I am ashamed. I sat down to enjoy a decent meal and made the mistake of turning on the evening news. It seems that every time I turn around, there is some sort of disaster. One group pitting itself against another group because of religion, social ideology, or personal preferences. There seems to be no desire to even remotely understand someone else’s viewpoint. Even in the morning when I open the DE, I am faced with hatred and intolerance of others. Whether it is religious, racial, or gender based, there is a constant bombardment of negative attitudes.

I would like to say that most people are not like that, yet I find myself unable to do that. Why can’t we, as individuals, accept that we are not the center of the planet, especially in the United States, where diversity is so apparent? Should we not raise our children to love all things, see the beauty in others, and learn from things around us, no matter how foreign those things might be? Instead they are taught to beware, to be skeptical and untrusting of people that are different.

I have a question for all of you who are scoffing at this point:Who made you so angry, who taught you to be so selfish, and why do you think you are so unhappy? We humans are amazed and delighted by the remarkable differences in animals, yet while the differences are admired in animals, they are detested in humans. So maybe diversity is accepted only as long as we don’t have to face it every day.

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This is why I am ashamed. I am ashamed to be a human being. So who will be the first to condemn what I am saying? I am sure someone out there hates who I am and what I represent acceptance, tolerance and peace.