| With the problems largely framed by
the riots, Rothman proposed they undertake a visioning process.
“If you look at a conflict and turn the coin over, goals are
the other side. Problems are goals threatened and frustrated;
goals are problems that have been converted into opportunities.
Only by converting the problems into opportunities would Cincinnati
heal.”
Thus began one of the most remarkable aspects of the process
– one that has never been done elsewhere, according to Rothman.
He and his colleagues turned Cincinnati into several identity
groups: African Americans, whites, youth, leaders of religious
organizations and social service agencies, business and foundation
leaders, educators, police and their families, city employees,
and other minority groups. They asked each group to give them
their vision of a future in which community-police relations
were healed.
Through a web-based questionnaire, paper pencil questionnaires,
interviews and intensive outreach on the streets with youth,
over 3,500 Cincinnatians responded to three questions:1) What
are your goals for future police-community relations in Cincinnati?
2) Why are these goals important to you? (What experiences,
values, beliefs and feelings influence your goals?) 3) How
do you think your goals could best be achieved? “We want them
to be visionaries,” Rothman said. The “what” and “how” questions
provided that opportunity – to articulate a vision about what
is important to them. The “why” question allowed them to touch
their past experiences – perhaps of anger and despair – but
in the context of looking forward for solutions.
Representatives of the identity groups gathered after the
surveys were completed and used the responses to set five
core goals for their group to guide the negotiations that
began in January. The goals dealt with improving relationships
and partnerships between the public and the police, ensuring
fair treatment for all, and improving police education and
accountability. “They truly created a context and a touchstone
for negotiators to be faithful to,” Rothman says.
Rothman took the five goals and research on best police practices
from across the nation and drafted a single text that was
to be used as a basis for collaborative negotiations. The
text included recommendations from the negotiators and from
the identity groups – their goals and the value statements
they had drafted.
After several revisions by the parties, they came together
in late January to begin negotiations that were, according
to Rothman, “very tough. In some ways I was very crestfallen
that all this process hadn’t transformed the negotiators into
collaborators.” He thought that after bringing the city through
a collaborative process, the leaders would follow, but they
still operated in a win-lose paradigm. At times the negotiators
were close to quitting, which would have sent the lawsuit
back to the courtroom, but participatory democracy won out,
Rothman says. Dozens of times he told them:“ We have to live
up to the mandate we were given by these 3500 people who asked
us for some different future.” This is what ultimately kept
them working and reminded all the parties to be bigger than
themselves, Rothman says. An agreement was reached and Judge
Dlott, whose encouragement throughout the negotiations Rothman
credits as instrumental, approved it on August 5, beginning
a five-year implementation process.
A Treacherous Time
Yet with implementation beginning, the parties to the lawsuit
seem no closer to being collaborators than they were 15 months
ago. In fact, tensions seem only to be rising. Will collaboration
succeed or will continuing antagonisms throw the lawsuit back
into court? Jay Rothman is optimistic of success, but admits
Cincinnati still faces challenges.
We’re at a very treacherous time, he says, a neutral zone
between what was and what will be, a time when it’s easy to
return to antagonism because it is more familiar. To make
the collaborative succeed, to make the bickering end, he says,
we need success that is big enough to matter and small enough
to work. The leaders of the community need to step up and
be bigger than themselves, which he says they’ve done throughout
the year, just not consistently. The implementation process
needs to be as healing as the product, Rothman says. Each
time one side isn’t fulfilling its part of the agreement,
they can’t go running to the judge. They must work on a human-to-human
level and resolve problems together.
I asked him if there was something else they could have done
to make the parties work better together. “Absolutely,” says
Rothman. “We made thousands of mistakes. We were inventing
as we went; this has never been done before, anywhere. Parts
of it have but never has there been federal oversight, a riot
and 3500 people.” Despite the difficulties and the mistakes
he leaves Cincinnati feeling hopeful. Those in the collaborative
process were doing the right things with the right people
at the right time.
On Peace Service
I asked Dr. Rothman, someone who exemplifies what a peace
servant is and what he can do for his community, what kind
of training he feels necessary for those attempting to do
such work. He began his answer with a quotation from Shakespeare.
“To thy own self be true and it must follow as night the day
that thou canst not then be false to any other.”
When activists go out to change the world without changing
themselves, he explains, they do damage. Peacemakers, like
anyone, have anger, fury and self-righteous indignation.“
When they go out to change the world without having reconciled
their own despair, they cause trouble.” Rothman believes that
peacemakers must find hope and convert their despair through
their own spiritual beliefs.“ We have to believe in things,
we have to model them, we have to witness them.”
As for professional training, Rothman thinks the peacemakers’
movement must work within the system and transform it from
within.“ We have to be trained in traditional ways. There
are programs in peace studies and conflict resolution and
those are great, students should go to them, and yet we also
need to have legitimized skills as lawyers, doctors, educators….Students
have to be legitimized and work within the system.” He admits
there is a role for those who want to work outside the system,
but he thinks the peacemakers’ movement has to be one that
works to transform the system from within.“ Get a foothold
from the inside, learn a skill, trade, profession that gives
you leverage, a power people cannot deny – not a power over
but a power with them –to compel them to follow the vision
you lead them to.”
For more information on the Collaborative Process,visit the
ARIA Group’s website: www.ariagroup.com
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