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EDITORIALThe Silsilah Mission Statement has three parts and the third goes “To be in solidarity with all people in the uplift of the less privileged, in the building up of a progressive, just, humane and ecologically sound society.” The actions targeted are hard enough to achieve but what makes it more daunting is that it presupposes that the group undertaking the actions demonstrate a “harmony of interests and responsibilities”. We are quite aware that the individuals making up a group bring into the group their respective ideas, orientations, values and styles of doing things. Sometimes these do not always mesh into a cohesive whole. The Silsilah Dialogue Movement is made up of people coming from different religious and cultural backgrounds. While these differences in background do not necessarily stand in the way of harmony, it does require a sensitivity to the perspectives that others may have of any given situation. An example may make this point clearer. In late 2009 and early 2010 Silsilah undertook an advocacy for the preservation of an area which formed part of the watershed that contributed to the water source of the city's water supply system. A mining company had applied for a permit to develop a mine in the area. Silsislah took the position of opposing the permit to the mining company, believing that a mining operation would threaten the source of water used for drinking, household and farm use, and the sardine canning industry in the area. Those who favored the mine looked at it as providing jobs for the people in the area. Both perspectives had their merits but certainly only one position would have to prevail. To dialogue is not to acquiesce to something just to keep the peace. To dialogue is to listen to the other's position, to respect that position, and to try to present one's own position in such a manner as to increase understanding of that position and decrease resistance to it. Solidarity presupposes harmony within a group and it is something to be desired, to strive for. Another aspect of solidarity is the capacity to walk in the other's shoes, to identify with the ups and the downs that life gives each one of us. It is easy enough to share the joys of others – a triumph in a competition, success in business, the arrival of a new member of the family. We truly rejoice when people we know experience these. But what about the sad experiences – losing a job, serious illness, a fire that wipes out material possessions? Our capacity to love is better measured by our capacity to be in solidarity with those who undergo misfortunes and what we do to show our solidarity with them.
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