In this world, everyone discriminates in some manner at some point in time. But we cannot make assumptions about why another person might do so. For example, I may choose not to walk on one side of the street because I see that the sidewalk has not been shoveled. You might choose not to walk on that side of the street because you know there is a large dog in one house that has a tendency to lunge at passersby. Someone else may choose to walk on that side of the street regardless of the suspected, known, or unknown consequences. As human beings, we have the ability to hold conversations about our choices, whatever they may be. With so many venues that present opportunities for one-sided expressions of opinion, people are losing sight of our humanity and our connectedness. There is so much that we share as humans that gets lost nowadays in the preoccupation with things we might not share (or sometimes with things we might actually share but not realize we are saying the same thing with different words). I would urge everyone to take a step away from being judgmental and to listen to your fellow human beings. Just listen, because whatever they are saying is probably important to them whether or not it is in sync with your specific way of thinking. I was raised with the “golden rule”; i.e. “do unto to others as you would have them do unto you”. It is golden because is a shining, valuable example of how to interact respectfully. When I was in junior high, kids would paraphrase that rule with things like “do unto others…and run!” In junior high, that seemed funny. In today’s world, not so much because it is all too real.

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