Growing up I always wanted to work for the UN; I soon realized the day-to-day reality of what that meant didn’t quite align with my skills and vibe (as well as the organization being corrupted in many ways by many parties to be a shell of what it should and could be …).
But my professional journey has embodied some of those ideals indirectly, and that vision of the UN building did indeed manifest as I have lived down the block from it for most of my adult life!
This means that every year at this time, my neighborhood is flooded with security and traffic as world leaders come together, stating their positions publicly on a variety of issues and making deals behind closed doors as they wine and dine and schmooze with one another.
This all happens on high-up governmental levels, but we need to remember that it’s we, the people, who actually make up our nations and have more power than we realize to create our own realities on the ground, human to human. We can’t wait for, nor should we rely on, someone outside ourselves to create peace and harmony.
As the song says, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”
With all the ways that we have been seemingly separated over the centuries by race, ethnic origin or nationality, religion, political ideology, sexual orientation, etc., now mainstream and social media are constantly sowing and stoking new categories of “us versus them.”
In addition to the usual ones used to divide and conquer noted above, last year medical status was added to that list with vaccinated and unvaccinated; and they are heating up polarizing issues such as abortion, gun control and LGBTQ and voting rights … However you may label or be labeled by any of those — or perhaps just the umbrella of a “liberal” or “conservative” — all could be perceived as more than derogatory depending on who is using which label in what context and tone. This is scary territory.
We are at a time where we must be hyper-vigilant and monitor our perceptions: check in with yourself to see if a particular label makes you consciously or subconsciously dehumanize another. This could also include other nationalities, people abroad who are quite distinct from the governments making decisions for them that might be affecting us.
No matter what “side” you are on, division, segregation, discrimination, other-ing, scapegoating and/or ostracizing one group of human beings over another is never the way to go, as history has shown many times over. I pray we don’t repeat it once again.
Looking for a way to wage peace not war within? Give me a buzz and I’ll be the diplomat who helps you see all sides of yourself clearly in order to negotiate an internal treaty for a higher purpose, that benefits you and the greater good!
A version of today’s PGG was originally published as a PGG note on September 24, 2021
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