Yesterday saw the highs and lows of human existence. We started the day with six people murdered because of their faith before the seventh, an apparent Neo-Nazi loving gunman, was killed. The day ended with a multi ethnic group of men and women at NASA JPL hugging and cheering as Curiosity landed safely on Mars and sent back its first pictures. We have to ask ourselves what happened? Why the difference in human behavior?
When I was in school in the 60s and 70s a lot of my fellow classmates looked down on me because I actually thought school was for learning. I was fascinated by outer space. I was fascinated by history. I wanted to know why if Hitler and Stalin were on the opposite end of the political spectrum did they both behave in the same way. I was fascinated by the start of the home computer era. I am sitting here with two desktops, a laptop, a pocket PC, a cell phone that I can post on the Internet with, two digital cameras, and two 35mm cameras. I was up until 3 a.m. watching Curiosity land safely on Mars. I have continued my education all my life. I’ll be eligible for Medicare next year but I refuse to let my mind grow old. I am currently reading Dr. Michiko Kaku’s Parallel Worlds on the string theory of physics.
When I read Sikh’s saying that they have been targeted since 9/11 because people don’t realize that they are not Muslims I have wonder why? How could people not know that the religion was from India and is a monotheistic religion that emphasizes giving back to help your fellow man? How can there be a museum that glorifies creationism? How can people go out in orange air alerts and not realize that we are screwing up our climate and may destroy our planet?
Take a look at the world education rankings. We are 20th in the world. When did being educated become a crime? How can we allow ignorant people to dominate our airwaves denigrating science? How can we allow hatred and bigotry to be the norm rather then something to fight?
Isn’t it time to realize that there is one race, the human race? Isn’t it time to realize that we are all in this together and that what we do to others reflects on what we are as a person? We have more foreclosed homes then homeless people. Why aren’t we housing them? We all need food, shelter, and clothing to survive. Why aren’t we taking care of our poor? We all need air to breath and water to drink. Why aren’t we cleaning up the air and water?
Isn’t it time that we start educating our heads and our hearts? This election is important. We need to get out and vote and wrestle Congress away from the ignorant. We need to make education a priority. We need to show the world that last night’s triumph of Curiosity landing on Mars safely is important. We need to show what science can do for us. We need to teach tolerance towards other beliefs. We need to remember that humans should also embrace humanity.