BY SKYE BLAINE
An Eye Toward
the Positive
Small ways to make a difference.
E
very day the evening news reports violent divides
between peoples, between religions, between
countries, yet rarely takes note of human
kindness. The news deliberately exploits the juice of
human experience, stimulates fear — hoping we’ll
watch more news. As fear increases, so do our feel-
ings of being different, or marginalized.
I do not suggest we should avoid the news, or ig-
nore what we must face and when we must act — in
our own families, communities, and country. I am sug-
gesting an ideal that Hazrat Inayat Khan calls “overlook-
ing,” (Volume VIII, Sufi Teachings, page 241) a practice of notic-
ing unkind behavior, yet still choosing to put our attention on what is loving. When
your friend snaps at you, instead of focusing on her irritation, concentrate more
deeply, see straight into the goodness in her heart, and respond to that. When a tele-
vision newscaster reports a car bombing, instead of focusing on the twisted wreck-
age, broaden your vision to include the periphery: Some people close by shield chil-
dren, while others run to help the injured. Amidst the tragedy and in greater measure,
courage and compassion stand beside the violence.
Many people in Eugene are striving to look past what divides, toward a deeper kind
of inclusion. The interfaith circle thrives; more than 37 different faith traditions in our
community participate. New kinds of cooperative discussions are opening up.
The interfaith community provides a one-hour prayer service the 11th of every
month at First Christian Church. The services are aired on Community Television.
Every month, there is a pot-luck dinner and time to share extended ideas on the
prayer service theme. The monthly brown-bag Two Rivers Interfaith Ministries (TRIM)
meeting and forum — which oversees all the activities — meets the second Wednesday
for 10 months of the year. TRIM has a Faith in Action sub-committee for those com-
mitted to social justice activism. Articles like this one are printed regularly in local
newspapers. Once a month, two local bookstores host a panel from a different faith
tradition.
Each of these events provides important service — building trust and friendship
between disparate people who have discovered, over time, that our faiths are differ-
ent, but we are much more alike than we realized. The ground is the same: We all look
toward spiritual understanding seeking answers for the complex questions that
plague us, we pray or meditate in one style or another, and we look for the best in one
another.
F
or me, it is not the individual tradition’s offerings that are the greatest draw;
instead, I am thrilled to experience people of different faiths gathered to-
gether in an interested, cooperative atmosphere. We have had to also prac-
tice overlooking with each other. If offense has been taken, we have long-term will-
ingness, commitment, and the respect and love for one another to listen and dialogue
until understanding is reached.
Because these quiet activities are not reported on national news, collectively we
remain unaware of the resulting positive shifts. What would happen if people focused
on cohesive behavior, on what is going right in our world?
Concentration on the positive does not grow overnight. The intention, however,
can rapidly take seed. Every day I must make a conscious decision, and then nurture
and feed that choice. I have setbacks and failures on a regular basis. Perhaps I have
taken on too many tasks, am overtired, and have neglected my own well-being. It is
time to sit quietly and pay specific attention to what and how I am thinking. I remind
myself that passenger jets are off-course ninety-five percent of the time, yet they ar-
rive at their destination because the pilot is making incremental corrections. I too,
veer off-course and need to find my way back.
As we walk the streets of our world — while we, ideally, act to relieve suffering and
prevent harm — at the same time, we can uphold unity. In order to embrace the con-
tradictions so blatant in this world, we have to create a metaphorical vessel within our
own hearts sturdy enough for the whole messy stew.
The practice of outward overlooking helps with inward mind patterns as well.
When I catch myself in a cascade of negative thoughts, I acknowledge those thoughts
and then look past them into the core of what I know to be true: we all breathe the
same air; we are given a limited number of days to live; we are wholly responsible to
one another, and beyond our differences, we are all one — one being, one family, one
town, one country, one world.
Skye Blaine is a member and minister in Sufi Ruhaniat International. This Viewpoint is coordinated by Two Rivers
Interfaith Ministries (TRIM), a network of more than 35 religious and spiritual traditions in the Eugene-Springfield
area. For information, see www.interfaitheugene.org or call 914-2614
4 JULY 28, 2005
TO THE EDITOR
BROADER VISION
BODY SLAM
On July 11 the UO School of Journalism
and Communication announced a second
major gift to the school’s Portland Center and
the naming of the center in honor of George
S. Turnbull, a distinguished former faculty
member, journalist and journalism historian.
These investments are powerful endorse-
ments of the school’s long tradition of excel-
lence in teaching and research and of our vi-
sion for the Turnbull Center. The
naming of the center after one
of our greatest journalism
professors is a clear state-
ment of our commitment
to journalism.
Contrary to your report
in Slant (7/14), our efforts in
Portland are not solely focused
on “public relations and communi-
cation management.” Yes, the first graduate
degree program we expect to offer is in com-
munication management, but the vision is
much broader. As reported in The Oregonian
(7/12), “the vision for the program extends
beyond public relations to the development
of future news reporters and editors, and a
place where media professionals can engage
with academics in the field.” Over time the
programs at the Turnbull Center will reflect
the range of professions represented in Allen
Hall.
I regret that EW used the occasion of our
announcement to smear all public relations
professionals and public relations education.
The ethical practice of public relations is an
essential part of public discourse. It is very
much in the public interest for the School of
Journalism and Communication to continue
to be engaged in teaching future generations
of PR professionals and in contributing to the
professional and public discussions concern-
ing best practices in the field, as we have been
for the better part of a century.
Tim Gleason
Edwin L. Artzt Dean
UO School of Journalism and
Communication
As an alum and adjunct faculty member
of the UO School of Journalism and
Communication — and the immediate past
president of the Greater Oregon Chapter of
the Public Relations Society of America — I
can only view EW’s body slam of the public
relations profession in Slant (7/14) as a dis-
service to PR practitioners everywhere.
The piece starts out with a nice acknowl-
edgment, complimenting the UO on its
recent receipt of a major donation
to help establish a journalism
program at the university’s
Portland Center. Then comes
the sucker punch: The article
notes that “the program, which
is geared toward public relations
and communications management,
has drawn criticism from those who think
PR is not real journalism, just propaganda,
and that it belongs in business schools.
Strong arguments can be made,” the article
contends.
Let’s examine the arguments. “The skills
taught in journalism schools, just like the
skills taught in business schools, can be used
for enlightened purposes, or for deception
and greed. More disturbing is the growing
popularity of PR courses, and the decline in
students choosing the news-editorial track.
Who do we blame?” the article asks, inno-
cently enough.
Does that mean that print and broadcast
journalists are immune from the dark side?
Recent problems with deception, plagiarism
and fabrication in the news industry would
indicate otherwise. I suggest that news jour-
nalists take a long, hard look in the mirror.
Newspapers and broadcast networks con-
tinue to suffer huge declines in readership
and viewership, not to mention credibility,
because of these recent ethical issues in the
news business.
“Meanwhile, the voices of truth and jus-
tice across our nation are being drowned out
by a cacophony of spinning corporate media
schlock and deception,” the piece continues.