Yet, as the bombs fall out of our sight and minds in the name of liberation and positive change for global peace and harmony, our little united piece of land falls further away from the goals and aspirations of our founding fathers, leaving the realm of common sense in a cloud of high-tech smog we like to call progress.

We are destroying everything around us. We not only pollute the earth with our waste, but we pollute the air with our lies, hate and thoughtless words. New groups manifest daily, screaming for their rights. Blacks vs. whites, men vs. women. Gay rights, minority rights, left vs. right. With so many different groups of people squabbling for their piece of what they ordain to be rightfully claimed, we forget that when all the lights go out and all the madness quiets, we’re are all human.

We eat, breathe, hurt and cry the same. We laugh, touch, taste and hope the same. One truth has held constant from the beginning of time until this very moment and will always remain:Survival is the most basic human need. It is instilled in every one of us, this natural motivation to survive. But somehow, we have found a way to ignore even our most basic instinct. We put things in our bodies that we know harms us. We do things to our environment completely aware of the detrimental effects it will have on our lives and the lives of our offspring.

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In major public universities in California, separate race-based graduation ceremonies are being held. A member of the Chicago City Council opposes the Pledge of Allegiance because he contends it is offensive to ask black Americans to “give their loyalty to a country that enslaved them.” There are those who are protesting Mother’s Day because it discriminates, they say, against children who are in same-sex households.

We have white children who want to be black and black people who object to the term “African-American,” some to what is on the left side of the hyphen and others to what is on the right. If common sense were being sold at Wal-Mart for a dollar a case, they would go out of business, because it seems no one is buying these days.

The problem is not with race or origin. The fact is there is only one true race:the human race. This fact has been ignored and neglected due to a much bigger and more ambitious race that seems to have overshadowed the human race:the rat race. The funny thing is no one is winning this fruitless race, because there is no end to it, not one that anyone will live to tell about anyway.

The answer lies in us as individuals. We have to make it our responsibility personally to seek out the truth and hold ourselves accountable for what is right and what makes sense. We should look around and see each other not only as equals, but as mirrors of one another … sisters, brothers, friends and family. We are fellow human beings, not just in America, Europe, Asia or Africa, but here on this place we like to call home … a big round ball called Earth. The dream shouldn’t be of America or specific continents or countries; the dream should be for a better earth for all of us. It starts with us. Not the government and its politicians. No superheroes will be on duty for this mission. The weight is left on our shoulders. It is a heavy load, but together our strength is unstoppable.