IV

There are no exceptions for injustice. There are no excuses for hate crimes, murder, malice, mistreatment.

Who am I? Am I so much more different than you that I deserve death?  Are you so much more different than I that your word becomes a death sentence?

We are all the same. Why it is that we’ve let the issue of inequality persist into the 21st century, I will never know. But, know this. We are all the same.

We’re evolutionarily related to countless other species. We share similar DNA with most primates, and we even share 90% of our genes with house-cats.

And yet, in the same stroke that we open our doors to a stray neighborhood cat, we just as easily close our doors to a homeless person. We close our minds to those who are not “like us.”

But we are all the same.

This is more than a squabble. This is more than a casual remark — a featherweight imprint on the sand that will likely be forgotten, come the next tide.

These are footprints on the moon. And our actions in the next years will shake off the dust of the world we’ve grown so jaded in.

It is imperative that we live good lives for the children of our future. To do this, we need to live and lead by example, not hypocrisy.