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Who's in the Video
Gillian Caldwell is the Executive Director of WITNESS, an international human rights organization that provides training and support to local groups to use video in their human rights advocacy capaigns.[…]

Everyone should live a life of integrity and commitment.

Question: What should we be doing as individuals?

Transcript:I don’t think that can be prescribed, you know, by any single individual because each of us are passionate about different things; but I can only say that, you know, for us . . . you know for each of us to live a life that is full of integrity is an enormous commitment. And in fact it’s a second by second commitment. It’s not just making sure that, you know, you’re recycling your Coca-Cola can, or that you’re . . . you’re responding when you hear that there’s genocide in Darfur; but that you’re alive to the complexity of every single interaction around you. I mean in this city for example, there is so much complexity to the interactions whether it’s race, or class, or sexual orientation. And so often we ignore the complexity of those interactions, and we don’t do what we can to bridge those . . . to bridge those gaps and to deepen our own understanding of who we are and how we are in the world. If you’re walking along the street and you’re a white woman, and you happen to notice that there’s two young black men coming towards you, and you find yourself thinking, “I feel in endangered. I feel threatened,” it’s up to you to take responsibility to analyze why you feel that way in that circumstance; and to do what you can to challenge yourself to reconfigure, you know, how it is that we’ve been wired, you know, by a media and by a culture that what’s us to think differently. Recorded on: 8/13/07


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