Have you ever been persecuted?
Made feel small for being a certain way?
A way that you in most likelihood didn't have a say in?
Have you been afraid of telling other people that charachteristic?
Have you been afraid for your life?
These questions hound certain people Every. Single. Day of their lives.
I'm sure on average we have all been bullied at one time or another in our lives. We know how it is like to be treated for being different, weird; being ridiculed, shamed, ostracized; being made feel small, unwanted, a mistake.
In short, we know that persecution sucks.
Yet, yet whenever we come together as a majority on an issue that makes us uncomfortable, we ourselves are more than ready to doll out copious amounts of hate, shame, ridicule, persecution, guilt, judgement.
Why do we forget how these very reactions made us feel? Where does our empathy go when we are "accepted" into the popular opinion? What and who gives us the right to downright participate in the torment of others?
Nothing. Nothing and no-one.
I'm not going to quote any texts, any laws, anything.
I'm just imploring you, and us as a whole, to find our damn empathy. To not hate those who are already persecuted and marginalized. To recognize that we are not born equal, but that it falls on us to treat each other as such. That love is universal. Justice is for all. And that you may be part of the problem.
