For most of my adult life it has been widely accepted as fact that humans and chimpanzees share over 90% of their DNA. This makes us very similar. What I recently found out, much to my amazement, was that we all share a little over 50% of our DNA with a banana. We’ll get back to this.
You see, I went to South Point High School and the Pointers rule and the Coal Grove Hornets suck. They are inferior both athletically and physically. Somehow, my cousin who went to Coal Grove got through college quicker than I did and could have kicked my ass any day of the week until we were at least in our twenties. How he managed this with a foundation from a school whose inferiority was exhorted by 15 girls in matching outfits on the sidelines of a sporting event is beyond me. I have to assume it was liberal bias or some conservative old boy network.
Within a few days of our High School graduation dates Ronald Reagan made me cry. Now this isn’t hard. I cry at good movies, moving music and I frequently cry at weddings. I find myself in tears nearly every time I hear of America’s war dead. I am a heterosexual, whitetail hunting, white male trained in more than one martial arts form and have lived in homes heated only by the wood I split and I cried like a hungry baby when Renne Zellweger said “You complete me.”
Reagan made me cry with a well crafted speech. When he spoke the words “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK30k2WTxY0&feature=related I knew, right then, that my adult life had hope. We were all going to start working together. We. We. We Are the World. We Are the People. Would Lionel Richie and Billy Joel lie to me?
John Lennon was dead but was still everywhere I turned insisting we Come Together and Imagine. A peacemaker’s face made of squiggly rainbow lines seemed as prevalent and commercially viable as the Nike Swoosh for a few short years. The late 80’s and early 90’s seemed to almost audibly hear America letting loose a deeply held breath from the Cold War.
It took a more cynical human being to explain to me in later years that The New World Order wasn’t the kind of order I had been hoping for. In the same vein I was disconcerted to learn that NO FEAR wasn’t about creating a safe environment for mutual respect. And I loved the NO FEAR concept. I wanted to live in a NO FEAR world. Eliminating fear seems a better goal than eliminating mosquitoes, polio or the national debt.
It seems we have traded Mr. Gorbachev’s single huge wall for ten thousand electric fences. It seems as Americans we are specializing in producing this fence. Monotheist vs. monotheist and you suck for listening to that punk band instead of this one. And now, for those of you paying attention, we get back to the bananas.
It is as if we have chosen to eat together. Upon this decision we have all agreed to the same city, same street, same time, and same restaurant. Having chosen the same seat and the same sandwich we continue to break out in huge brawls over whether the person to the left of us is using enough horsey sauce on their chipped beef sandwich. Think about it. The major conflict in the world seems to be between two monotheistic religions that both have holy texts claiming we should not kill, lie, or be envious. Both groups claim greed is bad and compassion is good. Both claim an eternal reward for decent behavior and we have folks lining up to kill and be killed over who gets credit for commanding them to do act nearly identically. It is two men in a dark room with a spare light bulb killing each other over whether Edison invented or perfected the incandescent bulb. IN THE DARK.
I, personally, will attempt to find more similarities. When I consider that I am 50% similar to a banana I have to be able to find some common ground with you, right? Is it not enough? Is sharing the basis of our biology not enough? How about sharing a small rock in a largely inhospitable universe? How about the sheer odds of you and I being alive at the same time?
I am not asking you to attend a gay pride parade or watch FOX news. I am asking you to let someone else get away with it.
My father stressed to me repeatedly that the only cause for violence is violence. Call me a name, mock my shirt, and insult my mother. I don’t care. Throw a punch and it is on. I have had my butt kicked before; I have no problem testing that again IF someone else introduces violence. I think most people would agree. I am going to attempt to take that one step further and I invite you to come along. How about we try only being intolerant of intolerance?
How about a big nativity scene at a City Hall where gays can get married? I’ll bring the bananas.
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