Grey Area

As  a member of the group Homo Sapiens, I want to make clear how I see myself and the rest of humanity.  First of all I do not identify as an Atlantan. Atlanta is a big, mediocre city that is more liberal than not. Fine. I could just as well live in Seattle, Big Sur, Hawaii, Ireland, Scotland, or New Zealand...

I do not identify, therefore, as Georgian, or Southern, or American in the narrow sense of the U.S. or the broad sense of North and South American. Geographic origin is unimportant to me. I don't care what region of the world my ancestors inhabited. 

My grandmother told me I have all races in me. That was good enough for me when I was a child, and it is good enough for me now. Others see me as white, though I am flesh colored with a hint of salmon (Lord knows I eat enough salmon). Naive, or not, I find that "White" or Caucasian means nothing to me. Perhaps if I were clearly Black or Jewish or some other historically persecuted minority, I would think differently.  Perhaps not, for there are Jews and Blacks in my family. I do feel that the persecution of gays throughout history has something to do with me. Yet, I abhor all racial, sexual, and religious persecution. In the history of the world, there have been great and marvelous people of every race; and there have been even more villains, knaves, bigots, and hateful people in every race. Genocide has been the rule over and over again; it still is. Look at Myanmar, for example. As a human being I feel proud of the good and loving people in each race as I am ashamed of the evil or bigoted beings. 

I do identify as bisexual; in part because I think being bisexual is part of being fully human. Are we born with a tendency to be more straight or gay? I honestly don't know. I've generally held to the Kinsey Scale on that subject. I have loved people of all the major races and both sexes. I love the diversity of humanity. The torture and murder conducted by the Inquisition and by all similar religious or nationalist societies that show no religious, ethnic, or moral tolerance horrify me. That is why I repeat often the view of the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights authored in part by Eleanor Roosevelt. Human rights over-ride religious rites. 

http://www.humanrights.com/about-us/what-is-united-for-human-rights.html

There is another form of prejudice that it is essential to recognize: Ageism. At 70 I am aware of this often subtle discrimination. Not so subtle is a hatred of old white males because of the evil done by many old white males. But that is just as much bigotry as any other form. Simone De Beauvoir wrote a moving and brilliant book on how society, especially Western society, perpetuates ageism. 

Simone de Beauvoir's Philosophy of Age: Gender, Ethics, Time

Because of hatred, bigotry and genocide; because of our overall disregard of other life forms and nature; it is my view that we shall not survive as a species. Climate change, pollution, wars, and over-population will all eventually destroy us.  All the more reason to enjoy the beauty and love, the joy of life as much as we are able, with compassion for other humans and for nature.

Jameson