All Means All

                                                         Image by Barbara Bonanno from Pixabay 

We seem to have a habit of saying things that we don't actually believe. We may think we do. But we don't.

For instance, our Constitution of the United States says, "All men are created equal." So did the founding fathers really believe that? If they did, they must have left out the qualifier. If they believed all men were created equal, how did they reconcile slavery, poverty of some while the wealthy were supported? Did they mean that all men are created equal if they are white, wealthy, and empowered?

That's not what they said. So what did they mean? Did they mean that every living man deserved the same privilege and power? If that is what they meant, why didn't they create a government that worked toward that end? 

And I won't even go to the point that only men were considered deserving of privilege. At that period of time women were legally chattel, the property of their father or husband. 

So, over time did the powers that be evolve to be more focused on making all people have the same privileges from birth? Well, let's see. How about the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States? We pledge to a country with "Liberty and Freedom for All". 

Seen a lot of that over the years. That was in June of 1942. The military was still segregated. In fact most of the country was segregated. I was born in 1942, and eight years later I couldn't invite a black friend from my class to a swimming party because blacks weren't allowed to use the pool. When I was 13 we traveled to Florida and discovered that drinking fountains were designated for blacks and whites. I'd never heard of such a thing. I thought the country was changing.

And during the WWII our government rounded up Japanese American citizens and held them in camps because of their ancestry. 

The South continued segregation in schools for decades after that. And in cities, people of Jewish descent are still assaulted, their homes and schools and temples vandalized to this day. Oh, and don't forget homesexual citizens who have been targeted by homophobic brutes who assault, torture, kill people they believe to be homosexual. Their houses get vandalized, even burned down. And wasn't it only last year that several black churches were burned down?

So, let's get this strait, when someone replies to "Black Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter" or any of the other responses like that, with "All Lives Matter." What do you mean? All lives can't matter when some don't. 

All means all.

I don't usually come anywhere near a political post on my blog. My goal is to help folks make the world a better place. So this is not political in the sense of party politics. This is about actually making the world a better place. The world won't change unless we change.

                                            Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay