By Favour Chiagozie Ebubechukwu
Our difference is supposed to add color to our sameness. Our sameness is the quality that bonds us together. Every human deserves love. Every human deserves respect. Every human loves care. Every human deserves peace. Every human wants to be loved. Every human is social. Every human strives to survive. Every human loves to be heard and understood. Every human wants to be called in a befitting manner. Every human loves good health. Every human loves to be prosperous. No human loves to be abused. No human loves to be disgraced. No human loves to be demeaned. No human loves to be seen as inferior. No human wants to be seen as useless. No human wants to be body shamed. No human wants to be molested. No human wants to be killed or brutalized. No human wants to be in lack. No human wants to mourn their loved ones prematurely. No human wants to be surrounded by chaos. No human deserves ill-treatment.
We all desire what, at it’s basic structure, is similar, and can be called a harmonious state of rest. This need is not tied to gender, class, nor age. Surprisingly, we, who have these basic needs and cravings in general, seem to be experts in dividing how a woman should be supposedly loyal in her dealings with her counterpart, by suppressing her emotions so as to be called virtuous, chaste or submissive. We tend to be experts in teaching the male gender to suppress any emotion that will portray them as weak and unmanly, thereby raising men that do things against their will, just to belong. It is also surprising how feeble most men have become in their emotions as anger suffice in the face of what they perceive as a threat from the opposite sex in a disagreement or breech in communication. And also how the word ‘ego’ is proudly used by some supposed ‘coaches’ to esteem men in their dealings with their counterparts . It is alarming how the child of a presidential class sees himself/herself worthier and higher than that of a cleaner. It is a shock to the marrow how a group of religious bodies esteem themselves worthier of God’s approval than the supposed unbelievers, as is the common distinction to people who are not part of their various beliefs, doings or code of conduct. Is it still news how we, same beings with similar desires, judge a leader by what is behind their clothes, rather than the qualities of leadership they possess?
It is not that we are not aware that we all have the same six-feet-spaced-accommodation in death. It is not that we do not know that we breathe in the same air without discrimination. It is not that we are oblivious of the common position we all take when it’s time to defecate, regardless of our respective social status. It is not that we are blind to how helpless we all become when we fall asleep. Neither is it an escapade that we come into this world unknowing to us and will most likely leave in an uncertain time.
A good number of us hold on to God as a source of hope and emergence, but how come we realized that the rain, the sun, the air, are indiscriminate towards whom they open up to.
Let our difference in biology not utter our sameness in love and respect. Let our difference in class not take away the bond of joy and support that unify us. Let our difference in religion not take away the prestige in which we ought to uphold one another. Let our difference in intellect not charter our sameness of vulnerability and ignorance of our emergence and departure. Let the difference in the houses we live in; cars we ride; clothes we wear; not superceed the frailness of our bodies. Let peace rule over war. Let love and respect rule over discrimination. Let virtue rule over gender. Let courtesy rule over class. Let our sameness rule over indifference, for WE ARE MORE SIMILAR THAN DIFFERENT.
