We Are

I am white.

I am male.

I am American.

I am Libertarian.

I am atheist.

I am straight.

I am middle class.

I am a veteran.

All just words.

The single most important thing that I am, I have in common with the person who set explosives off in Boston today. You’ve got it in common with them too.

It matters not if you think Earth is 6,000 years old or 4.5 billion.

It doesn’t matter if you are a CEO of a fortune 500 company or are occupying Wall Street.

It doesn’t matter if you did 5 tours in Iraq or if you are in junior high.

Your skin color, the language you speak, who you have sex with, the place you live… they don’t matter.

You. Me. Us.

We are human.

We all belong to the same species, living on the same planet, striving for the same goal: survival. Yet we let arbitrary labels define us so much so that we are constantly raping each other, stealing from each other, killing each other.

Why?

We’ve come so far as a species; from living in caves to traveling to moon. From believing Earth was flat and thunder came from the gods to smashing protons together at near the speed of light and unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

How is it that we’ve not yet figured out a way to simply live amongst each other without hatred?

What is the great mystery that evades us so? What is it in our genetics that sets us up for failure before we even begin?

Where do we even start to look for an answer?

I don’t know. I don’t even know if it even matters.

But, if we all started treating each other as fellow humans first, and applying labels second... if we start thinking of ourselves as WE instead of US or I, it might just be a move in the right direction.