Identity vs. Division
There’s a lot of uproar in our country right now. Lines are blurred as everyone tries to stick with the status quo: choose one label for yourself, and go at it hard. Choose my label, so that our team will win ; there's strength in numbers! Sorry, guys, our bodies and our psyches don’t work like that. I am several things: female, white, not white, human, writer, artist, introvert, pacifist, arrogant, heterosexual…I make a damn fine Venn diagram. Someone named Joe Manion once said, “We give up something when a choice is made.” Write this down somewhere, because he deserves credit for his words and his observation is solid. How, then, do you choose one label for yourself? If you choose human, do you give up your gender? If you choose pacifist, do you give up your right to defend equality? Very few people on this planet are comprised of a singular race or cultural genetic makeup; more people spit in the tube every day and are surprised by their DNA results. ...