No Silence, No dialog

Dialog is a powerful tool.  We see it used across the dinner table, pillow talk, between strangers on a city bus, and in more formal formats as a means of self expression and vehicles to arrive at mutual understanding, conflict management, and to effect a change in behavior and amelioration of circumstances to put us back into right relation. 

Dialog is an important lesson for our youth to learn.  It is a tool within each of us.  It is a power to wield for change.  It is a tool that may enable each of us to help mold our environment into a substance that nourishes the soul and our society. When we lose sight of that fact, dialog seems like a less viable option compared to violence.

In Dakar and in some many capital cities today, the youth have lost faith in the power of dialog and resort to public displays of violence to make their point, effect a change in behavior, and assert their power.  They have an impact.  People recoil and react in fear, not with understanding or compassion.  But they react they do. Concession are made and the lesson is learned.

Unfortunately for this youth, this generation, such is not the lesson that will serve them or their people.

Today our office in Dakar closed early to allow our staff to return home early.  The city seems to be burning. Many embassies remained closed and encouraged other US-funded organizations to send their staff home early so that they may reach home before nightfall when more looting and violence is expected.  The main roads leading from the peninsula into the suburbs where the majority of the people live have been closed or blocked by burning tires and police barricades. The government has made concessions but apparently that gesture is not enough. The lessons of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen have shown that impressive public displays will sway public officials to make other decisions. The anger is spreading to other failures of the government. It appears that this is not the end. 

Tomorrow is a new day.  New days bring new promises, so I remain optimistic and hopeful for a return to dialog.