EQUAL RIGHTS AND HUMAN LOVE

LOVE AND DEMOCRACY

In order to be able to love anyone beside yourself, you need to respect and afford rights and dignity to others...and I have to wonder sometimes, based on what I read and hear from some dudes in the Middle East, albeit far from all...

what do you NOT GET
about human rights?

Maybe you have lived without basic rights for so long you don't any longer know what they are or how important they are in assuring civil order and maintaining a bedrock of tolerance and understanding.

 Maybe it is not in the nature of people there to be mindful of others rights. I'd like to think THAT isn't true.

AMERICA...

THE GREAT EXPERIMENTAL SOCIETY,
ROOTED IN EQUALITY AND FREEDOM

EQUAL RIGHTS...

are fundamental to the very fabric of American society. Our ancestors fought mightily against monstrous odds 
and WON
The American Revolutionary War... 
so that they, their families and friends,
and EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWED THEM would be FREE to BE WHO THEY ARE.

Free from tyranny. 
With freedom of the press.

FREEDOM...
to worship who and when and how 
they chose...OR NOT. 

To love whomever they wish to, as long as it does not involve  coercion or force...
and irrespective of gender, ethnicity, national origin, color of skin, religion, 
and sexual orientation to name a few...ALL are entitled to live FREE from discrimination and persecution and bigotry at the hands of those who disagree 
with someone else's views or beliefs 
or personhood.

We have not always been very exemplary in terms of following the mandates our forefathers set out in our Constitution and our Bill Of Rights, but those documents codified the principles they believed in and wanted kept in place 
for future generations.

Sadly, each minority or subset group, 
such as African-Americans, women, gays, and others have had to FIGHT for their rights when either majorities or other vocal minorities such as now the Tea Party Republican bastards...opposed equal rights protections even though they have been the LAW for over 300 years.

To the credit of progressives and large segments of American society, the more tolerant and progressive views of the majority always prevail EVENTUALLY over the views of those who wish to legalize and sanction an inequality of rights for those who differ...and now I am seeing what looks like FINALLY a GENERAL AWARENESS on the part of the entire country that to deny ANYONE their rights is the slippery slope to denying EVERYONE their equal rights...and THAT is a path NO ONE wants to go down. NOBODY, except for the crass few who are power trippers 
and manipulators.

We are a country of laws and while sometimes a block of voters gets the upper hand and tries to legalize discrimination and prejudice...but as I said, cooler heads have always won out in the end.

THIS IS DEMOCRACY.

It is MESSY, and it is UNEVEN, 
and it is LOVE. For the founders of America LOVED not only the people here but the PRINCIPLES of equality under the law AND PERSONAL FREEDOM. 

They had lived under tyranny at the hands of the British and no longer wanted ANY PART of it here. They fought and died for freedom. They prevailed...and all of us who have followed those long-ago HEROES are even yet reaping the rewards of what they did so long ago.

THEY LOVED...

WE AS A COUNTRY STILL DO.

WE ARE WILLING TO STAND UP, 
FIGHT FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE IN, 
& DIE IF NECESSARY...
and we do NOT just do it for ourselves.

WE ARE DOING IT IN AFGHANISTAN TODAY,

so that Afghans can have a bright future FREE from the likes of the tyrannical...the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other tyrants.

THIS LOVE, for our fellow human beings 
all over the world has driven and motivated us as a people for hundreds of years...CAUSE WE HAVE A HISTORY OF OPPRESSION in our background and DETEST THE HATE & THE INTOLERANCE & IGNORANT BIGOTRY 
that drives it.

WE FUNDAMENTALLY HATE DICTATORS.
THEY TO US ARE THE SCOURGE OF THE EARTH...and NO GOOD has ever come from one. Just ask the Jews how much they still love ol' Adolph. Stalin, Lenin. 

Uganda and Idi Amin...and the list keeps getting longer as long as there is corruption and the despots 
who feed off of it.

LOVE is what AMERICA has ALWAYS been about and while we have had our Bastard politicians, and our misfit legislators...we keep trying if unevenly but still keep trying to LOVE our fellow man, both domestically and internationally.

WE ARE NOT PERFECT

but then...
neither is Pakistan 
and Afghanistan.

I AM NOT PERFECT,

but then...
neither are you.

LOVE IS OUR COMMON GROUND,

if we can agree to seize it and hang on 
to what it represents.

LOVE CAN HEAL, 
AND WORK MIRACLES...

but if you don't appropriate it, 
it will be useless to you...
AND SHAME ON YOU.

IT WILL BE YOUR LOSS.

The International community WANTS Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan...to be an integral part of our collective future.

BUT IT IS THEIR CHOICE..
AND LOVE is what will make it happen 
if it does.

It is ONLY ONE of the many faces of love,
and an important one going forward. None of us is going to get out of this grand experiment called humanity alive...SO, we better make good use of what we have been given and LOVE is the key to open the doors of ALL of our collective hearts, FORVERMORE.