By Roy Speckhardt, August 09, 2013

Humanity faces a myriad of challenges both big and small. While the size and complexity of our problems are varied, they are often rooted in the rampant inequality that exists in many forms both at home and abroad. While progress has been made against economic, political, and societal inequalities, new approaches are needed if we wish to do more than just win skirmishes against racism and homophobia, against the cycles of poverty and ill-health, and against hunger and disease. It’s not enough to tunnel vision toward meager victories; we need to develop big picture approaches that reinforce a vision for a better future.

Philanthropists, advocacy leaders, and others who aim to make the world a better place struggle to determine the best way to do this. Some focus on meeting the immediate needs of those in critical distress while others seek to change the underlying politics that cause deficiencies to persist, but nearly all address very specific issues by breaking off subsets of our behavior into smaller groups that include race, national origin, health, gender, sexual orientation, poverty and wealth, age, religion, body type, and various disabilities, among other things.

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Roy Speckhardt is the executive director of the American Humanist Association.