Hope and Human Rights

Empathy in the Age of Rage

Abstract

Dr. Payam Akhavan, a Keynote speaker, shared his storied life journey of the risk confronting both our shared humanity and the diversity of our community living in harmony amid the onslaught of an age of rage - a rage that moves us in the direction of despair. However, he does not give in to despair. He concludes his story with an inspiring and hopeful verse from a Persian poet Hafiz: “Even After All this time, The Sun never says to the Earth, “You Owe Me.” Look What Happens With a Love like That. It lights the whole sky.