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Archbishop Tutu once suggested that a truth and reconciliation commission might serve as a model for dealing with racism and injustice in the U.S. Why would, or why wouldn't, such a commission work in the United States?
Share Your Reflection

Ubuntu and Linux (March 26, 2007)
Not only is ubuntu a great concept that the West would do well to adopt as noted in several of your broadcasts, the term has been borrowed as the name of a popular version of the Open Source computer operating system, Linux. From http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu:

Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Fred Olson
Minneapolis, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Paying Attention to Peru's TRC (March 24, 2007)
I would like you to dedicate, if possible, or mention if not, a chapter to the other Truth and Reconciliation Committee in the world: in Peru. I have followed this process — being Peruvian and being involved in this process — and it would be great to share it with your listeners. The Committee was lead by a Catholic priest Gaston Garatea, and very interesting personalities, please consider this, and if you have any question contact me, I can give you some contacts for this. Thanks a lot. and continue with this very important crusade for the world and the US people. I wish everybody will listen to this and learn from so many faith manifestations.

Ricardo Hijar
New York, NY (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

Putting TRC into Action in the U.S. (February 7, 2006)
Great show, great site, great program on truth and reconciliation. One thing, though: Charles Villa-Vicencio apparently didn't know that the first U.S. TRC, using the same model, is operating in Greensboro, North Carolina. Our commission is fulfilling a mandate to examine the context, causes, sequence, and consequences of the city's tragedy of Nov. 3, 1979, when Klan and Nazi members killed five labor organizers and wounded ten others at a rally organized by the Communist Workers Party. The International Center for Transitional Justice is advising the process. Check us out at www.greensborotrc.org and www.gtrc.blogspot.com. As a member of the Greensboro Commission's staff, I found much encouragement and enlightenment in your interviews. Thanks, and keep up the great work.

Joya Wesley
Greensboro, NC (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Eloquence and Depth in Suffering (November 3, 2005)
Last night I was doing housework, and listening to your program stopped me in my tracks more than once. The heart-breaking stories recounted by Ms. Gobodo-Madikizela and Mr. Villa-Vicencio literally brought tears to my eyes. Such eloquence and depth is hard to imagine given their experiences. Along with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, they gave me reason to believe, once more, in the integrity and profound beauty of the human soul. You all outdid yourselves with this amazing program. Many, many thanks.

Anne Grabowski
Atlanta, GA (WABE, 90.1 FM)

Seeing a Bit of God (October 31, 2005)
Thank you for tonight's wonderful program on Truth and Reconciliation. I first visited South Africa in 1988 as an editor of Sojourners magazine, at the invitation of church leaders there, and returned in 1997 to observe the stunning TRC process. While I was there, an Anglican priest, referring to the thousands of black South Africans who were displaced by apartheid laws, said to me, "We had forced removals from one hill to another, from under one tree to another. But your nation perpetrated forced removals from one continent to another." He challenged the U.S. to have our own process of Truth and Reconciliation around slavery and segregation. I told him I thought that was an excellent idea, but that I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime. I'm glad I was wrong.

I'm now at work on a book using the South African experience as context for the first large-scale Truth and Reconciliation process in the U.S., which was launched this past summer in Greensboro, North Carolina. Public hearings during the summer and fall recounted the events of November 3, 1979, when members of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party opened fire on labor demonstrators, killing five and wounding ten, in what has come to be known as the Greensboro Massacre. Archbishop Tutu has given his blessing to the TRC process and will be in Greensboro this week for events related to the anniversary.

One of the primary organizers of the 1979 march, Rev. Nelson Johnson, was wounded that day, and has been one of the people most involved in making the TRC process happen. He has had an amazing personal journey of forgiveness and reconciliation. During the second set of hearings, the Imperial Wizard of the KKK came to give his testimony with a cadre of young men. Rev. Johnson left his seat on the other side of the auditorium, came over, and walked down that row of young, white men, shaking every hand and thanking them for their courage in showing up. This was one of many poignant and extraordinary moments in this process in which KKK members, survivors, widows, police officers, and city officials told their stories.

I received a phone call last week from a Baptist pastor in Mississippi, inquiring about what it would take for people of faith there to launch a similar process, particularly to talk about all the lynched bodies that were discovered when people were hunting for civil rights activists Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman. I think Greensboro's courage is an inspiration to us all, and can be a model for other communities trying to address the legacy of racism in this country.

Joyce Hollyday
Asheville, NC (WCQS, 88.1 FM)

Seeing a Bit of God (October 30, 2005)
I thank you for this wonderful program, a reminder of the beauty to which the human heart can aspire and occasionally attain. I have long suspected dogma as a misguided attempt to personally "own" God, laced with human frailty. However, in these healings, which the TRC has so ably assisted the facilitation of, I think we see a bit of God at work in our lifetime. To see people, who are at such terrible odds, find some way in which to connect is to remind me of the phrase "God is One." Will it work in America? When enough people want it, yes. At the moment, sadly, there's still a sour tinge of our frail arrogance in the air.

Richard Hughson
Rochester, NY (WXXI, 1370 AM)

A Sense of Humanity (October 29, 2005)
I recently had the opportunity to listen to your program for the first time. I guess I could say that it was good fortune to have done so on this occasion. I found the subject of truth and reconciliation to be quite enlightening. More importantly to me, it helped affirm that even under the harshest circumstances good can occur. While challenges still exist in places such as South Africa the stories of forgiveness aired during the program can serve as a lesson to other cultures including our own that honest communication can lead to a better future for all. As was often said during the program we all have a sense of humanity, the challenge is being able to recognize it in ourselves and each other.

Bodo Baltycki
Roseland, NJ (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

The Effectiveness of the TRC (September 5, 2004)
Thank you for the great work on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission program. As friends of Amy Biehl's family and having worked with them in South Africa, we are very appreciative of the power of the TRC concept. The more it can be shared with the American public, the better. As a side note, my niece left today to monitor the upcoming truth commission activities in Sierra Leone. We are anxious to receive her reports. Again, thank you for addressing such highly significant issues on Speaking of Faith. Keep up the great work.

Larry Kendall
St. Louis, MO (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

Better Than Sundance (August 29, 2004)
Today, I listened to your show for the second time. It is broadcast here in Chicago between 6:00 and 7:00 am, an hour in which I am traditionally asleep. However, this morning I felt compelled to click my remote control to WBEZ to find out what was on. I was immediately mesmerized and wide awake. Thank you for a remarkable story.

Several years ago, I saw a movie on the Truth and Reconciliation Committee at the Sundance Film Festival, a film which won the Best Documentary Award. I believe I was more taken with your story and the depth of the interviews. I have added your web site to my "Favorites," signed up for your newsletter, and made a mental note that it is eminently worth my effort to set my alarm for 6:00 am on Sunday.

Sharon Novak
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Of Course They Can Work (August 28, 2004)
Of course Truth and Reconciliation Commissions would work in the United States. Your program made it clear that this is a powerful process and that it certainly works. The only question is how it would come about and in relation to what issue(s). Anyone who is interested in a stunning example of truth and reconciliation on a local level right here in the U.S. can find it in the 1995 book, Not by the Sword by Kathryn Watterson, which chronicles the nearly incredible process of repentance of a former Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the KKK of Nebraska, a repentance courageously provoked by a Jewish cantor whom he was persecuting.

Thank you for this remarkable program which not only educated me about South Africa but took me, personally, into the difficulties and possibilities of forgiveness, and made me see that these forces and questions are with me as well—in my own day-to-day life.

Bob Salmon
Cranford, NJ (WNYC, 820 AM)

Truth and Reconciliation (January 6, 2004)
My thoughts run in two different directions. Recently, I returned to the US after spending 2 weeks traveling throughout the RSA. I am convinced that the RSA would have indeed already have exploded/imploded without an institutionalized effort to deal honestly with the legacy of the inhumane violence of racism. Yet the inequities that continue to plague this awesome country are staggering. Much more work needs to be accomplished. However, the courage and spirit of many South Africans whom I was fortunate to talk to in informal settings (away from the hyper-optimistic views of tour operators) brought tears to my eyes and healing to my soul.

Finally, I say the RSA hopefully will lead the way to teach the USA to function in Truth and in Reconciliation with its muddled history of racism. The tangled history of the life of the late Strom Thurmond is an example of the continuing hypocrisy of the US. How can this country hope to export the wonders of democracy throughout the globe when this country's foundation consists of the legacy of racial violence and disenfranchisement. The United States of America sorely needs to submit itself in the spirit of Kairos to a process of Truth as it reveals itself and Reconciliation to that truth. Otherwise, this country will continue to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King by holding his prophetic words of "Free at last, etc." as fiction rather than as a guide for an improved reality for all citizens.

Audrey Tucker
Philadelphia, PA (WHYY 91.0 FM)

Music to My Heart (January 4, 2004)
Thank you. The eloquence of the speakers, one and all, was refreshing, uplifting, and the music sang straight to my heart.

Sydell Kime
Evanston, IL (WBEZ 91.5 FM)

Truth and Reflection (January 3, 2004)
I found this program deeply moving. I, too, have had the experience of a victim reaching out to a perpetrator seeking resolution and in the moment where the dual humanities broke through, whatever we call God was indeed present.

Would this effort work in the United States? How could it not? The deepest crisis of the question is that it will not happen as a major effort. It will stay in the far reaches of the volunteers who join together to train as mediators.

I thank you all for my New Year's touch of the ineffable as pronounced in the voices on today's program.

Deborah Gordon-Brown
Evanston, IL (WNYC 820 AM)