Lines on the Human Condition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Love, like life, has its darker side. Some people have fixed ideas about love and will oppose anyone - including family members - who choose a different variation on the same eternal theme. 

The ability to turn love’s darkness into light is a gift passed on by lovers everywhere throughout history. Sadly, humankind’s other gift - for inhumanity - will all too often try to turn things around yet again…and succeed. It is down to each and every one of us to do our best not to let that happen.

We cannot stand by and let them invade our privacy, those who are blinded to the happiness of others by some misguided and/ or ill-informed interpretation of what is right and wrong.  

Every humanitarian needs to speak up against socio-cultural-religious traditions being used as an excuse for bigotry and sectarian division/violence where it is but the dark side of human nature that is to blame.

As for love…Gay or straight, two people in love have the basic human right to be in love. No one has the right to deny us that. World leaders who abuse their position to support anti-gay legislation (that means you, too, Mr. Putin) and religious leaders who choose to interpret their religion to much the same effect are a disgrace to humanity.

Whatever our ethnicity,  race, religion, gender or sexuality, we are all human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

LINES ON THE HUMAN CONDITION

Mind-Body-Spirit,

writing treaties in various tongues

on a mother’s heart

as it sighs over satirical goings-on

in comic strip cartoons

Mind-Body-Spirit,

providing a eulogy for the failures

of multiculturalism,

observing how occupied territories

live on empty gestures

Mind-Body-Spirit,

inciting revolution among dreamers

who would face facts,

repair broken words to make good

well-heeled intentions

Mind-Body-Spiri,

watching out for black holes blown

by wannabe martyrs,

sending love letters home on scraps

of roadside shrapnel

Mind-Body-Spirit,

last heard arguing for Human Rights

with a world’s tin gods

that so loves to blame their diversity

for its worst nightmares

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008