Today is a day "off" for most. We are taking the day to relax, making it a holiday. Today is Martin Luther King Jr.'s day. The man starting a change that rippled and turned into a wave that impacted a whole nation. He changed lives and did so without hate or the thirst of power or money. He did it using respect, words and intelligence. Mr. King had a dream and it is in the process of being lived out. Today, people still don't really like talking about race, discrimination, minorities or people who shouldn't be here. I want to spend today thinking about what needs to happen and what has happened in the past.
The US is full of bad things, good things and neutral things. The honest reality is that the world, all of it, is full of good and bad. The way we handle it though is the pivotal issue. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for more then just accepting people who are black. It is about respecting people of ALL differences. Races, sexes, genders and class ranges. Our world needs to understand what the word respect means, not tolerance. Tolerance leaves room for disrespect and annoyance. Acceptance is about respecting the rights of others, whether you like it or not. We all have morals we live by, religions we address our lives too and so on but the reality is our worlds are not everyone else's and their worlds do not revolve around ours. I want to stress and help you understand to take a step back and realize, your way of living is not always the best. Hard to swallow, i know. You are not always right and even more than that, I am not either.
You will read this and "like" it or comment on it, but are you living it? Are you judging gay people behind their back or voting to take their rights? Are you throwing out racist jokes to make a few laugh, or taking a step even deeper and only hiring people based on their looks or races?
Where do you stand? Where? Because that is the place where you have to own up to. Lets go back to the past. Lets take a step back to the day Martin Luther King Jr. took the change into his own hands. Would you have told people to sit in the back of the bus or sat in the back with them. Would you have invited a black family over for the saturday bbq or hired them to be the maids for the day. How would you have been a part of the mobs yelling our hate towards AID's patients or been on the streets finding them and bringing them medicine. Clicking "like" is so, undeniably easy. It is as easy as making a joke or typing a discriminating status update. But standing up on the bus, marching down the street when you know your whole families reputation is at risk and standing infront of the nation you live in and demanding change, that is difficult. That is change worthy. Life is not about status updates or blogs, it is not about weight or make up, strength or wealth. It is about compassion, relating and building. Martin Luther King had a strong hold on that and worked to use that to change the world he lived in. Today, imagine the world Mr. King imagined. A world with compassion and respect.
We act like we get to judge people because of what they wear, or where they work. Judging is the first step in feeding the mindset that tells yourself you are above that person. Judging allows you to believe you have the right to judge. You don't. If a woman is beating her husband or a man is beating is wife, we are supposed to step in and help and i truly think most of us can agree on that. But seeing a gay man loving his husband doesn't give you rights to beat them. You don't get to switch the two.
I started writing this because in the past few months I write status updates about discrimination, and people "like" them. But those same people have had conversations or write status updates about how angry illegal immigrants make them or how grossed out gay people make them, so on and so on. So focus people, please i am begging you to focus on these words and listen to them. Do not settle for judging, but instead fighting against the habit and find equality with those around you. Equality.
Study that word. Memorize it. Life is hard alone, we do not need to add hardships onto other peoples lives.
So tomorrow, no today, when you run into a moment that makes you uncomfortable step back and reevaluate that situation and yourself. Think about how you would feel being judged like that. Think. Thats all I'm asking of you. Take an extra moment to reevaluate yourself because you may not be as respectful as you think.
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