Why Define Yourself Down

In my life I have met, befriended, worked with, and loved people from all walks of life, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, etc., etc. And the thing they all had in common was kindness, innate good sense, and decency.

We didn't necessarily agree on deep subjects like religion, art, or politics but we shared mutual respect for one another and acceptance.

Which is why I am constantly puzzled by folks who feel the need to define themselves down to a physical attribute like the color of their skin or how they use their genitalia.

Good Lord. Why would you do that? You are a human being and what does it matter if your skin is light or dark? If your eyes are shaped a particular way? Or if you prefer men to women (or vice versa).

Any why do some folks insist on telling me their sexual preferences as a way of identifying themselves. I don't care what happens in the privacy of your own bedroom so long as it occurs between consenting adults. Sexual predators like pedophiles and real deviants like Sado-masochists - well those people are just wrong.

But if you're a decent human being who tries their best to be good, doesn't break any laws, and engages in loving relationships, then I do NOT care what happens in your bedroom.

And I do NOT care that you have a different ethnicity or different religion or different income or different education or different anything. The only think I care about, that anyone should EVER care about is if you are a kind, courteous and decent law-abiding person. Everything else is just an accident of the human condition.

So those who want to be Hyphenated Americans or want to be defined by what's in their pants, go right ahead but, in my humble opinion, you are doing yourself a disservice.

Your real value is who you are, not what you are.

Yet never forget that here in America you can be different without real fear. That it is against the law to murder a daughter because she wants to marry outside her religion. That you can not stone a homosexual to death. That you can have the faith you want, the number of children you want, the life you want. America may not be perfect (nothing is) but it is still the freest place on Earth.

I just had to get that off my chest. Cheers.