I figured I’d come back with a splash!
I’m reminded just how sensitive and insensitive we can be. Notice, I’m including myself here. Over the last month or so, I’ve heard so many people talking about courage. Courage could be something as small as riding your motorcycle on a busy street for the first time to knowingly putting yourself in harm’s way like so many of our soldiers and police do on a daily basis. I’m not going to even expand on my title because I think we’ve all heard enough. Courage isn’t a contest. It’s a word that can mean many different things to many different people and in no way does that mean that there is a comparison from one to another.
Instead, I’d like to talk about what kind of a person I wish I’d hear from, see and interact with. How have we as a people become so sensitive and insensitive at the same time? We can complain about the Redskins name being personal affront to native Indians yet we could care less about other “people’s” feelings like the transgendered community or those who want to own a gun or vegans or what have you. Listen gang….we’re all very diverse people and we all live on the planet. One religion isn’t better or right; it’s just different. We talk about America being the home of the free and we’re the first to show that we aren’t. Is it just free for those who fit the norm? I’m pretty confident that when the creator (insert your creator of choice here) made us that he didn’t pick and choose who’d have access to certain rights and freedoms and who wouldn’t.
God, Yaweh, Buddha, what have you, all seem to have one theme…they are loving gods, not gods of war. What arrogance do you have to have to think you know better than than the power that created the planet? Well, I don’t believe in creationism, you say. Ok, what about seeing all beings as just that…another being on the same planet as you, having a human experience like you are and dealing with the life they have been given.
It’s everywhere…Democrats vs. Republicans, Whites vs. Blacks, Straight vs. LGBT, Educated vs. Uneducated, Poor vs. Rich and so on and so on. We have forgotten along the way to see each other’s humanity. Shame on us and shame on me.
I’m not going to try to change you or anyone else. I’m not so arrogant even to think what I’m sharing is right…probably more righteous and yes, you do have my permission to call me on it. I’ll be the first to admit my faults.
Someone I had the pleasure of speaking with recently said this to me, “People should just calm the fuck down!”
How about we try that? There is in my opinion, only one meaning of the word human and we ALL fit that description.
