Building Bridges
(This week's guest writer is by First Presbyterian member, Marsha Dallas. Marsha is an educator here in Lincoln and chairs the Mission Committee of First Presbyterian Church. When she isn't teaching, reading, or writing, she is enjoying lively conversations with her family and finding ways to make her friends laugh.)
Building bridges; it’s hard work, but when the work is
complete it saves many people time and energy. We can think of it that way in
respect to human relationships. If we work to build bridges of understanding we
can avoid the negative efforts of hate and war.
I had the opportunity this week to hear two human bridge
builders speak. The first was Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a survivor of the Nazi
concentration camps of World War II. The second, Eboo Patel, is the founder and
executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core.
Marion’s experiences were horrific, but she held out hope
for her family through an imaginary game of finding four perfect pebbles. She
was 10 when Russian troops liberated their camp. All four members of her
immediate family had survived, but her father succumbed to illness after the
liberation. Marion, her mother, and her brother emigrated to the United States.
She and her husband now travel around the country and the world to share her
message of courage and to ask her audiences to never allow such atrocities to
happen again.
Marion’s message to the students at Lincoln Junior High was
to respect each other, especially to respect others who are different. She
asked them to reach out to new students and create those human connections that
bring peace in the world. She told the students that they would be the last
generation to hear her story firsthand, and she hoped that they would share her
story with their children and grandchildren.
Marsha Dallas [far right] and others from First Presbyterian with writer and activist, Eboo Patel. |
Building bridges is an important job. It’s not a mission
that will get done immediately. We may still be building far into the future.
But we should not forfeit the conversation to others who want to yell louder
and spread hate. If we don’t speak up to preserve human dignity and build
connections with others, we risk losing the chance to deepen our own faith.
**Note**
If you are interested in viewing the talk Marion Blumenthal Lazan gave to the students at the Lincoln Junior High School, you can click here.
**Note**
If you are interested in viewing the talk Marion Blumenthal Lazan gave to the students at the Lincoln Junior High School, you can click here.
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