We’re not all the same – and that’s a good thing!

We’re at another point in our country when we’re having to confront the reality that we DON’T live in a world – or a country – where ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.

We are not the same – race, religion, beliefs, cultures – but these are the things that should make us great and enrich our lives! Broadening our perspective and appreciating our differences makes us all better human beings.

The marketplace of ideas is valuable for the development of perspective, understanding and learning. We’re all better for the impact of different cultures and opinions.

I’ve tried for a while to wrap my brain around the idea that at some point long, long ago someone looked at another person and decided they were better simply because of the color of their skin. How does a brain even register something like that? How does that germinate and grow? And moreover, how does it gain momentum and blossom into something others see and say, “yea, I believe in that too.” What a despicable ideology.

It seems like we get here all too often, but too soon it gets pushed aside in our short-attention-span news cycle and nothing substantive happens. The death of George Floyd is tragic, and it should be a clarion call for action. Enough talk.

How can we look at each other, look at our kids, look ourselves in the mirror and think this is acceptable? Would you stand for it if it was happening to you? IT IS HAPPENING TO YOU, MANKIND, it is happening to you.

We have to get past the narrow mindedness that until we personally experience something, we can’t get behind it or understand another point of view. We have two basic ways of learning: personal experience and the experience of others. We can’t afford to wait until we personally experience everything before we’re willing to open our minds. Our lives aren’t that long. And the experience of others is invaluable.

I’ve run across the quote “When you’re accustomed to privilege equality feels like oppression” several times in the recent past. There doesn’t seem to be any definitive proof of its origin, but it really encapsulates our problem. It’s not that someone wants to take your stuff (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), they just want the same access to stuff as you have. The unfortunate thing is that for some folks, that access for others means they might not get theirs. They don’t want yours! They want the opportunity to have their own!

We like to think of the United States as the Land of Opportunity – and for many it is. But there are a great many others who either have to do more for that same opportunity, or others for whom that opportunity is just unattainable. Why would anyone think that’s acceptable?

It’s not acceptable and “whataboutism” is a dead argument here, because there is no “what about” that compares to the way the black community has been marginalized throughout the history of the world and our country.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women!) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It’s time to hold these truths, really hold these truths.