Common Grounds

THINK! | A Way to Getting to Know the OTHER and One ANOTHER

April 04, 2024

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

By: Abraham A. van Kempen, Editor

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology places unprecedented possibilities for good at our disposal, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet its misuse can do untold harm, leading to misunderstanding, prejudice, and conflict.

When others are portrayed in hostile terms, news spreaders often sow seeds of conflict, which can quickly escalate into violence, war, or even genocide. Instead of building unity and understanding, the media often demonize the other – social, ethnic, and religious groups –inciting fear and hatred.

Areopagus of the Modern Age

The media can teach billions about other parts of the world and different cultures. With good reason, they have been called "the first Areopagus of the modern age . . . for many the chief means of information and education, guidance and inspiration.

Images especially have the power to convey lasting impressions and to shape attitudes. They teach people how to regard members of other groups and nations, subtly influencing whether they are considered friends, enemies, allies, or potential adversaries.

Indeed, the Building the Bridge Foundation (BTB) and other media sources have enormous potential for promoting peace and building bridges between peoples, breaking the fatal cycle of violence, reprisal, and fresh violence that is so widespread today.

Our Brand – Our Unique Approach

Scroll through one of our News Analysis editions. Notice! It scrutinizes the news with all the bells, whistles, and tools of a sophisticated, in-depth, multi-dimensional probe, with no stones unturned. Typically, our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday News Analysis series feature divergent articles and videos reporting from around the world, i.e., Beijing, New York, Kyiv, Dubai, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Kuala Lumpur, Cape Canaveral, The Hague, Delhi, Moscow, and Bethlehem – to name a few – and written by recognized journalists – some Pulitzer Prize journalists – and experts in their fields. Often, I slide an editorial or editor's note into our editions from my heart and experiences.

We Propose, not Impose – The Readers Judge

Our readers want to review multiple narratives and divergent views to converge toward some sense of logic and understanding. Not one story reports the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We help our readers expand their blinders and broaden their horizons. BTB honors, respects, and dignifies their intelligence.

Our Raison D'être – Our Reason for Being

If there is any question about our role in the world, it is to leave it a better place. Can we do what is right? In response to the 'a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye,' one could choose to give a tooth or an eye if needed and warranted. That is what bridge building is about.

"I Think Therefore I am" (a Unique Creation in the Image of God!) … I Think NOT Therefore I'm WHAT? (A Robot in God's Image?)

The Building, the Bridge Foundation, asserts that human progress only becomes possible if respect for every person's inalienable dignity and rights are guaranteed.

Every democratic system must demand and protect fundamental human rights and every category of those rights.
This applies to the rights related to material survival and the human mind with its incessant search for truth and freedom.
The many forms of injustice and discrimination inflicted on the weak in too many parts of the world prove that the world is still far from that goal.

Today, the international community urgently needs a renewed and more practical commitment to respond to the needs of all.

Be part of building the bridge.

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