“If you represent everyone, in some ways you represent no one. You’re un-owned.”
Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of several books, speaks about genocide, the genocide movement in the US and Sergio Vieira de Mello.
One of the main questions she addresses through her biography of Sergio is what to do when there are so many issues needing attention during a humanitarian crisis and conflict. What do you do in diplomatic situations when a country refuses to cooperate? How do you deal with “evil and brokenness,” determine which is the lesser evil?
Lessons from Sergio:
1) Be in the room. Don’t be afraid of talking to your adversaries. Don’t blackbox history. Don’t chuck your principles out the door.
2) Have reverence for dignity. See the individuals around you and recognize their needs and wants as individuals.
3) Be free from fear. Let’s see the threat clearly, not lunge into bad decisions as a result of fear.
4) Have a humility and awareness of complexity of the world around you, but don’t be paralyzed by it.
