Letter to Concerned Students: 10 Ways to Side With Humanity
By Starts With Us Founding Partner Daniel Lubetzky and Honorary Board Member Lonnie Ali, Co-Founder of the Muhammad Ali Center
"The campuses on which you live, learn, and strive to become the people you want to be, have turned into battlegrounds…
"As a passionate Muslim and a passionate Jew, we have come together to humbly share a path forward for how to transcend the construct of “us vs. them” and side with humanity instead.
10 Ways to Side With Humanity:
1. It helps, not hurts, your cause to empathize with the pain of the other side…
2. You cannot advance social justice if you tolerate hate in any form…
3. To effectively solve problems, you must understand the other side’s thinking…
4. Absolutist solutions condemn everyone to endless suffering…
5. Alliances are necessary for conflict to end…
6. To get the full story, pop your social media bubble…
7. To stay grounded and well, avoid social media when you can...
8. Make curiosity, compassion, and courage part of your daily routine…
9. When engaging in DEI initiatives, learn the lessons deeply…
10. Muster the courage to transform moderation into BUILDING…
"The overwhelming majority of people don’t cause problems, but we aren’t the ones getting them solved either. This is a problem, because a world in which good people stand on the sidelines is a world in which evil overpowers.
"To build a future in which all people can live together in dignity, we must join as Builders to overcome the forces that divide, destroy, and diminish. In their place, we must unite, build, and bring light to the world."
About Heart of a Nation
Empowering the next generation of American, Israeli, and Palestinian change-makers to embrace better, together.
אנחנו מכנסים הוגים מובילים, פעילים חברתיים, ומחוללי שינוי לעתיד, אמריקאים, ישראלים ופלסטינאים, המחויבים לשיפור החברות שלהם.
نحن أمريكيون وإسرائيليون وفلسطينيون نبني ونكوّن روابط من أجل التعلم والتفكير والمشاركة معًا حتى نشجع الحلول التقدمية بشأن القضايا التي تهمنا جميعًا.