A Message From Bion Bartning, Co-Founder & Board President
We need a new kind of political discourse in this country that recognizes the importance of civility.
July 13, 2024 Rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. (Photo courtesy of Bion Bartning)
Dear Friends,
On Saturday night my wife and I were in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square with over 10,000 Israelis at a rally in support of the 120 men, women, and children still being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. We heard from several of the former hostages, and from family members of those still being held.
The crowd fell silent when 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov spoke, a Russian-speaking Israeli who was rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces on June 8. We stood listening, overcome with emotion, feeling a mixture of hope, determination, and profound sadness for the terrible injustice and hardship these families are going through.
To wake up the following morning to the news that someone had tried to kill former President Trump crystallized a thought that had been forming in my mind.
On October 7, Israel was attacked by an enemy that celebrates death and martyrdom, and that treats the lives of the people they claim to represent as expendable in service of a political goal.
Hamas’ genocidal intent toward the Jewish people was never a secret. What I saw on Saturday is that, over 280 days after the hostages were brutally taken from their families, the Israeli people remain committed to the intrinsic value of every life. The amount of energy and love at the rally was overwhelming. There were no hateful words spoken. No calls for violence or retribution. Just impassioned pleas for the hostages—fellow citizens—to be brought home now.
The warning I see in the attempted assassination of President Trump this weekend is that we, in the United States, are at risk of losing sight of our shared humanity and our shared destiny as Americans. There is a lot of resentment and fear right now, on all sides. It’s not surprising that when politicians and media personalities insist that their opponents are an existential threat, violence becomes a real risk.
There are promising signs that our near-miss with a national tragedy has prompted reflection. My hope is that, going forward, we will see more debating of the issues and less hyperbolic fear-mongering. We need a new kind of political discourse in this country that recognizes the importance of civility. We need an end to the now common practice of politicians seeking to win elections and gain power by dehumanizing their opponents.
Abraham Lincoln’s words during his first inaugural address seem more relevant today than ever: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Daryl Davis, Letitia Kim and I started the Prohuman Foundation earlier this year because we believe that education is the key to overcoming division and bringing Americans together. We stand firm in our belief that the way forward is for all of us to be guided by the foundational truth that every person is a unique individual united by our shared humanity.
Warmly,
Bion Bartning
Co-Founder and Board President
Prohuman Foundation