Nominee for Fifth Annual Baha'i Race Unity Award
Held On The twenty third day of March Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Seven
THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
KEYNOTE TALK
by Mary Koltermann, Mar. 1997
Held under the auspices of the Bahá'ís of the Central Okanagan
Our luncheon today in Kelowna is being held in a city whose forefathers must have been inspired when they selected as the motto for their young city's coat of arms the theme:
"Fruitful in unity."
I would like to use that fine motto as the inspiration for my talk today.
Wherever people meet, talk, and break bread together in an atmosphere of understanding and friendship, a little more of the healing balm of health is spread over this needy human world.
We are moving closer to the millennium now, and fear and anticipation are both growing. They are being fanned by surprising events, religious beliefs, and the interest of the media.
This is a time of vast and accelerating change, and it is important for each of us to have a strong inner world view about what is occurring; a world view that can hold its own in the face of great change, so that we can remain rooted and stable people, and continue to live our lives well and courageously as positive forces for good in the world.
If we can understand the seemingly inevitable collapse of old ways, and even time honoured institutions, as ultimately a cleansing and purifying process, one that is making room for new and better things to develop, then we will remain positive in the face of change, and we will not be crushed. We will continue to understand that there are vital things we each can do that will help towards the renewal of civilization.
Some people say that this is the time of the end of things. Others say that a world is passing away and a new one is struggling to be born. A great many thoughtful people agree with one or the other, whether they are religious or not. Many of the scriptures of the world's great religions indicate that a time of vast change is coming, or already here. I agree that this is a time of the greatest potential and would like to discuss it from that point of view.
It helps to know that such an incredible time of change as this has been prophesied by many religions and seers of the past, because then we realize that it is not just sheer chaos that is happening. This seems to have all been foreseen, and makes sense. One such example from the Bible:
there was "...a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."
One way this can be understood, is that the old structures, (symbolically "the first heaven and the first earth", that seemed so unchanging), stand for the things that governed the ways we lived and believed, which are now being changed : The old ways are falling away as new ones are and renewed
growing up Inside of them, as happens in the springtime. "And there was no more sea" can be seen as that which kept us apart in the past, such as oceans. The ancient boundaries separating the world's peoples have been overcome by instantaneous communication and the ability now, to travel easily and quickly almost anywhere.
With no more boundaries between us, the physical unification of the planet has really already occurred, and therefore, races and nations have all become interdependent, subject to one destiny. That means that the history of humanity as one people has already begun. In that case, we the earth's inhabitants had better meet the challenge to take up consciously, and systematically, responsibility for the design of our future.
We need to give birth to a new and higher civilization. A world civilization. The entire human race stands in desperate need of it. We are the generations who will determine by our actions and choices how difficult or how smooth the change to a new level of human life can be. It certainly appears that we have reached a new stage in human evolution. Once we comprehend that, we must marvel that WE are the people privileged to live at one of the most wonderful, critical, fertile crossroads ever.
For this is the rarest of times in the history of the human race. It is a time that somewhat compares to when humanity
moved from families as the only human collective unit, to a new level of cooperation, and arrived at tribal unity.
Another such major jump occurred when people changed from tribal unity to city states, and again from city states to nations. These were all decisive turning points when all of the phenomena of existence were suddenly impelled forward into new stages of their development.
Our own days are such a seminal time, when new patterns are being set. Only this time, the move is on a planetary scale -- to global unity -- a phenomenon which has never happened before.
The things we do now that are in harmony with the vast, natural movement of the times towards a higher unity, will have far more power than they could at any other time; because they synchronize with the movement of destiny, and help to establish the quality of the patterns that will be drawn out of the raw materials of this formative state. The actions that we take today will continually magnify, as they echo down the halls of time toward the future.
An incredible burst of creative power, was building, and has been rapidly increasing since about the mid 1800's. It is still accelerating, and giving us every tool we need to make a new and better world possible. We are overcoming, one by one, all the physical barriers to health, sufficiency, and happiness, for everyone in the world. Unfortunately, we are still hampered by our inability to use, generously and wisely, the tools that we have so ready to our hands. In fact, many of these very tools which have been withheld, or misused for materialistic ends, have become causes of destruction today.
No one disagrees that the human race has a blood-stained history. Our past record, unfortunately, proves that it has always taken intense mental and physical agony, to bring us to the point where we have been able to make the necessary changes, in order to allow the greatest landmarks in the history of human civilization to occur.
Racism is one of the most damaging and persistent evils. It is a major barrier to peace. It perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be allowed any longer, no matter how it is disguised. Racism makes us all victims. It keeps its victims from unfolding their boundless potentialities. It corrupts its perpetrators, and think that we can manage it quickly enough, but things aren't as bad as they might appear.
There are scholars who believe the development of the human race as a whole follows the pattern of the stages of life that each person goes through as she or he matures. They say it appears that we left the childhood of the race some time in the past, and now we are getting ready to leave the adolescence of the human race. Self-centered greediness, unwarranted pride and out of bounds behaviour will pass.
It is encouraging to remember that there is usually a developing maturity hidden under the difficulties of any individual's adolescence. Parents of grown children know how fast a young person can move from teen-aged self- centeredness into a new, fresh and delightful maturity. This gives hope that it is the same for the human race as a whole. We need to mature, if we and our planet are to survive. There are a lot of challenges of various kinds that desperately need international cooperation. These are building towards danger points. Some will be irreversible before long. Each needs unified, cooperative, and caring attention on a world basis, in order to be resolved. It certainly appears that we need to mature quickly to attend to them and that we are in a race to the finish.
Bahá'u'lláh, writing well over a hundred years ago said:
"Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness."
"Ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch....So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth."
"Ye dwell in one world, and have been created through the operation of one Will. Blessed is he who mingleth with all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love."
"The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens."
"The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." We Bahá'ís are committed to the oneness of humanity, as a most sacred religious principle. We believe that in this present age, religion must again support all efforts to solve the problem of racial discrimination.
There are about five million Bahá'ís living in many nations; of diverse cultures, classes and creeds, and fully representative of the diversity of the human family. We are engaged in a wide range of activities, serving the social, spiritual, and eventually the economic needs of the people.
This community is unique for a number of reasons, including that we are conducting our affairs through a system of commonly accepted, consultative principles, and we cherish equally, all the great outpourings of divine guidance in human history. We are the proof and the model of how humanity can live, fruitful in unity, in the global society.
So are we here too, at our luncheon today in Kelowna; a fine city whose motto, "Fruitful in Unity", is before us almost subliminally, reminding us where our true security and happiness in life really lie.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, our Exemplar, said:
"When such meetings are established, and the participants associate with each other with perfect love, unity and kindness, the angels of the Kingdom praise them...."
I think then, that there must be singing in heaven today as we honour Mr. Ben Lee for his many years of successful effort in fostering understanding and harmony between diverse cultural groups, and the public at large.
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