On November 3, 2020, the Humanity Project turns 15! We are proud that our values, programs and ideas have proven lasting. And we’re very grateful to every person and organization that has supported our work. A special shoutout in that context to State Farm, Our Fund, Children’s Services Council of Broward County, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Google, among others.
As we look forward to the next 15 years, we also feel pride in the continuing improvement of our organization. Our mission statement has been thoroughly rewritten several times and our motto updated to be as clear, concise and effective as possible. Our Board of Directors and Leadership Council as well as our founder, Bob Knotts, all believe the current mission and motto at last make very plain what we’re fundamentally about. Our mission: “Instilling greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity.” Our motto: “Equality For Each, Respect For All.” We see ourselves as spokespeople for humanity itself, reminding folks in our challenging world that despite all the conflicts and tragedies, among the many setbacks and losses, humanity continues its unsteady advance toward fulfillment. As a species, we are on the march toward equality for each, respect for all. Look around you — you will see the progress in major areas of our lives. Grand advances in human knowledge, major strides in access to water and food for everyone, progress in racial and religious and gender and LGBTQ equality. The work is far far from done, obviously. But step by slow step, humanity is gaining ground … “advancing on Chaos and the Dark,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed it.
You may ask yourself, “What right does the Humanity Project have speaking for humanity? Who are they?” To which we reply, “We have every right, as do you. We are all human beings. We are members of the species Homo sapiens — and our membership automatically grants us the privilege to speak about human life as we see it.” We think a deep belief in humanity fosters belief in the individual human being. And in ourselves as individuals. And this strengthens humanity’s drive toward greater fulfillment of our best traits and abilities.
We take a long view of human history. If you try this for yourself, you’re likely to find it comforting. We each tend to become so lost in the daily flow of dispiriting news, political conflicts and disrespectful words and rampant inequality, that our minds easily lose a more accurate perspective. As Dr. Martin Luther King famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” And it also bends toward understanding, wisdom … and spectacular achievement. You and your family and your friends and all of us are the inheritors of a tradition that includes the Mona Lisa and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the Parthenon and Petra, Hamlet and Ulysses and Moby Dick. We have stamped our footprints in the dusts of the moon, snapped photographs of galaxies and black holes, launched probes that have passed out of our own solar system toward destinations yet unknown. We have wiped out whole diseases, improved treatments of others. We have traced the obscure records of our history and envisioned ambitious paths to our future. We have gifts not granted to any other species, including the power and flexibility of our imaginations and an extraordinary adaptability.
We are humanity. So are you.
And we also are the Humanity Project. Yes, we’re justifiably proud of all we’ve accomplished in the past 15 years, including the nation’s first mass march against bullying and other large-scale events; effective programs that include Humanity Club, I Care, Antibullying Through The Arts and One Common Humanity; 128 podcasts so far and hundreds of blogs as well as original essays, fables, videos, music and more.
We hope you will become part of the Humanity Project too. Join our campaign at no cost by signing our simple “Pledge For Humanity”: Sign the pledge. Help us to speak on behalf of humanity’s best, assist in the effort to continue our species’ advance toward “equality for each, respect for all.”
