Human rights aren’t a privilege. It’s a part of our common humanity for people to have access to quality healthcare regardless if they’re a millionaire entrepreneur or a cook at a fast food restaurant. What makes one more worthy of healthcare, really? Someone needs to be the one to clean toilets and cook value meals. Touching our food and our bathrooms – those are the ones we want to keep healthy! Why do we have this experience of lesser than/greater than? This isn’t a caste system. Those people also deserve a living wage. No one working 40 hours a week should struggle to pay for a home, food, and education. There are rampant misconceptions about people with low-income jobs – perhaps they aren’t trying hard enough, or they made a bad decision somewhere in life, or they squander their money so they don’t deserve stability. What if we changed our perceptions about these people? What if we changed our perceptions about who “deserves” what, and our language around programs that even the playing field. Who first called these “entitlement” programs? This only perpetuates the hidden idea that “those people” don’t believe they need to work hard and earn their money like everyone else, when indeed that couldn’t be farther from the truth. How many stories do we hear about the single mom who worked 2 jobs just to put food on the table for her kids, and still managed to struggle her way through school just to have mounds of debt heaped on her for making the effort to better herself and her situation? Education is a right, not a privilege. All kids, regardless of school district, deserve equal opportunity and access to the same quality of education as every other school. What makes some children better or more worthy than any other? If you look close at our education system, it will become clear that there are far fewer opportunities for poor areas, and even less for poor black areas. In fact, even those black children that get to go to schools in higher income neighborhoods still struggle because of the trauma of growing up in their neighborhood, and the inherent trauma of growing up black in a society that doesn’t support their wellbeing. It’s challenging to just “get over” racism in our society. Slavery happened to some of their great-grandparents. Most can only trace their ancestry back to the slave owner whose last name their ancestors were forced to adopt. The riches of the grand ol’ south were built on the backs of the black people who worked there. Because the color of their skin, most blacks weren’t afforded the opportunities to become doctors and lawyers. Instead, they were relegated to the kitchens and nurseries of America where they made a pitiful wage nurturing white folk. So, why are some black people pissed at whites and protest the system? Where have we shown them that they are an intricate part of our country? When have we ever treated them with fairness and justice? When a black boy can raise his arms in surrender to a cop, just to be shot and killed – there is no fairness and justice.

Children are secondhand citizens here, with no real concern for their welfare unless they are a all-star athlete or scholar at a predominately white school. And they are our future! If we put 100% of our intention, attention, and focus on creating a better experience for children we could have world peace in a generation. Why are they committing suicide? Why are they killing each other? Look at what they are taught. They have no voice and little value in the eyes of society, unless they’re our own child. Their lives aren’t valued as much as our rights. If we were truly pro-life, we would ensure each child has a fair start to life instead of mandating they be born regardless of what situations they may be born into. If they’re born into starvation, abuse, homelessness, or other trauma, well they better be bootstrappers! Because, ”everyone has equal opportunity” in the USA. Except they don’t. Child sex rings and higher maternal mortality rates for women of color have proven there is no equality, no fairness.  And this is what we must change. We need to go through our day noticing the children that may follow behind us. What will they see and hear from us? What kind of mess may we unintentionally and unconsciously be leaving behind? Our recycling system is broken, and people are worried about straws. Russian operatives invested a lot of time, energy, and money into creating more of a political divide by running disinformation news and memes during our last election and we continue to blame each other. Democrats, how you choose to show up and lead is everything. You can’t share your ideas and ideals by shouting, demeaning, and belittling anyone that doesn’t believe exactly what you believe. Open up and tell your stories. Share why you feel the way you do, with kindness and an intent for connection. Look toward that vision of the future and use it as your guidepost. Play the long game. Republicans, the democrats are angry because they believe you don’t care what happens to anyone but yourself. Prove them wrong. Life is too short and too precious for any more of this us vs them tribal mentality. We need to get it together, because this is quickly becoming the land of the lost. Opportunities about for us all, and together we can create even more. Stop being right and start listening. WE need multifaceted solutions for our systemic issues. And it’s going to take all of us. It starts with you.

World peace can happen in a generation, if we put all our focus on making the world a better place for children by providing equal quality food, education, healthcare, and safety for all; if they honestly believed we care and have their back. All children are subconsciously programmed by the events, people, and experiences in their youth. What would happen if they were programmed by acts of love, fairness, and consideration instead of a history of violence, disregard, and fear?