I believe with all my heart and intellect that, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or income, people should have the ability to provide a safe and comfortable life for themselves and their families, an education, access to health care, and the right to treat their own bodies as they choose.
I believe that, as a society, we should help people with physical / mental / emotional impairments in whatever ways we can (so things like ramps to public buildings for people in wheelchairs, described video and little chirpy sounds at crosswalks for the blind, extra time on tests for students with dyslexia, etc.). I believe in equal rights and opportunities for all of humankind.
But I do not believe that we are all created equal.
Some of us are smarter, faster, or stronger than others. Some of us are more motivated, more artistic, more tech-savvy, more empathetic, more generous, more logical, or more inventive than others. Some of us are better drawers, builders, drivers, planners, teachers, dancers, or nurturers. Some of us have better eyesight or a better sense of smell or a better sense of direction. Some of us are better spellers and some of us are better mathematicians and scientists. Some of us are better at telling jokes and some of us are better at small talk. Some of us have asthma or a peanut allergy or astigmatism.
I think it's ridiculous to treat everyone as if they were the same, when we are clearly not all the same.
A woman is superior to a man in her ability to give birth and breastfeed a child.
Sighted people are superior to blind people in their ability to describe the colours in a sunset.
A person with the working use of both their legs is superior to a person in a wheelchair in the ability to save someone from a burning building.
A non-pedophile is superior to a pedophile in not regarding children as objects of sexual desire.
A tall person is superior to a short person in getting a good sightline at a rock show.
A person with dark skin is superior to a person with pale skin in not getting a sunburn at the beach.
I could go on, but I think you get my point. The only way of creating true equality is to erase our differences, and that, as dystopian fiction makes abundantly clear, is a terrifying prospect.
So I guess what I'm saying is that I believe in equal rights and opportunities, but I don't believe in equality. Ah well, and riot on.
