What Would Our World Be Without Color?

I was at Stop and Shop in Framingham this morning and happened to walk down an aisle when a little boy beamed the biggest smile at me and held up his cars - one in each fist. He must have been about two years old and apparently, my enthusiasm for his cars was infectious because his smile got wider when I acknowledged him and his cars. I saw my son when he was that age. I saw innocence, I saw joy, I saw simplicity and happiness. I did not notice the child's color. Perhaps someone else may have - his skin was a beautiful dark chocolate color but that smile of his - and his cars held tightly in his hands - was all I saw.

I am saddened every day when I hear stories about racism, about people who protest against the marriage of same-gendered humans. Why is color - and love between two human beings - so horribly scrutinized and so terribly railed against?

I recently wrote about the incident in Boston where a white cop arrested a black man on a disorderly conduct charge. The "white cop" was no ordinary cop - he is a very well respected police officer and a racial profiling instructor at a police academy. This cop teaches people how NOT to racially profile anyone. The "black man" is a Harvard University scholar professor. The furor of the arrest has somewhat died down but its effects may be long-lasting. Even President Obama inserted himself into this highly controversial situation by making some lame comments about the Cambridge police department and its decision to make the arrest. But the president backpedaled amid a firestorm of criticism of his comments and called each man separately and then offered to "have a beer" with both men at the White House. (Gee, how can I get that kinda invite sans the beer?

If only the prejudices of our world could be settled on the back porch of the White House with a cold beer or two. A pipe dream at best.

What would our world be without color? What if we were all just a pale blah shade of grey? Would we have peace? Probably not because some moron would point at me in public and scream "she's a different shade of grey than I am and that makes her DIFFERENT."

Blah blah blah. You get my point.

The prejudice against gays is mind-boggling. I wish I could stand someplace in the world with a megaphone that had amplification enough to reach into every corner, every town and my four words would echo in everyone's ears: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

Isn't that what it really comes down to? Why are people so anti-gay? What is it exactly that repulses people? Let's break this down: You have 2 humans who are in love and want to marry. Nothing unusual there. They want to marry to be afforded the same benefits as other married couples. That's pretty standard wouldn't you say? And they would like to have a family - a couple of kids, a couple of dogs, a home, a place they, too, can feel serenity.

Why are the wants of two members of the human race so fought against, so despicably judged against and rallied against and worse - murdered over?

Having grown up with a father who give racism an entirely new meaning, I could never understand why my father hated people of color, gays, anyone who wasn't "like him." I spent my entire life trying to figure out why he thought people of color, men who fell in love with men, women who fell in love with women and men and women who fell in love with each other - were so different than him - or me for that matter. I was always searching for a plausible answer. I saw people of color laugh, smile, eat, drink, clap, cry, do laundry, go grocery shopping and have families like all the "white people" I knew. I saw gay men holding hands, kissing each other with love that outshined many of my own past relationships, I saw women hug and touch their foreheads together and laugh themselves silly over some joke only they knew about. And as I watched this scenarios at different times in my life, I was left with the same question: Why did my father think these people were any different than he? And one day, I realized I knew the answer all along: they are NOT different. They are humans, with needs and wants and desires - so very much the same as the rest of the human race. So why is there so much hatred, so much prejudice against members of the human race?

We are all of the same race - the human race. The colors of human only add to what we are: an amazingly extrodinary race, capable of extrodinary accomplishments. Why can't those who hate so deeply look beyond the color and see the person? Why can't those who feel deep-rooted anger and rage when they see same-gendered members of our human race express their desire to be an equal representative of the human race see beyond that? Just what kind of horrific emotion drives these people to hate so deeply and so disturbingly?

I was brought up Catholic but I was never comfortable with the history of the religion. Matter of fact, I was pretty much appalled. And the thought of one man making rules about marriage, about women's bodies, what's a sin and what's not - I don't particularly care for that kind of anarchist rule. And isn't that what religion does to a lot of people? It rules them, it makes them believe that their way is the only way and everyone else is a sinner. I'm sorry but since when did "your" way become the only way or the right way?

Why should anyone make a law or a rule about exactly "who" can marry? I think that's so preposterous. No one should have that kind of authority, or leverage or anything remotely resembling that kind of rule. The Catholic church thinks that homosexuality is a sin, blah blah blah. C'mon - do people really believe that homosexuality didn't exist a bazillion years ago? And so what if it did? What is the big deal???????

I know "straight" people who do mondo-bizarro quad-X things in their sexual relationships. Does anyone make a stink about that? No - because IT'S NONE OF ANYONE'S DAMNED BUSINESS! And there are countries in this world where the practiced religion makes it ok to murder your wife, or murder your own children or stone someone in public because they commited a sin. And I suppose all you naysayers against gay marriage would cringe in horror at that, wouldn't you? Isn't what those countries do to their own family members seem a little bit more of an OUTRAGE than gay marriage? Does anyone have any brains in their heads whatsoever?

I want to scream when people start protesting about gays wanting rights that they should have because they are members of the human race - that really fries my behind. It always has.

No one on this planet should have the authority to decide who should marry and who shouldn't. Religion is not a tangible and if want to believe in something, that's your right. But do not get up on your little podium and point fingers at people just because they want the same thing you have - equality as a member of the human race - because I may be right there to knock you right on your prejudiced behind.