A few days after I buried my father last week, I was told by a very close family member how I was a "disgrace" for my consistent defense of human rights. I prefer to keep my family information private, but I thought I should share this you and why it is important. Late at night on November 10, my father died. I have been involved for months on various medical issues that he has, in and out of hospitals, and trying to give him courage and strength. He passed after 3 weeks in intensive care on the night of November 10. It has been a serious struggle, expense, and tragedy for many family members, and we are still working through the issues. My father and I worked together on many things over the years, and one thing he taught me was the value of education, and value of continuing to learn. I do continue to learn every day of my life, just as I hope you do. Sometimes I learn that I was mistaken about details I thought before. But always, I have tried to focus my learning on how I can help our fellow human beings. To do that, however, you have to always remember that other people ARE your fellow human beings, and more than just labels about their ideas or beliefs. We must remember that ultimately their identity is our shared identity as fellow human beings. I week ago today I buried my father. After his funeral, another close family member accosted me as to how I am a "disgrace " to our family name for defending our universal human rights, including freedom of religion for all. Of course, you know what he was talking about - freedom of religion for Muslim Americans. I was told how "disgraceful" I was to my family for having a video standing up for such freedom of religion was, and how ashamed I should be. As previously stated I prefer to be private about my family. But this incident highlights the degree of such hatred and divisions we have in America and around the world. No one and nowhere is exempt from it. I am no more ashamed of standing up for our fellow human beings' universal human rights than I am in defending the Constitution of the United States. Doing what is right may not always be what is popular, but those of us who stand for our universal human rights do so because out of respect and love for humanity itself as our extended human family. We do so whether it is popular or not, simply because it is the RIGHT thing to do. Sometimes it will be hard to be consistent, sometimes people will not like us for being consistent, and sometimes it will cause us pain and heartache to be consistent. But it still is the RIGHT thing to do, and our human family - they are counting on us to have the courage of our convictions, not matter how unpopular such courage may turn out to be. Around the world, other people's fathers are dying, being killed, being tortured, being starved to death. Around the world, our human family is being decimated and destroyed from the disease of hatred and enmity and from the cancer of apathy. We must and we SHALL overcome such divisions of hatred and enmity towards one another. We must and we SHALL break the chains of apathy that prevent us a human family for caring for one another. We must and we SHALL remember that those who disagree with us, those who would deny others their universal human rights - whether it is in America or anywhere in the world - they TOO are our brothers and sisters, sometimes literally, but always in humanity as fellow human beings. Whether they love us or hate us, we have a single imperative as human beings to respect and to love one another. We can all be responsible for equality and liberty, for our immediate family, and for our human family. As human beings, we share that common identity and family with one another - those we know and those we will never know. They too are our family. We must always have outstretched hand, not an upraised fist, to our fellow human beings, and urge them to Choose Love, Not Hate - Love Wins.