Lighten Up, Ass

I'm no sage. I'm no philosopher or subscriber to any particular religious dogma. I'm do not hold a card that says that I belong to any particular political party. I'm neither left not right. I'm neither black nor white... or any other shade of the color wheel. I am not southern, northern, western, midwestern or Canadian. I live in a country dubbed the United States of America which has imaginary lines drawn around each of it's fifty states that is placed in a position flanked on every side by other lands that are also divided into countries, states and provinces as illustrated with .008 fine tip black pen lines.

Think for a moment ... if you were to walk into a convenience store, a supermarket, a school, your place of business, a church ... and simply were greeted with a simple 'Hello', how would your mind react?

Would the 'Hello' or 'Howyadoin?' of a good 'ol boy tell your mind that you're in danger if a 'Deliverance' type experience? Would the staccato inquiry in a non-descript middle eastern accent inflame post-9/11 anger? Would opening your bag from McDonalds and discovering that your Hamburgesa Queso without onions has onions and isn't a hamburgesa queso cause you to curse the fact that you won't sleep well and fatten that heart of yours? Let's not even assume that the individual exhibits traits or appearances that suggest homosexuality. Whew , that would be way over the top. Foreign AND gay? You're in Bible Hell, eh?

Well, whether you care to accept the truth or not, you're racist. You're biased. You're not godly. You are a discriminatory, hateful, scared and ignorant individual.

Now, before you get your cockles rankled, let me tell you that I am one of you. You see, we are all in this group. We are all assholes. We are all judgemental, biased, opinionated assholes. You heard me. If you disagree with me then you aren't an asshole at all. No, disagreeing with the obvious truths of human nature would make you a pious, holier-than-thou, egotisitcal asshole. By the way, the word 'asshole', when preceded by 'holier-than-thou', 'pious' and 'egotistical' is not diminished due to increased titheing at church or the fact that your BMW or Benz isn't the top of the line.

Please, don't misunderstand me ... I'll be honest with you. I live in an area that has more women dressed head to toe in garments most likely purchased in the drapery department of Bed Bath & Beyond and per capita more mexicans than the surviving population of the northern Mexico drug-addled states. Where I live, vehicles for sale are advertised not in horsepower but camel or rickshaw power. Simply stated, I am the black-eyed pea in a pot of re-fried chicken curry kim-chee.

I harbor discriminatory feelings towards those things and people that I don't understand. I often level those feelings against those cultures that were not prevalent during my upbringing. But here is the difference ... where my attitudes differ from many of those in our penned-in country ... I will always joke about bad Asian drivers. I will always comment on 12 mexicans in a Toyota Tercel that has a tail fin. I will certainly relate my experience with a hedjam-attired driver of a fully-laden minivan who fails to signal when merging into the fast lane at twenty miles per hour below the speed limit and I will no doubt level reverse-discrimination charges at publicity-seeking dumbasses like Al Sharption and Jesse Jackson as they scream 'Racism' at virtually anything.

Am I any different than you? Really? Think about it. The absurdity of this way of thinking lies in the simple truths that we all disregard due to our individual perceptions. No matter how difficult it may be to understand the voice at the drive-thru asking 'Would you like combo?' we will undoubtedly draw a conclusion about the person speaking those words before we even drive forward and see the smiling face that uttered the words that incited immediate judgement.

There are no lines drawn on this planet. Tom Cruise's god, Xenu, doesn't differentiate Texas from Mexico due to perameters set by cartographers. Yet, here on our big ball of joy, we seem to not only discriminate based on those lines, both within and without, we discriminate based upon personal preferences, appearances, occupations and piss-ant things that run the gamut from a house to the shoes on our feet.

Face it, we are fucked up. We have lost our vision. We are all one species but we are divided by silly pride. Underneath the cultures, religions, politics and opinions of talking heads that is force-fed upon us is a single lifeforce that each of us share, down to the very atoms that everything in nature, nay, the universe, is made of.

This is my deep thinking for the day. Think for yourself. Be more tolerant. I will if you will.