Guest Post: We Are Human

This is a guest post by Elizabeth, a regular reader and commenter at The Israel Situation.

We live in a world divided by definitions; there are so many definitions that define each individual that one can get literally lost in the possibilities when attempting to give presence to a human being. What set me to thinking about this was a visit to the Doctor last week, while waiting in an examination room to be seen I heard the Nurse repeat the same question several times to a patient in the next room, “How do you define your race?” he asked,” are you Caucasian other than Hispanic?” The patient hesitated several moments before finally answering, “I don’t suppose you have a check box for ‘human’ do you?”

Just this morning I was reading  the comments of a group that tries to get Palestinian youth and Israeli youth together. Suddenly, a chat room opened on the subject and I joined in.  The leader wrote, ”Wouldn’t it change things if we stopped defining ourselves by our beliefs?” I answered, “Yes, not just by our beliefs but by the creed of our lives, our nationality, our race and the color of our skin!” Within ten minutes there were seven negative comments but the enlightening moment came twenty minutes later when I counted the number of people who had chimed in to back up the two of us who want to be human. Fifty one. Yep, 51 people chimed in to applaud the two of us who started the ruckus.

Think of it, here in the US the average person is asked at least twice a week to define themselves by one of the following: Religion; Race; Creed; Color or Nationality…

Personally I think that we could start the first definition of mankind which doesn’t attempt to separate us, but instead begins to bring us together into a world where we could all live with one another in peace. This could be the start of a pandemic that brings relief to this tired old world of ours. We are, after all is said and done, just human! Whether we are one color or another, what we believe, which political agenda we adhere to, when the end comes we are still just human beings. Our bodies will wear out, we will age in all the ways that flesh and bones do that, and one day we will die as is the way of fleshy things. In meantime, though, let’s just give this world something to think about, even if each one of us only gives one other person a chance to think about it.

I am certain that the only way for this earth and its inhabitants to continue to exist is for those of us who are sentient beings to begin to view every human being as equal. Just as the mother of a ruthless terrorist strike cries for her child, so to does the mother of the teen turned terrorist by the unforgivable lies of mad men.

There are many differences in all of us, we are each unique in our way, we are each special in our own way, but when evil takes over the mind we become unable to see the goodness that exists in others. It is unfortunate that in the age in which we live we are separated by barriers of all types’ not just words that define us but actual walls that separate us. I believe in a future world that learns to live together in peace where there is no fighting, no war, no terrorism, and all of us live in security, realizing that we are human beings.

It is difficult to see how this could ever come to pass, but new beginnings are often difficult, it is only when enough of us believe that we are all human and therefore entitled to a life that is peaceful that change might come. “AH”, you say, “it is a great dream but could never become a reality!” NO! I say to you that each one of us has a voice, we can all be heard as individuals, and if we share a vision of a world at peace, where we are all seen as human beings then that vision can become a reality.

Each one of us should stand and shout to the rooftops. We are human! We were the hope of a creation that gave us sentience, we who were given the gift to recognize right from wrong, good from evil and it is up to us to try to change this world before it is too late and we have perished with this lovely blue planet on which we live.

Choose to be counted not by the old standards of definition but by your own, our own standards…We are human!