Connected Citizens
on my 18th birthday
i was given a book called the passion of
peace which was to change
my life it was given to me by its author
dr kieran mckeon who was one of the
founders of the peace people here in
northern ireland
and on the inside cover he wrote to me
may you dedicate your life
to how we as human beings might better
relate and those words have been
inscribed in my heart
as my life mission ever since
and how we’re going to better relate and
connect and understand each other
is an enormous challenge especially when
you consider
that our generation will witness more
change in our lifetimes than has
happened in the whole of the last
century
due to the technological and digital
revolutions taking place
and how we make the needs of our society
compatible with the needs of our planet
means that how we live and work and
share our world
is going to profoundly change but i
believe that that is what makes this one
of the most exciting times to be a
citizen
because never before has the individual
citizen
have the ability to shape change as they
can
right now the era in which a privileged
few will power is
over we are entering a new era
one of civic participation one
in which connected citizens drive change
through building relationships based on
shared values
and mutual respect think of greta
thundberg
and her solitary protest outside her
parliament in sweden
her call to action inspired a generation
around the world
to act and you have that power
you have that power right now
you see throughout my life as both a
lawyer and civic activist
i have become convinced of one thing
here in northern ireland
and that is that we have everything we
need
to realize the enormous potential of
both our people
and our shared home place why because of
the inspirational citizens
who quietly drive change here every day
and you are going to be part of this
connected citizens movement
of this new era of civic participation
and i’m going to share with you today
three principles three interlinked
principles that i believe we will need
as citizens
if we’re going to meet the challenges
both locally
and globally that we need to face
together they are to
listen inform and
act so first to better connect as
citizens
we need to listen we all have something
we believe in
it might be our faith our identity
our political cause and of course that’s
a really important
part of being human of being a citizen
and a lot of our life
is spent seeking out our fellow tribe
those people
who share those beliefs but if we’re
going to truly understand each other and
if we’re actually going to solve the
really complex
problems that we have to face together
then we need to do something that
requires
both courage and humility
and that is to engage with the people
with whom we
disagree now a number of years ago
i was on a leadership program in japan
with young people from
a range of nationalities from right
around the world and one evening over
dinner
a young arab man and i were talking and
i discussed with him that i was
openly gay and he told me that in his
religion
homosexuality was a grave sin
and over the coming days i could feel he
was avoiding me and this caused me to
feel
upset and a bit angry but i decided
that i would try to understand the issue
from his perspective
now the muslim delegates on the program
on a friday afternoon would go
to a prayer room to pray and i decided
to join them
i was made very welcome and at the end
of the prayer session
this young arab man came towards me he
had tears
in his eyes and he embraced me
and he said you have shown respect for
my religion
you are my brother
now neither of us changed in that moment
i am still a gay man he is still a
devout muslim we are still friends
but something much greater brought us
together
mutual respect and compassion
so what can you do to listen better well
first of all
we need to get out of our comfort zone
we need to engage with the unknown
we need to listen to the stories of the
people we don’t understand
or with whom we disagree because it’s
much easier to relate to people’s
stories
than it is with a label and we also need
to judge people
only on their values not on what church
or political party they support
you see values like compassion and
respect respect
bring us together in a way that
ideologies simply cannot
and perhaps this is what a new era of
citizen solidarity will look like
one in which we come together on based
on shared values
not on the ideologies political and
religious which have kept us apart for
far too long
and we need to tune out from the noise
we’re all guilty of shouting at the talk
radio show of being outraged on twitter
perhaps next time we need to find ways
to turn our energy
into positive action elsewhere
second to better connect as citizens we
need to inform
one of my life heroes is eileen weir who
works at the shankar women’s center in
belfast
an island has dedicated her life to the
empowerment of women
and during the brexit referendum i was
working on a civic
engagement program which worked with
groups like islands
we weren’t trying to tell people how to
vote we were simply listening to their
hopes and fears
and presenting them with informed
evidence on both sides of
the debate so that they could make up
their own minds so eileen asked me to
deliver one of these workshops to the
women in her
group and at the end of the session this
woman raised up a heart and said
i just want to say thank you no one ever
comes here to explain these things
these things to us we just get leaflets
through the door
but you came here you lessened and now i
know what i have to do
for my family those words
speak a truth to all of us because we
need to talk
more about our democracy we need to talk
about the kind of society we want to be
we need more places and spaces
in which a diverse range of citizens
with a diverse range of opinions
can come together to share their stories
to listen to each other
and to feel that they matter and they
belong in this society
we all have a responsibility to make
sure
that all citizens have access to
evidence
independent information to allow them to
make decisions
to solve challenges for their
circumstances
their community and their family not to
be told
what to do or what to think and perhaps
all of this will help to create a
culture in which
compromise is an ideal not a sellout
we also need to be more like ireland
we need to get behind the everyday
change makers
the artists the collaborators the
disruptors the entrepreneurs
those people who drive change every day
driving change isn’t easy so let’s
get behind them and perhaps we can start
by
getting our children to follow these
kind of influences
i’m convinced of one thing binary
outcomes
rarely resolve complex issues
what works far better is a diverse range
of
citizens coming together based on a
shared set of values
and collaborating to co-create outcomes
to solve the challenges that they face
together
this is far they will have far better
ideas than individually collectively
they can do much more
thirdly in order to better connect to
citizens
we need to act it said there are two
parts to our lives
the first where we grow and develop and
the second where we live out our purpose
and when your purpose awakens within you
it is a privilege
so act that voice within your head that
says
this isn’t right or i could do this
better
raise it up and act and when you act
it creates an energy to inspire and
engage others to act
too so speak up don’t
ask for permission join a political
party set up a campaign group
donate money to a cause you believe in
and whatever you do
vote you see here’s the question
what kind of society do you want for
your children
are you going to answer that question or
are you
going to continue to leave it to others
to answer
and there’s an urgency to that question
because
this generation this generation right
now
could be the first generation in the
history of this island
to grow up knowing nothing but peace and
to realize
the promise of reconciliation no
other generation has gone from cradle to
grave on this island
with that possibility we simply
cannot fail as citizens
of this connected world how will we
better relate
listen no child is an outsider
inform educate and empower others
act fire by kindness compassion
and grace know this your power as a
citizen
lies in your imagination and in our
collective imaginations
lie infinite possibilities for change
and that’s how we’re going to better
relate
that’s how we’re going to build up and
realize our home of hope and of peace
and prosperity
so let us as connected citizens arise
and go there now
you