Be Brave

The great dichotomy of humanity: Even now we’re searching and hoping to make contact with another intelligent alien species. But back on this tiny rock fifty people are killed for having the audacity to love someone.

We can’t even tolerate each other, acceptance is such a far off dream most people are just hoping for tolerance to happen in their lifetime. How are we supposed to present ourselves to a whole other species?

I mean, I’m an American in China right now struggling to explain why the fuck America is the way it is to Chinese citizens. Why do we have so many mass shootings? Why don’t we do something about it? Why are we always starting wars? Why is there such a large gap between rich and poor? Shouldn’t the public education system be better?

How the hell are we going to explain ourselves to another intelligent species? How are we going to say, “Oh, we won’t hurt you, we just want to be friends. Don’t mind the genocide, wars, and terrorism. That’s just…y’know, we’re working through some things.” How are we, not just one country, how are we as a species going to answer these questions? How are we going to explain that, yes, we know what we’re doing is damaging our climate but, well, it’s not that bad yet so we’re going to do it a little bit longer and then try to figure out how to solve it. How are we going to explain that through skewed and corrupted interpretation, there are people who want to kill other people because they think that’s what their particular sky god wants them to do? How are we going to explain the genocides—that are happening right now—where a group of people systematically slaughter other people because they don’t look/think/act/talk like them?

How?

How?

HOW?

How do we, as a species, explain ourselves? Can we? I don’t think we can. And I think if there is any intelligent life lurking out there they’ve done their best to avoid this corner of the universe. We’re not ready to bring anyone else into this mess. We’re children. Not even well behaved children. We’re brats and bullies. No one wants to sit next to the screaming child on the plane, no other intelligent species wants to make friends with that child either.

But we’re capable of such amazing things. Voyager 1 was and still is an incredible feat. We’ve landed a probe on a comet for fuck’s sake. We’ve built a space station. There are people in space right now speeding above us. We’re taking Hi-Def pictures of Pluto and discovering new planets damn near every day. The feats of engineering our ancestors accomplished with nothing but basic tools are still wonders to behold. Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, The Great Wall, Pyramids of Giza, Athens, Rome, Aztec temples, and all those other wonders people still flock to today just to stand in awe.

So it’s time, Earthlings. It’s time to tip the scales in favor of the incredibly good things we’re capable of, not the awful. It’s time to be brave. If you see or hear someone spitting hate and fear, be brave. Tell them they’re wrong. Tell them after the flesh melts from our bones and archeologists dig us up all they’ll know is how tall we were, if our bone structure was male or female, how old we were, and if we had European, Asian, or African features. That’s it. No one will know the exact shade your skin was. No one will know what color your hair or eyes were. No one will know if you loved men or women or both or neither. No one will know what god, if any, you sent your prayers to. And certainly they’ll be curious, but you’ll be long past answering questions. You’ll be long past defending choices made. All that will be left is society as a whole. Who were we, not just you.

The longer the good parts of us stay quiet, the worse we’ll become. What’s that often quoted MLK line? “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

You think those people perpetrating genocide will stop on their own? You think those people who force children into sex slavery will stop by themselves? You think those people who preach hate and fear will shut up without another voice to shout them down? You’ve got to be brave. You’ve got to find the good parts of yourself and you’ve got to stand up. Even if your voice is quiet, let it be heard.

Make them stop.

Make us a species worth talking to.

If you want to help end genocide, you can donate to this group. They work to predict, prevent, and punish those who employ genocidal techniques, as well as those involved in human trafficking.

If you want to support those in the recent Orlando shooting, you can donate here.

If you want your congress representative/senator to tell the NRA to fuck right the fuck off, let them know. Send them an email. It doesn’t take long. Literally five minutes of your time. If you don’t know what to say, here’s a form letter. Read through and edit as you see fit and send it off. And if you don’t know who your representative is, you can find out here by putting in your zip code.

If you’re not part of the US, please, feel free to contact representatives as well. In fact I think it’d be rather amusing if these assholes suddenly got an influx of international correspondence. You can choose my home state if you want, Indiana.

And feel free to add that you’d like to see NASA’s budget expanded, too. There’s no reason we should be searching the deep recesses of space with a candle, but that’s all NASA can afford right now.