During Finding Home’s launch dialogue, Senator Roméo Dallaire explained we live in an era of globalization and technological development where we have the ability to communicate around the world, with the whole of humanity, in the space of hours; where global issues like the environment have stark consequences for all of humanity. We live in “an era of massive rapid revolutionary change that is hitting us at constant pressure”. Our times, he says, “call for consciousness of the future, for pro-activeness and long-term planning.” From Rwanda, to Oka, Darfur to Iraq, Senator Dallaire illustrated the multiple frictions that exist around the world today. Humanity, he explained, is now recognizing it is in conflict with the Earth and in conflict with itself. He urged us to see that we live in a complex era where there are no simple or easy answers.
In the spirit of great optimism Senator Dallaire shared a vision of humanity in 200 years. A humanity that is comfortable with it’s differences, that recognizes “a common humanity”. He explained “differences will not become instruments of frustration and friction but in fact become complementary…we need to recognize that the humanity that exists in all of us is just expressing itself in different ways and in so doing there might be a complementarity there versus a source of friction that leads to conflict.” He challenged us that the task at hand is within the next two hundred years to further develop and disseminate the tools to transform our conflicts, allowing us to find a common vision for unity – recognizing each other’s inherent search for serenity. He suggests one of these tools is the global human rights movement.
J.J. Verigen, Executive Director of the Union of the Spiritual Communities of Christ, weighed in about our technological advancements and our growing inability to manage the ethical and moral implications of “progress”. And asked “Do you think in your 200 hundred year prognosis, we as human beings will ever come to be whole? Will our capacity to care, ever be surpassed by our compulsion to kill?”
Listen to Senator Dallaire’s response.
