E -Stufe 13 - Übung Nr. 3 - GreenButterSolutions

Laura Blumenfeld knows all about answer blank revenge. It has occupied her thoughts and

rolled off her tongue for answer blank years.

And now it's subject of her provocative first book, "Revenge answer A :

 Story of Hope," in which she explains how she carried answer the idea out

 herself.

answer blank Americans don't talk much about answer blank revenge, let alone

 admit to answer the desire publicly. It's answer a taboo,

answer a concept that brings with it answer an unsettling sense of

answer blank fear, answer blank anger, and answer blank lack of

answer blank control.

That's something Ms. Blumenfeld noticed when she first started telling answer blank people

she was researching and even pursuing answer blank revenge. They would become tense,

often taking answer a step back and furrowing their brows. Even now, conducting

answer a phone interview while standing in answer blank line at

answer an airport, she makes those around her uncomfortable.

" answer blank People are staring at me," says answer the Washington Post

 reporter with answer a laugh, "I'm sitting here going on and on about answer blank

answer blank revenge at answer a security check."

answer A irony of answer the situation is not lost on answer the

author, whose book is being published less than answer a year after Sept. 11,

answer a date that changed answer the way Americans look at getting

even.

Her isn't so much about answer the nation's recent wounds, but answer the

motivation for revenge in everything from answer the answer the Middle East

conflict to answer the fights on answer the playground - and her own quest

to avenge answer an attack on her father. It presents answer an

opportunity to bring answer a taboo out into answer the light and see how

it is intersecting with answer blank culture today.

answer blank revenge and its effects are rarely far from answer blank thought,

even if they're little discussed. answer The more extreme cases - answer blank

school shootings, answer blank terrorism - end up on answer blank CNN.

answer The milder forms take answer blank place in answer blank offices

everywhere, through answer blank badmouthing or answer blank freezing out

answer blank offending associates.

answer The idea of answer blank revenge originated with answer the

creation of answer blank man, according to some beliefs. As one story goes,

answer blank Satan was angry with answer blank God for kicking him out of

answer blank heaven, so he introduced Adam and his kin to answer blank sin. There's been

score-settling ever since - motivated by answer blank things like answer blank

shame, answer blank family honor, or answer a desire for

answer blank justice. Much of answer the language about responding to revenge is from

answer blank biblical times - answer an eye for answer an eye,

from answer the Old Testament; turning answer the other cheek, from

answer the New. answer The language of answer blank

retribution is perpetuated in answer blank modern in everything from Hamlet to Harry

Potter. Sometimes answer blank real revenge goes no further than answer blank

victims' fantasizing, but its presence in answer blank society is palpable enough.

Frederic Luskin, answer the project director of answer the Stanford

(University) Forgiveness Project quips, "More people practice answer blank revenge than

practice answer blank forgiveness."

At answer blank Georgetown University, Robert Bies been looking at answer blank

revenge in answer the workplace for answer the past seven years. His

 research suggests that " answer blank revenge is answer blank part of

answer blank everyday fabric of all answer blank organizations," he says.

As answer a journalist, Blumenfeld says she saw it everywhere - in

answer the partisan payback on answer blank Capitol Hill, answer the bloody tit

for tat in Northern Ireland, and answer the callousness at answer blank recess.

But answer the daughter of answer a rabbi who was shot by

answer a Palestinian gunman in Jerusalem in 1986, she was interested for answer a

different reason. Her father, answer a tourist, survived answer the bullet - it

 only grazed his scalp.

But " answer the answer a military target, "as if my father were some kind of  

  answer blank radar station, and not even   answer a human being," she explains. She

 wanted to  answer the shooter to know her father as answer a man. Her

 journey takes her to answer the scene of answer blank crime, and also around

answer the world. She interviews answer blank folk experts in Albania and

answer blank ayatollahs in Iran to ask about answer blank revenge practices - and

answer a daughter has to avenge her father. She learns about

answer the power of answer blank revenge in answer blank Mafia-influenced

answer blank Sicily, answer blank symmetry would demand that I shoot

answer the shooter, or maybe his father.

But I had to find another way, my way," she writes.

Her father's shooter, Omar Khatib, is in answer blank jail for his crime, she learns. So she

begins her quest for him to know answer the Blumenfelds by befriending his family

without saying who she is - only that she's answer a US journalist.

She avoids pigeonholing her subject. " answer blank Revenge is like answer blank

love: It's one of those things you can describe, but you can't define," she says.

She sees answer blank revenge as one end of answer a spectrum, with

answer blank justice on answer the other end. answer blank

Americans prefer answer the word justice. There's answer a big

difference between answer the two, says answer the Rev. Dr. Joretta

Marshall, answer a dean at answer blank Eden TEden Theological

Seminary in St. Louis. " answer blank justice is more about how we create and sustain and

nurture answer blank relationships that serve answer the common good, that

don't marginalize and destroy others. answer blank revenge has to do with making someone

else feel bad because you feel bad."

Often, answer blank revenge is not as satisfying as answer blank people expect.

And it can end up hurting answer the avenger more than answer the target.

"I think it's something we need to be paying answer blank attention to - how we think it's

going to help us feel better," says Dr. Marshall.

answer A focus on answer blank revenge may cause answer blank

people to lose answer blank sight of moving toward answer a more just

society. "If answer blank revenge is answer the last then we don't have any

way to get out of answer blank constant [cycles of] hurting," she says.

But some people talk about answer blank "constructive" revenge. Professor Bies, who

specializes in answer blank organizational behavior, says it exists in answer blank

workplaces. His research suggests that in some cases, answer blank revenge curbs

answer blank abuses of answer blank power - as when an blank

employee confronts answer a superior in answer a public way about

answer blank inappropriate actions.

In answer blank fact, he says that answer blank most stable organizations have

answer a mix of answer blank forgiveness and answer blank revenge.

 "You need answer blank elements of both, and that's answer the

 intriguing thing."

At least one worldwide movement - answer blank restorative justice - allows

answer blank victims and answer blank communities to be involved in answer blank

punishment, to help in reforming answer the offender.

That's closer to what Blumenfeld was after. She argues that answer blank extreme choices

are not always realistic. Turning answer the other cheek is answer a tough

rule to live by, she says, and answer an eye for answer an eye, "feels good

for about five minutes  until answer the person pops out your eye, and then all of

answer a sudden you realize answer the futility of answer blank

revenge and how it's ultimately self-defeating."

She found out answer a third way: answer blank transformation. "What I've learned is

that answer blank revenge doesn't have to be about destroying your enemy, it can be

about transforming your enemy or yourself."

Her friendship with Mr. Khatib's family eventually allowed her to correspond with him. He is

educated and knows answer blank has renounced answer blank violence. They

discuss answer blank "constructive revenge" - in which answer a person's

 anger is channeled into "building something up rather than lashing out," she wrote.

He and his family learn her true identity in answer an emotional courtroom scene when

she persuades answer a blank panel of answer blank Israeli judges to let her testify

as answer a witness in answer blank favor of his early release. Rather than

alienating her from Khatib and his family, her actions draw them closer, and they remain on

answer blank good terms. In answer a recent TV interview on answer blank

ABC, Khatib (still in answer blank jail) said Blumenfeld "chose answer the

 positive way of getting answer blank revenge from me. And she succeeded."

She says she knew she had achieved her goal, and could finally rest, when Khatib wrote to her

father that "[Laura] was answer the mirror that made me see your face as

answer a human person that deserved to be admired and respected."

Her father says he didn't want answer blank revenge, other than to live

answer a full life. But she needed more. "I felt really satisfied," she says. "I got

answer blank revenge, but it was in answer a way that put answer an end

to answer the animosity, rather than perpetuate it."

from: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0502/p11s01-ussc.html 07 / 05 / 2002