A universal principle that connects all humans, found in the liturgy of all the world’s great religions from time immemorial, is the principle of treating others as we would want to be treated. The embodiment of this principle is found in the concept of universal love. Fundamentally we humans want to be loved, in fact we are hard wired for love. From the time we take our first breath to the instant we take our last, we want to love and be loved. We accept, that on the spectrum of the human condition we live in an imperfect and unpredictable world, and we are aware that there is the ideal and the reality of living in this beautiful mess. However, we also recognize that this awareness must not resign us to a fate of relativism. A life without love deprives the human spirit of emotional and psychological nourishment, it can foster a despair capable of destroying hope, and the will to live. We can choose to commit to a reality that promotes universal love as a guiding principle.
And indeed many historic social events led by courageous individuals, over the course of our shared human story, have aspired to and inspired the ideal of universal love as evidenced by their determined campaigns for peace, justice and equality, many times at risk of great peril and personal sacrifice, even death. Our world has also seen its share of cruel, self-serving, intolerant and dangerous humans come and go, the more notorious of these have been relegated to the dark pages of human history perceived as, scoundrels, brutes and fiends. If we have learned anything we have learned that the sooner they are stopped the more lives are saved, the less damage done and the greater the opportunities we have to raise our children in a world that is safer, more secure, loving and peaceful.
The stakes are higher now than they have ever been for us in the course of human relationships, this time we may blow ourselves right off the face of the earth. Do we really want to gamble nuclear weapons with a man who has publicly ridiculed his own intelligence network? A man who has antagonized a major nuclear power precipitating a recent warcraft event. A man who is friends with a nuclear power that he has, by tacit approval, allowed to make mockery of basic and fundamental tenets of one of the most powerful democracies in the world, the same one he aspires to lead. Really, that man?
It’s time to fight for love, again.