Culture.

The root word is “cult.”

Has America become an armed camp of little groups, hovering together to protect themselves while attacking the others?

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TRANSCRIPT

Do you really want to hurt me?

Do you really want to make me cry?

Words sung to us many years ago by an androgynous young man named Boy George, who headed a band called “Culture Club.”

I would assume by now that he has slipped into the dark caves of musical history, and nobody under the age of forty would even know who he is. But he was simultaneously unoffending and frightening to a generation of people who believed that meat and potatoes belonged together, and that men and women should be drastically different in every facet.

Boy George dared to be not so much boy-like, and certainly not only George, but a little Georgette.

Through his music, he challenged those around him to accept him as he was and did that with a bit of a British accent.

Since then, there has been a rebirthing of interest in culture, millions of people trying to find out their ancestry, and the honoring of customs which were once outdated but are now extolled because they exemplify a people who inhabit a certain parcel of land.

Candidly, we’ve gone too far. In the pursuit of tolerance, we’ve created a counter-intolerance, which causes us to be overly loyal to our group, our color, our nation and even our gender.

We’re clumping in smaller and smaller masses of human separation.

And then, we wonder why a sense of superiority grows in the midst of that overly zealous desire to be unique.

I think I will shoot myself if I hear one more person say, “There’s no one exactly like you.”

If you’re talking about molecules, you may be right, but if you’re talking about general appearance and attitude, lots of us are the same.

We are so intent on making ourselves important that we end up doing nothing important. Why do we need to do anything when we’re important by birth?

So, I thought I would stop in today—from my pad doing the pod—yes, from my pad, doing the podcast—and tell you the order in which we must begin to look at our beings as they relate to our time spent on the Third Planet from the Sun.

As far as I know, this is the order which should inhabit our thinking. First:

I am an Earth creature

That includes me in with everything from the King of Sweden to the King Crab. I am part of this ethos. I am part of this planet’s atmosphere. So, what happens on Earth needs to concern me I even need to be concerned for Earth itself because I was asked by Creator to be a good caretaker.

Because I will tell you this, what happens on Earth stays on Earth.

You may think it only effects China, but it will float your way.

Secondly:

I am a human being

Of all the creatures on the Earth, I am one of those human forms who has been granted a lot of responsibility because of the gift of brain power. I am supposed to help keep this planet from exploding—both ecologically and also from some idiot with bombs.

As a human I am related to all my cousins. When an airplane crashes I don’t ask only about my family and friends but realize that all nations and families may suffer, and I need to suffer with them.

I am an American

Now, you may not be an American. You may be French, German, Russian, Nigerian, Australian or live in the North Pole and work at the toy shop.

But I am an American. It is my job, as an American, to follow the openness, kindness and wisdom that we’ve learned as a nation. It’s my job to respect other nations and not consider them less because they’re not American.

I am not a German-American. I am not an African-American. I am not a Latino-American. I am an American—part of the melting pot, so I’m prepared to take some heat on my beliefs, so that they can melt into the flavors of the soup of other people.

Here’s Number Four:

It’s up to you

Maybe you want to be a family person. Maybe your faith is the most important thing after realizing that you are an Earthling, a human and an American.

Not my business.

As long as you’re not placing it in one of the first three positions, you have the complete freedom to decide what is fourth in your list on the order to joy.

Even though we talk about customs and we talk about stylings, when it comes to cuisine, every single culture has a meat, a potato, a vegetable, a drink and a dessert. Many of the meats are the same. The potatoes may be some other form of starch, like rice. The vegetables may be local favorites. The drink may be alcoholic. And the dessert may be sweet—or sweeter.

We all need the same things

But the similarities are remarkable:

Every culture has a way for people to be in love, a way for people to worship and a way for people to establish their rights.

That’s just the way things are.

And, of course, every culture has families—a love for their families, and some of their worst problems are with their families.

If you want to help in the great social upheaval of this country, start looking for similarities instead of differences.

For you see, the good news is, since we’re all human beings, we have an awful lot to talk about regarding being human.,

And the better news is, if we actually had that conversation and found our precious common ground, we could make Earth a decent place to live.

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