Measures of Worth

This is an attempt at starting a dialogue, about the fabric of what our human existence entails at present, and what it should strive to be.

Sometimes the universe is best examined through a microcosm.  I am completely unconvinced that the way I will attempt this will be the right way, but it will be my own attempt at a beginning. A stepping stone.

I am going to start small.  I was 6 years old when my 18 year old sister was killed in a car accident.  I remember how devastated my Mother was to lose her first born, and wishing it had been me instead.  Not being morose at all, my 6 year old logic told me that it would be easier on my Mom, because she had not had as much time to get attached to me.  Ok, leave that thought in the back of your mind and lets move forward.

We are genetically programmed, as a survival of the species instinct to protect our progeny. Procreation and care giving for those offspring is necessary to keep the species alive. Many religious types use this primal instinct in order to value fetuses over mothers.

At 8, I had such a fit, crying and arguing in a religion class, they called the Dreaded Parish Priest to talk to me. I looked him in the eye, and said “If a little girl is born a Buddhist, obeys her parents, prays and is good and never even heard of Jesus, you are telling me she can never go to heaven and see God?  When its not her fault where she was born? If God’s that mean, I don’t want any part of him!!!”  To his credit, this old staunch Polish priest softened, hugged me, and said “Truth be told, we just don’t know, dear. I hope God thinks more like you.”

I remember too, reading about Viet Nam, watching on TV when people became crazed about the killing of children in those villages, and thinking it odd. At 10-12, I heard “There were innocent children killed!” and saw the fuzzy images on our black and white Zenith of a village destroyed.

I wondered why the Moms and Dads weren’t an atrocity too.  Did humans devalue with age, because living took away their innocence? I got that kids didn’t really have a choice in the making of a war, but I also already figured out that regular people didn’t either. For most of my short life people were protesting Viet Nam, none of us wanted to be there, and there we still were. I already was cynical about people in power and government.

By 15, there was a rash of OD’s by heroine in Detroit, and the slanted news seemed to use it more to scare the white people to stay out of Detroit rather than really care about the dying Black people. “Crazed addicts in the streets.” they said, carefully omitting the word black, while showing pictures of young dead black people.

The school system was still making a half-hearted attempt to justify dropping the bombs in Japan, although somewhat admitting it was an atrocity. I argued with my asshat history teacher about that one.  “Had we not made a strong crippling move to stop them, you would be speaking Japanese young lady, or German!” he screamed in my face. “So killing of innocents is wrong when our enemies do it but justified when we do it?” I countered.

My only “C” in my straight “A” High School career.  I contested it to the Principal, having all my tests in hand, and got it changed to a “B”.  Having an opinion was not reason enough to have my permanent record fucked up for life, I thought. I also wanted them aware that this teacher was making value judgments about other nations, and then forcing them on us.

Back to my 6 year old self.  I valued myself less then for being younger, as having less experience and attachments, yet found as I grew society valued young over old, white over black and “us” over “them.”

By the time I was in my teens, I decided the whole set up was wrong.

By the time I was in my 20’s, a study of many cultures, Native American in particular confirmed to me, that we are all related.  Mitakye Oyasin.

I have been screaming this from rooftops all my life.

I wonder why no one else seems to really get what is obvious to me, has always been obvious to me.

The quips exist saying some get it.  “War is late term abortion.”  No doubt, many value a fetus over a 20 year old man. No doubt many do not value illegal immigrants as much as a white suburbanite.  Check the headlines when a white girl is kidnapped.

Some object when I anger over any abuse, tasering and such, when far more heinous things are happening.

The thing is, I don’t value Iraqi suffering more than American, more than any other suffering.

All human suffering happens to me.  No, I don’t suffer their actual pain, but in my heart, they are all my own. They are all wrong. They are all acts of devaluation.

Still, it is hard to quell that flinch factor I as a mother get when I see a child abused.  But I cannot see where any human dying should be “prioritized” by age.  It doesn’t add up for me.

This is one microcosmic snapshot of what humans should be thinking about in order to reach a more enlightened state.  But I think it is truly the basis of all other leaps.

Why is any human life more valuable than any other?

How can we possibly become the types of beings that value each others’ very lives equally?

Do we need to “lose” our self-identifying factors to find this, or is there any way to learn to value diversity and embrace it as equal without that loss?

Do we need to become homogeneous, or can we still enjoy Mexican Food, French wines, Kielbasa, Fry Bread and Baklava while embracing the people not just the culture from whence they came?