Reflection by Edgar Cahn
Fear of Islam has been on the rise. In 2017, the courts blocked President Trump’s efforts to impose a travel ban to six predominantly Muslim countries. But he kept trying and secured a modified version of that ban. And in Portland, Oregon, a white supremacist had stabbed two people to death on a train for standing up to racist harassment of a fellow passenger.
A commitment to basic human rights and dignity undergirds TimeBanking. TimeBanking is a way of affirming basics: We are human. Time is the common currency of all humanity. Affirming our ultimate worth – that one hour is our slice of eternity. It is all we have. We are ultimately equal. Affirming that can be an act of courage needed now more than ever in this era of polarization. TimeBanking declares we are not disposable. We have that common asset, time, and we can use it to assert a truth that cannot be denied – the truth of equality.
Sometimes simply affirming our common humanity becomes imperative. We cannot accept life being turned into a spectator sport. Going back to Nazi Germany, Martin Niemoeller recalls the pathway of passivity that led to the Holocaust:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
That was the path to the Holocaust.
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