THE CAMPAIGN TO END SLAVERY IN OUR LIFETIME
THE SONG OF HOPE REQUIRES US TO SING IT
BY WILL GRIFFITH
As we look at the world around us with all of the polarization in our society and the divisions between the human family, we often feel bombarded and overwhelmed by the enormity of these challenges. White against black, Jew against Arab, straight against gay...ALL examples of divisions caused by differences. So how do we begin to repair the breach? How can we possibly have any hope of making our world a better place to live, to coexist and to raise our children?
IT SIMPLY BEGINS WITH US.
Our perceptions of the world and all of Her problems are often determined by the news and information we are given. We draw lines of prejudicial determination and end up choosing one side or the other. There are also those times when indifference is the choice, because we simply have not been affected by the topic personally.
The fact that our perceptions are influenced, rightly or wrongly, only shows that we have chosen to follow the lead of another in the process of our own thinking. When we stop thinking for ourselves we become pawns for a tiny handful of agenda-driven politicians and politically motivated entities who want to do our thinking for us. They thrive on the polarization and disunity. As long as they keep us fighting with each other, we have little time or energy to pay attention to their efforts.
If we look at the problems in the world and think to ourselves how impossible it seems for us to do anything to change it, we have looked at these challenges from only one perspective and from our own little corner of the world. The key to implementing change in the world is in finding our willingness and ability to step outside of our box and view the world from a different vantage point. When we hear stories of children being sold into slavery in a part of the world far from the reality of our own, the issue seems distant and disconnected from our existence. Certainly, we hear the stories and feel a sense of sadness, repulsion and even anger. And if we look just a little bit closer, we will feel the frustration of wishing we could change it and knowing full well that our ability to do so is limited by our own station and place in this world. So, we shake our heads, curse the evil and go about our business and the routine of our existence without having done anything to alter it.
When we look at the issue from another vantage point the possibilities to change the world become clear. We find that we are one more voice in an ocean of resistance to these evils plaguing the human condition. The symphony of change becomes louder, the music more defined and the song of hope resonates to the most remote parts of our planet. When we look at injustice from the vantage point of the oppressed, through the eyes of the child sold into slavery and sexual servitude and we, even for a moment, imagine our own children in such a hell, we begin to think. We begin to feel the anger and we muster the will to DO SOMETHING, SOMEHOW.
Stepping outside of our box in an effort to feel the pain of the oppressed and abused is the first step in caring. It is the path to finding ourselves and to realize that while we often believe that the world revolves around our own little place in it, we are just taking up space unless, at the very least, we care.
For the critic who points the finger and accuses the activist of "trying to save the world", that poor soul has yet to find his or her voice. We often care about an issue when we are PERSONALLY affected by it. For example, there was no oversight of Wall Street or Congress as the country became more embroiled in financial crisis. In the United States and around the world, people where complacent and happy with the way things were because they simply were not touched by it. Then, as the credit crisis bloomed into a full blown global recession and our pockets were tapped at the grocery stores and the gas pumps, we cared. By then we had no choice. And while it wasn't too late to express discontent and anger, we enabled the crisis to take root and to grow before we expressed our desire for change.
Human rights issues are of little difference. We tend to look the other way when confronted with injustice because it has not affected our own existence. As long as our own little corner of the world is untouched, we are given little reason to do anything. But when that injustice requires the action and contents of our pockets to pay for the action of another, whether sanctions or war, we tend to take notice.
Everything in our world is connected, one with the other. The separation of people by geographical, political or religious divides are still connected through the common thread of humankind. We all need air to breathe and water to drink. We all have the desire for love and peace and generations who rely upon us for their future. Oceans and flags can not separate us from one another on these topics. And the fact is we can only begin to repair the breach and change our world when we recognize that the world and those who inhabit it are different from ourselves and yet the same. We can only begin to change the human condition when we first change our own perceptions and choose another vantage point from which to view the world around us.
People suffer and while you will hear many who will say, "yes, it's sad but that's life. I'm looking out for myself", the animal instinct for survival trumps the very element that makes us human. Our ability for empathy, love and compassion is silenced by the fear of having to survive a brutal and selfish world. If we find ourselves thinking how unfair life is from our own corner of our own existence, imagine the child with matted hair and bruised and broken skin and bone. Imagine the little girl who will never grow up to have children of her own because her body has been ravaged by the slave trade. How unfair the world must seem to her.
Life isn't fair because injustice reigns. Life isn't fair because our sense of humanity and a respect for human life that doesn't reflect our own definition of it, absorbs the injustice like a sponge. It pits white against black, Arab against Jew, straight against gay and creates a domino affect of injustice that begins to overcome the good nature of humankind. The injustice grows and with it the complacency and belief that the world and Her problems are simply too large for us to do anything to change it.
But change it we must!
There can be no other alternative but to change it. Our time on this earth is short by any measure of the clock. If we have grown so accustomed to our lives and so sure of our place in this world that we believe we have no obligation or need to stand against injustice, then we have entered into a moral abyss in which the human spirit is lost and can only be resurrected once injustice touches us personally. We should never wait until then, for if we do we may find ourselves the only one left with no one to defend us.
To repair the breach and confront the injustice, we need to first care. Once we care and look upon our world with new eyes, from a new vantage point, we will then see the hope and promise of making our world and the future of our children a better place to live, to dream and to serve the human family.
As we look at the world around us with all of the polarization in our society and the divisions between the human family, we often feel bombarded and overwhelmed by the enormity of these challenges. White against black, Jew against Arab, straight against gay...ALL examples of divisions caused by differences. So how do we begin to repair the breach? How can we possibly have any hope of making our world a better place to live, to coexist and to raise our children?
IT SIMPLY BEGINS WITH US.
Our perceptions of the world and all of Her problems are often determined by the news and information we are given. We draw lines of prejudicial determination and end up choosing one side or the other. There are also those times when indifference is the choice, because we simply have not been affected by the topic personally.
The fact that our perceptions are influenced, rightly or wrongly, only shows that we have chosen to follow the lead of another in the process of our own thinking. When we stop thinking for ourselves we become pawns for a tiny handful of agenda-driven politicians and politically motivated entities who want to do our thinking for us. They thrive on the polarization and disunity. As long as they keep us fighting with each other, we have little time or energy to pay attention to their efforts.
If we look at the problems in the world and think to ourselves how impossible it seems for us to do anything to change it, we have looked at these challenges from only one perspective and from our own little corner of the world. The key to implementing change in the world is in finding our willingness and ability to step outside of our box and view the world from a different vantage point. When we hear stories of children being sold into slavery in a part of the world far from the reality of our own, the issue seems distant and disconnected from our existence. Certainly, we hear the stories and feel a sense of sadness, repulsion and even anger. And if we look just a little bit closer, we will feel the frustration of wishing we could change it and knowing full well that our ability to do so is limited by our own station and place in this world. So, we shake our heads, curse the evil and go about our business and the routine of our existence without having done anything to alter it.
When we look at the issue from another vantage point the possibilities to change the world become clear. We find that we are one more voice in an ocean of resistance to these evils plaguing the human condition. The symphony of change becomes louder, the music more defined and the song of hope resonates to the most remote parts of our planet. When we look at injustice from the vantage point of the oppressed, through the eyes of the child sold into slavery and sexual servitude and we, even for a moment, imagine our own children in such a hell, we begin to think. We begin to feel the anger and we muster the will to DO SOMETHING, SOMEHOW.
Stepping outside of our box in an effort to feel the pain of the oppressed and abused is the first step in caring. It is the path to finding ourselves and to realize that while we often believe that the world revolves around our own little place in it, we are just taking up space unless, at the very least, we care.
For the critic who points the finger and accuses the activist of "trying to save the world", that poor soul has yet to find his or her voice. We often care about an issue when we are PERSONALLY affected by it. For example, there was no oversight of Wall Street or Congress as the country became more embroiled in financial crisis. In the United States and around the world, people where complacent and happy with the way things were because they simply were not touched by it. Then, as the credit crisis bloomed into a full blown global recession and our pockets were tapped at the grocery stores and the gas pumps, we cared. By then we had no choice. And while it wasn't too late to express discontent and anger, we enabled the crisis to take root and to grow before we expressed our desire for change.
Human rights issues are of little difference. We tend to look the other way when confronted with injustice because it has not affected our own existence. As long as our own little corner of the world is untouched, we are given little reason to do anything. But when that injustice requires the action and contents of our pockets to pay for the action of another, whether sanctions or war, we tend to take notice.
Everything in our world is connected, one with the other. The separation of people by geographical, political or religious divides are still connected through the common thread of humankind. We all need air to breathe and water to drink. We all have the desire for love and peace and generations who rely upon us for their future. Oceans and flags can not separate us from one another on these topics. And the fact is we can only begin to repair the breach and change our world when we recognize that the world and those who inhabit it are different from ourselves and yet the same. We can only begin to change the human condition when we first change our own perceptions and choose another vantage point from which to view the world around us.
People suffer and while you will hear many who will say, "yes, it's sad but that's life. I'm looking out for myself", the animal instinct for survival trumps the very element that makes us human. Our ability for empathy, love and compassion is silenced by the fear of having to survive a brutal and selfish world. If we find ourselves thinking how unfair life is from our own corner of our own existence, imagine the child with matted hair and bruised and broken skin and bone. Imagine the little girl who will never grow up to have children of her own because her body has been ravaged by the slave trade. How unfair the world must seem to her.
Life isn't fair because injustice reigns. Life isn't fair because our sense of humanity and a respect for human life that doesn't reflect our own definition of it, absorbs the injustice like a sponge. It pits white against black, Arab against Jew, straight against gay and creates a domino affect of injustice that begins to overcome the good nature of humankind. The injustice grows and with it the complacency and belief that the world and Her problems are simply too large for us to do anything to change it.
But change it we must!
There can be no other alternative but to change it. Our time on this earth is short by any measure of the clock. If we have grown so accustomed to our lives and so sure of our place in this world that we believe we have no obligation or need to stand against injustice, then we have entered into a moral abyss in which the human spirit is lost and can only be resurrected once injustice touches us personally. We should never wait until then, for if we do we may find ourselves the only one left with no one to defend us.
To repair the breach and confront the injustice, we need to first care. Once we care and look upon our world with new eyes, from a new vantage point, we will then see the hope and promise of making our world and the future of our children a better place to live, to dream and to serve the human family.
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