Saturday, April 27, 2019

What Being 'Different' Is Really All About . . .

Some thoughts from our dear friend, Christine Flowers:

Years ago, being different was bad. Being black got you killed. Being Jewish got you banned. Being Gay made you hide. Being Catholic got you laughed at in WASP law firms (my daddy has the “no thank you” letters in his box of memories.)

It’s happened to us all, in different degrees.
We should have stopped at that point in evolution where we said “being different is part of the human condition. Celebrate humanity. Move on.”

We moved on. But we moved too far. Now, being different makes us better. Makes us “worthy.” Makes us special. Gives us superpowers.

Mayor Pete uses his husband to be special as the “gay candidate.”

Kamala and Cory use their race.

Kamala and Elizabeth and Kirsten and Amy and Tulsi and Marianne use their gender.

I’m tired. Being different is not bad. It is not good. It simply “is.” When it becomes important to some, it becomes dangerous to others.

Muslims in New Zealand, Jews in Pittsburgh, Catholics in Sri Lanka, gays in Orlando and whoever else out there, saddled with an unwanted label, know that.

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