While We Are Out and About

11/25/2009 Human Observations
I’m adding my response to your question to my ongoing journal.
I'm deliberately unfamiliar with the details of the "isms", so I cannot comment on such labels. However, my position on civilized cohabitation is often stated and very clear: Those of us, who desire to exist on earth in a civilized and neighbourly fashion, do so without imposing on those around us. Every human being born on the earth has an EQUAL right to live on the earth. We were all born naked, so no single individual has anything that gives him or her more of a right to live here than any other individual. Neither money, nor influence (whether supposed or imposed), nor big sticks, nor big mouths "entitles" any one person to a better life than any other person. We all created EQUALLY naked (per the Gettysburg Address). With this in mind, my fine free spirited friend (you must be mentally free to appreciate the Firesign Theatre), I see the solution to the social disease (and its symptoms) that is more prevalent than the current Flu Pandemic: The disease is a combination of greed and fear, and the solution is responsible maturity, better known as education. Many who suppose themselves to be adults are yet unfamiliar with the concepts of courtesy and civilized behavior while mingling in the "common areas" of our version of civilization. While "out and about", there are rules that must be observed in order to successfully run the errands of socio-economics. These rules are not difficult to remember nor observe because they resemble another set of rules by which the majority of Americans live daily: The Rules of the Road. Attentiveness is necessary while in the “common areas”, so thinking is required, as opposed to the mindless self-centered attitude that operates within the minds of many. The old European class ethic is just that: antiquated and a part of a system that does not exist here in the United States of America. The class system that our American version of democratic civilization utilizes is far more simple: either you have it or you don’t! So I don’t know what it is to be a humanist, but I am very familiar with that which defines an American. I live the ethic that is embedded within the words of our Constitution: an active belief in an equal right by every citizen to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Geez, twenty minutes to answer such a simple question. Can you tell that I grew up in the Windy City?