Friday, August 19 and Saturday, August 20, 2016
The politics of fear surrounds us as self-serving leaders manipulate the public discourse in order to destabilize, fragment and control. Scare tactics abound and are clearly evident and dangerous.
At the same time there is much to feel uncertain about. Rising inequality and economic injustice tear at the roots of our social fabric and personal sustainability. The endless proliferation of arms and wars promoted by our entrenched militarism throws our needed resources into numerous failed military campaigns, creating masses of refugees, civil war, xenophobia, unspeakable terror and unimaginable human suffering on all sides.
The serious ravages of unaddressed climate change become more evident month by month globally, promising disruption and human tragedy on epic scale. The renewed threat of nuclear warfare as a "viable" choice lurks within the bellicose snarls and budgets of the world’s most powerful leaders.
These destabilizing realities do require leadership, but leadership grounded in life affirming vision to implement positive change along with citizens who are prepared to think rationally and deeply about root causes and to support life affirming solutions. Each requires a profound and deliberate turning to community, a global sense of human interconnectedness along with determined belief that another way, another world is possible.
Our purpose in Confronting the Politics of Fear, the 18th Annual Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference, is to hone our mutual capacity to develop an analysis and a praxis which can speak to the politics of fear in increasingly effective ways and add to the rising global voice which affirms that there is a way forward, forged in love with peace and justice and which can transform the seemingly intractable forces confronting us today as a global community.