There have been some rather stark and divergent
responses on the part of police in recent days. In some places, you have seen
police chiefs joining crowds of justice seekers as they presented their
concerns at police stations and city halls. In others. police were kneeling as
the throngs approached. In these instances, there were no face shields, no
padded vests, no billy clubs, no tear gas. The police stood ready to hear,
negotiate and support whatever changes were necessary to improve their
community. It's called sharing "power with" the community, rather
than exercising "power over" the community.
The other "power over" responses of
police we have seen are always presented as more exciting and I guess
"newsworthy." We've seen them day after day. Lines of militarized
police, sometimes flanked by national guard, meeting the crowds with equipment
that makes them virtually unrecognizable as human beings, with the rubber
bullets, tear gas, stun grenades and paintball guns. It's what the President
calls "domination."
This distinction between "power over"
and "power with" seems especially critical in our time. There are so
many areas of our life where we can see this conflict in approach at work.
We see it in the home, where one party has to
exercise power and control "over" all the others. As the pandemic has
spread, so has domestic violence. When the world seems out of control, some
seek even more control over the little world they inhabit.
Looking back on my childhood, I'm aware of how
sharing was built into everyday life. I grew up wearing and sharing
hand-me-down clothes and passing them on to my younger brother. Whatever toys
and play things we had were shared, or should a fight break out, shelved. We
all sat down to eat together as a family, sharing a common meal. We shared our
home with my grandmother. I shared a bedroom with my brother. There was a
household system in place where you learned to exercise "power with"
others. If families today are broken, perhaps it's because we now have a closet
full of clothes, a phone, a car, a bedroom, and a bank account for every child
in the family. Where do we learn to share, to exercise "power with?"
Power sharing is not always learned in our
educational systems! There was a time when I tried to do "course contracting"
with my college students. I happen to believe that everyone learns best in a
system where there is little coercion, whether from a grade or an ideology.
Someone once suggested educational institutions should be run like a public
library. If you check out the book and don't read it, that's your loss. No one
is going to test you on it. Maybe you will want to discuss it in a book club,
but that will just help you in your understanding, not earn you a grade.
It can be difficult to find power sharing in
our economy. I have a young friend who has been quite specific about the kind
of business model he prefers. It's one with as little hierarchy as possible,
where decisions are made on the basis of consensus with those who work there.
His belief, and mine, is that when you have a diverse group of people operating
with a common purpose, the result of your work will be optimal. Shared power
produces! There are entrepreneurs these days working on a "power
with" model, but too few and far between.
Perhaps the most obvious and most destructive
to the body politic is the "power over" in government. Most people in
the federal government will likely admit that our two-party system is not
working very well. Blame is the name of the game. One tires of hearing how the
"other" party is making it impossible to do the people's business.
Who would you nominate, from either party, as the most successful in Congress
at reaching across the aisle? It's an understatement to say that antipathy to
sharing power is not healthy in a democracy.
I'm aware there are many who have a conception
of God as a domineering and sometimes violent parent. He is not beyond striking
you dead for an unforgivable sin. If ever there was a "power over."
for them, God is it! To those folks I'd like to suggest the definition in 1
John of God as love. See love at work in the natural world around you. See love
at work in your family and larger community. See love at work in your church.
See love at work in the stories in the Gospels. It's all about being
"with," not "over." Get with it!
Carl Kline
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