We Can All Get Along If...: Read an Excerpt

At the time the idea for Project Get Along first came up, I thought it was interesting and had possibilities but was somewhat limited in scope. How may ways, I wondered, can you respond to, "We can all get along if ..."?
But when the young people I was working with seemed taken with the idea, I thought it worthwhile because it would make people think about how we can all get along. Out of the death, destruction and division resulting from the verdict of the four Los Angeles policemen in the Rodney King incident, his question is still worth thinking about long after the emotion of the moment has subsided.
In a rapidly changing world, many people cling to their racial and cultural identities and refuse to tolerate and accept differences in others. With the downfall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, democracy seemed to be the answer to people who had known oppression for years.
Given the choice of democracy, however, many people began oppressing people unlike themselves, ethnic outsiders or recent immigrants fleeing oppressive governments. Of course, people all over the world have these racial and cultural biases and oppress people.
In this unstable climate, the project was born. It was spread by mail, electronic mail, personal contact and the media. Students in the project were interviewed by newspaper, radio and TV reporters about what they were doing and why. Responses started arriving. ...

—Ray Elliott

... all weapons were made into Gummy Bears
16, Rostock, Germany

... we all drink water form the same well
16, Jakarta, Indonesia

... everybody would quit being stuck on stupid
18, Urbana, Illinois

... we don't fight, don't fight or hit, and solve our problems right
4, Richmond, Virginia

... we realize that each of us is only a speck in the bigger picture of things rather than the center of the universe
52, Bellair, Illinois

... we all listen to the wiseness of our grandparents
14, Nairobi, Kenya

... we count to 10 when angry, to 100 when really angry and try to spend some time every day with someone we don't know very well, just listening and asking questions
31, Troy, New York

... the bloody Americans stopped thinking they were the only people in the world with Internet access
23, Sydney, Australia

... love fills the air
And we're treated like equals, fair and square
In a place where respect reigns
And dignity is gained
Where we have no wars
Or crack stores
No AIDS
Hand grenades
No colors
Just shades.
17, Urbana, IL

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