Dear Editor,
If we are concerned with maintaining any semblance of a sustainable and dignified existence on this planet, we must recognize that our best hope for doing so lies in finding ways to relate to each other that will work to the benefit of everyone, not just a few.
But with each disagreement, conflict, or further separation from each other (economically, ideologically, religiously and culturally), we diminish, rather than enhance, our chances of leaving a truly healthy and dignified world for those who will eventually have to live with the consequences of what we do and how we behave today.
How dignified can we possibly feel, either individually or collectively, when homeless people push their meager belongings around in grocery carts and beg in front of stores a mere block away from perpetually unoccupied $2-$3 million houses, or when people refuse to interact with each other simply because of differences in skin colour and/or cultural beliefs and practices or when we remain reluctant to do what is really necessary to prevent further degradation of our natural environment?
When it comes to issues such as war, prejudice, and culture-based divisiveness, we steadfastly refuse to learn anything from our past mistakes and transgressions, and when it comes to finding ways to work together on strategies for protecting and improving the lives of everyone on the planet, we prefer instead to cloister ourselves in our separate tribes and belief systems and concentrate on the things that define our differences, rather than those that we share as a species and members of a global society.
As long as there are huge gulfs between the haves and the have-nots, and as long as we remain prisoners of our cultural, religious and ideological differences, there can be no true dignity for anyone, even for those who are the most privileged and powerful.
Ray Arnold
Richmond
