Today is February 14th, a day of significance for two primary reasons:
1.) It is Valentine’s Day, a day centered around love. The day is commonly celebrated through heartfelt demonstrative acts of compassion and kindness to others.
2.) Furthermore, the 14th also marks the midway point of February, the month designated as Black History Month. Every February, America celebrates the African-American pioneers and other notables who have made successful contributions to the country’s history through equal rights movements, noteworthy breakthroughs, and innovations.
As I dwell on the aforementioned significance of today, I realize that there is a scarcity of genuine love in our world. It’s unfortunate, but there is a strong prevalence of hate circling around from various angles. Several factors lead me to this belief. Therefore, I’m taking it upon myself to commemorate this day by combining it’s true essence and meaning in a heartfelt message to my readers.
One of America’s continuous plaguing issues is discrimination, whether it’s blatant or hidden. The discrimination that I’m describing is based off differences amongst people. I am referring to differences of race, culture, sex, social status, and/or sexual orientation to name a few. Rhetorically speaking, what purpose does this serve? I’m confounded at the notion of harboring negative feelings for something/someone solely based off the differences mentioned earlier. It’s truly a problem that we as a society let our petty differences separate us from each other. In an ideal world, we should be embracing each other and APPRECIATING the subtle differences, not rebuking them. The conversion of a world with humans of various heterogeneous origins into a single homogeneous common culture is and should always be a common goal.
New York City is one of the best places in the world, largely due to it being revered as a melting pot. I live in Brooklyn, the most populated and the most culturally diverse borough in NYC. Among other likeable factors, I love it for that very reason, and my continued residency is largely due to it’s diverse nature. Living in NYC has expounded my knowledge and appreciation for all humans regardless of origin. An interesting topic that I’ve given recent notice to is the different genetic, cultural, and racial mixtures of people. There are various instances where we find people with different races and shades that have identical ethnicities. Similarly, there are those within the same race that have different ethnicities. Not to mention, there are an abundance of people who are of multiracial origin. The list of variety goes on. My point is that a vast majority of us have some degree of mixing. There is so much ancestry and history behind people that a lot of us fail to realize it’s depth and significance. How much chronology do we actually know about our individual origin? Everyone’s knowledge about their origin will always be somewhat limited and those that think they know fully, probably don’t even know the half. My mission is to create unison. We should all do ourselves a favor and love who we are and others equally.
I find that a common way to create unison is through music. Music has an inherent, powerful way of linking people together across the board. I am a lover of music, and I enjoy many different genres. Music is a form of expression through acoustics where the musician creates a story that the listener applies his/her perception to. It is indirect rhythmical communication. Ironically, sometimes you don’t even have to understand the language to perceive what’s being verbally communicated. It is through communication that we can begin to learn how to be unified.
As a community representative of Brooklyn, I wish to be the figure that people can mirror regarding spreading love and having compassion for all. My message to my readers is to spread love. Find creative or indirect ways to do so if you can’t do it directly for whatever deterring reason. Take it upon yourself to do random acts of kindness to any and every one without expectation of reciprocation. Live by these key words: love, loyalty, honesty, and righteousness. Do right by yourself by doing right by others even if there has been a fault committed by the other party. Realistically, I know it’s an overwhelming task to turn the other cheek, and even more so when you feel like you’re being chastised. However, acts of good-will, such as forgiveness and empathy, are needed if any positive change will be made for a better future for mankind. As the cliché goes, an eye for an eye makes us both blind. For successful change to occur, it has to start with us, with our people, ALL people, our whole community.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. –