This latest fad going around... At first, I laughed, whether out of disbelief or at how true I thought it was.

But in reality, these memes and posts are precisely the issues.

There is a great divide that exists right now. While the majority of it appears to be in the United States, it is absolutely not contained to our little bubble.

Everyone is so focused on not being included in a certain label. Whether it be Republican or Liberal or Snowflake or Antifa or...

It's funny. When I first started therapy, I was so angry with labels. Then I went through a phase of realizing that labels can be good when they give someone a home. When they give someone answers to why they feel like they don't fit in.

But therein lies the actual issue. The fact that some people feel like they need a label to call out like-beings so they don't feel alone or lost. That is the issue.

We spend so much time trying to fit in because society has programmed us to believe there is a norm. That there is a right and wrong way to support your country. That there is a better race. That there is a better politician.

Right and wrong don't work that way. You know what's wrong? People dying because we refuse to help. You know what's wrong? People losing their homes because we refuse to help. Because our "leaders" refuse to help. Because money and materials have become more important than human lives. Because our words and saying we believe in an idea is more important than actually understanding that it needs action.

I don't give a shit about how Christian you are if you're condemning lives after arguing with me that "All Lives Matter". Mkay. So prove it. Tell me that the homeless person trying to live in the woods behind your house deserves to live. Tell me about how 6, 9, 12 months ago they had a job and were let go because of a pandemic, but now they're no longer worthy of living.

Tell me how your God told you it was ok to praise a false idol. I know that orange skin can be confused for gold, but... oh, wait... You shouldn't be hung up on material items either!

So, what do we need? Togetherness. Humanity. To remember that to be alive is to be the same. To remember that what makes us different and unique is what makes us better.

Nothing will ever improve if we all try to be the same, think the same, act the same. But you, in your breathing, living self, are the same as every other breathing, living thing around you. You are not better. You are not worse.

It absolutely blows my mind that people don't realize that.

I recently took a test on biases around skin color. It was very black and white (ha.... ha....), but it was also very telling. My results? I am slightly more inclined towards people of color. Me, a friggin pale ass white chick, trusts a person of color more than a white person. Why do you think that is?

Well, let me just break my experience down for you a little bit.

White men, in particular, think they are owed something. They think they deserve to just take whatever the fuck they want. Why? Because that's how America was founded. GIVE THE RICH WHITE MAN WITH LAND WHATEVER HE WANTS! WOMEN ARE PISH POSH! THEY CANNOT HAVE A RATIONAL THOUGHT.

Naw, son. You just mad that we think things through and thwart your half-assed ideas that have no follow-through. That's why we have amendments to the constitution. WE CHANGE. WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES. WE BECOME BETTER PEOPLE.

Let me just swing this back around to politics since everyone is so fucking obsessed with their "party". Back in the '70s, Biden said some shitty racist shit. Why? It was the way things were and he's honestly a little too spineless to have done anything other than try to please the people (yeah... I still voted for him).

The difference? He changed his way of thinking. He never really fully owned up to the things he said in a way that makes me feel better, but Kamala is his slimy politician way of saying "oopsy poopsy! all better!"

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that we are all in this together (*cue HSM*), and if we keep spending our energy on trying to show how we're not the same, we will never be able to come together and celebrate our humanity and uniqueness at the same time.

Like, legit.

We need people to think differently. But we also need to have fucking compassion towards human lives. No one lived the same story as you. No one experienced the same things. But trauma is trauma. Your body doesn't give a shit how it happened, it just knows that it did.

So stop pretending that you're better than those other people, and start acting like you are a human living on a planet with other living beings.