How we divide ourselves

          I’ve been thinking a lot about math recently. Well, not “math” per se. Mostly division, and how we humans tend to split ourselves up into two groups — us versus them. You know — Republicans versus Democrats; black versus white; pro-life versus pro-choice; men versus women; old versus young; fat versus thin; able-bodied versus disabled; short versus tall; Americans versus everyone else.

          You know how we do that thing where if you aren’t on my side then you have to be on the OTHER side and therefore we can’t be friends. If you don’t agree with me, then I am supposed to hate you, revile you, disrespect you, mistrust you.

          I saw a Facebook post the other day where the poster said she (I have no idea if the poster was a man or woman. I am going to use my gender bias and assume it was a woman) missed 9/12. Not that she would ever want to see another dark, tragic day like 9/11, but the 9/12 where stores sold out of American flags, where people hugged each other on the street even if they didn’t really know each other, when we weren’t all divided into our own groups, instead we were all Americans first, then everything else second.

          Division is simply the act or computation that breaks things down. It takes a 6 and turns it into two 3s. Division takes a whole cake and splits it up into smaller pieces.

          I think division does that to us as a people, as well. When we start to put labels on ourselves, we break ourselves down into smaller pieces. We are no longer whole human beings, we are just parts of a whole — smaller and less powerful than when we were whole.

          When I look at any human-caused mass tragedy, I see perpetrators who aren’t whole. They have given themselves so many polarizing labels and pit themselves (even if it’s in their own minds) against everyone else.

• “I was made fun of my whole life in school and I’m tired of it. So I’m going to get back at everyone by killing as many of them as I can.”
• “I hate my ex-wife for taking my kids away from me, so I’m going to show her she can’t do that. I’ll go to the place where she works and shoot her and that no good SOB boss of hers.”
• “Muslims have caused havoc all over the world. I’ll show them and rush into a mosque and slice open the first person I see.”
• “Christians are infidels. Allah says I will be blessed if I send them to Jahannam.”
• “Jews are greedy and they run the entire financial world. I think we should gather them up, put them in prison camps and gas as many of them as we can before someone stops us.”

          I am at a loss as to why people jump from being wronged straight to “I’m going to kill them all.” When did that become the first course of action? What happened to talking with each other, learning about our cultural differences, trying to see our similarities instead of our differences, agreeing to disagree with respect and kindness.

          I identify myself as a Christian. I believe in God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe that who and how you love is your own business. As a heterosexual cis-gendered Caucasian woman, I have certain rights — to marry the man who will have me, to have children, to walk around without suspicion, to be able to walk into a store and virtually disappear. Why shouldn’t someone be allowed to marry someone of the same gender if they are just as committed to each other as my husband and I? Why do some people feel (and probably are) followed around a store to “keep an eye” on them? Why am I allowed to drive home from work after midnight and not be looked at twice, but an African-American man driving home after work is detained by police because he “looked suspicious”?

          Division breaks people down. It says that this non-bold 3 can’t blend with this bold 3 to make 6 because they are just too different. As my grandmother used to say: “That’s ridiculous. Go to grass!” (Yeah, I never really understood the whole ‘go to grass’ comment either)

          It’s time we humans started looking for ways to come together, to blend, to multiply.

          That’s some math I can get behind.

Until next time,

Susie from Stix-N-Stonez