How Did We Come To This When We Are From The Same Family?

We are brilliant and intelligent species ever to have evolved on this planet of 4.5 Billion years, yet we cannot co-exist peacefully with our own kind. Violence in our societies is barbarian.

The details regarding motivation, in the recent Atlanta & Boulder shootings, are still emerging. Violence, because of our differences & indifference, has once again proven deadly, with many innocent lives lost unnecessarily. My heart goes out to the victims, their families and loved ones.

I believe these acts of violence, cannot be looked at, in isolation, but in the broader context of our differences of all kinds, to engage us productively to become better societies.

I believe the promise of the coming age of abundance will lead us into an era of peace, prosperity and equality for all, enabled by technological breakthroughs. But it cannot become reality without our (human) transformation as the core foundational precept.?We cannot continue our primitive & barbarian ways of self-destruction, self-inflicted pain & suffering on our own kind, misguided by our ignorance of our oneness. Knowledge without character and politics without principles, as Gandhi quoted, are sins.

Disastrous Consequences of Our Violence

Acts of violence against anyone is reprehensible. And against people of different color, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, profession, beliefs & practices are occurring more frequently. These acts of violence have disproportionately impacted children, women, elderly, LGBTQ and other marginalized groups in many societies across the globe.

Motivations & triggers may vary, but these repeated acts of violence are not just a white/non-white issue. These are majority/minority issues across the globe. These acts of violence are perpetrated by a vested few, NOT the larger population.

In any country, a person of majority, feels entitled & empowered while a person of minority feels unequal & oppressed. This contrast emboldens some and victimizes some when views and opinions diverge on matters of common interest or concern. These issues polarize us.

The sad consequence of the violence is the number of families who now have to live without their loved ones, some even with the loss of source of income/livelihood/support for survival and sustenance. Lives and dreams disrupted by madness of the few. Since Columbine, in just over 2 decades, we had over 100+ acts of violence that took the lives of thousands of innocents.

With every occurrence of such violence, it has become the right routine of response for us to strongly condemn the acts of violence, express solidarity with the victims and hope that they never happen again. Yet, it is not long before that hope of ours is shattered again and again. So far, we have become hopeless and helpless.

We wrongly expect, demand and call for action from the Government. How can the instruments of Government - Legislation and Enforcement - solve the problems of the society rooted in divisions by differences of the majority/minority? In matters of violence that leads to death the instrument, of legislation & laws, has certainly failed. The fact that Boulder shootings happened within 10 days of Atlanta shootings and other recurring violence shows the brazen disregard by perpetrators for the deterrence in our laws for peaceful co-existence. The instrument of enforcement after death is useless/ineffective afterwards, as it cannot bring the lives back.

Our Ignorance is the Multiplier

How can two young men in their 20s, amass such rage at such a young age to kill 18 people in multiple locations and in the case of Atlanta, get on the road with plans to continue the rampage, without any regret or remorse for the 8 already killed? What situations, conditions, circumstances, interactions & experiences shaped & influenced their thinking and such rage towards others to justify killing?

If the motivation in committing and continuing violence, stems from our perception of our differences (skin color, race, sexual orientation, faith etc.) to justify harming or killing others… can the reverse be true, meaning the tendency to harm or kill others will diminish if the perpetrators see others not as different & unequal but same & equal? There is strong evidence to this postulation.

Thanks to Ancestry, 23andme and other sites many are finding their lost ancestral roots & history dating back a few decades to even a couple of centuries. To the surprise of some, they discovered roots and connections to their ancestors unimagined in race, color, nation or mix. They would not believe the kinship and bond, if it were not for the proof of genetic evidence.

The ancestral tug & connection they felt with their kin, after their learning, was so strong that it eviscerated some of their long-held core beliefs and differences against people of diversity, especially with the ones they discovered familial bonds of the past. Its an example of how people can shed their differences & rigidity of views in the light of facts and absence of ingrained ignorance. Common ancestry and the bond of blood is the most powerful human connection that can help minimize our destructive divisions of differences.

If the unknown ancestry of a couple of centuries, can change our long-held divisions of difference, what can we discover about ourselves if we travel back in time thousands of centuries?

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess. Our tools of discovery/investigation/analysis developed in the last couple of decades combined with science, documented history, pristinely preserved human remains & artifacts unearthed, helped us travel back in time to map our evolution in the last 200,000 years with more confidence and certainty than ever before. What did we find? Can the findings help us?

Paradigm Shifting Discovery

Scientific evidence & discoveries by tracing mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) of women, from all across the globe, analysis and findings, accepted widely among scientific community combined with various other studies, established that all the living present-day modern humans are monogenetic, a blow to multiregional hypothesis.

We all share one common great, great… great grandmother. All living humans, EVERY SINGLE LIVING ONE OF US ON EARTH, descended from one unbroken line of ancestors traced backed to her, dubbed as our mitochondrial Eve. We all are long lost cousins of different shades, shapes and sizes.

We all originated from one clan of early humans out of Africa about 200,000 years ago. As these early humans began to thrive, they needed more habitat. They started migrations in search of food and shelter to support growing population. Their journeys diverged at various points in time throughout history (see the embedded picture). Some migrating along the shorelines surviving on seafood primarily and some migrating inland surviving on plants and land animals.

Known early human migrations to different geographies and adaptions to local climatic conditions & local foods available, changed our skin color, body frames and features (tall & dark colored in Africa vs short & light-colored Eskimos/Inuits in North America, Greenland, Siberia and multiple variations in between) diverging our nomadic cousin pool vastly over time. Can’t believe? We go on vacations to bright sunny tropics for a few days and return with tanned dark skin. What will happen if we live in tropics permanently? Our bodies adapt and change skin color for our protection in hot, bright, sunny tropics. Now imagine such changes inherited and passed through generations over thousands of centuries to explain dark skin and pale skin among us - the long lost cousins.

As migrations began to cease with settlements, in different lands they gave birth to self-proclaimed territories & regions becoming permanent places of habitat for our nomadic cousins. Our structures, forms and features also became permanent and predominant, preserved through breeding within close-knit settlements of similar looking cousins living in proximity. These physical characteristics have become our marks of identity, recognition & distinction as people of different geographies come to be called - African, Asian, European etc. Disconnected from other cousins spread across the globe, their faith/religion, cultures, languages, trade and practices emerged, evolved and diverged shaped by and congruent with their regional realities & beliefs different from other groups of cousins they lost touch. Despite these differences in external appearances and practices, we all bleed red and belong to the same one family.

Racism and Superiority

Few centuries ago, when these people of different lands interacted for barter & trade, they realized the differences existed. The differences did not matter then. To them it was diversity, nothing more, nothing less, even though they would not have known that they all shared a common family of ancestors.

The roots of racism & superiority sprouted in our societies when their lands were occupied by conquest and ruled by different kind oppressing natives, and when these free indigenous people in faraway lands were captured and brought as slaves and exploited in non-native lands, against their will, to work in cotton fields, sugar cane plantations, railroads and for other labor.

Let’s Pause and Ponder

Our ignorance of our common ancestry and inability to accept the realities, continues to divide us and dictate/create the disparities in the quality of life, justice, freedom & liberties one experiences. Unfortunately, and sadly in certain key areas Science & Religion diverged, making life unequal for many for non-conformity.

Our brains may be hijacked but we cannot let our thinking be hijacked as well. We are all interconnected. We must see the connections. We must see our one family of 200,000 years. Our ancestors went through trials & tribulations to adapt to become diverse & resilient, through 200,000 years of evolution for survival.?The same diversity in color, shape, size, thought, practices and expression that kept us alive to our present day cannot be the source of annihilation too, in the hands of our own kind after 200,000 years. We cannot be blind to diversity or tolerate a monoculture mindset, while ignoring our monogenetic ancestry.

If we fill our hearts with indifference for women, indifference for colored, indifference for migrants, indifference for Muslims, indifference for LGBTQ, indifference for weak & susceptible at both ends of the life spectrum (children & elderly), indifference for other sentient life forms where is the room in our hearts for love, for compassion, for empathy, for diversity, for inclusivity?

Even in the enlightened age of 21st century, we operate on knowledge based on separation and disconnection. When we begin to willfully accept our differences as natural and treat each other equally, miracles will start to happen.

There is Hope

The way we see the World in your mind, is the way we relate to it in the real World. Our minds are pure, clear and empty at birth. Our developing minds from childhood are guided, shaped and influenced by the surroundings, environment, interactions with our family, friends, neighbors and our experiences.

When our minds grow with the awareness and deep recognition of 200,000 years of inter-connectedness, despite our external appearances, I believe we cease to be barbarians. And our chances to co-exist peacefully with mutual respect, trust, tolerance and willingness to settle our differences non-violently, improve. Even if this awareness & recognition, makes a small difference we can save many lives and families. This could be one of the many first steps, needed in the right direction.

The amount of research conducted and insights gained every year is enormous. Only fraction of this research with economic lure becomes mainstream as products, services, processes, systems, frameworks, practices and improvements. So much more without economic lure is sitting in journals, papers and studies, untapped and unused. Monogenetic, mitochondrial Eve research has not made it to mainstream. It can be our hope and potential solution. We need this to become mainstream.

Our minds process and associate visual images and stories far more effectively than any other medium. I believe we should make a powerful video of ‘One Family’ chronicling our journey from our mitochondrial Eve, 200,000 years ago to present day. This video should be made mandatory viewing for all students at educational institutes at all levels from primary schools to higher education. It should also be a part of ongoing mandatory training at all our workplaces as part of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives.

Resource constrained small businesses and educational institutions may not have enough funding to produce their own videos and materials. Perhaps a few large Organizations can step up to create this video and make it available for every academic institution and workplace of any size, downloadable throughout the World, from a well-publicized online resource. This single video will also help for common narrative and consistent messaging.

When our heads are clear of ignorant rubbish and hearts have room for love and compassion, we become better societies for all.