Now that we have thought together about mission, plan, program and perspective, it’s time to think about participation. Margaret Mead provides us a starting point. She famously said “Never underestimate the power of a small group of dedicated people to change the world, indeed it’s the only way that change has occurred.”
Following Margaret’s guidance, Unite for Rights is looking for 1% of people, nonprofits, businesses and governments to join together on the spinning Unite globe and “be a light for an International Bill of Rights”. Unite’s goal is revive the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and renew its intended trajectory as a set of enforceable rights in the courts of all countries. To accomplish this goal, we only need 1% of humanity; we hope that you will be one of them.
I’d like to tell you a story to help explain why 1% is all we need.
Once there was a river that flowed through a town. One day bodies started coming down the river, some were dead, others seriously injured. The people in the town were caring and compassionate. They started pulling bodies out of the river. When bodies kept coming, they built hospitals and other facilities near the river. Then one day while a group was taking another body out of the water, a young woman helping looked up and said “this is very important, we have to get this body out of the water, but shouldn’t somebody go upstream?”
She was right: It’s time for 1% of people, nonprofits, businesses and governments to head upstream. If we need inspiration, we can look to those who have gone to war, and are still going to war. Eleanor Roosevelt had seen the bodies from war having personally visited every military hospital in the South Seas during WWII. From there she went upstream to Chair the Human Rights Commission, which drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It’s a difficult climb up to where the bodies are being sent into the water from a flawed social contract, and unending claims of rights that remain unenforceable in courts. It’s a steep climb, psychologically as well as physically, and at times financially difficult. Most people, nonprofits, businesses and governments will not bother to go upstream, at least not at first.
Unite does not begrudge those who want to keep doing what they are doing, and not go upstream. Valiant work is being done just getting the bodies out of the water. But for the 1% of people, nonprofits, businesses and governments who are leaders, and are ready to go upstream, Unite facilitates taking this path less traveled by.
Of course there are naysayers. Those who tell generation after generation that humans are just war-like creatures, and it will always be so. The book, Humankind, debunks this myth. It presents evidence that homosapiens have not always been at war. Recent writing by Yuval Noah Harari confirms this as well. Homosapiens have become the dominate species on Earth not because of war, but because of the ability to collaborate. The time has come when those of us who believe that we can live as an international community on Earth, surely with disagreements, but with Judges and the rule of law to resolve them, will challenge the worn out myth that war is the norm – particularly as we embark into space. We should go to space together with all of our strengths, rather than carry our outdated mentality of war with one another into space with us.
If you are one of the people, nonprofits, businesses or governments willing to go upstream, you can start by signing on to the globe on the Unite website. It is easy, less than a minute. When you sign your name and country a spark of light ignites on the globe wherever you are. At that moment you are a leader; you are a “Uniter”; you are a light for rights. After signing, the most helpful thing you can do is to encourage people, nonprofits, businesses and governments you think might be also be interested in traveling with us upstream with us to come along.
When confronted with the unwillingness of people to discard the old worn out myths such as “war is just the best we can do,” and bring in the new, an integrated, international community, Dr. Martin Luther King said “people make better taillights than headlights.” Be a leader; be a headlight, others will follow you.
This does not mean that all the valiant people, nonprofits, businesses and governments pulling bodies out of the water our should stop their work! Unite commends those pulling the bodies out of the river! It’s the hardest work there is, and it certainly matters to those who are saved.
But at some point if we do not also go upstream, then we are institutionalizing the violation of rights by not stopping violations from happening.
It’s time to trek together upstream. For participation, let’s spend 99% of our time getting the bodies getting the bodies out of the river, and 1% to go upstream!
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