Ad Astra Per Aspera

"To the stars through difficulties."

It's the Kansas state motto. I heard it referenced repeatedly as a kid growing up in Kansas. Lately, it seems like a good fit for circumstances in general.

Now, before anybody gets twitter-pated or otherwise twisted in the shorts, I fully intend to maintain my efforts to remain politically neutral on this Blog. I don't need to cut off my own legs before I manage to stand up on my own as an author. But you have to be pretty blind, or worse, indifferent, to not see that there are some pretty messed up things going on right now. It hurts me in my soul to see the horrible things we're doing and allowing to be done to other human beings right now. I'm not interested in finger-pointing, who's hiding behind what label, or what the excuses are. I just see that it needs to stop. We need to overcome the difficulties that we created for ourselves by allowing others to divide us. We need to reach for those stars and rise above our petty differences to remember that we are better than this (or at least we should be). We need to let that light shine upon even the ugliest of truths because we cannot keep stumbling through the darkness and pretending that everything is all right. We cannot sit idly by with our eyes closed and be thankful that "at least it isn't us."

The cold hard truth of the matter is that there is no "us" or "them." These are false constructs we've allowed ourselves to follow because somebody, somewhere, at some time decided that they existed. Somebody decided that language defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that color defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that religion defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that gender defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that who we love defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that ability or disability defines us. But it doesn't. Somebody decided that financial status defines us. But it doesn't.

What defines us are our actions and inactions: How we treat others. How we care for or disregard those around us. How we abuse or care for the world we live in and those that live in it with us. In the end, nothing else matters but that. Flesh rots away. Words and memories fade. But the things we do or don't do leave their impact for better or worse.

Somebody created these constructs to suit their own needs, to give themselves power over others, to create the illusion of a "better than" or "less than." But these constructs hide the stars from us. They kill the light and leave us in the dark. They leave us afraid to see the truth, because the truth is that as soon as we let these constructs go, we discover that we are no more or less important than the person standing next to us. We all seek to live. We all seek to love and be loved. We all seek to find comfort and understanding. At our very core, we are all the same.

I don't have easy solutions. I don't know how to help people unlearn the biases that they've learned. I don't know how to break the cycle of egocentric fear and persecution. Hell, I have to fight against my own programming to keep my personal biases in check sometimes. But what I do know is that this needs to stop. We need to find a different way. We need to stop letting fear control our decisions. We need to stop sacrificing our humanity and rationalizing the inexcusable things that we are doing to each other. We have to be better.

I will also say this, "You have no moral high ground when you become the monster that children fear."

I was going to try and tie all of this together and relate it to the goals I've set and the difficulties I've faced in getting there. In retrospect, those points seem kind of trivial right now and this post has run a bit long. I just hope that people gain some level of perspective from what I've posted here today. In the end, that may be the most important mark on the world that I can make.