Nearly a thousand people waited in a light rain outside Santa Rosa High in Santa Rosa, California, last Saturday evening. A volunteer walked alongside the crowd, distributing tickets for the book signing that would follow the speech of Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and the recent Stones Into Schools. When she passed me, the ticket giver was offering ticket number 250 for a place in another line at the end of the evening. For Mortenson, who had spent two hours talking with students and their teachers in the afternoon, it promised to be a long day. He had come to speak of peace and his passionate belief that education, particularly that of women, is the imperative first step toward resolving conflict in the Middle East.
Mortenson, who cofounded the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, has been honored with The Star of Pakistan--the country's highest civil award--for his sixteen years' work there, promoting education and peace.
I made notes as he spoke, in a dim corner of the auditorium and in a field of awe. If I have misrepresented the speaker in any way, I take full responsibility for the scribbled error.
Mortenson was as genuine, open, shy but relaxed on the stage, rich in his storytelling, as he is in his books. His words strike the heart. I cried when he told us about the Independence Day parades in Pakistan. He asked us to think of a parade in the U.S. on the Fourth of July. In Pakistan, the widows of soldiers who have died in battle come first. War-orphaned children follow them. Then come the wounded, followed by the young soldiers still active, and the parade moves on.
He told us about children's nonprofits that have grown out of a his foundation's project called Pennies for Peace. One 11-year-old in Florida, not satisfied with just bringing pennies to school, started a foundation he called Little Red Wagon. He walked from Tampa to D.C., pulling his little wagon and raised $78,000 along the way. He intends next to walk from Tampa to LA and wants to raise $1 million. He called Mortenson and said, "They want me to have a board of directors. What does that mean?" They talked awhile and then the boy said, "Can I have kids on my board?" His advisor said, "I don't think there's any law against that in Florida." Now, all Little Red Wagon board members must be under the age of 18.
Another 17-year-old went to S. Africa and saw that there were no playgrounds. He started a nonprofit fund and built four playgrounds/soccer fields and is presently building 12 more in S. Africa, Kenya, and Uganda. Someone asked Mortenson recently how he monitors all these programs. Who administers them? He said, "We don't. The kids do it all themselves. At this point, much of our support is coming from kids."
Most surprising to me were his comments about American military officers. General Petraeus wrote to ask if he could visit one of his schools, and did. Even more impressive is Admiral Mike Mullen, who has made Three Cups of Tea required reading for his staff and and others in the Pentagon. This week, he will meet in Afghanistan for three days with village elders. Mortenson pointed out that when Secretary of State Clinton went to Afghanistan, she stayed a few hours, as did Vice President Biden. Both met during their visits with government and military officials in ceremonial meetings. Neither spoke with the tribal elders nor met with ordinary Afghani citizens.
He said that for the question-and-answer period he wanted to answer the question that would no doubt be asked by anyone who first raised a hand (big laugh from the audience and the nodding of many heads). This is what Greg Mortenson had to say about the current situation in Afganistan and Obama's decision to increase troops there.
- All the meetings between Obama and his advisors were held in secrecy. There was no public debate, little input from Afghani specialists or other public experts. The decision was made by the president and his military and governmental advisors alone. Mortenson felt that a much broader group should have been consulted, and he felt that 50% of the decision should have been made by the Afghanis, with respect to what they wanted and needed.
- About half of the 30,000 will be trainer troops, Mortenson has been told. The Afghanis have said, in general, "We don't need your fire power; we need your brain power. If something needs to be done that requires battle, we will do that. We need you to help us set up systems, educational opportunities, to help us reorder our country."
- Further bombing will create only enmity. The Afganis want no more civilians killed. If the bombing continues, nothing will change.
- In Afghanistan and Pakistan you must meet with the tribal elders if you expect to make any change at all. Nothing will happen unless such relationships are established--over three cups of tea. The power to make change does not lie with the government. It lies with the village elders.
- The military now is far ahead of the State Department and the administration in understanding that "no military solution is possible in Afghanistan." (Mortenson is quoting the many high-level contacts with whom he's spoken and who have asked to consult with him.)
Mortenson is utterly unpretentious. He is witty, sometimes bringing his audience to laughter, often through their tears. His sincerity is palpable. When he asked how many people had read Three Cups of Tea, very nearly every hand went up. He got a long standing ovation as he walked onto the stage and a longer one after his closing remarks.
Seldom, in my experience, do heroes turn out to be truly heroic when seen "live." Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber, stumbled down K2, lost, into a Pakistani village, where the family of the village chief took him in and cared for him until he regained his health and his bearings. With no idea of how he would do it, he promised to build a school. A nurse from Berkeley, California, he had neither the money nor the knowledge of how to raise it in order to realize his promise. As an author, a builder of schools, a man who honors the crowds who come to hear him by signing books to the point that he must wrap his hands in ice, Mortenson, who represents what one person can do, far surpassed my vision of hero.
