Former Student Group Leader, Walking the Walk Youth Initiative

 

"Shared Planet, Shared Understanding"

 

"I truly believe that groups such as the Walking the Walk community successfully stimulate courageous conversations that are needed for the betterment of the world. Being a part of an interfaith group has allowed me to be more comfortable to bring up all kinds of conversation about religion. Now that I am more knowledgeable about other religions, I am able to use that knowledge to help the person I am speaking with understand what I am saying. This crossing of the religious boundary brings people closer together and creates a richer environment, a key to repairing of the world.

 

"Of course the physical health of the world is of unbelievable importance, but that is not the topic to which I am speaking. The people of the world must be healed of their ignorance. There was a session in which our group was split into smaller groups and those groups were in turn able to ask questions of religious leaders. The question I asked was, “If you could use one word to sum up the world’s problems, what would that word be?” I got amazing responses from these extraordinary people. My own personal response would be that ignorance is the cause. The less people know about each other and their respective religions and cultures, the more alienated each group becomes. This is not an environment that would promote rehabilitation of the world’s people. We are in fact: all people, on one Earth, with one goal. This goal being unity.

 

"So while I could write pages about the need for unity and the raising of the poor moral standards that dominate the world today, I will leave you with a statement. We are an extremely large, multi-ethnic and multi-religious family sharing a 197 million square mile home which depends a great deal on how we attend to it. Without the cohesion and loving attitude of unity, this task is impossible. This is the reason why I joined the Walking the Walk Youth Initiative, to start on the long journey of getting to appreciate my 7.2 billion brothers and sisters. We share a planet, it is time we shared an understanding."