Bruce Benson was hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the United States with his son Tiberius in 2008. It was a coming of age trip for Ti, then 12 going on 13.

One day, as Ti was marching up the mountain in front of Bruce, stomping really, because he was mad Dad woke him up so early, and Dad got to thinking of what kind of a world his son would inherit.

The world is messed up in so many ways. But, hiking being conductive to thought, he thought "yes, the world is messed up, but it's almost always based on our differences, the differences between us humans."

But when you think deeper about it, "no matter a person's religion, or lack of thereof; no matter a person's skin color, nationality or politics - these differences are as nothing compared to what we have in common....we are human."

The commonality of being human

Never in the course of human history have we needed as much as now, for our own survival, to understand that we have more in common than our differences.

The Flag of Humanity

The flag is two sets of hands, an adult's hands and a child's hands. The adult hands are passing the earth to the child. The hands are in silhouette to represent all the skin colors of the people on the earth. There is in the flag an inherent sense of responsibility, in that we need to be mindful of what we pass on to our children.

Every other flag on earth represents a difference.

This flag does not represent differences.

The Flag of Humanity can be flown by anyone, anywhere on earth. Flags are powerful things. Every country on earth has one. Children in many countries pledge allegiance to their flag every morning in school. And in the course of human history, millions of men and women have followed a flag or banner into battle, to kill or be killed. So flags are powerful things, and we believe this flag could be the most powerful of all, because it represents....all of us.

What would be the result, if for three generations children in one country could look at this flag flying over their school, government building, or home, knowing that children in another country, though they have a different skin color, different religion, different politics, and of course different nationality, are looking at the same flag, celebrating that commonality that is greater than our differences, that of being human?

We think the return on such an investment would be marvelous, and quite possibly priceless. It is our fervent hope this flag will be flying over all nations of the earth someday, reminding us of, and celebrating, that commonality of being human.