This I Believe

I really believe that every man on this earth is my brother.  He has a soul like mine, the ability to understand friendship, the capacity to create beauty.  In all the continents of this world I have met such men.  In the most savage jungles on New Guinea I have met my brother, and in Tokyo I have seen him clearly walking before me.

In my brother's house I have lived without fear.  Once in the wildest part of Guadalcanal I had to spend some days with men who still lived and thought in the old Stone Age, but we got along together fine, and I was to see those men in a space of only four weeks ripped from their jungle hideaways and brought down to the airstrips, where some of them learned to drive the ten-ton trucks which carried gasoline to our bombing planes.

I believe it was only fortunate experience that enabled me to travel among my brothers and to live with them.  Therefore I do not believe it is my duty to preach to other people and insist that they also accept all men as their true and immediate brothers.  These things come slow.  Sometimes it takes lucky breaks to open our eyes.  I had to learn gradually, as I believe the world will one day learn.

To my home in Pennsylvania come brown men and yellow men and black men from around the world.  In their countries I lived and ate with them..  In my country they shall live and eat with me.  Until the day I die my home must be free to receive these travellers, and it never seems so big a home or so much a place of love as when some man from India or Mexico or Tahiti or Fiji shares it with me.  For on those happy days it reminds me of the wonderful affection I have known throughout the world.

I believe that all men are my brothers.  I know it when I see them sharing my home.

James Michener  July 1954