So things are just getting less fun by the day and I can feel the anxiety and unhappiness everywhere and all I can think is that maybe if it bothered us a little more how our fellow human beings are treated, maybe things could get better.
Maybe if, when someone makes a racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful comment, I need to be braver. Maybe I need to speak up and say, “Hey, that bothers me.” Because it does. It seems like a little thing, but it’s important. We don’t have to hate people because they’re different, and I’m allowed to speak up if something is hateful and offensive, and I feel like words are extremely powerful, especially out in public.
Maybe I need to look at companies I buy products from, and see if I agree with where they spend their money and how they treat their employees, and adjust my spending accordingly.
It matters to me.
Maybe I need to understand that we all have kindness in us, along with hatefulness, and I need to work harder to see the kindness through all the other things, because loving everybody means just that. Everybody. Even people I think are poop heads.
Because I don’t have to like someone to love them, but it’s imperative that I see and appreciate their intrinsic worth as a human being.
And, maybe I need to remember that because I was raised in a home where I never doubted for a minute that I was loved, and I live in a home now where I am loved, that gives me a hand up in the world. Maybe someone else needs a hand up, and that hand up needs to come from me.
Because I have the luxury of not being forced into this fight, because I happened to be born into racial and socioeconomic groups that are not under attack by others at this time, I need to choose to fight for my fellow human beings of every color, culture, gender, sexuality, and religion. Because, ultimately, our humanity has to supersede our differences, and we all need to learn to appreciate how beautiful our differences are. Guys, this rainbow of people we live around is incredible. We are all worth fighting for, and we are all worth loving. We don’t have to be best friends and hang out. We do have to be tolerant and kind. And learn some manners, too, while we’re at it.
So that’s my two cents. And I love you all. I will try to be better, I promise.
