H E R AND LEADER 

My daughter, Emma, was born on 

January third and she is a delightful addition 

to my already wonderful life! Rd 

theory is the major cornerstone for the 

loving, connected relationship that we 

have. She is a very aware and happy person 

who is encouraged to discharge whenever 

she needs to and this is obviously 

making a difference. I have been training 

myself and others to give her the kind of 

attention that she needs. She and I attended 

Charlie Kreiner's workshop i n 

Orlando in February and Cherie Brown's 

workshop in May. Both workshops were 

major milestones in my thinking about 

what my next steps will be. It was also 

great making connections with people 

around Florida and getting close to Ikeni 

Daniels in particular. 

I am happy to say that motherhood has 

not stopped my leadership. I have been 

pushing through patterns of not wanting 

to ask anyone for help. I have set up a 

support system for myself in order that I 

can have ample time t o work at my 

desk— thinking, writing, planning. I have 

asked eight people who support my leadership 

to each come out to the farm once a 

month and be with Emma for two hours. 

It's amazing what lean accomplish in two 

hours of uninterrupted time twice a week! 

This is in addition to the couple of hours I 

can get at night after she goes to sleep and 

the support I gct from my husband. He is 

the primary "bread-winner" these days, 

but he spends time with Emma while I 

teach classes, lead groups, and get sessions. 

I was on maternity leave from 

teaching regular classes at the high school 

this past year and the leave will continue 

through next year. This time off has given 

me the chance to give Emma quality time 

and attention, as well as more time for 

myself to do valuable work in and out of 

the RC Community. 

Since Emma's birth, I have organized 

an issue of a Tallahassee publication on 

parenting. I went after Reers to write articles 

for the issue, The idea was to present 

a lot of RC theory without mentioning 

RC or using any jargon. This project 

has been a great success. 

When Emma was six weeks - 

turned o l d , to the I high r eschool - young people's 

RC class that I have been leading one day 

a week aftrer school for two years now. I 

have been supporting two young leaders, 

Joy Brudenell and Flame Bilvue, to take 

an active role in the class—leading demonstrations 

and presenting theory. They 

have also been leading young people's 

support groups and are ready to begin 

teaching their own classes soon. 

My work with high school students has 

gained some attention on the county 

level. This week I was asked by the school 

board to give a two-hour presentation at a 

county-wide workshop for teachers. The 

topic is "Crisis Intervention — How to help 

students with problems." This will give 

me the opportunity to share RC theory 

with a new group of people. 

The teachers' support group that I led 

at my high school this year was such a 

great success that the principal has aiked 

me to also lead one for parents of teenagers 

during the next school year. 

• 

Henry Hall and I are working well 

together in thinking about the Tallahassee 

RC Community. We now have over 130 

Co-Counselors in the Area. One of our 

main problems at present is that most of 

our certified teachers are not planning to 

teach in the near future. We are moving a 

whole new batch of people toward certification 

to fill this gap. We are also supporting 

and developing Area leaders for 

each group in our Community—women, 

men, 13ung people, working-class, Jews, 

parents, world changers, etc. 

I gave an introductory lecture a few 

weeks ago in which I presented the basic 

RC theory in better terms than I have 

ever done before (and theory presentation 

is my best skill). I was enthusiastic and 

funny and really had a great time doing 

it. I started a new fundamentals class 

following the introductory lecture. I really 

love teaching fundamentals. I t brings a 

song to my heart and pushes my own reemergence 

better than anything else that I 

do. Up until now, I have shied away from 

teaching experienced RCers, so my next 

step is to teach a world-change class in the 

fall for people who are already in RC. I 

have recruited fifteen people and may 

need to teach two classes if the group gets 

much bigger. Among the recruits are 

some of the politically active people in 

Tallahassee. I am excited about the group 

and have already begun to read, think, 

and plan in preparation for the class. 

I have been doing some work in the 

wide world as a mediator. I have been 

61 

certified t o do that kind o f work f or 

several years now but never had the time 

to pursue it while teaching high school 

full-time. Now, I've tried my hand at it 

and found that I am very good at it. Of 

course I use more RC techniques and 

theory than standard mediation procedures 

and it has worked beautifully. 

I have been asked to give a speech to a 

large gathering at a Hiroshima Day commemoration. 

I want it to be a speech 

about personal empowerment and hopefulness, 

rather than painful emotion. I am 

looking forward to the opportunity. 

I am encouraging my husband, Jeff 

Thompson, to write an article for the new 

RC lawyers' journal. H e represented 

David Funchess, a Vietnam vet on death 

row who had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

David's life was the perfect example 

of an intelligent, friendly, young black 

man who was involved in and viewed 

some terrible things in combat. He returned 

to the U.S. with all kinds of obvious 

distress but received n o help. 

Things got worse and worse for him until 

he finally killed two people and ended up 

on death row bewildered and sickened by 

what he had done. I t is an incredible 

story. Jeff counseled and shared R e 

theory and got close to this man before the 

State of Florida executed him in April. 

Jeff stirred up publicity about the case 

and as a result, was able to present a lot of 

information aboyt PTSD (along wit h 

much RC theory about how people get 

hurt and the oppression of veterans) in 

the national media. I was able to give Jeff 

lots of support in those last few weeks 

before the execution when he was working 

around the clock to try to get Governor 

Graham to grant clemency. After the 

execution, we buried David on our land. 

His grave is a constant reminder to us of 

the inherent human qualities of all human 

beings and the things that need to be 

changed in the world in order to let those 

human qualities flourish. 

I agree with you that we are living in 

the most exciting period of history when 

things are beginning to turn around. I 

want to thank you for your leadership in 

this endeavor. The quality of my life has 

improved considerably since I was introduced 

to RC and my leadership in the 

world has been greatly enhanced as a 

result. 

Deborah Powers 

Quincy, Florida, USA


Pam Roby from Santa Crux, California, USA conducted 

a workshop in New Delhi, India on August 23-26, 

1986. Held on extremely convenient premises of the Indian 

Social Institute, New Delhi, it was organised by 

G.R. Subbaraman, with valuable assistance from Fr. 

K J . Edwin. The workshop had nineteen members from 

four different religions, speaking six different languages 

and coming from four different states—from Orissa in the 

east and Bombay in the west, to Kanyakumari in the 

south. 

Pam was an excellent leader. She encouraged more and 

more members to lead different aspects of the workshop; 

topic groups, support groups, fundamentals class, recreation, 

organisational details, etc. This gave an opportunity 

for a member at some stage or other to be a leader and to 

feel how it is to be a leader. In addition to this, she constantly 

encouraged leader's from each part of the country 

in reviving/expanding their group, circulation of journals 

and books in that area, and keeping in touch with the 

others. Demonstrations were excellent, revealing the finer 

techniques of Co-Counselling, so were the suggestions for 

* c- 

Healthy Growth in India 

the support/topic groups, which generated a lot of new 

.ideas and interesting insights to each member. 

Posters posted around the room on different aspects, 

for example, leadership, liberation o f women, faculty 

staff, taking charge of the universe, were excellent ideas to 

boost our morale and help work in t 

h e r i g h t R C 

d 

A 

i 

unique 

r e c 

feature 

t i o 

of 

n 

the 

. 

New Delhi workshop was the 

enthusiasm fired for going back to our areas of origination 

and reviving RC effectively. Another feature was ideas 

for integrating RC leaders in various parts of the country 

by organising yearly meetings. This could mean organised 

expansion and solidification of RC in India and unification 

in aspects of theory, techniques, and advancement 

of RC. 

Beginnings in Central Java 

Plans are at an advanced stage for the Bombay workshop 

to be held in November, and also for one in the 

south (Madras). New leaders are taking charge, new ideas 

sprouting, new beginnings promised. 

\ N 

Ramakrishna lyer and Shirin Choksey 

Bombay, India 

It Is now several days since Totok Santos° and I returned from the Re-evaluation Counselling 

workshop which Pam Roby led so wonderfully in Singapore. .1 want to thank you very much for mak- 

//I i n g It possible for us to be present there, 

The workshop was a meaningful and positive experience for me and perhaps to a slightly lesser 

extent for Totok. I felt I began to experience what Re-evaluation Counselling could do for me personally 

in coming to grips with some of the feelings that have been holding me back. I wish it was 

also possible to attend a fundamentals course before taking responsibility for sharing with others. 

However my friend Norma Anet has already sent me a number of books and I was able through Pam 

to order some others so that I hope to gain a more systematic understanding of the principles and 

how to share them with others by reading. An/In Kuala Lumpur has also promised to keep in touch 

with me week by week as she runs her next fundamentals course there, and Anu, the leader in Singapore, 

gave me the outline she has been using. 

As I have three children and two nieces living with us, a good deal of my spare time is taken up 

with parenting. I am going to try to find three or four friends who may be interested in setting up a 

parents' support group as a first step. This will probably have to wait till mid-September as I am coordinating 

a workshop on evaluation of community development programmes starting next week and 

must concentrate on that first. I think Totok is hoping perhaps to do something with a small group of 

young people around his own age and I hope we will be able to Co-Counsel with each other. 

I have promised to keep in touch with Pam about further developments here. I also forgot to mention 

that It seems some of the friends in Singapore whom I met at Pam's workshop may be coming to 

Indonesia for holidays or work towards the end of the year. I am hoping that at least one of them may 

be able to call in to see us when they come. 

N 

JENNIFER TOISUTA 

SALATIOA, CENTRAL JAVA, INDONESIA

MILITARY LEADERS MEET PEACE ACTIVISTS 

I have Made friends with people on the military 

base who are interested in establishing contacts 

with the local peace community, and now am 

reaching out t o that community. I had lunch 

recently with two local activists who said that 

they had been wanting to reach out to the people 

on the base for years, but didn't quite know how. 

They have volunteered to pull together four or five 

"good listeners" from varied backgrounds to meet 

with the four or five people I recruit from the base 

to begin the process of building bridges across 

these boundaries. My impression is that both 

sides are yearning to get to know each other. I will 

facilitate our meetings, and if it takes off I will 

train the better leaders to facilitate other groups. 

I think I told you that Don Canavan is doing a 

monthly radio talk show for men (called "Healing 

River"). His latest show was on men's leaders in 

the Tucson community. He invited me and two 

other men, to be on the show. He asked us questions 

adapted from the Wygelian leaders' format 

and we answered them live. What fun we had! Our 

Interviews were interspersed with music we had 

picked out. Now, I am planning to follow-up on 

that Initial contact with a community men's leaders' 

group. 

Dale Everts 

Tucson, Arizona, USA 

Wisdom From Another Culture 

Consider the Babemba tribes of southern Africa, where the social structure 

includes only an elementary criminal code. Apparently, the lack of 

fixed rules to enforce justice stems from close community living, which 

never made such laws necessary. Brian Sharpe, our r e d 

director - of the William Roper Hull Progressive Education Center, Calgary, 

Canada, was reared by the Babemba for the first nine years of his life. He 

passed b e a r dthe e d following f r i information e n d , on to a us, nalong dwith 

the tribal method of 

handling antisocial, delinquent, or criminal behavior, which were exceed. 

ingly infrequent: 

When a person acts Irresponsibly or unjustly, he Is placed in the center 

of the' village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, 

woman and child In the village gathers In a large circle around the accused 

individual. Then each person In the tribe, regardless of age, begins to talk 

out loud to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person 

In the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every Incident, every experience 

that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All 

his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are ,recited 

carefully and at length. NO one is permitted to fabricate, exaggerate or be 

facetious about his accomplishments or the positive aspect of his personality. 

The tribal ceremony often lasts several days and does not cease until 

everyone is drained of every positive comment he can muster about the person 

in question. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration 

takes place, and the person symbolically and literally is welcomed back into 

the tribe. I repeat, not a word of criticism about him or his irresponsible, 

antisocial deed is allowed. The person in the center, we can only suppose, 

experiences a variety of feelings about his misdeed, having been flooded 

with the charitable warmth of his acquaintances, friends and loved ones. 

Perhaps this overwhelming positive bombardment not only strengthens his 

positive self-image, but also helps him choose to live up to the "expectations" 

of his tribe. 

From CONTACT: THE FIRST FOUR MINUTES 

by Leonard Zunin, M.D. with Natalie Zunin 

sent in by Jean Cline 

63


MOVING AHEAD IN BERLIN L , 

4 

My first fundamentals class is almost finished now. It went very well, and I enjoyed being with 

the group. Unfortunately , the many men that had announced they would take the class didn't come, 

and so it was a women's group, all very powerful and all good for counseling. 

• 

I have stopped my women's support group now. The next theme,' want to work on is creativity. 

Yesterday I had a public rehearsal of our new play. Next Friday I will give an introduction lecture 

to RC. I go through all my fears and lose them by doing this. It's now been two months that I 

don't smoke. Sometimes it's difficult, but no reason to start again. My aim is to live every moment 

without any limits. I'm doing this sometimes already. 

• I t wasn't easy leading the group that was wotking with the leader's commitment. Nobody liked to 

work with it and this for me didn't feel so good. But we will continue in October and then, with the 

support of Cornelia, it will surely go easier. She's a wonderful leader of Berlin, the best I can imagine. 

In August and September I won't be in Berlin. I will travel, have a holiday, meet my theater 

group, and work on our play. We have our premiere in October, and I look forward with much joy 

for this time. 

Kerstin Rohle 

••,•.• 

Perlin, West Germany 

The Right Kind of Science Journal 

If Clarity Is to be a journal for hard science, then, while the RC basis must be solid, the science 

must also be good, so that non-RC scientists will want to read it — because of its relevance, interest, 

excellent science, clear analyses, and the development of new and penetrating ideas. It could make 

an Important contribution to building support between RC scientists and their non-RC colleagues. 

Scientists, as individuals, need to offer and receive counselling, but the present crisis isn't 

waiting for their coniplete re-emergence. We have to act while learning, counselling, etc., and 

engage as many scientists as possible. Effective action is needed in the world, and the right interactions 

with others, our fellow scientists. Changing their attitudes toward work, and sometimes 

changing the kind of work they are willing to do, will be found by many to have quietly sorted out 

some of their distress, at least part of which springs from the gap between conscience and 

knowledge of consequences, on the one hand, and on the other, the limited responses they may feel 

able, or prepared, to make. 

Scientists have to go against those elements in training which tend to isolate the laboratory from 

the world. In the extreme, they may run grave professional risks. They therefore tend to erect a barrier 

of protective disavowal: they dissociate what they do and how they do It from what they are and 

how they are thinking, living, and being used. They believe that specialisation is good, and taking a 

broad view is shallow and unscientific. This, I believe, actually diminishes them as scientists. To 

think sharply and well on specific matters Is essential for creativity, but not enough. Imagination, a 

feeling of context and relationship with total reality, is vital. Technical challenge is exciting, but it's 

dangerous to be seduced by this alone—that's what builds better bombs, or produces damaging 

technical fixes for a Third World crisis. 

There are a number of questions and problems implicit In science itself, as well as In the lives of 

scientists, and In the relationship between science and society, which suggest a number of topics 

for Clarity. 

/ 

1 

1 

64 

• R u t h Clayton 

Edinburgh, Scotland

LEAP TO CLARITY IN KENYA 

The idea of deciding not to be restimulated has at 

last made sense to me, now that you have made it clear 

that you do it when you are feeling good and clear. I 

always thought you were supposed to do it when you 

were feeling bad! Like lots of other pieces of theory, it 

has yielded amazing results incredibly quickly and in 

the absense of sessions. 

_ 

I was lying awake at night longing for someone so 

badly that it physically hurt. I knew it was to do with 

missing my dad when I was in hospital but of course 

that didn't help. Suddenly I said to myself, "Why long 

for him? Why not just imagine him right by your side 

holding your hand?" So I did and it worked immediately 

and has continued to work ever since. (And of 

course I can do it for anyone I'm missing,) It might 

sound a small thing, but given my history it isn't. It's a 

major breakthrough. I really enjoy sayaing, with a 

cocky defiance, "I decide not to pay any attention to 

my distress and not to be ruled by it," It makes me feel 

so free. 

So yet another big thank you. It's as big a leap for me 

as beginning RC in the first place. I hope you people 

are regularly patting yourselves on the back. 

One small thing. There was a spelling mistake of the 

Kiswahili word in that piece in Present Time and I do 

think it's important to get i t right. I t should be 

MWALIMU, not 1VIWALINI.J. 

MERRY CROSS 

MOMBASA KENYA 

. • 

A Happy Life 

65 

MID-LIFE CAREER CHOICES 

I've been thinking about leadership. I'm leading 

well in my life. (I've had a tremendous year of 

change, terrifying and enjoyable.) Having spent 

fourteen years as a full-time parent, I am working 

part-time nursing and lookng forward to a year of 

study of Pastoral Ministry (clinical and in the community). 

Then m a k e a choice around a new 

career. 

In RC, I have organised two workshops. The 

first was for women and led in March by Collette 

Morrison. It was excellent and well-organised. 

The second was a tremendous challenge as 

Christine O'Mahony decided to get five people to 

organise the summer workshop. I shall write an article 

for Present Time, it was organizing with a difference 

and the fastest and best environment I've 

been in for discharging and acting and doing it all 

well (for all five of us). 

While the priests were interviewing me for the 

pastoral ministry course, I gave them some information 

on women's issues. I could see that I was 

supplying bits of information they had been looking 

for around women and they said so. 

BREDA MCGEE 

DUBLIN, i RELAND 

•-7--..-••••!!!!!'vh•-••• A t 

ow- • 

• • 

I'm writing this in the evening sunshine under our apple tree on a heavenly evening, having just returned 

from visiting a newborn baby, 

- M y h e a r t 

My work is going well People are beginning to take it for granted that young people must be listened to 

and 

i 

treated 

s 

with 

f 

respect 

u l 

and 

l 

they write tame from London and Bristol and Aberdeen to ask me to go and 

talk o to them f about it I'm writing a chapter in a research volume about it; I gave a conference paper which 

will l be o published v (speech e therapy students have, to write essays abut it!); and my colleagues support me. 

People a love n my daughters, d Kate and Jo, and tell me how Wonderful they are and when there's trouble we 

deal with it well. • 

h a p p i n 

e I'm sconsulting s . with Janet Peacock who goes from strength to Strength and with a glorious new person 

called Margaret Ridgwell. She has started offering "assertiveness training" as a school option and gets 

enormous classes of incredulous young volunteers, as you can imagine. 

Counselling ideas are popping up everywhere, do you know that? 

Rae Smith 

, Great Glen, Leicester, England


WIDE INTERESTS 

Guadalupe Valdez has left for Berkeley. They are lucky to have her. She is going for a one year trial 

period. I know she will be a big hit there. She will be the only Chicane full professor at that huge 

school. I am enclosing a pamphlet about Guadalupe and a wonderful quote by Ralph Abernathy 

about "onlys." I've also enclosed a great poem by Pat Mora about being Chicane. tread some of her,. 

poetry at a reading that I did at one of the local coffee houses. I read from works by women of color. I 

started a trend. A number of people who don't write poetry have begun to read there. I am going to 

take a poetry writing course in the fall at the university and make the leap from appreciator to writer. 

I came back from Hawaii feeling well rested and having had lots of fun. I swam, sailed, and snorkeled, 

and also had a great counseling session with Anne Davenport. I lived in a house with three 

other people. We became close and they are all starting to take BC classes in the fall, two in Albuquerque 

and one in Las Cruces. They will all be ready for Nancy Kline's workshop in New Mexico in 

November. They all loved her "Living Without Limits" article (Present Time No. 57). I'm looking forward 

to teaching a fundamentals class and a living without limits class in the fall. 

I'm still very pleased with the ending racism workshop that I led In Phoenix. Joan Ticknor did a 

wonderful job of organizing the workshop. As I look at the roster and the photos I took I know that 

that is what every workshop should look like. There were Chicano/as, Native Americans (Tina Rainwater 

Kahn and Alfred Kahn came down from Flagstaff), a Chinese woman from Beijing, and a black 

man and a Filipino. The majority were people of color. Yeahl 

I did a good job leading. We had long introductions about who we are. Since so much of racism is 

about ignorance and misinformation it seems that learning as much as possible about each other 

from the outset contradicts that. Something else that helped create safety all around was my having 

made a list of assumptions and ground rules and posting them and discussing them. These included 

things like: we're all experts on this subject; there are no bad whites; there will be no blaming; all 

people are Inherently good; "white flight" is internalized oppression, not racism; there are no racist 

people, just racist patterns. When I worked with the groups separately, Third World and whites,. 

- everyone talked about how important this list had been. We had lots of fun too— eating and dancing. 

Of course j owe most of what I know about the theory of racism to Ricky Sherover-Marcuse, who has 

had such an impact on my life in this area. The rest I've learned from being a woman of color in this 

society. 

Tina Rainwater Kahn invited me to lead a workshop for the Navajo Bahal Association In 

September. I am honored. Three of the Phoenix workshop participants are people who work in the 

juvenile probation and parole system. They were wonderful. They came to learn how to use RC to 

change that Institution. That is what RC is about to me—changing the world. I want to organize a 

workshop on racism for their office. Again, these are people whom Joan especially invited and worked 

with before the workshop. 

I continue to work with the Freeze at the local and the national level and I continue to serve on the 

various state boards and commissiOn. One project that I have enjoyed very much is participating in 

Dialogue Days. Charlotte Lowrey has done such a fine job of working with peace activists and 

defense workers and making sure that we listen to each other and see where our common interests 

lie. I'm sure Lorenzo Garcia reported to you about our work with the national Freeze. Harvey, the 

question is no longer whether I am powerful but where and how I choose to exercise that power: 

Your comment to me about did I wish that I was as narrow as most people has served me well and 

helped me realize that I love doing all the work that I do. I conitnue to spend time with my great 

nephews whenever I can. They serve as great models to me to expect to be loved well. 

Present Time arrived a few days ago. What a treat to see what intelligent humans beings we all 

are. I love that so many people share in the process and continue to think so well about and use the 

theory. I was reading People magazine on the plane last Sunday and noticed how everything is 

trivialized, all reduced to the same level. It occurred to me that one reason that people sit up'and 

take notice of RCers and the information we have is that we believe that people are important and 

treat them that way. Everyone wants to kpow that we believe deeply in something, for example 

peace, and that we living accordingly. It grants them permission to do the same. 

Ann Gutierrez 

-.'"-..., L a s Cruces, New Mexico, USA 

_ — 

••—___, 

-, • • —__ 

, 

, - •:, 

• 

. 

• 

. 

• 

•• 

• 

• 

1 , 

• 

% • 66 

• •

The Luxury of Being In Charge 

Greetings from the "sweet cove of Cork." What an excellent 

connection we can make. I have been thinking a 

lot about myself as a woman and feminist. I wish you 

were here close b y and I could talk about a ll the 

thoughts I have and the glimmers of reality I see. I feel 

such joy in being alive today. More and more I am noticing 

the goodness and joy in my life. I am on holiday and 

savouring every moment. The nurturance of reality—I 

am reading, thinking, writing, and painting and drawing 

and spending time with friends sharing my dreams and 

goals. • , 

I love being in my house which is south-facing and 

gets all the sun and light there is. It shines through lovely 

stained glass windows made with great care by Cully. 

The garden is in full summer glow and our house seems 

to have grown with lots of love. It's a nice place to live. 

This time I'm having here is a time of gathering reserves 

for the rigours of winter, though winter has its beauty as 

well. 

Co-Counselling is going well; it's taking off. Sometimes 

I wonder what way it's going, but I know it's basically 

okay. It seems that I get stuck thinking about it 

after the beginning. What do you do after it's begun? 

The middle stage seems to be very hard work wh e re 

people have to take responsibility for themselves in the 

Community. In Cork, about fifteen or twenty people 

have gone through a class or classes, but I think a lot of 

them miss the bit about it being an ongoing, systematic 

process. Some people seem to be pleased with the first 

small gain of feeling better and then if it gets tough they 

leave it. However, we have a core of committed Co- 

Counsellors who are avidly reading the literature, Co. 

Counselling, and thinking well. So we're on our way. I 

led a women's workshop for eleven people here. It was 

superb. I found joy in seeing women model power and 

beauty and being good allies for qne another. 

The big step I've made this year, which I think I can 

never lose, is the fact that I can never give up on myself. 

I may feel hopeless and powerless, but the reality of my 

life is in my hands. Never giving up on myself means 

always being open to the possibility of a better world — 

always moving, questioning, solving problems. I may 

sometimes slip into feeling like giving up, but I can 

never stay there. 

The sun shines outside and the light on the trees is 

lovely. My house echoes the earth and trees and plants. 

Each side has a different view and light. I drink it in. My 

vision for women and the world continually changes, 

moves between sadness and joy, but is constant in that 

my heart is always there. These days, when I come up 

against an obstacle I quickly move around it to another 

.possibility. I think well in the midst of obstacles, 

My mother has boon reading snippets of Sisters magazine 

and loves it. I think she knows me better this year 

and I know her. We encourage and support one another. 

Also my sister, Catherine, is Co-Counselling. Cully went 

to Charlie Kreiner's men's workshop and loved it. He 

67 

was very excited and moved by all the information. He's 

a natural, I'm pleased that I no longer take responsibility 

for his life. He's in charge and I feel quite separate from 

it, although we're good allies for each other. 

I am-taking next year off and going back to college to 

do a course in career guidance and counselling. It's a 

full-time course and by all accounts very good. I'm looking 

forward to that and leaving teaching is a good move 

for me. It is the beginning of being more flexible about 

my work life and looking at it more rationally. I am supporting 

women well in the Rape Crisis Centre. I am not 

directly involved anymore, but have offered counselling 

skills and training. 

More and more I am seeing my Co-Counselling relationships 

in terms of a real live commitment to one 

another, no matter what. It's not just a session here and 

there but an ongoing thinking about them. 

My thoughts those days are about the luxury of options 

in my life, I am pleased just to have this time to 

think and I'm not feeling the guilt that women are 

trained to feel about fulfilling different roles. Also I am 

finding_ out that I have so much to learn about everything. 

Anne Rath 

, C o r k , Ireland 

t h 

NEW 4 THEORY ENHANCES 

e 

These days L l my life seems in such balance. 

Mind, spirit, t iemotions, 

and body all are being 

nourished, 

g 

all developing, growing. The new 

theoretical development about eliminating all 

forms of humans 4 harming humans enhances the 

balance I feel i inside me. This is such a profound 

Idea, such a l basic truth. If all actions and laws 

were based 

t 

on a principle that one does no harm, I 

think we could all stay balanced. Think of the 

guidance this . provides in living one's life. If life is 

lived based kon 

doing no harm to any human, inducting 

self, 9 this eliminates all forms of abuses, 

from subtle 

4 

to blatant, whether of the body, the 

mind, the spirit, or the emotions. It would require 

great awareness, 0 mindfulness, and full access to 

all our healing 4 processes. What an exciting Insight 

for all 1of 

us. It gave me tremendous satisfaction, 

a sense 4 of deep "rightness," as soon as I 

heard it. 

1 

Aren't things 4 exciting? Now, more than ever before, 

I live in 1 the present, taking joy in present 

time. 

1 

1 

Vicki Myers-Canfield 

Spokane, Washington, USA 

0


C 

. 

. 

A 

P 

L 

A 

N 

E 

T 

A 

R 

Y 

C 

I 

T 

I 

Z 

E 

Going NPublic 

The peace activists' workshop was catalytic. Thanks for 

the choices of Susan Lees and Anne Toensmeier as Reference 

Person and editor. My own work in RC is moving 

forward— a grant from the New York State Education 

Department came through so I can continue teaching RC 

to refugees and immigrants. 111 be teaching a Subway 

Area RC class forJustice and Peace workers and teaching 

RC to peace and justice activists one to one, and I expect 

to be working with public school teachers in the Bronx 

and in Brooklyn on peer counseling skills: It is amazing 

what systematic counseling and making decisions can At). 

I've been using a commitment for "humans" which I 

wrote at the Santa Cruz workshop a year ago and said 

personally to Jean Zimmerman. 

Humans' Commitment 

For the long-range flourishing of my species and my 

dear planet Earth, I promise with delight and joy that 

from this moment on, I will completely appreciate my 

beloved human species and its connection with all being; 

that I will glory in its history, diversity, love, intelligence, 

and power; that I wilt speak out and organize 

with joyful confidence to create conditions of justice 

and peace and to eliminate weapons of nuclear destruction 

and the war system that supports them; that 

I will act for the liberation of all humans from oppression 

in all its forms; and that I will realize in each moment 

the preciousness of that moment. In particular, 

this means.... 

The commitment has been a helpful tool in my learning 

to speak unashamedly from the perspective of a planetary 

I'm glad Susan Lees is the International Liberation 

Reference Person for Peace and Disarmament Activists 

and I'm looking forward to eliminating nuclear 

weapons with her. I go on TV, Channel 4, for five 

minutes for the Freeze next month and, gulp, am 

speaking at the House of Lords with Hugh Scanlon, of 

whom you may have heard, for the Freeze in October. 

I'd decided to turn myself into a public speaker, but I 

think certain elements of the Freeze decided to turn 

me into one—behind my back as it were—as these invites 

came independent of any annoucementt 

Chrissie Morris 

Washington, England 

68 

citizen. It was also powerful because it seemed to arise by 

itself, ancisI often use it silently. When working on it in the 

group, I said it in particular to Jean (and several others), 

and that both informed and affirmed a strong personal 

bond. 

The commitment helps me to remember where I think 

we need to go, that is, beyond the partial identities and 

identifications, particularly to the nation-state, which 

many of the RC commitments address. Particularly the 

Jewish, the young people's, and the M e n commitments 

have been important to me in recognizing and reclaiming 

self-respect and discharging limitations from the hurts 

having to do with partial identities. It's important and 

necessary to reclaim the partial identities first, but the 

ultimate aim needs to be beyond that. 

In this regard, something Mary Hodgson suggested at 

one workshop for work with sexual identities was very 

powerful for me, and important I think for other identities 

as well. I'd like to see it publicized more widely. She suggested 

"claim it, clean it up, throw it away," To me the 

third phrase is key. That is, after we acknowledge what 

happened, or a particular group identification (I am fully 

female, in every Merl"), and after we discharge the hurts 

so we can reclaim self-respect without reservation in that 

particular area ("It's GREAT to be female), then we are 

free to let go any attachment to that identification as "who 

we are,' and can flexibly choose whatever point of view is 

appropriate or necessary. 

Lyn Pine 

' New York City, New York, USA 

BOLDNESS IN CLASS 

am halfway through social work school, which 

Is absorbing more of my attention than I would 

like. I am proud to be in this profession; we are a 

great bunch of people. The knowledge base of 

social work Is much more sound than psychiatry 

or psychology. 

I did an hour and a half presentation of Re-evaluation 

Counseling t o one o f my social work 

classes this spring. They loved It! Social workers 

have an Intense Inferiority complex as a profession. 

I did a demonstration and then had the class 

do mini-sessions on self-appreciation: "my many 

fine qualities as a social worker." There was 

universal discharge. I am proud that I also had the 

boldness to do a men's panel. I used three of the 

six male students plus the professor. The twenty 

females In class were astounded, Just fascinated. 

I have an invitation to do guest lectures in this 

professor' q future classes. 

Tony Switzer 

Austin, Texas, USA

TEACHING, LEADING, AND COMMUNITY-BUILDING 

•„ • 

LETTER TO VERMONT fiND NEW HAWSHIRE RCers; 

Dear Friends, 

Our RC Communities in Vermont and New Hampshire are maturing and doing well. We have a 

solid and growing group who are consistently re-emerging and leading others to do the same, both 

in and out of RC. , - • , 

One of our most important jobs is to consistently remind and encourage each other to keep our 

expectations high, and to never settle for anplimitation of any kind, for our lives or for our wOrld'and 

universe. , • 

With this in mind, I have been thinking lately that our rightful.challenge is to develop our Vermont- 

New Hampshire Region into a model of human behavior and possibilities that the rest of the world 

can then be inspired by and learn from. People are eagerlyseeking evidence that human beings can 

live together in a way that fosters our humanness Instead of clobbering.and burying it. Clearly, providing 

"working models" of communities Is one of the key elements in successfully transforming our 

planet. 

r 

I propose that it is our Joyous opportunity and task to set about creating just such a model for the, 

world. 

; • ; : : - 

Why us? There are lots of reasons. First of all, we can't dedide forpyo'rie else to do it', so We 

as well take the initiative ourselves. Also, for a variety of reasons, IndVding our small population, 

our accessibility to each other, and our tradition of no.ighborlinesS arid good sense, we are fn a 

unique position to affect what happens in our comMunitips. We ddri't have that far to go, and we 

simply don't have to reach many people in order to change things in 'a big Way: ,: • ' ' • ' 

, • 

How do we do it? It's simple, not necessarily alwayS'eatY, but always tiMple. We set people free, 

one by one, starting with ourselves. We build close' relationships with people and we becOend 

unashamed and courageous fountains of optimism and hopefulness, C o n 

-and 

every corner of our universe is 

s lSure, a n t we r ewill mdischarge i n d e fear r s and embarrassment a n d and discouragement along the way, but we don't 

gneed uto dwell a on rit, defend d lens of how god people are, how fortunate we are to be alive right now, it, hOlAt or pretend p r that e c it i is o reality. u s We e become a c living.models,;Inspirations, h 

pep- 

opie who n "set e others free" just o by our f presence, our ugrace, s and our , obvious love of life in every detail. 

The re-emergence of our planet and our people need not be a long, agonizing process-- it can spread 

like wildfire. I think the transformation can take place much more quickly than we've ever imagined. 

We in the RC Community can be,the catalyst for this kind of liberation. We know a lot, both about 

how great our opportunity is and about how deeply the oppression has affeoted us.'We also know 

how to excavate people, to reclaim everything that is ours. It takes leadership, 'Makes initiative, and 

It will take thinking in ways we've never thought before, but there's nothing we can't figure out, and it -sure 

looks like a fun challenge to me. - - , , • , , , , 

Let's go all the way, shall we? ' .:; ' ,• ' , • 

- M a c Parker' 

• , B u r l i n g t o n , Vetmont, USA' 

FROM SWEDEN TO GHANA' 

I would like to have a teacher's certilloate, 

because , I'm going to Aura, Ghana, West Africa. 

The biggest reason is to play drums and study 

music. But I also thought of starting up an RC 

Community if it's possible. • • 

KRISTINA ASPECIVJST 

SOLLENTUNA, SWEDEN' 

69 

• ! , "

TEACHING, LEADING. AND COMMUNI TY-BUI LDI NG 

Goals, Achievements, and the Working Class 

In July, I started a writers' support group here, and we 

all agree to get together in pairs between times to write 

and discharge. In effect, because taking on new challenges 

for myself competes for time with my involvement 

in RC, I do both at the same time. Like the writers' 

support group because I want to write. Like the last 

class I taught, "Masters of Our Lives" and its continuation, 

a goal-setting and goal-keeping class. (My goals 

were to have more time, make friends, and have a "support 

group" at my office meeting regularly. More about 

all this, later.) 

Though the writers' group was planned months ago, 

we had our first meeting scheduled at the end of July. 

The new Present Time arrived three days before with 

Cathy itzin's article on reclaiming writing. It was just 

perfect and I read parts of it to the group. 

My purpose with the writers' group is to have supportive 

RC colleagues as I progress in "going public" with 

my thinking, and with the intention to bring the RC 

woridview Into the general population through magazines 

and books. I think perhaps the key issue for us 

who know RC is to get past the blocks to communicating 

it widely. I mean the key Issue for the world, Including 

the averting of nuclear holocaust. If everybody boldly 

and c'early communicated what they know to be true, 

abou. human beings and about the general situation, 

things would change very quickly. 

Coincidentally (or not) this fits nicely with my work 

with the working-class support group and with my own 

difficulties in approaching the problem of classism in 

local leadership. That is, we working-class people often 

think well about what's wrong and what needs to be 

done, but don't trust our thinking enough to articulate It 

and take action. in that sense, I'm tackling a similar set 

of blocks on both fronts—writing and the RC Community. 

(The middle-class beople in my writers' group may 

not have as much trouble feeling articulate as they will 

have in coming u p with "meaningful," purposeful, 

directed statements and stories, if I understand the 

theory on middle-class distress. We'll find out!) 

The "goals" class I taught was excellent, tough 

counseling. We spent time identifying goals, recognizing 

them as valid, moving forward on them and (of 

course) discharging precisely those chronic patterns 

that had kept these goals in the realm of "goals" rather 

than "achievements. I had the opportunity to counsel 

people who had made the decision to do something, 

and it was glorious teamwork between counselor and 

client. Dynamite and sledgehammers, with our mind's 

eye on the blueprints rather than the rock-pile. 

I think that for RC to spread quickly and widely in the 

general population, the challenge Is precisely to use It 

as a tool to get for people what they want. This requires 

listening to what they need or want — a daycare center, 

better garbage collection, a nuclear freeze, a better job, 

fewer pimples, a decent sexual relationship, etc. I t 

doesn't have to be a "feeling better, less distressed" 

goal. In fact, I think a shift to goals and achievement' is 

necessary to reach the working class and people for 

whom emphasis on emotions might feel weird, particularly 

men because of their present conditioning. I think 

ultimately it is a weird emphasis. (Not surprisingly, half 

of my goals class was male, though most RC classes 

around here are all-female or close to it; and a majority 

of the class was of rural or working-class background.) 

One of my goals for the near future is to be able to 

travel around existing goal-oriented groups and sharpen 

up their functioning by introducting RC in its organizational 

and personal forms. Writing is something I've put 

off for over twenty years now (adultism and the future 

need for "a real job" stopped me when I was in my early 

.teens) and I want to reclaim it. 

Vera Matich 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 

aA c i t s t E x t t ksttititittctleytx. 

Nrow P 1. A W 110 3 b b o L g y STEOZEo 

(tio ATTACK OF THE 

CHRONIC PATTERNS 

olcoo 

70 

by Debbie Neher

14 

t 

vsv 

Counseling at Brookline High School ended well this 

year. We had a workshop in June for all four classes. We 

had a fundamentals class which started in the spring and 

they had not yet had an opportunity to go to a workshop, 

so we felt it was important for them to have that experience 

before they dispersed for the summer. Going to 

workshops seems to make a crucial difference in terms of 

people's understanding of counseling and of course the 

building of close relationships. We decided to make the 

focus of the workshop attention away from distress and 

living each moment well. It was neat the way that developed. 

In the spring I guest-taught an adult ongoing class 

and decided to teach it on choosing and deciding to keep 

attention away from distress at all times. I realized that I 

have had the benefit of being at both Harvey's and Joan 

Karp's teachers' workshops, but those incredible ideas 

don't always filter down enough to the classes. It was a 

fantastic class, I think that when people hear those ideas, 

it touches a chord where we all know how right it is. It is 

uplifting and the knowledge that we do have a choice is 

powerful.' • 

Right after that, Sarah Marxer (my second assistant) 

was supposed to teach a class on women,but she got sick. 

So, Jerarny and I were trying- to figure out what we 

wanted to do. We ended up doing a mini with a young 

man who has 'a hard time understanding the difference 

between his.feelings and reality, and he threw all of his 

bad feelings' about counseling at us and then said he was 

leaving. After that, I turned to jeramy and said, "I think 

we need to do a class on keeping attention away from distress." 

So we did. Again it was exciting; People wanted to 

talk a lot. about relationships and shyness. One young 

woman described a' situation where she had been really 

rude to someone she barely knew and she wanted to say 

she was sorry and explain that her mood had nothing to 

do with the other girl, but she was too embarrassed. Two 

days after our class, this young woman came into the cafeteria 

while I was on duty. She was beaming and told me 

that she had taken the initiative and talked to the other 

person. They had had a great conversation and the other 

woman was really happy that she had said something to 

her. 

Meanwhile, independently, the teachers of the new 

fundamentals class had decided to do a class on the same 

ideas and they heard that I had just done it, so when we 

got together to plan the workshop, while we were waiting 

for everyone to arrive, they started asking me about it. 

And the more we talked about the ideas, the more excited 

we got and it just naturally followed that we decided to 

make that the focus of the workshop. 

In order to support and encourage young leadership 

(by lots of people) many people have been involved in 

leading each workshop. Two or three young people lead 

HANNAH LEAVES HIGH SCHOOL 

each class and others lead Support groups. The adults are 

there to offer information when needed and to support the 

leaders. At our planning meeting, Janice Bloom (one of 

the assistant teachers) pointed out that a workshop really 

needs one person who is thinking- about the whole thing 

and that the last workshop they had had suffered from 

that. We all agreed and then Harriett turned to Tony 

Lees and asked him if he wanted to take that role. Tony 

said yes but he wanted to know if that was all right with 

Jeramy and Janice who are the two other most experienced 

leaders. Jeramy said that actually he would really 

like to do it too and Janice said she would too! It was good 

to see how eager they all were to take on leadership and 

challenges. So, we decided to ask each person why they 

thought they should do it. Jeramy started and said that he 

knew that it would be harder for him to do than for Tony, 

but that he was the person who had really taken on the 

most leadership in the high school and had been thinking 

about and supporting all of the young leaders all year. I 

have to say that I was so proud of him I wanted to jump 

up and cheer. A year ago he would never have stood up 

for himself and taken himself so seriously like that. Janice 

then said that she really wanted to do it and had a lot of enthusiasm 

and knew she could do it well, Tony said that he 

would enjoy doing it too but he had to agree with jeramy. 

We all had to agree because it is true. So, Jeramy led the 

workshop and it was an incredible workshop. As usual for 

us, each class was taught by different people, but Jeramy 

thought about the whole thing. I haven't led many workshops 

myself, so it was amazing for me to see, as I helped 

him figure things out, just how many decisions and judgments 

need to be made. 'I think it was the most solid workshop 

we've had, not as flashy s some of the earlier ones, 

but just excellent counseling and thinking. 

_ - - 

For myself it was a challenge to figure Out how to make 

sure things went well without being the official organizer. 

It's the old story that it's often easier to do it yourself than 

to teach Someone else how to do it_ We had one person in 

charge of food, one person as on-site organizer (I asked 

her in the car on the way to the workshop if she wanted to 

do it), one person had found the place, etc. What I 

wanted to do was to train them and give some guidance 

but also let them make their own mistakes and try their 

own ideas. It was tricky at times because the people who 

ran the workshop site were a bit touchy and started to get 

upset about some things that happened and, of course, 

because o f adultism, they always came to one of the 

' adults. At times I was afraid that I interfered too much 

and took too much control, but Harriett told me that 

when she commented to Janice about hoW hard I had 

worked at the workshop, Janice's response was, "What did 

Hannah do?", In any case, it was a big success. 

7 I 

Last night we had a meeting for all of the leaders at the 

high school. One of the big issues is the future role of the 

conti nued

TEACHING, LEADING, AND COMMUNI TY-BUI LDI NG 

conti nued 

adults. I t relates to what I was saying before about my 

role at the workshop. It is definitely a challenge for me to 

play that role. But I also am getting itchy to take some 

more visible leadership. I don't really think that what I 

have to offer is being used to full advantage in that setting. 

We discussed that last night as well as other related 

issues about how most effectively to encourage young 

leaders and teach lots of people counseling and at the 

same time how to break down the distinctions between 

adults and young people and really work as partners, It 

was a good meeting and everyone shared their thinking 

but we didn't come to any conclusions. We plan to meet 

again in a month. It is good to meet in the summer without 

the pressure of having to make decisions immediately. 

Many things are going well and the leadership is strong; 

it's a great position to be in to sit back and say, "Okay. 

What next?" 

On a more personal note, I quit my job as an English 

teacher at Brookline High, and so in my life I am also sitting 

back and saying, "What next?" I do not want to jump 

into anything. It-feels good to take some time to think and 

rest and I am trusting that the next step will become clear 

to me without my struggling to "figure it out" (an old 

habit). I left teaching feeling extremely good about my 

work, I definitely did not feel burned out. [think that 

learned what I, had to learn from that experience. I also 

believe that in some way I will always be a teacher though 

the form it takes is going to change. Well maybe we are all 

teachers— it just depends how much are you aware of it. 

The last thing that I taught was Walt Whitman's "Song 

of Myself" and it was a joy. I had never read any Whitman 

myself and had never taught much poetry and that 

seemed a fitting way to end my career as an English teacher. 

My class and-I explored that poem together and we all 

fell in love with life. There are certain similarities between 

Whitman and Thoreau but Thoreau had seemed to my 

students to be conceited and judgmental. I n contrast 

Whitman accepts and loves everyone and everything. He 

asks us to notice the world around us—people, animals, 

cities, Stars, nature, work—all of it exquisite. 

Si! a while dear son, 

Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink, 

But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet 

clothes, 

I kiss you with a goodbye kiss and open the gate for your 

egress hence. 

Long enough have you dream id comtemptible dreams 

Now 1 umsh the gum from your eyes, 

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of 

every moment of your 41 

. 

Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the 

e. 

shore, 

72_ 

Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, 

To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, 

shout, and laughingly dash your hair. 

And one other part I wanted to share. You know how 

Harvey always says that even if we don't make it and there 

is a nuclear war, that life will eventually begin again. 

Whitman speaks of the same idea, though he lived long 

before the nuclear threat. First he describes in wonderful 

detail the way that life has developed on the earth and 

then he says: 

There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage, 

If 1, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their 

surfaces, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, 

it would not avail in the long run, 

We should surely bring up again Where We now stand, 

And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther. 

Wonderful stuff to teach my students. 

HANNAH ORDEN 

JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS, USA 

MORE CONSTANT WORK 

We've just finished the Israel family workshop, 

which was very successful. The workshop was full, the 

children did good work, and so did the adults. A few 

loyals" (people I've recruited this year as allies for 

young people), reatly'felt they themselves got a lot out 

of the workshop. I learned a lot. Watching Patty and 

Tim work gave me enough so as to be able to correct 

my way of working with the young ones, to sharpen 

and clear up my direction. 

I'm excited about the idea of setting up more constant 

work with a group of young ones. I think I'll be 

able to put together an excellent staff, so that we can 

work together. 

There is a big difference in Yoni since the workshop 

and life is easier and the real issues are much clearer. 

I'm doing an introductory lecture on Sunday evening 

and hope to be opening a class soon. I've invited 

basically parents of young ones and others interested 

in or already working with young ones. 

Sara Kallai 

Jerusalem, Israel

Maori RC Moves Ahead 

I am delighted to join the ranks of RC teachers, particularly 

in Ootearoo. 

I commence teaching my first class on August 23rd 

and 26th. There are six people. All are Maori, five 

women and one man. Two are young people (sixteen 

years old). I decided to make the class two days 

because of the distance involved and the economics. 

The class will be held in Otorohanga which is irt'a central 

point for us all. A further two-day class will be 

held in Urenui in October. Julie Lambie has agreed to 

come on the second day of the class to assist me. For 

the second class held in Urenui, I will be able to draw 

on the gathering pool of ItCeis in Taranaki. 

I have written to Rational 

questing books. I look forward 

er's package. I am very proud 

4/ 

. 

t• 

1 

Island Publishers reto 

receiving tny teach- 

to be an EC teacher. 

Dianne Cameron 

Ohakune, New Zealand 

ALL OVER NEW o ZEALAND 

• We recognized the April Present Time cover 

from the North Island workshop. It's good to make 

the front cover!, 

• 

Dianne Cameron is to begin teaching some 

other Maori women soon with Julie Lambie's help. 

It's an exciting development here. 

• Marco Rohrlach has asked me to come up to 

Hamilton to lead a workshop there August 30th 

and 31st. 1 can get some time off work then so I'd 

like to visit the other Communities up there too 

(Wellington and Taranaki) and give any help I can 

while I'm there. 

There has been a request also from a group 

north of Auckland for a fundamentals class. I suggested 

to Maree that she teach it and she thinks 

she will be able to. She seems to be moving ahead 

well now. 

I led a one-day women's workshop here a month 

ago, which was excellent. Sixteen women came; 

most were from Christchurch, but two Women 

drove up from Dunedin (they were in the fundamentals 

course I taught there last year), three 

came from Timaru (from the course I taught there 

in June-July), and two came from Oxford (forty 

miles from Christchurch). So we named it the First 

South island Women's AC Workshop! 

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the 

chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. 

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) 

there is one elementary truth t h e ignorance of 

which kills countless ideas and splendid plans— 

that the moment one definitely commits oneself 

then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur 

to help one that would never have otherwise 

occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the 

decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen 

incidents and meetings and material assistance 

which none of us could have dreamed 

would come our - 

wdream, a y . begin It. Boldness has genius, power, 

magic in it. 

W h a t e v 

e Begin r it now!" 

y o u 

—Goethe 

c a 

n 

d 

o 

r 

• I was inspired to do it by some good work we 

did on Internalized oppression between women at 

the leaders' workshop in May. We concentrated 

mainly on taking complete pride in being women, 

on removing any barriers between us,. and on the 

women's commitment and the Lesbian commitment.'it 

was especially exciting for me to counsel 

a Lesbian and a heterosexual woman on their relationship 

and on what stops them being completely 

close and open with each other. There is much 

demand now for a weekend women's workshop 

and Stephanie Perrott and I are planning this at 

present. 

I am using AC a lot, of course, in my job as a 

high school counsellor. I am writing to the information 

Coordinator for school counsellors listed 

in Present Time this week as I am very interested 

in other Kers' experience in counselling in a 

school situation. It Is very different in some ways 

from counselling with adults, as adultism comes 

into it. A lot of safety has to be built up, as you are 

so easily identified as being part of the authority 

structure and therefore not to be trusted. But I 

really enjoy working with young people and the 

challenge of using RC in another way. • 

, D i a n e Shannon 

. 

• ' ) C, h r i s t c h u r c h , New Zealand 

- 

1 

' 

- < 

) • ' I ,

TEACHING. LEADING. AND COMMUNITY-BUILDING 

REPORT ON RECENT ACTIVITIES 

As this Present Time prepares to go to press, I am looking forward with great eagerness to the trip which Mary 

Ni, Tim, and will be making In early October to Beijing, China, Li Mel Ge and Li Wen Shang, who attended the 

World Conference In 1985, have arranged for an official invitation by the Chinese Association for Mental Health. 

' . We will be having conversations With various individuals and groups in Beijing. This contact with the nation 

which includes one-fourth of the world's people is a very exciting prospect. 

I have just returned from Europe. On September second, 

near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I attended a conference 

of RC leaders of university and college faculty in 

the eastern hemisphere. The conference was attended 

by an Impressive array of faculty. It was organized by 

Doug Miller and was co-led by Pam Roby, the International 

Liberation Reference Person for Colleagues, Pam 

met me there, coming around the world from the other 

direction. She had led workshops in Hong Kong, Singapore, 

and in Delhi, India on her way as well as attending 

a world conference of sociologists in India. 

Dramatic improvement in the activity and numbers of 

RC colleagues was reported and the conference Itself 

was marked by excellent, frontier counseling. 

From Newcastle, I went to Amsterdam for a meeting 

of Regional Reference Persons and Liberation Reference 

Persons of the eastern hemisphere, led by Joke 

Harmsen, Not all of the Regional Persons were able to 

attend, but there was a substantial group there and fine 

discussions, planning, and coordination. Daniel LeBon, 

the Regional Reference Person f o r Francophone 

Europe, was able to attend for one day and the discussion 

he led on the importance of the redefinition of 

restimulation as a basis for advanced development of 

theory will be remembered by all of us. 

Ulla SjOgren was not able to attend the conference 

because of previous commitments, but came to Amsterdam 

the next day and we had a very fine two-way conference 

on RC in Scandinavia. Ulla is well and working 

effectively. She undertook certain commitments that 

will mean a lot to the Scandinavian and Polish Communities. 

I flew next to Budapest. The beginning of RC In Hungary 

consisted of three meetings and some counseling 

with groups of artists, professionals, and students. Interest 

is very clear. A lending library of literature will be 

established; discussion groups will begin to meet; translation 

of some of the literature from English is beginning; 

and there are plans to bring people who take the 

greatest interest to workshops in other parts of Europe 

for accelerated training in becoming RC teachers. 

Budapest is an impressive city and the Hungarian 

people obviously have a remarkably rich culture. There 

will now be a contact person for Hungary in the lists at 

the back of Present Time, RCers In other countries who 

have friends, relatives, or contacts inside Hungary are 

urged to put them in touch with the contact person for a 

wider development of AC there in the future, 

From Budapest, I flew to Athens. The Greek Commu- 

,nity has changed and grown a great deal since I was 

last with them. I led a weekend workshop involving 

twenty people, all of whom are Co-Counseling at an advanced 

and responsible level. There is now a male 

teacher, Thanos Zarangalls, and men are beginning to 

share leadership in what had been a woman-led Community. 

Thanos has translated The Human Side of Hu• 

man Beings and The Fundamentals Manual into Greek 

and these are already In use. There will be a significant 

Increase in the numbers of teachers in Athens and individual 

communities are going to be built around many 

of the presently active members. 

74 

On Sunday evening, after the workshop was over, I led 

a discussion on new developments relating to men's oppression 

and liberation fo r a largely non-RC group 

which RCers had organized. 

My final stop in Europe was in Spilt, Yugoslavia. Split 

is a town of about a quarter million population with 

many ancient buildings, streets, and squares still functioning 

after 2,000 years of use. I had two meetings with 

groups assembled on short notice by Mrs. Branka 

Drascic, who had heard about RC from a friend in London. 

In the group were engineers, social workers, psychologists, 

and a considerable variety of other people. 

We met first In the courtyard of my hotel, shaded by 

palm trees on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. Later that 

afternoon I met, In a social service agency where a 

number of the people in the morning meeting worked, 

with other members of their staff. 

• A very alive interest was shown in RC at both meetings. 

Discussion groups will begin; a lending library of 

literature will be established there and translations, into 

Croatian at least, will be worked on. 

At the end of August the Regional Reference Persons 

and Liberation Reference Persons of the Western Hemisphere 

met, In Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thirty-one 

leaders attended, Discussion was good, morale was 

high, and there was marathon counseling. 

This group and the meeting In Amsterdam have 

agreed on a world-wide meeting of Regional and Liberation 

Reference People for 1987. The dates set are July 

24-28th. The place will be somewhere in the Northeast 

United States. 

— HARVEY JACKINS

Challenges for RC Leaders in India 

Every cultural and national setting offers unique 

opportunities and challenges to AC leaders and 

practitioners. At the RC workshop held in New 

Delhi, India, In August 1986, we had a topic group. 

on AC leadership in India. Here is our thinking on 

some special challenges that we are ready and 

eager to tackle•as Indian RC leaders: 

* To integrate t o AC goals In the Indian context: 

our personal re-emergence and the socioeconomic 

liberation of our people. 

Towards this goal we need to make AC accessible 

to working-class Indians whose main challenge, 

we think, would be to make time for activities 

other than economic survival. 

* To encourage committed, creative, zestful 

1 ' 

leadership. 

* To periodically organize ongoing support and 

training workshops for Indian AC leaders. 

* To create active RC Communities - in the 

midst of several other groups that already exist as 

a part of our social structure. 

In particular, we need to include women and 

children in AC. 

75 

* To effectively raise funds to enable our leaders 

to work towards expansion of RC Communities. 

' To teach people RC theory and techniques 

they may use to work towards re-emergence. This 

requires our overcoming or sidestepping the prevailing 

distress among some people, such as the 

acceptance of oppression and hurts as punishments 

for deeds in past lives, and the tendency to 

conform to oppressive norms rather than working 

towards liberation. 

* To work toward shared goals and directions 

as a rational, multi-cultural Community. Different 

RCers belong to different religious, regional, and 

caste communities. We aim to work toward our 

shared goals without oppression of any one group 

by another. 

* To integrate AC with the rational features in 

our culture which promote re-emergence and 

human liberation, and to take pride in our heritage. 

• MahaMkshmi A.M., Ramakrishna !yet, 

Pd Christy, J.B.V. Lakshmi, Fr. S. Cletus 

India 

ON C E U P ON FOR E V E R 

Once upon a :ball there was a hat. 

Once upon a hat there was a feather. 

Once upon a feather there was a sun ray. 

Once upon a sun_ ray tboress.„ a universe. 

'Once Upon a uniVerie'thOie Wai'a hoise. 

Once upon a noise there Was a shhhhh. 

Once upon a shhhhh there. was a breatIL 

Once upon a breath there was a hand. 

Upon a hand there is a hope. 

Upon a hope thereis our wor1d 

- 

v,i? 

1- 

. - 

• LINDA SCHATZ 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA:, USA

INFORMATION COORDINATORS 

Thank you for the best workshop I've ever been to, 

in Leicester, England, a t the beginning of April. 

Highlights were many and varied, not least seeing my 

eight-year-old daughter E w ork i ng with you on the 

women's commitment in front of 150 people, and the 

fact that she got to and stayed at the workshop, unexpectedly, 

entirely through her own determination and 

persistence. All the work on commitments was wonderful. 

Seeing the men together on the last day was 

particularly inspiring. This was also true of the demonstration 

on exhaustion with my beloved B I 

learnt a great chunk about what the commitment to 

stay outside distress really means. Through countless 

readings of articles before, it had always seemed like 

just another burden, and an invitation to function 

without discharging. Taking a look at you, I've decided 

that if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for 

me. I am working on it with good effects. • 

I asked you at the workshop whether I could now 

become Information Coordinator for labour movement 

activists in England. The topic group we held for 

political activists was a great breath of fresh air. I 

realised that others, like me, have been doggedly 

working away in the Labour Party and other political 

groups, isolated and probably not even taking the feelings 

to our sessions. It's very important, both for the 

communication of important information and for our 

LABOUR PARTY ACTIVISTS 

leadership to become more effective through discharge, 

that we make and maintain contact with other 

laCers working similarly. As I have recently taken on 

the job of chairperson of my Constituency Labour 

Party, I think it will be helpful to me and to others if I 

take this on. I relish the prospect of enabling all those 

lovely people to keep in touch. 

My own involvement is in the tabour Party, rather 

than in my union. I think the scope of my activities 

should be activists within left-wing political parties. I 

am also happy to circulate information about working 

within trade unions if you think this is appropriate. 

There would, of course, be overlap anyway. However, 

I would regard myself as a seed crystal in relation to 

trade union activists. Whoever writes will be encouraged 

to start their own round. 

The first thing to circulate will be the report of the 

workshop topic group, plus John Simnett's document, 

already in process, on liberation theory for circulation 

within the Labour Party, plus the odd joke and anything 

else I receive by then. I should be able to circulate 

this summer if all goes well. 

Celia M. Wilson 

10, Sutton Road, Milton 

Abingdon, Oxon, England 

ATTENTION, CLERGYPERSONS! 

The first clergypersons' news' sheet has been 

prepared and sent out. Can we get the word out in 

Present Time that there is such? 

KENNETH MITCHELL 

231 N. MAPLE 

COLVILLE, WASHINGTON 99114, USA 

La Leche Mothers 

I have taken on the job of Information Coordinator for La Leche League Leaders and Le Leche 

League Mothers inside RC. Involvement in LLL means that we have done a lot of thinking about 

mothering our infants. LLL was one of the first vocal groups to recognize the infant as an individual 

with valid needs and a right to have them met. There is a tendency, however, to encourage the use of 

breastfeeding to quiet and sooth all fussing and crying. 

I would like to hear from other people who have been Or are a part of LLL and their thoughts about 

using AC in that area. I was an LLL leader for eleven years and retired from the position of Assistant 

Area Coordinator for Alberta, Canada in 1984. 

LLL gave me a lot when I was new at the job of mothering and I would eventually like to give them 

some useful information. I would also like to hear how other mothers have dealt with the concepts of 

LLL In their counseling. 

Cheri Purpur 

25 Orchard Green 

Red beer, Alberta T4N 586 

Canada 

Tel, (403) 847-8213 

76

Give everyone thine ear, but few thy voice. - Re-evaluation Counseling

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