Throughout history however individuals
have tried to show that we are the same.
No one is superior to another or better when we look below the surface. We should not look at our differences as
reasons to hate and despise. We should see
these variations of diversity as a means of enriching our lives.
Mahnaz Afkhami (Founder and President of
Women’s Learning Partnership [WLP], the Executive Director of the Foundation
for Iranian Studies, and the former Minister of Women’s Affairs in Iran’s
pre-revolution government stated: “We
have the ability to achieve, if we master the necessary goodwill, a common
global society blessed with a shared culture of peace that is nourished by the
ethnic, national and local diversities that enrich our lives.”
This idea was simply stated by Kofi Annan:
“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin,
but we all belong to one human race.”
Mr. Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh
Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. He was the co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel
Peace Prize. He was the founder and
chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an
international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
It seems that too often individuals will
make bold and inspirational statements that in actuality have very little
effect upon those who may hear them.
This truth was expressed by the statement made by Faith Baldwin
(American author of romance and fiction, often concentrating on women
characters juggling career and family.) “You
cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as
Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.”
There are those who have had the advantage
of viewing this world of humankind from a different perspective than most of us
will ever have. Frank Borman is a
retired United States Air Force colonel, aeronautical engineer, test pilot,
businessman, rancher, and NASA astronaut.
He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the
Moon, and together with crewmates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, became the first
of 24 humans to do so.
From his unique viewpoint he made this
comment: “When you’re finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all
these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and
you’re going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the
hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people?”
The same conclusion was reached by Pablo
Casals (Spanish cellist, composer, and conductor): “We ought to think that we
are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without
the tree.”
This concept is widely held by many and
shows that our mental resolve should be to develop it more fully. The Dalai Lama put it in these terms: “Internal
peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It’s very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that
all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and
the same family.”
We cannot try to isolate ourselves from
others thinking that we are somehow exempt from our actions and thoughts regarding
their effects upon others around us. We
must appreciate that all of us face the same difficulties of life on a day-to-day
basis.
Dorothy Height, an American civil rights
and women’s rights activist, put it plainly with these words: “We cannot afford
to be separate - - - We have to see that all of us are in the same boat.”
The American Christian minister and
activist Martin Luther King, Jr stated: “I look forward confidently to the day
when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their
separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full
realization the American dream - - - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of
privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not
take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land
where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content
of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are
held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of
humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and
worth of the human personality.” He added
on another occasion: “We must learn to live together as brothers, or we are
going to perish together as fools.”
We must learn these things from an early
age. The true beauty of our existence is
our diversity. The hand is different
from the foot. The eye is different from
the ear. The nose is different from the
mouth. Yet which of us would even want
to consider that any of these body parts are not needed, yes they are essential,
for us to have a compete and enjoyable life?
Diversity is what makes us unique as humans. It should be the fabric that draws us ever
closer together, not the fuel that burns hatred and spite and pushes us farther
apart. The sadness lies in the fact that
what should be uniting us within our global brotherhood is the very thing that
pulls us apart, because we’re only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"- - - and all of you are brothers."
[Matt. 23:8]
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