love, love, love....what we need more of

i have had a few conversations lately that involve a debate over a person's or a people's humanity, as if there is a debate. when confronted with the idea that haggling over whether someone is worth occupying a space is a form of hate, the hagglers suddenly become incredulous! Me? Hatred? I don't hate anyone! It's a similar reaction people have when being confronted with their racism. Me? A racist? This being spoken after some long diatribe about why certain people are followed, profiled, etc., etc.





Does not a worker have the right to be treated with dignity at their place of employment, no matter what their "legal" status, documents proving they are "allowed" to live somewhere in order to feed their families? When did treating a certain group of people with humanity become a situation in which we are affording said group "special rights"?





All of the theoretical, political, economical and social discourse over legalities, documentation, escapes me because there are so many ways that one can justify hatred disguised as protecting the greater good, or keeping that good for oneself righteously. But when you boil it all down to basics, looking at things in black and white, using a magnifying glass to tell the tale that exclusionary tactics like documents and borders for certain people is thinly disguised racism, nationalism and discrimination against one's humanity.





Those that claim sovereignty over a particular piece of stolen land, substantiate their humanity based on some right of being such that is god-given, (among many bases) and then deny the humanity of those from whom they have stolen, ultimate have to face the truth. To quote Midnight Oil "The time has come/A fact's a fact/it belongs to them/We'r gonna give it back" [from "Beds Are Burning" on the Diesel and Dust album].