It’s no secret I’m a classic movie buff and have a pretty respectable collection. My favourite scene from the movie North by Northwest is when Roger Thornhill visits the United Nations Building in New York. And even though I’m visualizing 1959, not 2018, I’ve often thought that spending a day at the United Nations would be an amazing experience. What would it look like? My imagination has me standing there admiring all the different cultures, colourful attire, shades of skin, religions, accents and languages – like being in an atrium full of different species of birds. A whole world, a melting pot of humanity, within one building and no one person more important than another. It would be like traveling the globe in an afternoon. I can’t think of anything more exciting!
Nelson Mandela’s powerful words bear repeating:
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
If the late President Mandela can spend 27 years in prison and still carry no hatred in his heart, don’t we owe him a duty to at least try to respect and learn from each other’s differences and collective knowledge, and get along? It is so logical and simple. Hate and prejudice are exhausting. Why is it we just can’t get it right?
Wendy Richards 