December 23, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)
Christians, who make up about a third of the world's population, celebrate the birth of Jesus to Mary on Friday. Non-Christians worldwide, too, will join this public holiday festivity.
As words of love and compassion ring here, there and everywhere, taped next to my computer is a postcard I purchased years ago at the United Nations bookstore in New York, when my wife and I were students in a university U.N. program. It is a postcard of Norman Rockwell's wall-sized mosaic painting, hung at the U.N. headquarters.
The painting shows men, women and children of different races -- black, brown, yellow, white -- wearing serious, solemn faces, children with hands clasped, others carrying religious offerings, mothers carrying youngsters, all standing behind a scripture which reads: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" -- Matthew 7:12, the "Golden Rule."
And Matthew 7:12 has its equivalent in other religious and moral traditions: Buddhism's scripture, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful"; Islam's "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself"; Judaism and Christianity's "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
And Confucianists say, "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you"; Hindus say "This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you."
Thus, it is fitting today to reflect on this universally accepted maxim of reciprocity that advocates peace and harmony in all relationships -- personal, societal, national and global.
On Dec. 10, President Obama spoke in Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed upon him. Admitting humbly that so many others around the world are "far more deserving of this honor than I," Obama cited the Golden Rule as, "the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion, ... this law of love (that) has always been the core struggle of human nature."
He acknowledged human weaknesses: "We are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil." And he told the world, "make no mistake: evil does exist in the world."
Yet, he said, "We do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place." And he declared, "We are not mere prisoners of fate. ... Our actions matter."
Citing world peace as "unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please," Obama said solemnly that "neither America's interests -- nor the world's -- are served by the denial of human aspirations."
"Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms," Obama said. He cited Americans' "enlightened self-interest" that dictated Americans' actions, "because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other people's children and grandchildren can live in freedom and harmony."
Quoting President Kennedy's "Let us focus ... not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions," and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present makes him morally incapable of reaching up to the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him," Obama appealed: "So let us reach for the world that ought to be -- that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls."
He outlined his vision to "build a just and lasting peace." Regimes that break the rules "must be held accountable" through "increased pressure"; a peace is just and lasting when "based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual"; and as development requires security, there can't be security if food, clean water and medicine do not exist. Hence, citizens' civil and political rights must go hand in hand with economic security and opportunity.
And Obama promised in Oslo: "America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal," a reassurance of what he promised Dec. 1 at West Point, that "America will speak out on behalf" of the human rights of "every man, woman and child around the world, ... and tend to the light of freedom and justice and opportunity and respect for the dignity of all peoples."
So, as we celebrate Christmas and prepare for the new year, let us pray Obama will succeed in trying "as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time."
As he declared, "We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that -- for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth."
Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com
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