Stephen Lewis: A Man Who Personifies Good Beyond Self
Posted On May 12, 2008 at 1:00 am in Love Leaders, Love Leadership Events
On November second of this year I attended a presentation by Stephen Lewis, a Canadian hero, whose life purpose appears to be to serve others less fortunate. Lewis, an advocate for those whose human rights are not being protected, is one of my most admired Canadian leaders. He is also, to me, a model of what I call “good beyond self” in my book, Love Leadership. Many others in Canada share my view of this exemplary man, who has shown conviction and courage by taking on an overwhelming challenge in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
In 1984 Stephen Lewis was appointed Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations From 1995 to 1999 he served as Deputy Director of UNICEF. From 2001 until 2006 he worked as United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. In his role as Special Envoy, he drew attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis and worked to help convince leaders and the public that they too bear responsibility and must respond to this crisis. Lewish has been widely praised for his effectiveness in this role.
I attended the presentation with my mother, who is a member of a group that works in support of the Stephen Lewis’ s “Grandmother for Grandmother,” a foundation he set up around the world to enable grandmothers to help grandmothers. My sister Jay and my daughter Katie also attended the event. We all thought it was going to an entertainment event with a great speaker who was going to talk about something he was passionate about.
Stephen is a wonderful speaker with a great sense of humor – astonishing in a way, given the human destruction he has witnessed. The content of his stories is both tragic and disturbing. I was quickly moved and almost embarrassed that I expected entertainment. All of us were quickly stunned into silence.
Below is a quote from my book that I summarizes my feelings as I listened to Stephen Lewis speak:
If a world where Love Leadership is the ideal, you’ d still have conflict. But in a loving world, when the standard rule is to solve this conflict without harming the dignity and humanity of the human being with whom you’ re having this conflict, you have to find a peaceful way to solve the dispute without harming, hurting or belittling anyone. It makes so much sense to me that I’ m often astonished that the choice to lead with love isn’ t made more often.
Stephen Lewis talked about the incredible spread of AIDs in Africa and in a number of other counties. He went on to tell us highly disturbing stories about harm done to woman and children and the total disregard of many men in authority to protect or respect the dignity and humanity of woman. After hearing the story I must admit I was disturbed that I shared the same gender with men who did such horrible things. I was also disturbing that as human beings any of us could allow this to go on.
At this point in the presentation my thoughts went from judgment to wondering how could the human system could break down so badly that men would do this to fellow humans, and especially to women, who we are expected to protect.
Throughout the presentation I flashed on the movie “Blood Diamonds,” where they portrayed a thoughtful African boy who was taken from his loving family and over time was transformed into a teenage killing machine. I could see how over a period of time it is possible to create this horrible behavior and wanton disregard of human life.
It has been three or four weeks since I heard Stephen Lewis, and his presentations still resound in my head. Thanks to him, I am now even more inspired to work to entrench Love Leadership into the world. There are two actions in my book that I hope inspire readers to in initiate: one is – encourage people to increase their capacity to love. The second is to increase our collective responsibility to respect and protect the dignity of all humans.
Sadly, in some parts of Africa what has increased is the capacity to hate and an increase in lack of respect for the dignity of humanity. It seems like there is no value placed on the individual’ s life.
I do not totally understand the whole issue in Africa, and I am sure it is a complex one with no immediate, easy solutions. Nonetheless, I have come to two conclusions. I believe it is imperative that we work to change the belief that life has no value. I also believe that we need to create and support a moral imperative that encourages respect and protection of the dignity and humanity of all. Until then, everyone should lose sleep over this issue, not just Stephen Lewis.
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