JULY - Dignity & Inclusion

                                                                  Illustration by Miki Howenstein
                                                    (From page 212 of the book “Jumbo Jumble”)

…… The meaning of “all-inclusive” herein entails the idea of all life as being fundamentally valuable and encourages individuals to act on that, while encouraging others to do the same. At the same time, when we blindly accept individual behaviours damaging to our universal ideals, like someone who insists on his right to downgrade others, we destroy our own sense of community and inclusiveness, for such a person drives a wedge between people……
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Author’s Comment: How do we include those who wish to do harm to us? Or accept beings (like those nasty mosquitoes) which inflict pain on us? While we maintain the idea that all life is valuable, it is also important that we insist upon living in dignity and the right of others to do so. When others invade our sense of dignity, we have a right (I would also say, an obligation) to do whatever is necessary to uphold our (and others’) dignity however we can, which may mean resisting being harmed by another or excluding them in order to maintain a dignified inclusion with others.