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To be human is to carry both the capacity for immense love, compassion, and unspeakable harm.<\/p>\n
We are not born hating others. Not born violent. Not born cruel.<\/p>\n
We learn it. We inherit it.<\/p>\n
From family.<\/p>\n
From history, from fear, from the illusion that power must be taken, not shared.<\/p>\n
I have been asked: what makes a human behave like an animal?<\/p>\n
But even that question is unfair, because animals do not kill for cruelty.<\/p>\n
They kill to eat, to defend, to survive.<\/p>\n
Humans, on the other hand, kill with words, with laws, with silence.<\/p>\n
Yes, our silence encourages ruthless and cruel leaders to continue their crimes in our names.<\/p>\n
We make others suffer not always from need, but from want.<\/p>\n
Wanting control. Wanting vengeance. Wanting more.<\/p>\n
That is not nature. That is the shadow only humans cast:\u00a0the knowing misuse of power.<\/p>\n
Why, then, do we see the suffering of others as natural?<\/p>\n
Because we have seen too much of it.<\/p>\n
We scroll past bleeding headlines. We step over the homeless.<\/p>\n
We shake our heads at war, then go on with dinner.<\/p>\n
Not always because we do not care,\u00a0but often because we have been trained to believe: their pain is not our responsibility.<\/p>\n
They are Arabs. They are Muslims. They are Jews. They are Mexicans. They are Black. They are Christians. They are\u2026 they are. \u00a0<\/p>\n
This indifference becomes a cause for the suffering of others, under our watchful eyes.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0that belief, we forget what makes us human.<\/p>\n
We forget that to be human is not just to walk upright:\u00a0it is to feel.<\/p>\n
To hurt for others. To grieve strangers.<\/p>\n
To cry when a Palestinian man child, not yours, is crushed beneath the weight of someone else\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
Being human is not a birthright.<\/p>\n
It is a daily choice.<\/p>\n
A choice to lean toward compassion when cruelty is easier.<\/p>\n
A choice to see the world not through the lens of indifference,\u00a0but with eyes that tear, with a heart that bruises.<\/p>\n
When we stop choosing to be human,\u00a0we become something worse than animals.<\/p>\n
We become creatures who know better,\u00a0but no longer care.<\/p>\n
Stay human. Even when the world forgets how. Even when it hurts. Even when it is easier to turn away.<\/p>\n
Because in remembering the suffering of others,\u00a0we remember the very thing that makes us worthy of the name:\u00a0Human.<\/p>\n
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About the author: <\/p>\n
Dr. Abraham Khoureis is a multi-talented thought leader and partner who utilizes his writing and influence for positive social change.<\/p>\n
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