Disqus - Latest Comments for kenanrahmani

Re: We Are the Change We Have Been Waiting For

Kenan Rahmani — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 15:05:58 -0000

Wow, I really wish I hadn't missed this speech! My feedback:

1. We are the change we have been waiting for! Why does everyone always think that we need to prepare our kids to step up to the plate instead of actually stepping up to the plate? It's a difficult task, but when we come together to be humble and sincere in making selfless, positive change, the task transforms into a much more manageable and believable one.
2. Humility is key to positive change. Any organization or person that sees themselves (whether we call it ego or not) as superior or "chosen" has already been shot in the foot. Doing good for the sake of doing good, and for the sake of fulfilling a life purpose, is in fact what BRIDGE came to deliver. When we say "sustainable solutions" that is really what we are talking about.
3. Just because a majority (or what seems like a majority, to me) of religious people are guilty of elitism does not entitle us to accuse religion or all religious people. I have met people who are very connected to a religion who have found it motivation to be very humble: the opposite of what is common. I think it's causation vs. correlation. The natural ego interacts with religious institutions (and all ideological institutions) to often fascinating results, and that is all we are seeing when we see crazy religious individuals (or crazy democrats, fascists, communists, feminists, or environmentalists).
4. What is needed is a movement that will inspire and instill the core values that humanity needs to champion positive social change, and we need to always purify our intentions so that we can remain selfless, sincere, and humble.

Peace and Love

Re: After Every Rainfall Must Come a Rainbow

Kenan Rahmani — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:35:34 -0000

Rainbows sort of look like bridges anyways, so I think they were actually singing about BRIDGE

Re: Making the Vision Alive

Kenan Rahmani — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:43:31 -0000

wow this is awesome Ferdaws... I had a similar experience with just a couple times of visiting the Holy Family homeless shelter for School on Wheels. It is amazing how intelligent these students are, and how driven they are, considering the fact that they come from the poorest of poor backgrounds, often riding public transportation for 2 hours just to get to school and back. They have to live off of free/reduced meals. I felt like my eyes were opened to a new level of hopelessness when I started getting involved with the poor communities. We forget sometimes how fortunate we are and get caught complaining over silly luxuries.

Re: Working Together Towards a Solution

Kenan Rahmani — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:09:06 -0000

I think that we can do better than sticking bandaids on everything that is wrong. That is an easy argument to make. "One ounce of prevention is better than one pound of cure."

But I'll make an even stronger claim against being another bandaid organization. I'll say that as long as the cure is available, the prevention is not sought. By giving shoes to poor communities, not only do we feel like we did something positive and worthwhile (which keeps us from questioning what more we could have done) but we also get to avoid seeing people without shoes (which again keeps us from wondering how we can fix the problem, or how much we owe to the problem).

I think we should only worry about cures if they are needed to keep our patient alive until the prevention is there. Otherwise, we are doing a great disservice to our human family by committing an iota of energy to selling cures, giving more of existing cures, or even making new cures. We owe it to our people to research the prevention.

Re: FunEvolved Idea

Kenan Rahmani — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:36:35 -0000

Sounds interesting... I'm not really sure how it would work but I am down to hype this up!

Re: Building Bridges

Kenan Rahmani — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:12:55 -0000

Andy, this is a really cool post. You are absolutely right that part of our mission as BRIDGE has to be to accept the bandaid organizations that stop wars, help poor people, fight global warming, etc. The change to a truly selfless and accountable society that seeks to positively impact humanity is slow. The building of that bridge is a forever-long process. But we should get 80% of the way there within the next 20 years (that's my 80 for 20 rule!)

I'm really glad you have enjoyed the noun/verb "bridge." It's sort of addictive.

Re: MLK Day Service Reflection

Kenan Rahmani — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:32:06 -0000

I am entering a comment here.