OP/ED.........
Yes there are humans who have been oppressed in past history and there are humans today that are oppressed. There needs to be a wider understanding of our collective species history of ALL human suffering.
When, for example, a Muslim living in the west, who is not violent rightfully complains about profiling. Or when a Kurdish Christian in Iraq rightfully points to Muslims slaughtering them. Or when Jews in Europe complain about discrimination. Or when atheists in America complain about being the most distrusted minority in America. They are all correct, but unfortunately our species still cant see our collective suffering and hide behind it to avoid criticism and also us it to set up taboos.
America's history is full of oppression of minorities. Blacks were slaves, women could not vote, and gays are still discriminated against. Days after 9/11 a Sikh was murdered mistaken for a Muslim. Buddhists in Burma treat Muslims like shit. America put innocent Japanese Americans in prison camps.
Jews in Israel also hid behind the Holocaust, which NO SANE HUMAN should ever deny. They steel land from Palestinians and Gaza, just like America drove Natives off of land.
China and Japan and the Orient has also never been free from tribalism and violence. The point in saying all this is that WE, my fellow humans, WE, are ALL minorities, and majorities depending on time frame and geographics. No amount of RIGHTFULLY pointing out human suffering and the cruelty that humans inflict on other humans, will ever change the fact that we ARE the same species.
I am simply tired of my species, which can be capable of great empathy getting stuck on labels only to forget the lesson of ALL human suffering is not a billboard to promote one label over another, but a lesson to HUMANITY on what not to do to each other.
The lesson of slavery and native Americans is the lesson of the Holocaust is the lesson of gays is the lesson of Palestine is the lesson of Hiroshima. It is our species failure to see that all we have is each other.
There cannot be any "virtue of the oppressed" for to hide behind any wrong that was done to us, sets our species up to turn around and do it to someone else in the future.
Sagan told us what we need to do and we really need to stop thinking any label makes our suffering the patent holder of virtue. Suffering is suffering. I hold the position of "atheist", but before that label and most importantly I am a human first. Labels do not preclude us from being cruel because that is what evolution produces. It always will. The good side of our species is our ability to be more self aware of our importance in all this long term. I am with Ann Frank and Malala and King Jr in our empathy. I merely think humans simply need to put our common ground as the focus and not treat suffering as a unique patent that only one label can identify with.
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Yes there are humans who have been oppressed in past history and there are humans today that are oppressed. There needs to be a wider understanding of our collective species history of ALL human suffering.
When, for example, a Muslim living in the west, who is not violent rightfully complains about profiling. Or when a Kurdish Christian in Iraq rightfully points to Muslims slaughtering them. Or when Jews in Europe complain about discrimination. Or when atheists in America complain about being the most distrusted minority in America. They are all correct, but unfortunately our species still cant see our collective suffering and hide behind it to avoid criticism and also us it to set up taboos.
America's history is full of oppression of minorities. Blacks were slaves, women could not vote, and gays are still discriminated against. Days after 9/11 a Sikh was murdered mistaken for a Muslim. Buddhists in Burma treat Muslims like shit. America put innocent Japanese Americans in prison camps.
Jews in Israel also hid behind the Holocaust, which NO SANE HUMAN should ever deny. They steel land from Palestinians and Gaza, just like America drove Natives off of land.
China and Japan and the Orient has also never been free from tribalism and violence. The point in saying all this is that WE, my fellow humans, WE, are ALL minorities, and majorities depending on time frame and geographics. No amount of RIGHTFULLY pointing out human suffering and the cruelty that humans inflict on other humans, will ever change the fact that we ARE the same species.
I am simply tired of my species, which can be capable of great empathy getting stuck on labels only to forget the lesson of ALL human suffering is not a billboard to promote one label over another, but a lesson to HUMANITY on what not to do to each other.
The lesson of slavery and native Americans is the lesson of the Holocaust is the lesson of gays is the lesson of Palestine is the lesson of Hiroshima. It is our species failure to see that all we have is each other.
There cannot be any "virtue of the oppressed" for to hide behind any wrong that was done to us, sets our species up to turn around and do it to someone else in the future.
Sagan told us what we need to do and we really need to stop thinking any label makes our suffering the patent holder of virtue. Suffering is suffering. I hold the position of "atheist", but before that label and most importantly I am a human first. Labels do not preclude us from being cruel because that is what evolution produces. It always will. The good side of our species is our ability to be more self aware of our importance in all this long term. I am with Ann Frank and Malala and King Jr in our empathy. I merely think humans simply need to put our common ground as the focus and not treat suffering as a unique patent that only one label can identify with.
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