by Aggie Perilli
When responsible guardians see children about to harm themselves or others, they sweep in and steer their charges towards safe and healthful behavior.
From the start of my communications career as a newspaper journalist, I have found no joy as rewarding as communicating on behalf of the underserved and most vulnerable. How often has someone served as an enthusiastic partner for me or someone I love?
Communication conveys empathy and shared understanding. The late psychologist Rollo May observed that genuine communication leads to community described as intimacy and mutual valuing.
Other information exchanges may betray a projection, obfuscation or other red flag.
The instant the safety and well-being of fellow immigrants — or anyone — is threatened or compromised, step up and ensure all are treasured as loved ones.
Immediately end and prevent divisive and revelatory fear- and hate-mongering, and celebrate the gifts of all blessedly diverse beings.
Every moment counts. Ensure solutions the people affected agree are for the common good.
Remain Faithfully Responsive and Trustworthy
Avoid media pundits and ideologues who obscure or falsify the facts and engage in relentless partisan attacks, described by my father as “a bunch of people who shout at one another.”
A 2012 United States survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University found viewers of “especially Fox News” our least-aware citizens, and listeners of National Public Radio and viewers of Sunday morning talk shows our most aware, followed by viewers of the Daily Show then hosted by Jon Stewart.
When you follow sources corrupted by ideology or industry, you share responsibility for the destructiveness of their dishonesty and exploitations.
Honesty is the foundation needed to build trust. Without this universally shared value A Course in Miracles describes as a characteristic of God’s teachers, the ground you stand on is perilously hollow and unstable.
Treasure All Interdependent Beings As Yourself
Before mobile and social media, government and corporate officials pursued ideology at the expense of reality, and the public acquiesced. Today, the public can discern the truthfulness of media pundits, industry lobbyists, and politicians who doth protest too much.
With fact checkers exposing distortions, scare tactics, and outright lies, the ongoing acceleration of communication and collaboration is inevitable.
While it may be helpful to compromise how to achieve your vision, never compromise the universally enriching values needed to ensure your vision.
Said Sufi author Kabir Helminski in a Fetzer Institute interview, some people follow the notion that “if I don’t enrich myself, somebody else will get my share. Instead of looking after one another, we are looking after ourselves. This is a false economy.”
“To get over the hurdles and obstacles of being a civil and compassionate people,” he added, “we may need to recognize how, and to what extent our thinking has been manipulated.”
People who scapegoat and attack others are betraying their own transgressions or intentions.
In a democracy that is truly great, when one of us succeeds, we all do.
10 Ways to Transform Divisiveness into Shared Understanding and Enthusiasm
To exceed your expectations while inspiring a world of faithfully true and lasting partnerships:
1. Promote positive change, rather than regress to a patriarchal or hierarchic past that is catastrophically violent and unsustainable.
2. Be a leader rather than a follower of what has been.
3. End and prevent criminal fear- and hate-mongering that can incite violently abusive exclusions and attacks.
4. Channel your communications into universally enriching partnerships, however vociferously some may disapprove.
5. Partner with equitably inclusive innovators and realize infinitely more than any of us achieves on our own.
6. Remain proactively aware and responsive to universal safety and well-being.
7. Empathize and share understanding with reliable frequency and creative consistency.
8. Neither compromise your values and give in, nor give up.
9. Be as forgivingly patient and tolerant of others as you would like others to be with you.
10. Vote for honest candidates who are unifying and consistently and demonstrably trustworthy. – AGGIE PERILLI
Aggie Perilli is president of Aggie Perilli Communications International.
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