Call for a Local Cease Fire on Global Conflict

By Donn K. Harris, As published in The Union

During the eight years I served on the California Arts Council (2013-2021) in Sacramento, I connected with folks of opposing views, and gained insights that produced impactful results.

In 2001, the state contribution to its own Arts Council was down to $1 million, or approximately $.03 per Californian. It would have been zero, but we committed to matching the National Endowment for the Arts’ $1 million annual award. I joined the Council as the pendulum was swinging back the other way: we went up to $5 million my first year, and by the time I was termed out the base allocation was $26.8 million. Elected officials were committed to creativity and supported programs like the Arts in Corrections, Veterans for the Arts and the California Creative Corps.

I spent time with a legislator who was an arts advocate and had a fascinating collection in their Capitol office. They had recently returned to Sacramento after time in the private sector. They reported that collaboration and civil dialogue had evaporated. Social events were separated and casual conversations between members of different parties were non-existent. Exchanges were characterized by sarcasm, insults and misrepresentation. ‘Our work is impacted,’ was the measured summary this legislator afforded us.

Yet we had legislators, in opposition on the majority of issues, bonding over the power of creativity in the prison arts programs, the healing of veterans in Creative Forces efforts and the workforce development in the Creative Corps initiative. This increasingly rare phenomenon of non-polarized opinion often comes with – or through – basic courtesy and deep listening.

These qualities are lacking in our recent public exchanges. Logic is also a casualty as we fight like hell for our team. If we were only fighting for what we believe, these qualities wouldn’t be so easily dropped; what’s happening is that we want to win, and the tactics are brutal. It seems winning includes an eradication of the other side’s humanity – all of this contrary to the ends we are hoping to achieve.

The issue of the moment is the response of the American public to the war in Gaza. Not the war itself – our response to it.

Not only don’t the ends justify the means – means in conflict with the ends will not achieve what we set out to do. They can’t: the ends are corrupted once their fabric has been torn by the ways we try to win. If it looks like ugly personal attacks have been successful, it’s one of two things: either what we are trying to achieve is as ugly as the tactics; or our view of winning is very narrow and ignores realities that undermine victory.

Our recent Nevada City and Grass Valley City Council meetings have included demonstrations of rage, vicious verbal attacks, and demands that elected officials issue public statements in support of the speaker’s viewpoint. It hasn’t ended when the microphones are off. Officials have been harassed, slandered, even threatened. Whatever their opinions on this or any other topic, I am calling for our own cease fire.

Our City Councilmembers were not elected based on their views of global conflict, and we don’t get to push an issue on them and act as if it’s a betrayal when they don’t agree. Polls show a significant split among the public on the Israel/Palestine conflict. How exactly does a City Council issue a statement about a conflict 7,306 miles away when over half of their constituents are uncommitted or opposed to whatever statement they make? If the collective weight of voices around the world will have one result or the other, then write Op-Eds, engage in peaceful, permitted marches, enter into civil debates. City Council meetings are not a meaningful platform for global policy exploration.

If the goal on either side is to build a more just, harmonious world, where people can live in peace and prosperity, we can’t get there in an environment of rage and win-at-all-costs.

War begins in the micro-aggressions that keep us separated and wary, and as we move up into positions of influence, we carry those attitudes into situations where the stakes are higher and higher. By the time our leaders are in roles where war and peace is the issue, they’ve been battered by the anger and accusations of those who didn’t get their way. Daily, I read the bitter recriminations of those still disturbed by the COVID mask-wearing mandate, and the insults hurled at those who think DEI takes up too much space.

We all love America, but Americans can be difficult. We come as a package deal, though. In the workplace, we would never accept this behavior. If we legislate civility and fairness there, let’s borrow the concept for the twice-monthly council meetings. It is one of the workplaces of our City Council members, and they deserve the non-hostile environment that has been protected for us. That is our best chance of preventing future military conflicts. If we can’t work with our neighbors, it doesn’t inspire confidence when we think about sitting across the table from an adversary and the stakes are as high as they’ll ever be.