I was listening to NPR today and heard an interview with a woman who was forced from a plane by the airline because of her disability. I was incredulous. The idea that a person could be escorted off an airline for the basic act of living their life while flying alone, simply because they had a disability stunned me. It also made me think about how, at the most basic level, every single movement for equality and change in this country boils down to the problem of discrimination.
Protests for social change are not new. Suffragettes marched for women's right to vote in the 1920s. The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s was not without violent moments throughout its peaceful protests, marches, and sit-ins. Movements for change today in the BLM movement include everything from vigils and social media campaigns, to organized protests and marches at state capitols. The fact is that if discrimination didn't exist; if everyone looked at and treated all other human beings as who they are - Human Beings - many of the issues that have precipitated the need for massive change would not exist.
How someone is treated should not be about what job they have, how much money they make, who they love, what religion they follow, what their physical capabilities are, where their family is from, or what color skin they happen to be born with. People are people. Period. Saying that any one of those things makes someone more or less of a person than anyone else is like saying that all people with green eyes are descended from felines - logically it just doesn't hold water.
Is change on a variety of social and economic levels needed in this country? Absolutely, yes. Would it be as dire of a situational need if everyone, especially those in positions of power or government, didn't continually speak and act like people are divided into groupings as if they're sorting various types of marbles into separate bins? No, it would not.
We all breathe the same air. We all bleed the same blood. If every person on this planet could remember that on a daily basis, the world might just be a little less volatile of a place.
Just my 2 cents.
~ The Girl In The Little Black Dress
