God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
My paternal grandmother taught me The Serenity Prayer when I was a child. I turn to this verse in the troubled times of today. Replace the word God with the name of whatever deity you worship or ideology you believe in. An estimated 4,200 religions exist in the world and most adhere to the same tenets.
Each culture is rich in its own way, with its own language, religion, literature, art, music, poetry, traditions and philosophy.
My heart breaks a little more each day knowing that my birth land, a country built on the backbone of indigenous tribes, immigrants and African slaves is now being split apart by violent rhetoric, divisive ideology, religion intolerance, systemic racism, sexism, classism and ethnocentrism.
In the USA, civil rights are being threatened daily by policies eliminating immigration and human rights. Nationalism is sweeping across borders with extreme right wing leaders rising to power in Austria and Italy and threatening to succeed in Germany and France.
Have we forgotten our past?
I never thought I would witness war on European soil during my lifetime. Yet three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian’s battle for freedom and defense of democratic principles rages on. A potential US-Russian peace agreement for Ukraine, without including Ukraine in the discussion, echoes of the disastrous appeasement plan of the Nazi Era that led to WWII.
Europe is not a far away place somewhere. Europe is your neighbor. Europe is my home. In the past, my grandfather fought in WWI; my French in-laws and Norwegian relatives survived the Nazi Occupation. My American peers and I grew up fighting against discrimination and inequality.
My family, through birth and marriage, is American, British, Chinese, French, Irish, Norwegian, Scottish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.
My people are all people.
Set our differences aside. Take off our rose-colored glasses and pie-in-the-sky illusion that conditions are improving. We must face the stark reality of what is happening, not only in the USA, but around the globe. Natural disaster, civil unrest, a wave of extreme right wing ideology and nationalism is spreading.
A half century ago, as an idealistic university student, I started studying social work. When I realized that I could not save the world, I trained as an educator. Serendipitously, while teaching at an International School in Switzerland, I had the privilege to work with students and families from around the globe.
From my experience, I learned that we are more alike than different.
We all want the same things for those we love — a roof overhead, food on the table, a right to a good education and an equal chance to work and prosper.
Yet as individuals, we remain impotent, helpless and hopeless. How can one human being, especially one with a broken body, ever change the world?
I can’t. But I can reach out to those in my entourage.
We must begin within our immediate circles — families and friendship groups, neighborhoods and schools, churches and communities.
As my former coach said, “We have to continue to do the right things, for the right reasons, for all of us.”
It’s so hard to believe integrity matters when countries’ leaders seem to be so hell bent on spinning lies, disbanding public education, health care, social services, and the human rights we fought so long to assure.
How can my country go from being the world’s leading democracy to one of the planet’s biggest bullies?
Political ideologies aside, if any civilization anywhere on earth is to survive, we must find ways to work together on global issues. Poverty, climate change, cyber security, natural resources, future pandemics, nuclear threats and pollution affect all mankind.
An estimated 8.2 billion people representing 4,000 different cultures, speaking 7,000 languages share this planet. We all have to do more at every level in each country to communicate in a common language — the language of humanity.
Pat, this is so eloquently written and such a rousing cry to all of us to stand up for what is right for EVERYONE. Thanks for saying it all so well. Each of us needs to do what we are capable of. For some it is physically getting out in the streets to protest the injustices occurring every single day in our countries. For others it may be putting financial resources into the organizations that support good, solid candidates in the upcoming US mid-term elections. And for others it may be making phone calls to their state representatives to encourage them to stand up against these blatant attacks on our democracy. But we cannot sit still and continue to watch facism unfold little by little, day by day in our country. Thanks you for your fighting words.
Beautifully said, Pat! Thank you!