THE SEARCH FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

Look at the United Nations calendar, and you’ll see a long list of days set aside to promote international awareness on a whole range of important issues, including poverty, exclusion, gender equality, human rights, and racial injustice. On this month’s calendar, you will find two more important days with long names that might keep you from paying attention. But we must pay attention, now more than ever.

These two days are:

• International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism
• International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

I found it no accident that the two days were so close together on the calendar. When you think about it, slavery and terrorism are the same things. They are both an invasion of our space and the theft of our inalienable right to be free. What’s more, slavery and terrorism both feed off fear, hatred, and intolerance, while also seeking to prevent the individual from recognizing their true essence as a Divine spark of the Universe.

I’ll say it again: we must pay attention.

Slavery and terrorism are still thriving in our society. In fact, they are growing as fast as COVID-19, and are just as lethal. And, yes, you could argue that slavery was abolished years ago. But if these unsettling times…