In January 2001, I had travelled with my young family to US for a conference and a small vacation. Our first destination was Boston, where we visited Harvard University and walked the Boston Mile to the Boston harbour. It was here, in 1773, that demonstrators, boarded the East India Company ship and threw off the chests of tea from China , as the Company was exempt from local taxes giving it an unfair advantage. The British government considered this as treason and responded harshly with the event escalating into the American Revolution. And within a few years, in 1788, the US Constitution was written in 1778, starting with the famous three words “We the people”.
We then went took the American Airlines flight to New York, and walked around Manhattan, saw Central Park, Times Square, the United Nations Buildings and even caught a glimpse of Bill Clinton passing in a motorcade! We went up the Empire State Building , and one of the Twin Towers, where on one of the top floors saw a movie, and the children had a “coin’’ imprinted. I particularly remember a young person working in the cinema serving us ice-cream. I have often wondered whatever happened to her, was she working when the terrorist planes crashed into the Twin Towers that same year on 9/11?
We all often wonder how we can all live harmoniously, despite having laws (local and international) education, family, friends and peer influences. And in the worst case disharmony can lead to wars where there is always suffering on all sides.
They usually start with some negative thoughts, that lead to arguments, escalating to bigger differences, involving more people and are usually about race, assets, and or values and ethics that vary. And despite the huge progress mankind has made in the world, with developments in democracies, technologies, and economies, wars keep happening!
The bombing of the Twin Towers escalated into world wide events, of the fight against terrorism, and some countries almost being decimated notably Afghanistan. And the Islamic radicalism impacted not only on communities around the world with terror acts in countries around the world, but also caused a lot negative feeing on ordinary Muslim families.
My own town of Redditch, of 70000 people, we had and have had a lot of harmony throughout my 40 years in the town. Many different types of immigrants have moved here, from the Polish, Caribbean’s, Pakistanis, Indians, Syrians and Ukrainians. True and just leadership has been shown by the local Council and senior stakeholders in town. However, external issues such as some terrorist act used to worry us that negative issues would spread into our town. A couple of particular events were a march by the racist English Defence League, and the damaging of a local mosque that was being built in town.
Most Redditch people were aghast by these events, and somehow, with a local Council leader, faith leaders from the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish Community got together to see whether we can proactively work on preventing any flares ups. I represented the Hindu Community, having been a previous Chair. In the early days, these meetings at night would be nebulous, flaky and lacked clarity, but thanks to the lead Councillor, Bill Barnett, he managed to get us on track and eventually we started working on what mattered to all the people of Redditch.
And from there we went on to debate and write the Redditch Pledge.
I was tasked to work on the wording , and this was huge challenge, as we wanted to avoid the pledge to not become just an inter-faith pledge. I had spent many hours on what mattered to us, and started with fundamentals on what mattered to us as a society, and I even remember a ‘word’ progress one week, and dropping the following week, with many iterations, and contributions, including from my Malaysian friend, Boon, and my son, Anand, a philosophy student. My Sikh friend in one passionate debate came up emphatically saying the words “Everyone Matters”, and the final version was agreed.
We, as people of Redditch
pledge ourselves as one united community,
respecting all races, faiths and beliefs,
to build on our common values
to achieve happiness and progress
for all. Everyone matters.
We Launched the pledge with a walk from St Stephens Church Redditch to the Redditch Mosque, with over 200 stakeholders from schools, police, and faiths, and for me it was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I say that because I have often felt that differences are often perceived and we celebrate diversity. But underneath all that are some common values and that was what I had started with in trying to build consensus on the Redditch Pledge.
The below values have been taken from the Inter Faith Network, comments made at our meetings, iterations and e-mails. This list is not exhaustive
Communication and Trust
Listening, and Openness
Courtesy and mutual respect
Respecting dissent and other people’s right to express this
Accountability and Responsibility
Diversity
Inclusiveness
Mutual Respect and fellowship
Democracy (based on equality and justice)
Harmony, safety, dispel fear, safety, compassion
Confidence, enterprise, vibrancy and skills….. Redditch Economic themes
HOW THE VALUES ARE INCORPORATED
REDDITCH PLEDGE VALUES
We, as people of Redditch …fellowship
pledge ourselves as one united community …unity ,community
with respect to all races and faiths or none …tolerance,mutual respect
to build on our common values …democracy, equality, justice
…communication and listening
…debate, openness,
…respecting dissent
…accountability
to achieve …objective
happiness, and progress …love, care, harmony, safety, compassion,
…good health, education, environment
…confidence, enterprise, vibrancy, skills
for all, …common good, responsibility,
…citizenship
…diversity and inclusion
…age, gender,
Everyone matters… … individually and collectively