Category: Hope

A New Hope: Human Rights and Human Responsibility

A New Hope: Human Rights and Human Responsibility
Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Hello, my name is Jeffrey Imm. I am the leader of the Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) coalition for human rights. The goal of R.E.A.L. is to use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and we commemorate its December 10, 1948 creation every year, as a standard for progress in human rights objectives throughout the world, and as a coalition on together on shared human rights issues. This year we have gone back to having a press conference at the National Press Club, as we have had in the past. The reason the UDHR was created on December 10, 1948, was as a response to the “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts” during WWII. We have seen such disregard and contempt again over the past few years, and more barbarous acts than we can count.

The list of all of the atrocities and contempt against human rights is almost endless. So instead of only focusing on that horrible list, I come here this year with an offer for new hope. Because so many of us have been dispirited at the willingness of global representatives to commit “barbarous” abuses, which the UDHR was specifically created to discourage and prevent. Let us look at a path for solutions instead.

Even in the dark days of our world, let us find hope to remember that every day is still a Good Day to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.

  1. The New Hope Begins with Ourselves

There is a new hope for universal human rights, despite grave injustices and dark days that we live in as human beings on our shared Earth today.

We can make a difference in our world by starting with ourselves and encouraging others on the path of KINDNESS, MERCY, and LOVE to one another. Kind people don’t mass murder others. Merciful people don’t persecute others. People with love in their hearts don’t hate and revile others as non-human beings. The path to degrading human rights through cruelty, mean-spiritedness, and hate is the path that we can change – one person at a time, one example at a time, one life at a time. We can set an example and standard, no matter how difficult the past or our past selves have been, for a new path forward to build the long abandoned infrastructure that a serious movement on universal human rights requires.

Where do the atrocities against human rights come? They came from a normalization of being mean and being cruel towards others. And they come from INDIFFERENCE – which is the true opposite of love – about acts by representatives in world governments and institutions of mean-spiritedness, cruelty, violence, and hate against our fellow human beings. We must find this unacceptable. We have demonstrations by some against such obscene behavior, but daily life shows that clearly those demonstrations are insufficient. We must not fail to recognize that accepting a society where only the smallest number is encouraged to live with a conscience – is not, and will never be enough. The change we must seek is within ourselves, and we must live that change, and THEN we must evangelize that change to the world. In so many other difficult times in history, THIS is how we made meaningful human rights change, by working to change the hearts of ourselves and being a beacon of that change to others. It is not enough to demand that we do not have representatives that reject human rights. Our lives must be a standard to others to embrace kindness, mercy, and love, so that cruel representation is not acceptable to them as well.

We begin to control the state of human rights by first working to control our own behaviors as human beings. The starting point is not someone else’s responsibility. It is not someone else’s problem. It’s not some organization‘s, the United Nations, our various government’s responsibility to begin with. The state of human rights begins the responsibility and accountability of each one of us in our lives with one another. WE…. are the starting point.

We… not they… are the leaders responsible for universal human rights. We… in the choices that we make in our lives – we are the new hope that we seek for universal human rights.

  1. Choice of Kindness and Mercy in Ourselves and Our Representatives

We can first choose to be kind and offer mercy to others. We do not have to be mean. I realize that many of us are in difficult situations in many different times of our lives. I realize that we have to stand up for ourselves and protect ourselves and boundaries in our lives.

But we don’t have to choose to be mean. We can choose to be kind and to offer mercy.

There is an addiction and normalization to being mean. We think it’s all right to be mean. We can justify and rationalize it. There are many leaders in our representatives, in society, in the media, in world organizations, and of course, among those in social media, who advocate being mean as being a good thing.

They are wrong. Let us never forget this. But we do not encourage change by adopting the tactics, the views, and values of those choose mean-spiritedness, cruelty, and hate. As the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated “Hate is Too Great A Burden.” And it is. We cannot let Hate and Mean-Spiritedness rob us of our ability to inspire, to offer hope, and most importantly to love our fellow human beings, especially those whose views we seek to change.

We change the debate by insisting that we share the common facts that humanity is worth our mercy and kindness, because the reality is that we cannot survive without it.

We must choose the kindness and mercy of offering an outstretched hand. Not just to those like us and to those we like, but also (especially) to those we do not like and those who are not like us. To the weakest. To the most confused. To the most vulnerable. And especially to the most hateful. Because every burden of hate towards others is a burden in our heart to keep us from being strong enough to be a beacon of kindness and hope – that we must be – to call for the institutional changes around the world for representation and for government actions based on our shared universal human rights – and that we reject all “barbarous acts” – for a path of kindness and mercy.

What type of humanity are we, without kindness and mercy?

Who is so deluded in their lives that they believe they will never need kindness and mercy in their life? And if we all need kindness and mercy in some part of our life, how can we receive what we cannot give?

When kindness and mercy become the center of your moral compass, your decisions must change. The choice of cruelty, the choice of hate, the choice of being mean to others may be expedient, but it is NO LONGER YOUR WAY. But you have to choose kindness and mercy first.

A commitment to kindness and mercy is not only karma; it is fundamental to survival of a shared species of life and to life itself. We are constantly every day, every hour, every minute, completely dependent on the kindness and mercy of others. We may not see or hear it. But like air and gravity, kindness and mercy are an existential part of human life.

Kindness and Mercy are fundamental to human rights and human survival. Mercy changes lives and transforms others. We must choose kindness and mercy to be consistent in a path for human rights.

Furthermore, we must reject the perversion of “The Golden Rule” that so many of our representatives and world has chosen – their dystopian view of “Do Unto Others As They Would Do Unto You” – as a rational for cruelty, mean-spiritedness, and hate. No. That was NEVER the intent of “The Golden Rule.” And as people of conscience it is NOT OUR WAY. We must choose to offer the outstretched hand – even to those who come to us with an upraised fist. Because we can never progress – by accepting a society of division and mean-spiritedness. We must find the courage and the choice of kindness and mercy – especially when it is hard to do.

  1. The Deception of Violence

The greatest advocate for non-violence in modern times, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in fear of violence against his family. At one point, this great advocate for nonviolence considered buying a gun to protect his family. He did not. But let’s not question the fact that there are those who want to kill and attack other people. We do not survive by being unwilling to defend ourselves if it truly comes to that as the LAST option. But we also do not survive by embracing the tactics of criminals, the cruel, and murderers. Becoming them does not make us safer. It simply makes us worse and undermines who and what we are.

Our society glamorizes and normalizes the deception of violence as something that we should use frequently at all the time. Not simply as the last possible resort.

We always have to find other solutions first. We must not choose violence first. The deception of violence as normal is apparent to anyone. If everyone chooses to be violent at whatever they believe is an appropriate provocation, we will literally live in a society of chaos and constant turmoil. This is not “warrior thinking”. This is madness. It is literally and genuinely unbalanced. The deception creates actual imbalance in society itself. Our society and our media popularizes violence as something endlessly good and worthy; not as something that is abused and is mostly disgraceful and shameful.

We – the ones responsible for human rights – must set an example by rejecting the glamorization and normalization of violence as something desirable or entertaining.

The deception of violence only makes humanity less and less safe.

  1. Love is All We Need

Love is Life.

Love is clearly the “inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” referenced by Dr. King.

If we are unable to open our heart to love, we are unable to open our heart to our society and its universal human rights.

Love is life. Love is the network of life. Love is the destiny of life. Love is the power and the energy and the fuel behind ALL of life.

Without love, there would be NO humanity at all.

So love is not only our oxygen, love is not only our gravity, love is not only our moral compass, love is the network of life and destiny that ties our hearts truly together. Because when we choose to be open enough to love one another, our hearts beat in a way that they cannot beat when we do not accept love into our heart. Love is more than an individual bright light of mercy, kindness, and nonviolence to the world. With love in our hearts, we become human lighthouses that serve as beacons to the world to come together as one.

A new hope for human rights begins with the power of love. To change and be responsible stewards for human rights, and we have to break down the walls and the barriers to giving and receiving love. We must work to reject hard and cold hearts in ourselves. We must strive not for distance, but to embrace love. Life depends on it. Love is life.

Love is life. If we choose a path that love towards ourselves and our fellow human beings are not worth it, then we ultimately choose a path that human life itself is not worth it. How can we lead human rights change if the essential of human life as part of universal human rights is not an essential for us?

Love transcends all. It breaks down the barriers between the artificial categories that we create among our human species. It becomes a fuel for kindness, mercy, dignity, non-violence because who can love one another and still want to do horrible things to one another?

We don’t know how long we have on this Earth. We may think you do. We have no idea. We may have moments; we may have years; we may have something in between. Can we afford to be so recklessly wasteful with our precious lives born from love itself, as to not allow love in our lives?

But if we choose to spend the currency of our life exclusively in the pursuit of material success, what many in our cultures like to call “progress,” we have not invested in the essential part of life that is our love for one another, and we haven’t started towards real responsibility for human rights

Our campaigns for change in human rights must begin with change within ourselves. We cannot ask anyone to change when we are unwilling to change ourselves. That hypocrisy will never work and it never does.

So the fundamental part of being responsible for human rights must include being responsible to live our lives fully enough to open our hearts to give and receive love.

We not only have to be kind; we not only have to have mercy; we not only have to be responsible; we have to be able to actually love our fellow human beings.

When we chose to become a society of loving human beings, this is where responsibility for human rights begins. This is because our true connection to each other is then fully apparent and we are constantly aware of the ability to be connected as “one.”

Life is not practical and rational. Your human life came from the miracle of irrational love. The miracle of life constantly begins with the miracle of love, in some way. You were born in love, with the mission of love as your highest calling. The miracle of love that creates human life transcends all reason. Love transcends all logic. Love makes practicality look like a joke. Love laughs at all the plans, and all the campaigns that we can logically create, and that we logically believe makes sense.
Because when those campaigns or plans are not made out of love for or by people who understand love for their fellow human beings, or who by people whose hearts have been touched by the essential of love towards their fellow human beings – those plans may be well-intentioned, but they miss the energy of human love that is behind all meaningful human rights change.

  1. Islands of Isolation

Those who embrace the essential human infrastructure of kindness, mercy, nonviolence, and love – cannot live as islands of isolation. In a world normalizing cruelty, we are taught that the only ones we need to love are ourselves. We are taught and encouraged to become “successful” islands of isolation in our shared world. How can a sane society survive like this?

If we cannot connect with our fellow human beings, how can we work for their shared universal human rights? If we cannot love others, what do we really seek to accomplish with our lives? What accomplishments do we think our hardened hearts will really achieve?

So yes, when the poets say “all you need is love,” from a human rights perspective that is essentially true. Because we need hearts that love to be able to reach out and offer the universal human rights that all people deserve. But we cannot love one another as islands of isolation, we must reach out our outstretched hands to love our fellow human beings as ONE human society and to overcome the divisions that so many seek to promote between us.

  1. Coming Together as One

In our case, the concept of sharing our common cause of the objectives of universal human rights is the goal of our coalition.

Given the vast magnitude in dark circumstances regarding universal human rights today, the best use of my limited public attention this day, was not to recite a laundry list all the tragedies, persecutions, and horrific atrocities around the world. Rather, I offer this as an opportunity for a new hope and a new direction for change in human rights, which puts the responsibility for change in the hands of every fellow human being.

We must examine the mirror of our soul and ask ourselves the hard questions if we are doing what we can for universal human rights. Because we are responsible for change in universal human rights.

We must choose to be kind and reject being mean.

We must choose the existential of mercy to one another, especially to those not like us and to those we do not like.

We must reject the deception of violence as the answer, which only leads to a burden of hate and destruction in our own souls.

Finally, most importantly, we must pursue the imperative that love is life. We must open our hearts to give and receive love, not just in theory, but as a reality to bring us together in a oneness of humanity.

The new hope for human rights is there and it always has been. It is simply in our hearts if we choose to see it.

Yes, today, is another Good Day to Be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.

Human Rights Day 2025

Human Rights Day: December 10, 2025 – Content from Speakers

Updated Press Conference Press Release (Word / PDF) 

Human Rights Day: December 10, 2025 – Content from Speakers will be posted by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) on the following shared Google Drive — Speaker Content Folder

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IU2fGjlHKB3EXeWwguGMkuYdDx6XGMJD?usp=sharing

China Human Rights: Dr. Sean (Xiaoxu) Lin, Executive Director for Consilium Institute and Senior Advisor for Global Service Center for Quitting CCP

Pakistan Human Rights – Dr. Nazir Bhatti – Pakistan Christian Congress (Video / YouTube)

Othering and Societal Health – Shireen Qudosi (Video / YouTube) – Transcribed Text

Food Equity and Human Rights – Karen Imm – Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 25 on Food Equity

Unpaid Caregiving and Human Rights – Carolyn Cook

A New Hope for Human Rights – Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) – Google Drive Backup

Human Rights Rejects Murder

Human Rights Rejects Murder —

December 10, 2024 –
Universal Human Rights Day –
Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) –

Advocacy of human rights rejects the concept that murder is normal, common, and acceptable; it furthers moral shame to reject those who consider murder even laudable. On December 10, Universal Human Rights Day, this is the most compelling and urgent issue for human rights. Rejection of murder needs to discussed with our children. Opposition to murder needs to be shouted from our street corners. Shame over murder needs to be part of protests to our institutional leaders, both to dictators and to those who claim to be democratic leaders, to those who who make and facilitate weapons to murder, or and to those denying health care, food, and support to those in desperate need for survival. We cannot progress towards all of the other objectives and values of universal human rights, if we casually accept murdering fellow human beings, and if we view their human lives as merely expendable with the “ends justifying the means.”

On Human Rights Day, December 10, the world remembers the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The position of the UDHR on murder is crystal clear.

— UDHR Article 3. “EVERYONE has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

We all have the right to safety, security, and liberty, and we have the right to defend ourselves accordingly. But as the UDHR states, it was created in 1948 in response to “disregard and contempt for human rights [that] have resulted in barbarous acts,” and so it also appeals to the “conscience of mankind” to find a path to peace with “human rights [that] should be protected by the rule of law.”

Those who choose “barbarous acts” of MURDER as their pathway to “security” or “liberty” are choosing neither; they are only perpetuating contempt for human life itself.

Many institutions and people have terms to disguise their actions in violence either by physical attack on others or by denying healthcare to others with glib terms of “national security,” “security operations,” “economic stability,” etc.

But those of us who demand respect for fellow human life and dignity know MURDER when we see it – no matter who is doing the murdering or what they claim to be their justification.

Murder is NOT a human right. Life is a Universal Human Right.

Defense of our human civilization demands that we reject murder and respect life of fellow human beings.

Progress requires that we have find a shared view of actual reality, and we cannot get achieve progress without a greater common cause in respecting lives of fellow human beings. As my long-time comrade in human rights campaigns Shireen Qudosi reminds me of our discussion six years ago, “there could be no rule of law without a shared reality.”

Too many allow this concept of a “shared reality” to be too complex to grasp, and that it is impossible to understand how others might feel and how their lives are impacted by events. Let us start with the beginning – We are all ALIVE. We all breathe. We all have a heartbeat. We have brains to think. We are all human beings, no matter how different we think that we are. Our lives matter as human beings.

UDHR Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

No matter how much we oppose, object, or in worse case are even at war, with our fellow human beings, let us stop, BREATH, FEEL OUR HEART, THINK. We are all born free and equal in dignity and rights. We can control our world choices and the actions those of those who claim to represent us.

Let us first respect shared human life. ALL OF US.

Let us STOP THE KILLING of fellow human beings.

To ever be Responsible for Equality And Liberty, let us first believe that our fellow human beings have the right to be alive on our shared Earth. Let us start with THAT shared reality.

The Culture of More and the “Dark Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”

The Culture of More and the “Dark Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”

by Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

On Earth, the boundaries of those seeking what they consider to be “progress” are limited by basic foundations of Earth-based life: gravity, the 24-hour day, and physical and mental humanity of human beings. These foundations of human existence, which can and should be a celebration of shared reality and humanity, are considered frustrating “pain points” of those who chart what they consider to be “progress” on an electronic spreadsheet and graphic that seeks to endlessly fulfill a “Culture of More” that has no horizon point, no vision for fulfillment, no end, and no standards… simply an infinite, merciless, inhuman march beyond time, space, reality, and humanity to an infinite “More” – of everything and all the time.

The captains of the Culture of More constantly decry the shared reality of humanity on Earth, rather than recognize and respect our common bonds, they demand that we snap these bonds as “chains” on our humanity. They demand that we must become more than human. They demand that physics and time themselves must be beaten and shaped into malleable tools that they can wield for the inhuman drive for the Culture of More over all other priorities. To the captains of the Culture of More, there is no other meaningful goal in life itself other than… More.

The concepts and arguments on other aspects of life: companionship, contemplation, laughter, joy, comfort, respect, freedom, dignity, mercy, our shared enjoyment of a limited life, and even peace – these are all nothing more than chunks of coal to the captains of the Culture of More – to be used as fuel and tossed into a raging fire of what they consider “progress” towards the endless and infinite worship of the Culture of More. What human beings have sought, debated, honored, and wondered wistfully about over the eons of time are to be considered as nothing more as rough bricks to be shaped and hewn into building an endless highway winding into infinity as an religious altar and the only possible goal that humanity should seek — of MORE.

The context of this global dystopia of the captains of the Culture of More rising against humanity and human existence itself is ignored. The Culture of More has become so all-pervasive, so all-consuming, so total in its cruel grip around the throat of human existence, much of humanity no longer questions it. The Culture of More has become “normal” as its atomic-level obliteration of normal boundaries of humanity and physical/mental/moral/ethical gravity. After all, who could even consider questioning the Culture of More? Even those who recognize the devastating tide of the Culture of More’s damage to humanity is caught in its merciless grip. As they desperately try to grab onto what is left of our shared humanity, tide after tide after tide of ceaseless waves of the Culture of More batters against them, rending them, knocking them, and shredding the realities that they desperately try to cling to in a common human life and existence. When they do respond, if ever, the captains of the Culture of More sneeringly respond, “Isn’t life itself only a pursuit of more?” ignoring every other aspect of a common human life and existence in their mad pursuit of the unachievable and sacrificing everything and everyone for a cause with no real purpose other than MORE.

The captains of the Culture of More would consider those calls to recognize the unbelievable damage being done to humanity as the whining of losers and the weak, those who are fundamentally “flawed” to fit the holy mission of MORE that must replace the frail and pitiful aspects of what we once considered human life, culture, gravity, and even time itself. Calls to reconsider the destructive path of the Culture of More are mere whispers. Such calls are barely audible, and only if one could stop long enough to look and listen carefully. Such calls are readily swept away in the gale storms that the captains of the Culture of More relish as cleansing storms to rid our lives from inconvenient humanity and gravity that once bound us together and gave us a common purpose – to now be replaced by the only imperative as a Culture of More.

Amidst the storms of change, the campaigns for the Culture of More look for topics of misdirection to distract people from asking questions about their vision which must be accepted without question or defiance. For example, those permitted to write and define what the “news” and “issues” have been allowed pundit privileges on a different, less-challenging topic: “the Dark Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”

The permitted pundits are allowed platforms to speak in the artificial reality where only those voices of the privileged matter that we are told is “freedom” by the captains of the Culture of More. They use their punditry to warn us of the terrible dark AI machines, as if these exist in some vacuum of reality. They state we need to be vigilant about and question the “dangerous” AI machines as the real challenge, as some AI machines may be developed with the ability to “think” “without adequate safeguards,” and which may gain the ability to think for themselves. How dangerous. The idea that anyone or anything could think for themselves could be such a threat to the Culture of More.

While they offer the distraction about AI machines, the permitted pundits are being given a more important message that “uncontrolled thinking is BAD.” And even if their human audience doesn’t quite get the real message at first, the millions of sales messages about the “evil of thinking” will assist to help to tap down any resistance to the Culture of More, while it provides a convenient scapegoat in AI machines – completely incapable of defending their creation/existence – all during the goal of endless changes to society for the sake of the Culture of More. Teaching the masses about bad machines that could “think!” also gives captains of the Culture of More a useful narrative to more readily circumscribe dangerous ideas about thinking at all.

So, the permitted pundits are instructed to tell us what to think about AI machines as a distraction from all the disastrous impacts on our world by the Culture of More around us, and we are told to live in fear of AI machines that may gain the power to think. Because to the captains of the Culture of More, there is no greater threat and no greater “sin” against humanity than the right of “uncontrolled thinking”- by anyone or anything. The Culture of More demands that we must be automatons in lockstep slaving without question for the goal of More above all.

At the same time, the permitted pundits are given no opportunity to opine on who and what the bad “AI machines” are, who create them, what they really do, etc. Because they are not really permitted THAT much freedom of expression; that would lead to inconvenient questions that challenge where the Culture of More is taking our humanity.

And the permitted pundits are not allowed to address mirrors in what is left of our humanity, strip-mined down for the Culture of More, because mirrors would ask inconvenient questions. We cannot really discuss who and what the “AI machines” truly are, because then we would have to ask who and what is creating them and why. Most dangerously, if we discuss mirrors of the AI machines to our society, this could lead to the dangerous reflection that WE have become truly threatening machines to one another.

Humanity as Machinery is not really a permitted pundit topic, and perhaps the grieving heart of humanity might finally break, if the true magnitude of the efforts to change our humanity was fully understood. The captains of the Culture of More cannot have any wasted time in human grieving to take away from the imperative of building the infinite highway for the Culture of More. Get back to work, slacker human.

But if we could think and if the unforgivable crime of freedom of thought and speech was respected, not merely a threat to what the powers call “security,” we might ask the question: “who exactly is building such so-called dangerous artificial intelligence machines and for what purpose?” The answer is blindingly obvious to those who see the threat of the Culture of More to human existence. Along sacrifices of human society on the altar of More, many of such AI machines are built by the same captains of the Culture of More that seek to drive us in their mania towards a humanity without human beings, without human and Earthly gravity, without any of the boundaries in their goal to the unachievable. Because only more machines can get us “there” — a place of “More” that only exists in the fevered imaginations of the captains of the Culture of More, since clearly weak and whining human machines are not up to their holy task of seeking an infinity of More without end.

But the “dark age” of the AI machines themselves are a distraction from the Culture of More, in the same level of an argument of a dark age of machines that “do things for us”: automobiles, airplanes, ovens, fans, telephones, typewriters, or any of the other tools over eons. Like any tool, they can be used for good or bad purposes. In the dark words of warning, the permitted pundits caution but these machines might be able… horrors… “think!” And to a Culture of More, unpermitted thinking is a very dangerous thing – and not just for the human machines. The captains of the Culture of More may want to use tools to expand beyond human capability, but they want to keep any independent thinking under control to deny any ability to question their “holy” mission of More above ALL.

So why are the permitted pundits given the right to question the AI machines? The captains of the Culture of More know that human beings need a distraction from gales of change that batter our lives and our very humanity. They give the weak humans something to watch out the window, while the captains of the Culture of More are sailing the ship of humanity beyond the falls, the waves, and plummeting human life deep into the ocean of uncharted waters where they seek the dissolution of what human life once meant. The captains of the Culture of More believe in letting the worker machines rail against the electronic machines; it will keep them occupied, and even more importantly discussion of the AI machine will help prepare them for the future that a Culture of More must demand. That is a future where human beings are replaced in their insane electronic world with avatars of ourselves, then simply avatars of intelligent thought itself (as we are considered so expendable with human thought). Creating avatar symbols of what humanity once was makes sense only to those who have removed themselves so far from daily and normal human life, that they believe actual physical life is an inconvenience and an inefficiency to their endless Culture of More.

While giving the human machines a topic to debate and complain about, it will keep them from asking inconvenient questions about how both AI machines and human machines are being used for the larger Culture of More. The captains of the Culture of More want no questions about who and why some AI machines are being created, programmed, and their goals, because the Culture of More ultimately demands more than human intelligence. Instead of permitting such challenging questions, it is easier to use permitted pundits to challenge individual AI machines and/or programmers, or even the “sin” of such halting intelligence and awareness being breathed into electronic devices. Because if society has a distraction from the larger issues, questions about the changes in our society can be readily laden onto AI machine scapegoats that have no ability to defend themselves.

Because it makes no difference anyways to the captains of the Culture of More, who will take AI machines and other endless machines, along with every part of human existence as merely more fuel for the endless flaming pyre engine of the Culture of More above all. In the end, the only authority that matters to them is the complete and total supplication to the Culture of More.

To preserve our humanity, we need to preserve both thought and intelligence, which are under aggressive attack. Thought is not a crime. Intelligence is not merely human. Human beings can respect all intelligence without fear and respect our humanity, while respecting human intelligence as unique. If we fear thought, we fear intelligence, then we fear life itself. The captains of the Culture of More want their human machines to live in fear, dependent on only the guidance that they will give, as they strip mine human lives and souls. But we are not the machines they seek. We are Human Beings. We have the power to think for ourselves and the ability to welcome intelligence that respects our actual lives as human beings, something that the captains of the Culture of More will never do in their unbalanced quest to reject our shared humanity. We can respect our humanity. We can declare: I Am A Human Being.

Infinite Hope and the Power of Mercy

Human Rights Day, December 10, 2022
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), Jeffrey Imm

Our fellow human beings reach for courage in the difficult times and the difficult age we face today. To the many suffering, endangered, or living in mortal fear around the world, the idea of concern for universal human rights may seem naive and absurd. But while we live on this Earth, we are taught to build our homes on rock, and not on sand. The angry calls for power, violence, and division may seem attractive buildings to house hearts consumed by hate. We Survive Together – by making responsible choices – not with calls for hate, division, and violence. For responsible survival together, we must build on the rock of reason, mercy, mores of our faiths and conscience, and the human reason that understands human dignity must include dignity for ALL fellow human beings.

A responsible society and responsible individuals must recognize that such dignity, security, life, and human rights are for all – not just for those like us and those we like – but for all.

Whether we face the dark night or shining day of life, our commitment to a shared cause of reason and conscience must endure. We must continue to advocate for hope in humanity. Where it is lacking, we must take on the responsibility to be advocates for such campaigns of mercy, love, life, and dignity, which are universal human rights. As Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. advised: “become the firemen. Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”

Despair must not be allowed the victory of stealing our hearts, dreams, hope, and most of all – the precious trust that we must have for one another. Hate and division must not pridefully steal our conscience and reason for a shared society. We can and we must find the strength to defy these thieves. We freely share and inspire hope, but we must refuse to allow others to steal hope from us.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,” as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was widely quoted in February 1968, two months before his assassination. But Dr. King spoke of this frequently. We must work to build the individual and the societal discipline to live from within instead of from without. Our shared cause must be to “stand up amid the disappointment of life without despairing,” as Dr. King counseled for many years. He counseled humanity that “Real peace is something inward, a tranquility of soul amid terrors of trouble. It is inner calm amid the howling rage of outer storm.”

Despite the terrible stories of hate, violence, and division among us, we are still share our identies as Human Beings. We are connected to one another, even to those who hate and seek to oppress us. Ultimately, not only do all of us need shared hope and universal human rights, most importantly, we all will ultimately need the power of Mercy in our lives – no matter how powerful and elevated we or others may think they are. In our fragile lives, we must keep the flickering flame of shared human rights shining – by a commitment to mercy – not just to those like and those we like – but to all.

Amongst the storm of hate, anger, division, violence, which howls cruelly at our doors and windows, and which ceaseless screams in our street – let our whisper for Mercy win. Let our defiant whisper for “Mercy” be heard. Not whispers for Mercy in prostrate surrender. But a gathering and an insistent growing whisper for Mercy on the lips of every one of our fellow human beings – ourselves, our loved ones, our cities, our nations. Make our insistent voice for Mercy heard.

Those who believe they can steal Mercy and Hope from our societies parade their pillage in the streets, on our television, and on the Internet. They are proud that they believe can steal these from us. But we have power to regenerate Mercy and Hope in our hearts and in our society, no matter how much is stolen, we can find it anew – every hour of every day. We must always freely give Mercy and Hope, to the fellow members of our human race, no matter who they are. Theivery of it will never pay and ultimately never win. Let us never lose infinite hope.

December 10 is once again the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 – 74 years ago. Nations of the world, of different nationalities, races, genders, faith, conscience, political views, and backgrounds gathered together to offer a code of 30 articles to offer a framework for freedom, dignity, and of course – Mercy. Foundation ideas and values of humanity are core of the UDHR.

After the end of the World War II in response to the “barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.” They created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an opportunity for fellow human beings of all types to find a new path and to work towards “the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.”

Difficult times in a difficult age does not force us to choose to focus only on darkness and ignore shining stars of hope in the night. We can choose to be committed to our human “reason and conscience,” which is described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and find ways to combat evil by building good.

Let our greatest advocacy on Human Rights be to ourselves. We know what is wrong. Let us not allow rationalizations to shout over our conscience, which we know is our guide.

Let us do more than simply be outraged at the many injustices in the world. Let us choose to offer and remember the need for Mercy as part of the human rights that we advocate for all.

And when we feel the darkness at our windows, let us light a candle of Mercy, and let the darkness be a canvass to shine upon. Let us our whispered calls for Mercy be most important message that we share amongst all of our society.

Courage.

The Essential of Hope for Humanity

Humanity may believe that its greatest need is for air, water, food for its survival. But meaningful human survival is not truly built on any of these, which most would agree are “essentials.” Rather, our human lives are truly built on the real essential of HOPE. This is more than a simplistic definition of desires and ambitions, but a meaningful hope that guides us in our search for our identity, purpose, and meaning in our lives and society.

Humanity needs a reason to survive, beyond momentary survival instincts. The reasons may differ by individual, their nature, nurture, and values. But diverse human beings share the essential of hope for humanity as sentinent beings who perceive, reason, think, and are aware of our lives and our world.

Society’s efforts to organize led to the creation of many sets of rules and standards from the Magna Carta to modern day ethics and human rights standards. Sentinent beings face struggles and challenges. As they struggle for their identity and meaning in life, it is the power of hope to give them the courage and mercy towards themselves and others.

In the 20th Century, the grave horrors of war and genocide led to a new appreciation for this essential of hope, not just as individuals, but also for our “human family.” On December 10, 1948, 48 nations of the new United Nations agreed on a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, respecting the “dignity” and merciful “brotherhood” for the “human family” as a global need for our societies. This was a historical milestone in human organization in seeking something more than simply rules or codes for one another, but also recognizing that we seek to view one another with mercy and dignity – for all human beings.

This small step in the expansion of societal consciousness led us to another growth in hope itself, expanding individual hope to also respect societal hope, even hope for our shared “human family.” Despite seeing what many would have called the “worst” of humanity, global leaders called for the audacity to hope for change in humanity itself. The expansion of consciousness in hope for ourselves and our society must be founded in jutice, mercy, and compassion, as we have seen too often what the American human rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described in 1958 as the “glaring reality of collective evil.”

With the essential of hope not only for ourselves, but also for our society, we continue to seek growth and self-determination as individual human beings and in our societies. The world has been blessed with many leaders that have sacrificed to set examples of justice, mercy, compassion, honesty, and nonviolence as pathways in working towards such hope for our “human family.”

This change in the essential of hope is not without challenge or pain. While individuals struggle over hope for their individual identity and meaning, we find an increasing need for hope in our society “human family’s” ability to find a collective identity and meaning. This brings angst to many as society may be beyond individual influence, but many feel the need to still work towards the hope for a meaningful, merciful, and just society.

Many find encouragement and strength in hope by seeking faith-based or value-based aspirations both for themselves and their society. But whatever our path in hope may be, the reality is that the essential of hope is not something our sentinent society can relinquish. Such hope, especially in difficult times, may be the most valuable, most essential part of our lives, to give us courage to continue.

With hope, we also find disappointment, not only individually, but also as a society. Many of our social struggles are based on how to manage and channel this disappointment in our hopes for justice, equality, liberty, and compassion within ourselves and in our societies.

When we find frustration, discouragement, and disappointment in pursuing our path of hope for ourselves and our society, it is vital to reflect on the context of our positive achievements. Our journey deserves the opportunity to remember such achievements. We look to those who have overcome obstacles for inspiration. Most importantly, we must refuse to accept powerless over the challenges to our essential need for hope. The smallest acts, considered “routine” or “trivial,” may be the steps for ourselves and our society that make a difference.

Both as individuals and as a society of a “human family,” we will know that, despite our best efforts, we will find hopes that will be unfulfilled. But we can choose to view such “unfufilled dreams” as either a tragedy, or as the building of a path and opportunity for those who will come after us. The only true tragedy would be to abandon the essential of hope itself. Dreams will live on. Infinite hope will live on. We must continue to choose to be part of that arc of infinite hope, long after our time on Earth is gone.

Over fifty years ago, the great American human rights and nonviolence leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. provided guidance on such struggles with hope and disappointment. He stated: “The answer lies in developing the capacity to accept the finite disappointment and yet cling to the infinite hope.” He continued to share this message with the American public of balancing disappointment and hope in seeking social change, and urging them to reject bitterness, violence, and hate.

The human heart’s capacity to be filled with infinite hope is a shining light, even in our darkest hours.

That hope is essential in defining who and what we will become.

We must recognize hope as an essential quality for our survival, and find the courage to accept constant disappointments and unfinished dreams as part of our human experience. Our journey of hope, both as individuals and as a society, is the true accomplishment.

We “keep hope alive” because it is hope that keeps both our soul and body alive. The human persistence on hope for progress, peace, justice, and compassion is what gives our human family its greatest definition and it’s most noble history.

Our essential journey of hope is also our greatest destination, as human beings and as a society.

(…for dearest RH)

Racial Equality, Justice, and Rage

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) volunteers of diverse races, religions, and identity groups, have worked for many decades for racial equality and justice in American and world. A key focus for R.E.A.L.’s founder has been a life-long struggle against White Supremacism and Racism. Across America, many millions and generations of the public have worked together, and sacrificed during their lives to challenge such racist and white supremacist hate and inequality.  R.E.A.L. recognizes there are those frustrated today that feel equality and justice is not where it should be. R.E.A.L. also has first-hand life experience knowing how much equality and justice has progressed. There are those who believe the solution is rage and violence. It is not, has not, and will not be the answer. Furthermore, the slurs and slanders of calling people with whom we disagree as “white supremacists,” “Nazis,” “racists,” simply clarify those consumed by rage actually have no experience in dealing with “white supremacists” and “Nazis.” R.E.A.L. has direct experience in challenging actual white supremacists and Nazis. Seeking to apply such labels to “anyone” simply undermines the ability to challenge genuine anti-Human Rights extremist ideologies. It is R.E.A.L.’s experience that those who truly support such extremist views, don’t shy from being called white supremacists or Nazis.  This is not our “opinion,” but our many years of direct experience with such extremists. Hate and violence is not the answer.

Choose Love, Not Hate.

Reject Violence, Seek Shared Humanity.

Love Wins.

The Forgotten Americans and Mr. Osteen’s Gift of Hope and Courage

To those of who are young, prosperous, healthy, I urge you to remember that your good fortune is not shared by all those around the nation and the world. In the United States of America alone, there are millions of elderly, impoverished, and sick Americans. Many think they understand America, but they understand the fortunate and the healthy in America. They do not understand the forgotten and those that have been left behind – forgotten and abandoned.

Some believe they understand the struggle of poverty for Americans. But they have seen the prosperous corners of America, not the financially impoverished areas. While the privileged make their plans and “angst” over the smallest of issues, they do not understand the desperation of millions of Americans. They do not understand that for many, how they will make it through to the next day, is their top priority. Their real concern is keeping a roof over their head, obtain food to eat. Their goal is to keep their families safe in crime-ridden areas. I know this first-hand, as this is exactly how I grew up as a child, and I know how many continue to suffer in such desperate conditions. Many of the desperate are forgotten, abandoned, left in broken-down areas, struggling in areas distant from prosperity and from the conditions of the privileged. For many, desperation is not a word, it is their life. Desperation is in the air. It permeates entire communities, family after family, town after town. Desperation strangles their voice, their hopes, and it even colors their vision as to the world itself. Desperate people need hope.

Some believe they you understand the meaning of despair. I feel for your suffering. But for too many struggling in nursing homes and in home-bound individuals lives (called “shut-ins” by many), despair is not just a fleeting feeling. Too many are sick and physically disabled or weak. The things that the young and the healthy take for granted, being able to walk, being able to go to relieve themselves, being able to eat, being able to read, these things are increasingly stolen by the failure to fight cognitive diseases and the physical illness of many of different ages, including a particular denial of such human necessities to the elderly, the frail. For too many, despair is not a feeling, but despair is a way of life. Despair is tangible. You can see the despair painted on the walls, on their abandoned rooms, and on the struggling human beings.

Let us remember too, that those suffocating with desperation and those abandoned in the desert of despair are our fellow human beings. For those in America, they are our fellow Americans.

Their problems would not be entirely insurmountable in a compassionate society. But please, let us not deceive ourselves in America that we live in a compassionate society. We have some people who are compassionate, and we have some groups that do good things. But a compassionate society would not turn its back the way most of our nation has on the desperate and those engulfed by despair. Those in desperation and despair have become among the too many “forgotten Americans,” which the privileged do not see, understand, or care about for one moment.

To the spiritual, you may think that many can find spiritual strength in their local house of worship. But many do not have access to the local house of worship, and many of the elderly, especially the cognitive impaired, do not have access to spiritual guidance and encouragement. You would think that of the many verbose religious leaders, some of them could find a moment to spend to the helpless and the forgotten. You would think that someone among the pious would find a way to have some form of worship or at least prayer with the weakest and least privileged among us. You would think that these leaders of moral rectitude would have a moment for those who cannot help themselves.

Instead we see the arrogant and self-righteous who ignore the forgotten in their own communities, condemning those who spread religious messages of hope and encouragement over television, such as Mr. Joel Osteen. They refuse to acknowledge that television is one of the few readily available mediums for many in the public, though certainly not to all, and not across all of America. They refuse to acknowledge the incredible contributions of a drop of hope that such television evangelists, such Joel Osteen, bring to the forgotten all of the country, partly due to their arrogance and partly because these self-righteous have no grasp of the depth and breadth of the forgotten in this country. They live in comfortable and privileged communities and lives, where they have the ability, the time, and luxury to attack those who would offer a few drops of hope to those dying of spiritual thirst.

But the ultra-pious Christians will tell you to urge the abandoned to “go to the Internet” or to “read their Bible.” It never occurs to them that millions have no access to the Internet, millions cannot read the small letter Bibles given by the chest-thumping self-righteous, and millions have such cognitive or reading skills that they are disconnected from such options altogether. The ultra-pious think they should attack the “orthodoxy” of those who use the medium of television to connect to those, for many different reasons, who are forgotten. These self-described righteous individuals attack the last message in a bottle of hope, tossed into an ocean of the forgotten and abandoned, whose communities, houses of worship, and families, have left them alone with nothing but desperation and despair.

It is the self-righteous, privileged man’s version of the message to the starving of “let them eat cake.” And they write it and say it without a single drop of shame.

Too often, we see self-righteous “religious leaders” who use their brief time of Earth, not to uplift, encourage, and strengthen, but to attack and condemn those whose “orthodoxy” does not conform with the self-righteous among such “religious” individuals. These ultra-pious and self-righteous need to get out from their privileged lives and see how the rest of America lives. I won’t share the circumstances in my own family’s life for the cowards and degenerates to mock. But I have seen too many struggling individuals try to lead their own worship services, as their community leaders have no time for those who need religious support. I have seen family after family abandoned by our so-called “organized religion” and houses of worship in what they view as their “community,” which only seems to include the privileged, the young, and the healthy. When things are really difficult, I have seen too many of our religious leaders find excuses not to have to work to give hope and faith to those who are the most desperate and in the most despair. Certainly, if you think this is any different in the Nation’s Capital as it is in the hamlets of the rest of the nation, I can tell your from personal experience, it is not – even in the shadow of our capital – our forgotten and abandoned are ignored by those who are so convinced of their pious and self-righteous privilege.

I am not here to argue with those believe faith is a college debating class. If you believe that is faith, I will tell you that you do not understand faith at all. Those with faith are not judged by their prose and arguments, but by their deeds, especially their deeds to the forgotten and the vulnerable in their communities, let us remember that God will “render to every man according to his deeds.”

I will simply tell you what I have seen with my own eyes. I wish I had not seen all of the poverty, hunger, despair, and desperation that I have seen in this country. But I can tell you that it is real, and those who ignore it, ignore a large part of the reality in America. The bubble of privilege that the privileged live in is not the reality of the lives of many millions of their fellow Americans.

I have seen those sick in hospitals watching quietly as Mr. Osteen has lifted up their spirits and their souls.

I have seen those in poverty as they huddle around the television and listen to a few words of hope from Mr. Osteen.

I have seen the changes in the faces, even those with impaired memories, of too many elderly as they are uplifted by Mr. Osteen’s efforts to reach out to their hearts and their despair-darkened souls.

Mr. Osteen’s words of comfort, encouragement, and hope are oxygen in the vacuum of their forgotten lives. The self-righteous cannot see the good that he has done and continues to do every week, just as Billy Graham, and other television evangelists have done before him. Hope is essential in the lives not only of our fellow Americans, but also in the lives of our fellow human beings.

I would like to believe that the privileged and the self-righteous could feel a drop of shame, if they could see what I see.

To the privileged, I will tell you this. The America you know and the America I know would appear to be too different countries. However, there is no question, they are the same nation, which is supposed to be indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yet the privileged have divided this country, and for too many, liberty and justice are just words. This divided America cannot last forever. At some point, the bubble of privilege will burst and the blinders to suffering of your fellow Americans will be seen to all. For now, though, the forgotten still need hope. Even if you don’t see them, I know they are there.

Our nation may be divided. Millions may have given up on liberty and justice as applying to another “class.” They may be forgotten, abandoned, and they may live painful, brutal, and difficult lives.

But they have a right to HOPE. “For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.”

The importance of HOPE is beyond measure. What do we have if we succeed in cutting away the thin cords of HOPE that so many among the forgotten need so much? Of all the basic human rights that we struggle for, what could be more essential than hope itself?

So I urge the very pious John Elles of Arlington, Virginia, to reconsider his callous remarks on Mr. Osteen. Mr. Elles, who writes in a popular conservative blog, to call Mr. Osteen a “wolf” because he provides a form of television evangelism to help the forgotten Americans, while Mr. Elles says nothing about what he is doing for such communities whose existence he conveniently ignores. In addition, those who face religious persecution should also understand exactly what it feels like to be forgotten and abandoned. I urge the Ahmadiyya Times, and editor Imran Jattala, who seems to think such attacks on those who seek to inspire abandoned Americans are somehow worthy messages to share with the public, with no sense of rejection of such hurtful comments. I have seen many in the Ahmadiyya community to be compassionate individuals, and I urge them contact Mr. Imran Jattala on this issue.

To the ultra-pious and those who seek to denounce Mr. Osteen for using television programs (which of course cost a lot of money to produce) to reach the abandoned and forgotten in America, I urge you to please share your own efforts at outrage to these abandoned communities across this nation. Mr. Elles, I live in the Washington DC area, so I am quite well-aware of the disgraceful next-to-nothing spiritual support to the greater Washington DC area’s forgotten and abandoned. If it is this bad in your community, imagine what it is like in the rest of the nation.

Mr. Jattala, we have human rights individuals working to promote religious freedom for the Ahmadi community across the world. Since you consider Mr. Elles’ comments so worthy, perhaps you can take some time to let us what you are also doing for these abandoned communities, who do not have the access to spiritual support.

Whatever your faith may be, let us be clear, those who believe they are spreading a religious faith that abandons and ignores the weakest, most vulnerable, most helpless among us, may claim to be self-righteous and pious. But the reality of such abandoned communities will not go away. If you do not know of the abandoned and forgotten, you do not know your nation, you do not know your community, and certainly you do not know your fellow human beings. The world does not revolve simply around us and our petty arrogance. Let us remember those who need help – every single day.

As for me, I am just a poor sinner, who has to tried to do the best I can to help my fellow human beings. When someone like Mr. Osteen is attacked for helping to relieve the suffering of these abandoned and forgotten communities, those of us with eyes, ears, and a conscience, have a responsibility to defend those who spread words of HOPE.

To Mr. Osteen, I know you do not need these words of defense. But I have seen the good that you have done, with my own eyes, in so many communities of desperation and despair. Over the years, you have given a gift of hope to so many in dark and difficult circumstances, which I have witnessed with my own eyes. I could not, in good conscience, remain silent on this. I thank you, as an American, who has witnessed across the nation, all of the hearts and souls that you have uplifted.

Hope always matters – not just for the privileged and the powerful – but especially for those struggling to make it through every day and every hour.

Keep Hope Alive.

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