Thinking Ahead, But Being Ready to "Turn on a Dime"
by Greg Field, PAM Executive Director
No doubt many of you have heard me get on my soapbox and preach the value of
strategic thinking: Think and act proactively; avoid having our agenda
swerve at every moment until we are doing little more than jumping
helter-skelter from one issue to another with little thought to where we are
heading.
Well, let me qualify what that means. Thinking strategically cannot mean
that as an organization we are aloof from crises that emerge in a time of
great need. Sometimes schedules, plans, and goals have to be tossed aside
for more attention on another day. Schedules may need to "turn on a dime."
Yet that decision to drop everything and take action in a crisis can also be
very much an affirmation of our longer-term vision and goals. Reacting to
crisis can still be part of a proactive agenda.
The events that taught me this lesson were the attack on a refugee camp in
Burundi. I had been out the whole weekend clearing brush and hadn't seen any
news. I came in Monday morning and got a string of phone calls. The
Banyamulenge community in Portland was reeling from news of the weekend
attack on the refugee camp — friends, family, and fellow villagers were
slaughtered. Tents and bodies were burned. As people of Tutsi ethnic
background, they had learned from the atrocities in Rwanda a decade ago and
then more recently in their own homeland in eastern Congo that they could
not remain silent. They organized, planned public awareness actions, and
sought assistance from Peace Action Maine.
The next two days were filled with calls, meetings, press releases, and the
march itself in Portland. Rep.Tom Allen came out of his office on Oxford St.
and declared he would work with the community to seek protection for the
refugees. Staff from both Senators' offices spoke with the Banyamulenge. The
media covered the events and passers-by in downtown Portland stopped to find
out what happened, express support, and sign petitions intended for the
Secretary of State Colin Powell's office.
We have followed up with more collaboration in the aftermath. Our role was
not to take the lead but to stand alongside our friends in their time of
need and mourning. We did what we could to help them spread their word, and
will continue to work with them in seeking safety and a long-term resolution
to the crisis in their homeland. It is part of our longer-term purpose to be
there for our friends in this state who continue to face the horrors of war.
But when I came back to the office and sat down two days later, I saw a list
I had prepared Sunday evening — all the things I had to do that week. I
shrugged my shoulders, knew I had to let that list sit when the crisis had
hit, and then I sat down and went to work — thinking about all of our
strategic plans.
Back to Peace Talk Index, Autumn, 2004