When I really sit down and think about it, I guess it truly is hard to view everyone as your equal. I know that everyone is my equal - God equipped Einstein, Anacaona, Leonardo DaVinci, Sonia Sanchez, I.M. Pei & I with all the same resources at birth: 1 brain, a pair of eyes, a pair of legs, toes, fingers, etc... What we did to acquire further resources separates us, but I am still nonetheless their equal. I take for granted that I was raised to view the victimized and the aggressor as my equals... The young, the old, the uplifted and the downtrodden, all equal in value as fellow human beings. We might not all "start" at the same point, but we all have the ability to make it - whatever we view as making it. All we need is the resources and we can all do that which we want to do.
Complete information - that's all you need to be at the same starting point. Perfect competition cannot exist unless everyone is working with the same information - once everyone has the same information, we can all try to attain the resources and bring ourselves to our desired point of "success" (off on a tangent for a moment - This is my view of a "free market" - let us all have the same information so that true competition can exist... For as long as one or two chaps are hording all the information, thereyby owning all the resources & access to business opportunities, what sets that apart from communism where the government holds all the money & keeps the masses at the poverty line? But I digress...)
As a child, I used to sit and wonder how anyone could be racist, sexist, practice an "ism" of any kind. Who was out there telling whites that they were better than blacks; telling Koreans that they were better than Malaysians? Who was telling Dominicans they were better than Haitians; telling men that they were better than women? Who held that authority? But I guess when you see one kind of person always struggling with & stuck in the same kind of problem or predicament, the average man who doesn't guard his heart & mind is likely to believe that this is that kind of person's fate. But I urge us all to rise above that inclinination. Using the past of the black man's shackles should not define your perception of what he is capable of today. The woman's everpresent glass ceiling should not be viewed as a true limit to her abilities as a professional or acheiver of any kind. The plight of the immigrant when she comes to America should not be the typecast experience that we believe she deserves.
When you sit down and really think about it, it all comes down to resources - basic haves & have nots. Further yet, haves & have nots, and then what people do with their "haves". A decision yielding an unpleasant result does not make someone lesser than their peer who chose another route. Someone with more resources is likely to have more opportunities at their disposal because they can explore more... They can experiment more... They can find whatever information they need to advance. So what it boils down to is resources and information. Resources and information set us apart, but it doesn't create a human-value-hierarchy between us (I should make up a term for that concept). I say down with the supremacy of any kind. I am everyone's equal in the eyes of God. All that sets us apart is what we do with the information we have and the information we acquire. Information that remains stagnant begins to lose its value if it is not updated and transformed.
This is basically my roundabout way of pointing out that resources & information are either accessible or not - they can be limited, taken away or perverted. If you lose your job tomorrow, get cut off from all family and friends & lose access to your school, bank, work & personal records, you have essentially been de-resourced & de-informed (I just made up those terms... way cool, lol) - making you an ideal candidate for HOMELESSNESS. Didn't we all see Trading Places wih Eddie Murphy & Dan Akroyd? All our resources & information can be stripped of us, devalued or limited. By the Grace of God alone do we have certain "securities" in life. Therefore, the day you see a poor family, or meet someone who "has" less than you in material terms or wordly "successes" (whatever that may mean to you), remind yourself that all it takes is for resources and information to be out of your reach, and you may suddenly be in their place - regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religious affiliation, sexual preference, age or handicap...
sad
relieved
