LeonDalePhotographer

The_Human_Flag

The Human Flag is a symbol of Human Unity.

For those of us who are ready, for those of us who have been ready,

There is now a Flag to represent The Human Race as a whole.

I believe that any company should make it part of the days work to give back to the community.

Please Click on The Human Flag above to join the facebook fan page and show your support.

Thank you.

From the first rudimentary territorial markings to today’s top level Internet domains, humans have always sought to identify with flags.  Flags can claim space, send a warning, celebrate a victory, denote ownership, and become a rallying point. Nations, corporations, schools and churches all have flags, but Leon Dale, an Atlanta photographer and designer, has recently created a special banner called The Human Flag.

“The flag is self-defining. It just is. Much as water just is. There’s no point arguing about it. The human flag has a handprint which is five fingers and a palm. I’m including the people without hands, but it’s a highly recognizable concept, any culture you meet will have people with five fingered hands. And the idea is that the human flag is for all humans.”

Leon had the idea for the human flag three years ago, and has since spent time looking for art to match his vision. When no artist came forward that could match it, Leon took paints in hand and did his own design: a ring of blue for the sky and water, a ring of green for the Earth, and the human symbol of the five-fingered hand.

To Leon, it’s a symbol of peace. “I wouldn’t want to see a human flag on the battlefield. Once it’s accepted, it’s the human flag and the only time it comes into question is if there’s other people who want to tear it down. I can only see it being used for self-defense against perhaps an extraterrestrial threat.”

What if someone raised a human flag in an area of devastation? Leon replies, “That would be dramatically important, if we raise a human flag at the sight of a disaster, don’t forget that they’re humans too, we’re all humans. In that situation, we should raise the flag over all the other flags, including the “money” flag. In Haiti, for instance, we should put aside our political problems and help them. Once you raise the human flag, it would be a powerful rallying point.”

It’s definitely a symbol of inclusiveness. “The human flag would not be welcome at a Ku Klux Klan rally, for example. Halliburton would not be interested in saluting the human flag. For those who hold hatred in their heart, we have to let them exist, leave them alone, and just understand that we’re all human. The symbol is just a symbol, but the idea behind the symbol is more powerful than that. Leon has copyrighted the symbol to protect it, to keep other people from trying to use it with a specific political purpose or bias.

“It’s a reminder that we’re all human. If we started each day with a small allegiance to the human flag, maybe we wouldn’t kill each other as much. We tend to omit our humanity. I think our birth certificates should all list us as human.”

If you are interested in learning more about the Human Flag, check out its Facebook page here. For more information about Leon Dale, check out http://leondale.com

Article by Sam Chupp

to be or not to be…human
written by meredith danielle

In a world under the sun, where nothing is new and everything tried, what does it mean to be…human?

Each of us a byproduct of love, fear, and how we manifest the two, what keeps being human authentic instead of arbitrary?

Do we trust what we feel and what we know as humans? Do we love genuinely as humans?

Upon very little transcribed research into what human is, I decided my own journey’s worth of qualitative and quantitative experience dispels that being human is so definitive. I believe that being human is as infinite as humanity itself…but let me not digress. This is a bit of what I found:

Having or showing those positive aspects of nature and character regarded as distinguishing humans from other animals: an act of human kindness.

Subject to or indicative of the weaknesses, imperfections, and fragility associated with humans: a mistake that shows he’s only human; human frailty.

1. Human, humane may refer to that which is, or should be, characteristic of human beings. In thus describing characteristics, human may refer to good and bad traits of a person alike (human kindness; human weakness). When emphasis is placed upon the latter, human is thought of as contrasted to divine: To err is human, to forgive divine. He was only human. Humane takes into account only the nobler or gentler aspects of people and is often contrasted to their more ignoble or brutish aspect. A humane person is benevolent in treating fellow humans or helpless animals.

Intrinsically human, I thought, “How sad to know that we’ve allowed language to define what it is to be human.” As well, how such language enlists us to defend both our “good and bad traits,” take each other’s kindness for weakness, and build a stage for err but not so much for forgiveness (because after all, we’re “ONLY HUMAN”). And that humane is a greater reference for being benevolent than actually being HUMAN.

Bothered with the small notion of human being definitive in the first place, I believe time has shown that perhaps we humans are no better acquainted with our capacity to cultivate than a hyena in the wild, and no freer than the hyena caged at the zoo. The reference above, in my opinion, is simplicity at its worse.

So, I ask you. What is it to be…human?