There is an apartheid museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Buried yards into zigzagged cement walkways, artifacts, photos and documents, is a wall. A wall that stands stories high, vastly wide. Red and brown brick, covered almost entirely by hundreds of small black plaques, each engraved with white letters. It’s a wall that could be missed, immense as it is, but blended amidst the thronging displays.

Upon examination, the sea of plaques takes form—each containing an ‘act’ or law.

This wall, and each plaque on it, represents the formation and continuation of apartheid. One small ‘act’ at a time.

And thereby, one country’s 300-year history of institutionalized racism, and the almost-complete destruction of a way of life for 90 percent of a population. Destruction that had not been caused by wars–but by ideas. Ideas that became words. Words that became policies. Policies that became laws. And laws that undid lives.

Amidst the constant nagging questions of life—how is one person in a position of freedom and another in captivity? How is one in peace, another war? How is one surrounded by love, another by hatred? Crippling poverty versus expansive, sometimes crippling, wealth? Where did these differences come from? And can they ever end?

And—what can I do?—this wall became a vision.

A call to arms. A commitment to recognize that small ‘acts’ become sweeping belief systems. And the intersection at which change can occur, is at the inception of ideas and the movement of people.

It is a belief that policy, in short, has the power to impact EVERYTHING. And it is our duty to ourselves, our neighbors and our countries, to ensure that equitable policy is our heritage.