This past week, the young athlete Simone Biles said in her testimony in front of the lawmakers in D.C., "How much is a little girl's life worth?"
Her words echoed deep in the hearts of many people who were wronged, or marginalized. She was not revealing a hidden secret. She simply put her finger in the open sore in our society – the systematic inequality and different value and reactions or responses that are given to any situation based on who is involved.
I am not saying anything new when I say that, yes, we are more lenient towards people of power, money or non-minority groups. On the other side, we exercise a more indifferent tone towards issues that deal with minorities, women and less influential individuals. To be fair, efforts are here and there to deal with such reality, but not enough.
Last week, we had the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Across the country, the day and the minute were remembered as well as those who died as a result, including rescuers. While it is important to keep the memory alive, it is more important that we ensure that something like that or even smaller does not happen again. The solution for that is we need to get to know the others in our society and build a bridge towards them.
One place that does not get enough credit for doing just that is Elon University, both in the level of the university professors and staff and the students. They stand out because they initiate and keep the dialogue going about how to open pathways between all parts of the community.
We need to know how to utilize media, religion and government to make the future better for the current and next generations. Those efforts are appreciated and need to be scaled up and out to other communities around us and across the nation. A smart nation is the one that learns from history to make the future better not just for those who are in power, but for everyone. It is good to say we will not forget, but what we are in dire need of is how much we learned from remembering.
Few days before the United States completed the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, there was an attack at the Kabul airport entrance. This attack killed over 150 people and injured scores more. The news coverage, without any noticeable exception, reported the explosion killed 13 U.S. military personnel and many Afghans. This sounded like and is a reflection that some lives are more valuable than others. News media forgot that an explosion kills without discrimination.
I dearly think that we all should put the same value at any human life regardless of who is it. We cannot treat people as less than equals and expect them to give us their best. We shouldn't put less value of someone's life because we disagree with them or because of their origin, color or religion. Every human has the right to aspire for and live in dignity. Wars do not add value to the victors that they did not have before, nor does defeat take away the dreams or rights of the losers of any war. We need to learn how to agree first and then how to disagree if we want to remain a superpower.
Let us talk about issues that we disagree on, issues that we do not understand, and just get to communicate and know our neighbors.
I invite anyone who would like to join me at the Burlington masjid on the 27th of this month for an open discussion hosted by Elon University about 9/11, and any other issues that matters to our community. Let this be an opportunity to better the future of our kids.