Sure, people around the world are different. They have different customs, different views, different outlooks, different solutions to problems, different laws, different religions, different social structures, and on and on.

People in each country, in each section of a country, in each city/town of a country, in each section of the city/town of a country have differences. People in each social group, club, church, all have differences. People in each family have differences. Let’s face it “People are different!”

But, all people have some similarities too. And this, I think is where we as people go wrong. We don’t seem to want to recognize our similarities; we would rather accentuate our differences.

Take the American people. They are so divided right now, perhaps more so now then ever in our history. Some 35% of the population believes we have a savior as president, and some higher percentage hold the view he is an illegitimate president who wants to become a dictator.

Cable news shows like Fox, CNN, and MSNBC seem to want to keep the conflict in play; it boosts ratings. As a boy growing up in the 50s and early 60s, my parents would watch a half hour of nightly news around 6 PM and that was that. The local paper and the Philadelphia Enquirer were always on hand with their reporting and that was about it. People depended on them to report the facts the news and report it honestly because their reputation was always on the line.

Today, we have cable news looking for ratings, 24/7; we never get a break. Social media allows for all opinions, informed or otherwise. We have smut magazines and rag papers whose only purpose is to shock and awe, divide and conquer. Split the people, don’t let them come together, keep them apart at all costs.

How do you accomplish this? By pointing out peoples’ differences! He is different because he goes to temple to worship. She is different because she had a child out of wedlock. They are different because they like the same sex. All differences.

But, I contend that people, all people, are more alike than they are different. We all like to laugh, we all like to love and be loved. We all want to be free and not be told how to live our lives. We all cherish living, being healthy and don’t want to die. We are all spiritual in some form; kneeling in a pew in a church praying, or bowing to the East at a certain time of day, or taking in the beauty of nature while fishing a meandering trout stream (which I do as often as possible). We all love, protect, and want the best for our offspring.

We all need the same necessities to live: water, good healthy food, oxygen, shelter from the natural elements. We all have the same bodily functions: lungs bring oxygen to our bodies, stomachs digest our foods to nourish our bodies. We eliminate waste the same, we reproduce the same, we all bleed the same when injured. Indeed we are more alike than different. But the powers that be always point out our differences.

Recently the leader of Syria ordered saran gas to be deployed on its people. The order was carried out and many people died a horrible death, choking to death, not being able to breath. The 24/7 news displayed this for all to see. What struck me was a father holding his dead twin daughters in his arms crying just like I imagine I would be crying if that horrible act had been leveled on me. He is no different than me. He and I have so much in common, so much more than we are different. Yes, he has a different religion, he eats different foods, he lives in a different climate, he has different likes and dislikes than me probably. But he and I are so much alike in what really matters: life!

I contend that the people of Russia are just like us, looking at us as if we are the problem while we look at them as if they are the problem. In fact it is not the people but their respective governments that are the problem. Their dictator (what else would you call Putin; a man who comes to power, eliminates any competition for that power and proceeds to take government businesses that rightly belong to the people and divides them up among his top supporters and himself. It has been reported that he is the richest man in the world, working on a government wage. How does that happen?) is an egomaniac out for power and glory and to hell with what is good for the people. This can be said of the Syrian leader Assad and of the illegitimate president of the US, dt. (Note I never spell his name my way of showing I have no, zero, zilch, respect for him, only disdain.)

How do these power hungry bad boys get into leadership rolls? How and why do we allow them to treat people as chattel and not as humans? What can be done to eliminate these “not fit to lead” leaders who care so little for their constituents and so much for themselves?

The problems people face are so often created by the whims of these despots and exacerbated to world prominence. So often they are small molehills turned into mountains for the benefit or personal satisfaction of the country’s leaders. These little boys fighting in the schoolyard are now big boys fighting with destructive, killing, maiming weapons. And, it is not they that are being maimed and killed.

The world is now a not-so-safe place to live with the likes of leaders like dt, Putin, Assad and the rest. This is not the world PEOPLE want to live in. This is the world created by “leaders,” theirs and ours. The world we would like to live in is free of strife, free of wars. The world we would like has education for all, health care for all, housing for all, freedom to choose for all, safety from those that would do us harm. The world PEOPLE want is a world so much different than the world our leaders have created and perpetuate for us. People don’t want war, but they fight wars. People don’t want dictatorships, but they live in them. People don’t want to live under harsh unjust rules, but they do. People want to live free, but so many don’t. And, people don’t want the leaders they have, but we can’t eliminate them.

As the Sly and the Family Stone song of the 80s says …”different strokes for different folks” … and … “we’ve got to live together.” Maybe more emphasis on similarities and less on our differences would be in order. Maybe if we elected more compassionate leaders our world would be less stressful and more pleasurable.

Maybe if we were more tolerant and more understanding we would enjoy our differences instead of seeing those differences as something to fear. Maybe, just maybe…

Headache? Nauseous? Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.