All people who care about their children and grandchildren want to build the best country and the best and most peaceful world for themselves and their families to live in. The only question that we all have is how do we accomplish this? One way we can do this is by helping those organizations and groups that we feel are trying to build a safer and more well-functioning society, but how can we really trust some of the groups that we are supporting? An important truth is that groups who advocate violence to achieve their ends must always be distrusted. They will try by hate and anger rather than by logic and fact to win their supporters. Another important way to work for a better world is to support those organizations who are advocating what all good religions and caring organizations have fought for and worked for through the centuries and that one goal is human rights for all human beings. All of the problems and violence in our country and the world come from inequality of human rights--- discriminations against women in all its forms. discriminations against all minorities—discrimination against people with disabilities, or discrimination against different sexual identities or practices. If we illuminate and work to stop these discriminations against vulnerable people, we will have solved a large part of our society’s problems.

All religions have at their base the principals of love such as “Love your neighbor” or "do unto others as you would have others do unto you”- These are principals that we all learn as children whether we are religious or not. Unfortunately, many religions do not always emphasize these basic principles so that there are still large groups of people many of whom are religious who do not live by these more compassionate human values. If all religious and secular people practiced these loving values, our world would become the peaceful, just and accepting world that we all hope it can be.

All of us can now become advocates for the implementation of human rights for all. We can call or write our church, or our synagogue or our mosque or even our secular groups and ask them to include several sermons or talks per year about human rights. We can ask them to try to start human rights discussions groups so that people can learn to communicate better to solve their differences. We can also ask them to set up inter-faith discussion groups to learn more about other religious beliefs and customs. People who better understand and trust each other are able to communicate better, solve their differences and build a world that can ultimately become a more just and happier place for all human beings who live on this earth.

If we all become human rights advocates now, we can become part of the solution that can begin to bring about peace on earth to our fragile and dangerous world.