My Watch

The watch I am wearing today is special to me. I purchased it in Toulouse, France in 1989. It has a phrase on it that expresses my core belief about people.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits.

Translation: All people are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. This is from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

To me, this means that the manner in which you are born (e.g, male, female, white, black, Jew, gay, Peruvian, Bushman, etc.) should have no bearing on the dignity and rights you have.

Does this mean that I think everyone should be treated equally? No. But the important part is that how we are born is not the determining factor in how society regards us. It should be how we choose to act. Dr. King put it best when he said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." In other words, what we choose to do with ourselves should seperate us -- the content of our character.

There are good people and bad people of every color, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Goodness or badness has nothing to do with how one is born. Is this the way the world works? Yeah, right. Not even close. But it is an ideal for which we can all strive, can't we?