Label me what?

I do not like discussing things in terms of problems, but rather I like to start with my best foot forward, solutions. We have become a society of labels. We have medical labels, group labels, sex labels, people labels, winning labels, losing labels, labels, labels and labels. We used to just have the gay and lesbian group, but now its the gay, lesbian, bi, trans+q label. From the 1880’s to about 1920’s we had a major immigration population boom. People from all over the world flocked to the U.S in hopes of a better future. What we saw happen is groups of people from the same countries clustered together because familiar is better then not. This wasn’t the first time I’m sure, but it is when we really started with significant labels such as: German-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, etc… Later as the Civil Rights movement became larger and the Civil Rights bill was passed we started labeling Blacks as African- American’s. During the population boom it was common for German-American to fight Irish-American and Italian-American fight Polish-American. This was the way things were and it was accepted. Labels everywhere we turn. As things seem to get better Labels come in and separate us more. As we move forward as a society, labels get stuck to us and divide the country even more. Black and White have had issues since the beginning of this country. The thought was lets label Blacks as African-American because it sounds better then Black. What labeling did was further divide the commonality between Black and White.

I grew up in a way where I never used labels. I remember in elementary school I was told it was polite to call a person from Czech and Czech-American. I remember being told people aren’t Black they are African-American. I never followed rules that much so those terms went in and out of my head. I always have thought people use them because they didn’t want to confront the truth, they hid behind labels. Today, we have labels every where I look. BLM is a label. Antifa another label. Proud Boys yet another. People are in the streets protesting for justice, but for who? I see a bunch of people flying under labels burning down cities, destroying our country and every one is to afraid to just say stop because if you do you are canceled and/or insensitive. These people are dividing this country so far and so quick that we may not be able to fully recover. I know when I was growing up I thought my parents had it so good because they grew up in the 60’s and got to experience the summer of love and man, I wish I could have been a part of that, but we my friends are experiencing something much greater than what happened in the 60’s for if we are not careful we could get the wrong label put on us and get canceled right out.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. EVERYONE UNDER THIS FLAG STANDS AS ONE NATION UNDER GOD AND SO HELP US WE HAVE JUSTICE FOR ALL!! Do you hear those words? Do they not hold meaning? Where is the labels in those words? Why must we keep separating ourselves? There is no African-American there is only American. There is no Italian American there is only American. There is no Gay A merican, Trans- American or Bi-American– ggeesssh… Unification doesn’t come through me acknowledging your heritage, sex or religion, it comes from us working together towards a common goal. Yes, when American was first settled it was a violent approach, but that wasn’t do to them just being assholes, it has a lot to do with where they came from and well, it was just a violent time. Thank goodness we evolved and we learned how to talk and reason. We got together and compromised and came up with the greatest piece of paper ever written, Constitution of the United States. They argued and disagreed, but at the end of the day they came together and created something incredible.

See, I don’t know if we became super smart that we thought grouping people together and labeling them would help us, but looking back it was probably the worst thing that could have happened to us. I feel we need to talk to each other in terms of American. There is a big push to stop using pro-nouns, I feel we should stop using labels. I know there are those out there that pride themselves on their labels. They were their labels as a badge of honor. I get it because I was one of those. I was and am a very proud Puerto Rican. When I am filing out paperwork and it asks me what color I am I say human. If it asks what nationality I say American. See, I am American first. That doesn’t mean I denounce my heritage, but like I said my heritage is part of me, but to unify I must be American first.

I feel that we are trying to unify this country like we did in the past. During the Civil Rights movement we had no choice to use labels because it was a step up from the words being used at that time. As we evolve though and hopefully get smarter, we can see that even though those labels may have served a purpose once upon a time, they are doing more harm then good now. For some reason we think the past is so terrific, but if it were we would still be living in the past and not now. What’s interesting is time changes, but our problems seem to stay the same. I think a reason for that is our approach. If we keep approaching things in the same manner why do we expect to get different results? We have very strong shoulders to stand on to unite this country and using modern twists and knowledge we should be able to unify this country, but in my humble opinion we need to do it without labels.

I was in college and my professor called me by some arbitrary number he came up with and I was insulted and I told him I am way more than that number and you need to talk to me. Even being called just a number made me mad.

We need to lead by example. We need to educate our children. We need to teach them they are way more than any label. I can build a house by myself, but I can do it quicker with help– unity, togetherness is the key to making a sustainable society.