Humanity

It isn’t Republican and Democrat. It isn’t Conservative and Liberal. It isn’t North and South. It isn’t the USA and Mexico. It isn’t Cis and so many, many other kinds of people. It isn’t Black and White in all of the myriad ways that can be understood. It isn’t all of these things that scare us or make us angry.

It is humanity. We are human beings. It is time to treat people as if they were people because, damn it, they are.

Who that you know would you want to be treated so painfully and disrespectfully? I know some people reject their very family members. How do you cast out your very family members? If you can do that, you can hate everybody and anybody else.

They do it because of an idea.

Let’s replace that idea.

We are human.

People are people. I’m sorry if you don’t understand them. They are still people.

How are the “others” treating you inhumanely? How do they hurt you? 

Many of my friends disagree with me, but they still treat me as a human being. They still give me respect. They give me gifts. If I needed any kind of help, they would help me. I am irritating and stupid and many, many, many bad things, or, at least, that is what some see. Yet, my friends treat me as a human being.

Why not do that with everyone else? They are human, too. Why do you allow people to be treated the way many treat cattle? Actually, there are laws that protect non-human animals. Why do you allow people who are different from you to be treated less kindly and with less respect than you treat other animals? Because they are the “others?” 

How do you decide who are the “others?” Does someone tell you? Do you think about it and decide? What do you think about? Where do you get your information? If you are deciding who is allowed to be human, you had damned well better use a lot of sources, not just some guy who said something you agreed with once.

People have agendas. They will lie, cheat, steal, cause pain, murder, and enslave. They will make up more. They will do whatever. Why? Because the “others” are not people. They make them not people so they can do horrible things.

If you need religion to help you act in a humane fashion, then use it. If you can tell right from wrong, good from bad, human from what? Human?

As a group we call ourselves humanity, but humanity is also the way we behave. You can treat other humans with humanity. Why do you choose not to?