It is not often that I have the opportunity to shovel four feet of snow. It provides some context for analogies that I would not otherwise have considered for the direction and actions I have taken to lead and build Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) as an organization that seeks to be consistent on our universal human rights.
Creating a path one step at a time with a plan to extend your reach. When you have many feet of snow, it is essential that you shovel one place at a time, and choose locations to clear a path that will allow you to reach other locations that you need to get to. R.E.A.L. has been taking the same approach, building a portfolio of key issues that we address one at a time, and realizing we can’t only clear a path to just one step, but we also need to be building a pathway to other human rights issues and communities. While we can’t address every issue or every path, we also have to realize that we can’t build a path to nowhere either. We have to be willing to be the “wheel” of consistency in human rights with multiple spokes that allow us to reach other major communities. Some may wonder why R.E.A.L. doesn’t ONLY address misogyny, racial supremacism, religious extremism, totalitarianism, etc. – aren’t any one of these paths enough? That would be true if our goal was only to be another “special interest group,” but the path we are clearing is for more than our house, it is also for the elderly neighbor who can’t get out, it also for the neighbor who is sick, it is also for the neighbor who simply can’t. Being accepted as good neighbors in life or in the human rights community is more than just looking out for one single issue, it is about being consistent in our support for universal human rights. Perhaps we can’t build a path to every home and heart, but we can’t certainly be responsible enough to reach out to be consistent in our stance on equality and liberty.
Strategic focus changes to get the whole job done. If you don’t shovel out a path through your sidewalk, you won’t be able to reach your car, and if you are digging out your car, you need to have a path to both sides, as well as to the road. At different times, you need to have a different focus. When you have many feet of snow, this is not something you simply brush aside. R.E.A.L. has focused on foundation pathway building in our first year. It has meant focus on different issues at different times, but it has always been for the same ultimate goal. We have taken on a mammoth issue in challenging the lack of consistency among traditional human rights groups, and offering a new alternative. It is tremendous work, and not just a few “fun” rallies to “preach to the choir,” or pat ourselves on the back. We need to go out where it is not comfortable, and where we haven’t known people. Some things have worked and some haven’t. But foundation pathway building doesn’t stop at your front stoop – it just begins there. Path building – is just that – building a path where there isn’t one!
Being flexible can save incredible amounts of time. When you have many feet of snow to shovel, and you see a plow truck coming down your road, you need to make sure you get as much of your pathway shoveled in front of the plow truck to sweep it away and help you out. When we have the opportunity to get help from something larger than ourselves, we need to be opportunistic. You might find this hard to believe, but in July 2009, when I was organizing the Chicago pro-democracy rally to challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir, and FOX News invited to interview me that morning, I very seriously considered telling them “no thanks.” Frankly, I was really tired. Just leading the protest was already pushing my limits, and they wanted me there very early in the morning. I had way too much to do. But as you know, I found a way to do the Sunday interview, and also did yet another interview early the following morning in Washington DC, after getting home around 2 AM in the morning. Sometimes you need to be flexible to build your path, and you have to be opportunistic. How many all-volunteer human rights groups get national television news coverage – moreover how many that you are a supporter of? So when you wonder, why do we also “stop everything” to address other key human rights issues that are critical – the objective is the same. Our efforts with R.E.A.L. will take years in building. Any serious opportunity we have to reduce that time frame in reaching the broader public is an important investment opportunity for us. Amnesty International started in 1962 – 48 years ago. Yet for all their efforts and all their members, that 20th century organization has dramatically failed to address the 21st century challenges that we face in consistency on human rights issues. Like so many other 20th century groups, their tunnel vision approach kept them from having the nimbleness and flexibility to adapt to stay consistent on vital issues on our universal human rights.
Pathway building doesn’t happen overnight. I understand why some get inpatient in building a path of consistency on human rights, and find another interest more rewarding than pathway building. Shoveling feet and feet of snow is not what I do for fun, either. The essential is rarely the most enjoyable. Moreover, our society has a short attention span. Shoveling some feet, then stopping and resting, then going back out and shoveling some more and resting, as a repeated process, is only something we do when we HAVE to do it. But what I see and I hope you can also see is that such pathway building HAS to be done. Moreover, the realization that I hope you will share is that NO OTHER group is going to do it for us. The 20th century human rights groups are not going to do it. The single issue groups are only looking to build a path to their door, which ultimately just leaves more of the “choir” talking amongst itself. The political parties are not going to make it a priority. We can’t just sit by the fireplace, watching the paths of our world get buried, and expect that someone else is going to dig us out. Yes, pathway building is long, sometimes tedious work. But the people who we are looking to make a difference are the ones in our mirrors. Being responsible starts with ourselves.
Creating a path doesn’t mean burying someone’s else’s pathway. Good neighbors know that you don’t clear your path by throwing your snow on your neighbor’s pathway. Being selfish never creates any pathways, because the one you bury might be the one that you need later on yourself. R.E.A.L. has repeatedly and uncategorically rejected ideologies of hate, but we do not reject our fellow human beings. We do not view our fellow human beings as “animals.” We do not view our fellow human beings as unsalvageable. Many groups thrive on hate and on demonizing others, ignoring that our ideological adversaries are also human beings. Hate is a comfortable and convenient emotion that doesn’t require any real self-sacrifice or accountability. It is easy to get plenty of supporters and funds by hating other people. However, that would completely negate everything we are working to do in terms of building paths for consistent support of our universal human rights. Our slogan “Choose Love, Not Hate” may seem too ambiguous for some impatient activists and may not resonate as call to action for some. But “Choose Love, Not Hate” is up there to set a standard – not just for others – but also for ourselves – a standard that we need to adhere to in being responsible for equality and liberty as activists and as a society. It is a standard to try to set us apart from other 20th century human rights groups that have gotten so lost in the tunnel of their single issue focus, they have forgotten what it is we are striving to achieve in our path-building with our fellow human beings.
Unlike Hamlet, our conscience does not need to “make cowards of us all,” nor do we have to live in quaking fear of the Undiscovered Country of us ahead. We can choose to find the courage of our convictions. We can choose to recognize that building pathways to reach others is essential to being consistent in our universal human rights.
Even in the storm, we can choose to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
