“Most of us who started to work on the ‘Citizens for Clean Air’ campaign were mothers,” she said. “Since we knew what a big task bringing children up is, we were anxious for our children to have the best future possible. Thinking back, I realize that’s what gave us the strength to endure all kinds of persecution and see the fight through to the end.”
To be effective, ethics must be charged with this kind of natural and spontaneous sentiment—the irresistible impulse to act that moves us when we see the people and the world we love exposed to danger. Living ethics such as these are truly integrated into the very fiber of our humanity.
What, then, are the values that can serve to truly unite humanity, to link ordinary citizens in genuine solidarity? At the very heart of the values we seek must be a profound reverence for life itself. Such a sense of respect and reverence can awaken people to a sense of connection with all the forms of life with which we currently share this Earth, as well as a sense of oneness with future generations.
This appreciation of the unity and connectedness of life has been a part of many cultural traditions since ancient times; it has been passed on and continues today in many indigenous cultures. It is vital that humanity as a whole humbly attend to this living wisdom. For example, the Desana of the Amazon say that human beings cannot live in isolation and only thrive when they are in harmonious coexistence with their environment. The Iroquois of North America exhort us to make all decisions keeping in view “not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground—the unborn of the future.” In this worldview, all animals and plants are seen as siblings