Prejudice, bigotry, discrimination? It may be 2010, but love is still the answer

Posted in Sandi's blog on 20 April 2010 | 1 Comments

I suspect that I may never really be able to succeed in expressing my gratitude to the people in my life who have enabled me to get to where I am, to maintain my hopefulness and to have the strength and resolve to know that this human rights advocacy mission that I am compelled to pursue is going to far exceed my lifetime.

Although I accept total responsibility for my choices and they are choices, I suspect that being someone who participates in my life in any way can only be a monumental pain in the backside. It is not that I am anything special. I am just a regular person trying to get on with life and find happiness, like most of us, but I somehow seem to be unlike others in that I am an agenda free zone and this is oddly where things seem to go a bit awry. Somehow this lack of agenda has been met with a whole host of negative and unexpected responses that have taken me off guard.

I guess it's difficult for most to understand that I am not really living in this world or our times at all. I long for a time when people, not policies or legislation, were fighting for a better life, a better society and a simplicity where we just got on with celebrating and rejoicing in the variety that our species has to offer. As a child of the 60s I thought it would happen in my lifetime and I hung onto every single word uttered by Abbie Hoffman, but now in 2010 it seems as though the 60s never happened as far as mainstream society goes and people are as pedestrian and malevolent as they were before.

And whilst this overall state of affairs prevails, my own circumstances seem to pale into insignificance and I struggle to concern myself with the particulars of any one disability or disadvantaged community or category of human beings that face discrimination. I really don't want to understand the underlying fear, anger and resentment towards anyone that differs from the norm.

What has happened? Where did it all go wrong? What is it in people that produces animosity towards anything or anyone different? Why is it that I approach such things with an open heart and mind, with love, compassion and a genuine sense of excitement about what fascinating things will unfold when I get to know new people?

You can explain the sociological or environmental circumstances that may have influenced a person during their formative years, but as human beings, do we not go along our journeys to learn, to grow and surely as we evolve, do we not question our values if they don't make sense once we are out there in the big bad world?

Prejudice and bigotry are hurtful to both those purporting it and those who are subjected to it and just makes no sense. Do people just not comprehend how badly we have screwed up the world to recognise that love is the only answer. There is no need to search. It is simple. Life is right there in front of you. It's your choice what you do with it, but it is not a dress rehearsal. If it were all to end now, I know my heart is pure. I love and am loved. What else is there?

1 comments | Tags: Discrimination, Life