All Lives Matter

Human Rights, Dignity and Global Peaceful Co-existence

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

George Floyd was killed by a police officer who should have protected his life, human dignity and oxygen—breathing natural lifelines—from the encroachment of extremism and brutality. His cry “I can’t Breathe” is echoed throughout the globe whether someone knows George or not—a natural sense of belongingness and affirming the reality that ‘We the People are One Humanity’. Racism and racial disharmony is a chronic problem created by the socio-economic disparities and political injustice—the perpetuated Capitalism. The insanity of manipulation and injustice needs urgent reconstruction and change.

We are witnessing an historic event of people’s power and purpose for societal change and the epic of ruthlessness of the dictators across the globe. Be it in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere, leaders claiming to be democratically elected think and behave like absolute monarchs. US President Donald Trump appears to be standing at a crossroads and is engaged in time-killing exercises, not a proactive person recognizing the reality of societal problems and leading to societal peace and harmony and future-making. Trump should be thinking of a navigational change. Mankind needs morally and intellectually responsible leadership. Throughout history, all despots and leaders tried to run down the mankind as if it was just a number, a digit, and a conscious-less entity. We are witnessing the continued abuse and cruelty in Kashmir, Palestine, Yemen, Syria and many parts of South America. But, all of those leaders fell in disgrace, destroying their own nations and empires. America was enriched with intellectual foresights and democratic history to safeguard the deprived humanity. But its contemporary leaders and major institutions seem to defy the logic of co-existing with the global humanity. For sure, American leaders lack even the essence of Thomas Paine’s historic “Common Sense” to political change, but historical change will replace America’s global leadership image with others’ more understanding and relevance to the mankind. After almost four years of “America First” absolutism of Donald Trump and numerous racial-political discords, history will judge President Trump by his actions, not by his claims.

George Floyd died for equal rights and justice

The tragic death of George Floyd reminds us of all the revulsion against the failure of working democracy, economic injustice, subjugation of the people of colour, psychological and political evil, and insane tyranny against the blacks and the people of colour. President Trump’s ‘America First’ slogan reflects painful temptation and socio-economic and political compulsion of systematic evil embedded in capitalism and the class of the people who claim supremacy to govern the less fortunate and poverty-stricken people of colour. All colours and all lives, for that matter, do matter if we claim to be a rational human being species populating the God-given One Planet—Earth. We, the People, the Humanity are colourful and beautiful.

The Earth encompasses many sharp diversities—air, water, fire, colourful and colourless, hot and cold, white and black, deserts and rivers and seas, earth and heaven, visible and invisible, the sun and the moon, right and wrong—all coexist in harmony without breaking the limits of rationality but we, the human beings, are so disingenuous for not being able to learn from the nature of things around us and part of our daily life. We must rethink about planned change in our inner thoughts and souls to treat others equally and with dignity, if we expect to be treated justly and fairly within the socio-economic and political compound of the society. How strange this is what Dr Martin Luther King Jr; preached and advocated in the Civil Rights Movement across America, yet, he was met by forceful resistance and denial of his basic human rights, dignity and ideals. “I can’t Breathe” does not dictate a necessity from Donald Trump or a revolution, but deserves a rethinking of equal rights and social emancipation, as well as sustainable future-making. Ostensibly, the people of colour, including the natives and the indigenous people, must be treated equally as we are all human beings living on this splendid Earth and in the universe that sustains life and all that we could imagine. Opinions could vary but truth is one: capitalism has created more problems than conceivable economic remedies for the common folks.

Socio-economic and Political Systems of Equal Participation and Rights

Chris Hedges, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and the author of recent book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle,” contributes a realist observation in his article “The Ghoulish Face of Empire.” “The language of violence engenders violence. The language of hate engenders hate. I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn. …It is as old as the Bible.”

We must think honestly and plan workable solutions, not traditional legal investigations into police brutality and abuse of basic human rights of the citizens. Often formal investigations prolong for ages without warranted systematic remedies and the need for social justice is rebuked by the changing political gossips. Abuse and violation of human rights cannot go on unchecked and reshaped by the logic of reason and political justice forever. The masses are out on streets and roads and across the halls of fame, and it cannot be stopped by the misuse of power against the innocent people—the protesters. They are not ‘thugs’ as Trump claims but human beings with legitimate cause for societal change. Any intervention will be futile and short-lived unless drastic humanitarian changes are integrated into the working of the so-called democratic societies. We must aim at people-to-people dialogue—how to change and make the forces of abuse, racial discrimination and brutality into the working of the systematic governance for the best of masses. Perpetuated evil is deprivation of One Humanity. The historical change that Dr Martin Luther King Jr. called for needs political, social and psychological factors to be integrated into the working systems of democratic governance, and adaptation to the world of reason and reality for continuous change and defined objective values for a new threshold of human respect, honour and dignity for all lives—that matter. Mr Trump hurriedly wants to fix the long-standing historic injustice against the black and indigenous people simply to get ready for the forthcoming presidential election. The need is urgent to evolve a new system of people-oriented governance, respecting the norms and promises of a just and fair system of equal rights and human dignity before law and justice. In its history of political development, America has to strive a long way to ensure its political ideals being part of the ‘commonsense’ and the constitution. American politicians and decision-makers must learn what is going on the streets and listen to the voices of reason for socioeconomic and political change. Paul Street did echo a rational message “For Intelligent Civilizations on Earth”.

We must reason for an instinctive recognition of social, economic and political injustice across the globe, and logically try to transform the world of political wickedness, disharmony, socioeconomic and political deprivation and exploitation into a world of moral, intellectual and spiritual reasoning, and be passionate and hopeful for constructive changes in thoughts and behaviours—be it the policing or the masses march on streets and halls of fame, our aim and wisdom must be focused on purpose: a different, better world of tomorrow and continuous change to be monitored and assessed by the people of knowledge and reason to ensure that we do not cross over the limits of the laws of nature deserving punishment from God—the Creator and Sustainer of all the lives, the Earth and the Universe that matter to us all as human beings. The aggressive violations of human rights, dignity and equal participation should not lead to a Third World War against us by us. Its consequences will be unthinkable and catastrophic for the human civilizations claiming to be intelligent and just as it happened during the Second World War. The warmongers and their cruelty against the fellow human beings were not punished in its entirety.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs – global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations. He is the author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 12/2019).