We have suggested the following actions to the White House for materializing President Biden’s dream of bringing Americans Together. If they choose, we may take up the work.
We are not affiliated with the Democrats or Republicans, however, we will work with anyone who works on the theme of inclusive America. There is more information at
- Actively reach out to the rural and blue-collar White population and bring them to the discussion table, including fellow Americans who did not vote for President Biden.
- Dealing with the people on far-right.
- Working with the right-wing Media.
- From hostility to hospitality with violent groups.
- Listening to very American in organized monthly meetings.
- Interfaith activism to encourage participation from every religious group.
- Civic activism to encourage frequent interactions between different races and ethnicities.
- Offer seminars in religious, political, civic, and workplace pluralism across the nation.
- Bringing Americans Together.
- The side effect: The United States was listed as 19th on the International Happiness Index in 2017, and sadly we slipped to the 13th position in the last four years. Our work’s side effect ought to restore us back and perhaps go for the 10th position by mid-term.
If we can learn to respect the otherness of the others, and accept the God-given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge to move forward. I know what needs to be done in a given conflict or a situation, and have the time-tested instincts to do it right.
RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
To bring American’s Together©
1. Standing up for others: We have stood up for people’s rights from every major faith, including the Native Americans, Atheists, and the LGTBQ community. The idea was to encourage and inspire fellow Americans to stand up for the rights of others. Full report at www.StandingupforOthers.com, and a book is in the making on the subject.
We are a part of over 100 letter campaigns (2020) for religious freedom around the world from America to Vietnam and every nation in between.
2. 9/11 and our commitment – On September 11, 2001, right after the plane hit the first building, AM Radio 1150 called Mike to man the Radio to bring coherence to the chaotic day. For nearly seven hours, he took live calls from area Mayors, civilians, religious and community leaders, and the public to allay fears and give hope. During the show, interfaith prayers in different places of worship were set up, he drove people to donate blood and arranged fundraisers for the men and women in uniform who were saving lives that day. He brought hope and comfort to people in Dallas. The full story is at https://theghousediary.com/my-9-11-story/
3. Holocaust and Genocides commemoration. Restoring harmony in the world is our sacred duty. Since 2006, we have organized annual gatherings of people from different faiths to reflect on the Holocaust and Genocides. The purpose of this event is education, information, and activism. We hope to learn and acknowledge our failings and make a personal commitment to say, “Never Again.” Our guests have walked out of the event with a genuine feeling of becoming contributors towards building cohesive societies where no human has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. www.HolocaustandGenocides.com
4. Security of Americans abroad. Following Pastor Terry Jones’s announcement to burn 2998 copies of the Quran in Mulberry, Florida, in 2013, the eruption of violence was expected. Our concerns were the security of Americans around the world including our servicemen in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. We decided to handle the issue and set the twin goals of defending free speech and creating a non-violent conflict mitigation model to prevent the burning of copies of the Quran.
We appealed to Muslims to adhere to Prophet Muhammad’s model of praying for the miscreants instead of taking revenge or getting even. It was also a reminder to Muslims that free speech is an Islamic value and a suggestion to fellow Americans that violence was not Islamic but an act of the mischief mongers. We are seeking producers to make a documentary to change Muslims who resort to violence when Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons or such incidences occur while letting fellow humans know that it was not Islam. The State Department followed our work during that episode documented here; https://quranburningpastorterryjones.blogspot.com/
5. From Hostility to Hospitality – dealing with violent groups. In October 2015, a gun-toting Supremacist group was planning to hold anti-Muslim demonstrations across 19 mosques in the United States. At a meeting of 30 plus Muslim leaders, chaired by former Congressman Keith Ellison at CAIR’s national headquarters, they decided to close the Mosques and not deal with the gun-totters. Mike spoke up and suggested to keep the Mosques open and give the gun-toting men a warm welcome with water, hot dogs, and American flags. Indeed, it was a God-sent opportunity to change their perception by hospitality instead of hostility. A press release followed it – The supremacist group canceled the program, knowing that there will not be resistance but a welcome with genuine hospitality.
6. Dealing with far-left – No doubt the people on the left bring about changes disregarding the sentiments of the people on the right. You cannot uproot anything overnight; changes have to be gradual. The conservatives of yesterday are liberals of today. We are developing strategies in working with the far-left.
7. Dealing with far-Right – A majority of people from among the far right are open to dialogue if we make the right effort, the change cannot be expected immediately, it is a long-term project. If we want them to be inclusive, we have to be inclusive first. Mike has successfully dealt with people on the far right and ironically some of them acknowledged that they have to come to the center. The following five items are among many of our accomplishments with the shortest possible description, details are in the links.
8. Sean Hannity stopped bashing the Quran after a long conversation with him – Mike had a total of 110 appearances on his TV show on Fox News. It was not easy, but we accomplished the desired result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd-mgSFziII
9. Stuart Varney at Fox News pledged and maintained not to use the phrase Muslim Terrorists after a successful demonstration against ISIS at the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial and reasoning with him that religion is an intangible item https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSti7f9F-A
10. Grizzly Joe hated Democrats, Mike caught him at a C-Pac meeting, and after a difficult conversation, he read Mike’s letter addressed to Trump on camera and declared, the right has to come towards the center. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMdYr0UiPR8
11. Congressman Peter King – changed his tone on April 15, 2013, on the Boston Marathon Bombing occasion. After a Hannity show in February, Hannity said to Mike that it is not all Muslims but a few radicals he had a problem with and said, “Mike, you are my first Muslim friend, and I respect you, and will not bash Muslims but radicals to please you.” upon which King had clapped. On April 15, on CNN Camera, King said, 96% of Muslims are good, which is a significant change in his tone – it was not Muslims, but only 4% he had concerned with.
12. Daniel Pipes at Mike’s prompting, Pipes corrected a speaker that Muslims do not curse Jews five times a day. https://centerforpluralism.com/anti-muslim-advocacy-day-tarek-fatah-was-pushed-back/ Annual Unity Day USA – We established Unity Day and have had over 600 participants in the peak years. The people of the United States of America of every faith, race, ethnicity, culture, and background gathered to express their commitment to the co-existence, unity, prosperity, and well-being of our nation. The purpose of the event was to bring Americans together to rededicate our pledge to one nation with liberty and justice for all. We have some dramatic impact from the interactions and people walked out believing that we are all in this together to build a cohesive America. We have been organizing this event since 2005. www.UnitydayUSA.com
13. Annual Thanksgiving Celebrations. A time of gratitude and celebrations of cultural pluralism and appreciating men and women amidst us who have learned to accept each other as they are’ and express their joys through their unique cultural dances since 1994. The impact of the program was the acceptance of different cultures and opening up to others. http://thanksgivingcelebrations.org/
14. Busting Myths about different communities. The ongoing workshops on shedding myths about others and learning first hand that they are no different. Myths continue to prevail between Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, Christians and Muslims and Muslims and Jews. The purpose of the event is to remove the barriers and free people from prejudices. It is a bridge-building event. https://centerforpluralism.com/workshops/Wisdom of Religion – Radio shows on learning the wisdom of different faiths – Mike did 780 hours of talk shows explaining each major religion’s wisdom and how they contribute to building a cohesive America. Info: http://pluralism.org/news/dallas-hosts-new-multi-faith-radio-show/
Info: https://www.smu.edu/Perkins/News/News_Archives/Archives2012/Faith_Forum_Panel/GhouseInfo: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20090614/281968898661320
15. Workshops on the essence of religions. 13 Religions in 13 months, four sets of live workshops were conducted for fellow Americans to understand the essence of other religions. When we live as neighbors, fellow workers, students, activists, and inhabitants of the same city, it behooves us to learn about each other’s beliefs, motivations, moments of celebrations, devotions, or commemorations. The more we know about the other, the less mythical they become, creating a friendly environment for us to function efficiently in whatever we do. Knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance of others’ otherness, taking us into living with fewer tensions and becoming a catalyst for sustainable prosperity.
16. Festivals of the world – A series of explainer writings about festivals of major faiths were published in 1994 for fellow Americans to understand why and how other people celebrate their joys. As we learn about others, we open up to them. https://centerforpluralism.com/festivals/How to run for Public Office. Monthly workshops on how to run for public office (Political Pluralism) – The purpose is to orient future politicians with inclusive, pluralistic attitudes. https://centerforpluralism.com/workshops/
16. Busting Myths about different communities. An educational series of conversations to bust myths between Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, Christians and Muslims, and race relations. https://centerforpluralism.com/workshops/
17. Pre-empting reactions to the Quran Bashing. Pastor Robert Jeffress said to his 3000-member congregation in the First Baptist Church of Dallas – “Quran is a false book written by a false prophet.” Before anyone could react to it, Mike decided to deal with it squarely and presented a Quran Workshop explained by ten leaders from different faiths. It had a significant impact; fellow Americans got to know that the Pastor was false, the Quranic verses encouraged pluralism and respect for other religions. Full information at http://quraanconference.blogspot.com/
18. July 4th Celebrations: Bringing Americans together on July 4th Celebration is an enriching experience. It is about the display of unity among Americans. We need to start thinking and acting as one people. July 4th is an excellent opportunity for Americans to come together and celebrate our freedom. https://centerforpluralism.com/happy-july-4th-muslim-contributions-to-america/
19. Veterans Day – We are grateful to the men and women in uniform who risk their lives defending our freedom and guarding our safety. Mike has participated in the Veterans Day Parade and has spoken at homeless Veterans centers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q43qnhfZ93A&t=20s
20. Memorial Day – We have joined in the tradition of honoring our Veterans on this Memorial Day by visiting the Cemeteries for a short prayer for the last eight years. It is an annual event, and he hopes to bring interfaith gatherings to honor our men and women. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUCHWggiwqw&t=28s
21. Ground Zero Mosque – America missed an opportunity to lead the world and set the tone for a world of co-existence. The Cordoba Center was to become a Mecca for teaching Pluralism and a model for other nations to emulate. Mike fought with Pamela Geller about her demonstrations against the mosque on the Radio. Mike was on Hannity for a whole week. While the tragedy will never fade from our memories, we have to consider the political opportunists who opposed the Muslim Center near Ground Zero. It was an abuse of patriotism for political gain. Mike was fully involved in the conversation. http://groundzeromosque.blogspot.com
22. Dallas Morning News – Thanks to Dallas Morning News’ Texas Faith Column, where Mike wrote 250 pieces over a period of 5 years, each article weaves thru several faith traditions, it is a common road that all religions travel upon. No tradition was excluded. The readers cherished the articles as they started seeing the essential values of their faith in other faiths.
23. Huffington Post – About 125 Articles over a period of 10 years, mostly interfaith pieces. Our fellow Americans start seeing the beauty of each festival in each religion and started relating to it. When you do that, the biases evaporate into thin air. Link: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mikeghouse-302 Link: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mike-ghouse
24. Other Newspapers – About 300 Newspapers have published our work including the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Statesmen, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Times of India, Op-Ed News, Indian Panorama, The Daily Arab News, Korean News, and a host of other papers around the globe. And all South American Newspapers carried our picture on their front page when I walked into Farmers Branch Mayor’s office with fellow Americans to protest against the draconian immigration policy the City wanted to pursue.
25. Circumcision – The City of San Franciso and Santa Monica in California initiated a referendum to ban circumcision, and we immediately wrote an article that it was not a cult practice, but a 3000-year-old religious practice done openly. It was followed by two more articles by Rabbis at Huffington Post. The referendum was removed and our article was cited in it. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/circumcision-satire_b_872270
26. Who Owns Allah – Malaysia was troubled by the fundamentalist and wanted to prevent usage of the word “Allah” other than Muslims. The Sikhs and Christians used Allah to refer to God, the battle was raging, and thanks to God the Malaysian Newspaper published our article, who owns Allah, followed by others and the case was resolved. The fundamentalists backed off. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/who-owns-allah-the-god-th_b_4143551
27. President Trump – Reaching out to President Trump – Mike produced a simple 4 paragraph dream letter for President Trump to review. He was at the C-PAC meeting and passed the message to Matt Schlapp, president of the conservative Union, he read it, it is on video, and said, he will give it to President Trump. The next day, I handed the letter to VP Pence, emailed or texted Trump’s men and women – Then on the first address to the joint house, he started his speech, the first two sentences were an expression in my letter. I had asked him to speak for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and the Mexicans, he excluded Muslims and Mexicans from the speech.
“Fellow Americans, you chose me to be your President, and now help me do the right thing. Listen carefully, stop those ‘few’ guys who are a threat to fellow Americans, particularly the bomb threats against the Jewish Community Centers which is not acceptable. We will hunt them down and punish them accordingly.
Stop the radicals from harassing the Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Immigrants, African Americans, or anyone for that matter, the actions of those few are a terrible reflection on my administration. I will not tolerate anyone messing with fellow Americans under my Presidency, neither should you? Stop them now.” “CFP delivers the letter to President Trump.” https://centerforpluralism.com/cfp-delivers-the-letter-to-president-trump/
28. Hillary Clinton – Two days before the election on 11/06/16, Mike wrote a Dream Speech for Hillary at Huffington Post. What is unique about that speech is the inclusion of fellow Americans who were ignored, had Hillary listened to me, she would not have lost elections. What is rewarding is, Peggy Noonan wrote the same idea two weeks after the elections and received the Pulitzer prize for it. She needs to share that with me! Here are a few excerpts
My priority is to reach out to my fellow Americans who had it right until the disaster from wars brought misery to them; the white Americans. We are going to find ways and means for them to recover from the difficult times they have endured, while other Americans have prospered.
Believe me, the White Americans, Black Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, immigrant Americans, and all other Americans want each one of us to prosper, particularly the disaffected White Americans. Our prosperity hinges on the prosperity of people around us. None of us will succeed if some of us are left behind.
I am committed to restoring justice to my fellow Americans who lost their jobs in manufacturing, who live on farms, and to fellow Americans who do not have an education or technical skills. All the men and women who are plumbers, electricians, repairmen, drivers, janitors, and small business owners, and taking care of them is a priority of my administration. We will restore our glory days, and in the end, no American will be left out.
Hillary’s last-ditch effort – the final speech – https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillarys-last-ditch-effort-the-final-speech_us_581f90f8e4b0102262411963
We have conflicts with each other because we have not taken the time to know each other and go by the myths piled up on each other. The purpose of all these events is to bring Americans together; the more we learn about each other, the fewer the conflicts.
AND FINALLY,
Nothing has ever happened without someone taking an initiative. The wars have begun with an individual’s drive, the and bad things also start with an individual. The good things also start with someone taking an initiative and that is shaping the future of America. You may subscribe to Margaret Mead’s statement “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Goethe, “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy… Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.… Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Mike Ghouse, ” Whatever you do in life, do it wholeheartedly, there is joy in it for everyone around including ourselves”
Mike has put all his funds, effort, and time into building the first Institution in America to teach the values of Pluralism in politics, religion, society, and the workplace. He is totally committed to it.
Mike connects with the Democrats as well as the Republicans; he even attends c-PAC meetings and watches MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News to understand different perspectives and offer pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
Mike lives in an all-African American community to live his practice of pluralism and his articles have been published in Black Newspapers. https://centerforpluralism.com/black-neighborhood-is-my-neighborhood/
YOUR ROLE
I am asking you to consider becoming a part of shaping the future of America. Every American has to feel secure about his/her ethnicity, faith, race, national background, culture, and other uniqueness. We must retire without apprehensions.
We hope your vision for America resonates with our work, and if it does, please consider becoming a part of shaping the future of America.
Please feel free to call me.
Mike Ghouse