Judge Not a Person By Their Government

One thing is for sure: when it gets down to the basics, everyone on this Earth (who is not criminally insane), shares the same values. Unfortunately, our governments too often get in the way of people unifying on the common ground we share as human beings. Things like compassion for fellow human beings in trouble, love of family, love of nature, love of animals, love of gardening, love of jokes and stories, love of recreation and sport, love of music, these matters are universal. There really are no "demonic" ethnic groups, there are only demonic individuals, and sometimes, regrettably, demonic governments, which do things like ethnic cleansing or denying disaster relief. There are governments that grow uneasy when groups of individual people reach out welcoming arms of humble peace across the artificial divides governments like to create for narrow partisan interests. Increasingly it is becoming evident that the stakes are so high that we can no longer afford to look the other way while governments stoke false hatreds between different groups of human beings. Not only do we have tools of unprecedented horror at our disposal that kill innocent people along with perceived evil-doers, but we can also use them to destroy the planet itself. Yet even without the question of weapons of mass destruction entering the picture, our planet, our biosphere is ailing. We are not going to be able to restore the health of this planet until we let go of these trumped-up ethnic and nationalistic squabbles and link arms with our fellow members of the human race. A mother by any other name is still a mother, no matter where you find her caring for her child on this planet. A father patiently teaching his child how to play a game can be found in any country you care to visit. A friend sitting at the bedside, cherishing an ailing companion with tender hands is a social scenario that arises in every human culture conceived. Hatred of crime and those individuals bent on committing crime is one thing, but to hate a whole people is one of the most foolish things you can do to your soul and a true handicapping of your mind. The Genome Project has proven that visual "racial" differences are the most recent development in the evolution of our species. We are otherwise the same inside, both biologically and spiritually.