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A Holiday Message
By Debra Mamorsky, Editor-in-Chief
Americans don't get out much. We seldom leave our country's borders, and many of us have difficulty leaving the borders of our own communities. Could it be that we are afraid that our bedrock of perceived security is really not so secure and that we are afraid to venture out? Has the media convinced us that the world is just too scary a place?
If you read or write for Voices, you want to open your mind and share in a unique experience of learning the views of others who share our world. You want others to see and understand your world and have others understand you for who you are.
I have learned that even more important than getting a good education is experiencing people and places outside of our comfort zones. Indeed, it's the places outside of the narrow grooves of our daily comfort zones where we can meet new people and learn about their lives, taste their traditional foods. immerse ourselves in their cultures, and learn through our conversations that we are part of a family that is much bigger than our own.
All over the world -- from the poorest, most remote areas of Africa to the inner cities of the U.S., to areas ravaged by typhoons, earthquakes, hurricanes or to very troubled war zones -- people strive to carve out their own chunk of happiness. While the definition of happiness may vary, the bottom line is that we want to be cherished by friends and loved ones, we all want to have enough to eat, to be warm in the winter, and we all want to feel respected as members of a community.
As we face the issues that confront us as a world community, I hope that we will focus less on asserting our self-righteousness and the expectation that others should conform to our way. Wealth has little to do with being right or being a better human being. In fact, I think wealth can make us complacent and cause us to turn a blind eye to the plight of others. I believe that very often it's the poorest of the poor who can teach us some of life's most important lessons. We can learn these lessons from traveling to remote places like the Dharavi slum in India or the Jenin refugee camp through the words of our Voices writers.
So, instead of trying to force our beliefs on others, we should strive to see our commonalities as human beings, capitalizing on the profits derived from opening our eyes to others, having empathy and caring in our hearts even if another person's definition of happiness differs from ours. A peaceful world hinges on our ability to get out and learn about ourselves through others who share our world. Venture forth and have a happy holiday.
