A Call for Equality

In the United States of America, we hold this truth to be self evident: all men (and women) are created equal. Regardless the religion, culture, sexual orientation, or skin color of a person, he or she is of tantamount worth to any other human being.

Yet, there are citizens of this country who believe one gender, one faith, one country, one type of couple, one skin color is best. While this is incredibly inaccurate and prejudiced, it is not wholly the fault of these provincial thinkers that they believe thus. If a people seem unadvanced or “backwards”, even, those that belong to a more industrialized nation are virtually raised to see themselves as “better” then the poorer, undeveloped countries. Whereas it is true those countries “behind on the times” are not as advanced as countries such as the United States of America, this doesn’t mean the people of said less developed countries are worth any less than Americans.

A parallel can be drawn from the previous argument to gender discrimination--just because one sex has certain traits doesn’t make it better. Men are physically stronger, yes, but women are in many ways emotionally stronger. As Larry Cahill, co-author of an extensive study on the differences between male and female brains, noted, "Throughout evolution, women have had to deal with a number of internal stressors, such as childbirth, that men haven't had to experience." Men and women are simply different. Women are often lauded as excellent multi-taskers, while men are celebrated as exceptionally focused. Differing genders will have different traits and ideals, however this doesn’t alter the fact they are both equal in their own right.

Another clash of distinctive ideals is that of the religious sort. Faith is one of the oldest reasons to go to war, resulting in thousands upon thousands of casualties. Entirely due to the fact one society felt their religion was the one and only “True Faith”, many people who were so much as suspected of believing in a variation of the “True Faith” were subjected to horrendous fates. Merely look at the pain and suffering caused by the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust to see an example. Solely based on religious background, one could be tortured and killed. Simply because they worshiped the “wrong” version of God(s). Just because someone believes in a religion different from yours doesn’t make him or her wrong or inferior to you.

The color of one’s skin does not determine one’s worth either. How can something as ingrained as one’s fingerprint mark an individual as inferior, or superior for that matter? The simplified answer: it can’t. The skin color of a people cannot determine the worth of said people. It is the prejudiced hearts of man that condemn a race to inferiority. But, if the discriminated race can dream of a better life, of an equal existence, they can rise above the hate and live in harmony with other denominations; they can form a rainbow of different colored skin, all living together in equality.

Touching again on the subjects of rainbows, equality, and genders, sexual orientation has become a hot button topic as of late. There are in this country, this world, people who love with full abandon, passion, and pride.

Among them are Homosexuals.
They love their partners just as fiercely as their hetero counterparts love their own significant others . Does this make them freaks of nature? What is “correct” love? How can one orientation’s love be better, purer, more legitimate than another’s?

Yes, all humans are created equal, and none are more equal than others, but many people’s humanity is frozen and trapped under mountains of hate. Thomas Paine said in Crises No. 1 that it is “..folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.” Only when people unbar their hearts and allow their prejudices to melt away will discrimination cease and we will all be allowed to live and love as equals.