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Unity Within Humanity
by Nicholas Chuah
Unity, a widely used word by many world leaders in their great speeches when addressing their nation, yet little is truly known about the true meaning of unity. One could simply define its meaning as togetherness, forming a bond with one another, thus uniting with each other. However, nothing is as simple as it seems. A word that derived from old Latin from thousands of years ago, did not survive through the test of time just so modern political world leaders could utilize such a strong word in their political campaign. The word ‘Unity’, means so much more than that.
Have you ever wondered how did civilizations came to be? How did thousands of years of society transcend upon this very moment where all people from all four corners of the world came together, regardless of race and religion, unite as one, to form what we know today as, Humanity? History itself has taught us that societies were literally built on the word itself, as humanity would often wage war against themselves, their leaders would speak of unity amongst their own countrymen to unite themselves against their enemies.
"Unity isn’t just a word that could be thrown around, it is a word that has been spoken off many times by our forefathers who have fought so bravely to free our country."
Unity isn’t just a word that could be thrown around, it is a word that has been spoken off many times by our forefathers who have fought so bravely to free our country. When President Abraham Lincoln gave his speech during the Gettysburg Address in the year of 1863, he taught the people of the United States to stand together, as one, when he referred to the proposition that all men are created equal, which makes it one of the most touching
speeches of unity made by the leader of the most powerful country on Earth. Not only does it bring people together, it unites the people of the same common goal to stand up and fight for their own beliefs.
Tragically speaking, even though people would unite themselves to face a common enemy, it still does not preach unity, as very much often, their enemies would still be people of a different race, culture and religion from a different part of the world. Even as humanity advances into the 21st century, unity is still a major problem of this world as barriers are created against people of different nations who shares different religion, culture and values. Ironically speaking, world leaders speak of unity yet they create walls and borders against those who are of different colours of skin. If world leaders would ever wish to maintain peace, they must shed their hypocritical views and learn to settle their own countries differences and put aside old grudges and come together as one.
People often pushed the role of creating a constant bond of unity for the society to the government but in many occasions, those people are wrong. One does not simply imbued with the sense of unity and brother or sisterhood within themselves, if they themselves do not have the spirit and good heart of caring about one another. As mentioned, not only it is the responsibility of the government to maintain peace and unity amongst the people of their nation, but the role falls onto the duty of every citizen as well. Thousands of years of constant war has misused the word in the name of good faith whereas the battles they fought has nothing to do with unity. Nevertheless, the definition of the word never changed, till this day, the word itself is also used as a symbol to unite the countries of our world to stand together and to remind ourselves that we are all humans and apart of the same world. The word itself will be an echo throughout the ages as mankind will forever know the power of such a word. As the saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall.
– This piece is one of the honorary mentions for the Small Changes’ Writing Competition
