Agree to Differ

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Image: ATD Fourth World

At a Street Library Festival, led by Lisette Delapeyre (centre), Cormoran mothers show children how to apply traditional sandalwood make-up – here to

Véronique Morzelle (left)

hesitate to condemn all acts of terrorism. But their fervent

wish is that the two brothers had met people who could have

prevented these acts by showing them the care and respect

that foster a sense of fellowship with all people.

Wresinski’s 1980 speech concluded: “We’ve learned not to

be naive, to stop letting others break down our solidarity and

manipulate us. The suffering that touches us all, immigrants

and people in poverty, has woken the hope that was sleeping

in our hearts: the hope that we will all be able to stand, recog-

nized as people in our own right. Beyond bitterness, we have

found hope in brotherhood. Because we have lacked friend-

ship and love, we know that no one can live without them,

and we can invent a world of solidarity and love.”

In the face of terrorist attacks, the world is building more

and more walls. Around the world, people suspected of being

a danger to others are frisked and harassed, treated with

disrespect, indignity and worse. But barbed wire and gated

communities make all of us less safe. Every tool designed to

protect the security of some at the expense of others ends up

eroding the human relationships that are our world’s greatest

treasure. Yves Doutriaux, a member of France’s Council of

State and of its Defender of Rights anti-discrimination council,

has known ATD Fourth World since 1998. He says:

“Following the media every day leads us to despair because

of increasing inequality. Personally, I worry that this insecu-

rity is exploited by extremists on the right and on the left,

throughout Europe, for example against immigrant popu-

lations or the Roma. Because ATD Fourth World is firmly

anchored in poor and extremely poor communities, we

need 10 or 100 more ATDs in the field showing the human

dignity of the poor countering the extremist ideas that feed

on extreme poverty. The message of ATD Fourth World is

one of hope. We need that hope amidst the concern spreading

across Europe given its current economic, social, and moral

crisis today.”

Extremism, racism and hate speech remain immense chal-

lenges. Social exclusion and poverty-based discrimination are

cousins of all forms of intolerance. In looking for ways to over-

come prejudice and anger, we remain convinced that the road

towards fellowship is a collective one, like that of the People’s

University, developed with people of all backgrounds living

in persistent poverty. Their emotional intelligence and their

experience of hardship can be a crucible for forging a new

understanding of a single human race whose treasure lies in

the many unique threads of our cultural identities. The spaces

are fragile where excluded people can feel respected and begin

to express their own voice. These spaces need recognition,

protection and support in order to thrive. As we join together

to create them, we are building a sense of belonging that can

set all of us free.

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