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I’m Not Anti-Republican. I’m Pro-Humanity.

People tell me that I’m anti-Republican.

I suppose technically they’re correct, but they’re also missing the point—sometimes intentionally and sometimes mistakenly.

Well-meaning friends might say this as an oversimplified bit of descriptive shorthand; a way of quickly summarizing the work I do, the words I write and speak, the activism I engage in, the volume of the voice I use.

More often though, strangers say this as a pointed criticism; the assertion that I am somehow preoccupied to the point of dangerously disproportionate anger; that I am singularly fueled by an unhealthy hatred for the previous president and his party.

That isn’t the real story here.

This in many ways, had nothing to do with Republicans.

My life is and always has been oriented toward something far greater than this party. It has been propelled by much more beautiful things.

I’m pro-humanity.

I have a fierce love for life; for every human being that finds themselves here, and it burdens me greatly when anyone is exposed to cruelty and violence in any form, because I realize that life is heavy and it’s difficult for most of us, on our best days. My stomach turns when leaders misuse their power to pile burdens on already burdened people.

I’m pro-diversity.

I find the differences in disparate humanity here to be one of the greatest gifts we are given in this life, and experiencing this expansive variety has always made me a better and wiser version of myself. I despise when one group of people wants to edit the world into only those who look and talk and think and believe the way that they do—because we all lose in the subtraction.

I’m pro-equality.

I believe every human being on the planet has the same inherent worth, regardless of their race, nation of origin, sexuality, or any other qualifier. We are equally deserving of reverence and justice, and I am driven fully to sickness when any anyone’s value is ignored or they are treated as less-than.

I’m pro-compassion.

I want to cultivate empathy in the days I am given here; to remember just how much pain people are in, how many invisible battles they are fighting, how paper-thin a thread they sometimes hang by. I want my life to be a soft place for human beings whose lives can be very hard.

I’m pro-family.

Not just my family. Not just families who look like mine or worship like mine. Not just families who live in America or were born here or speak my language. I believe every home and every configuration of people in those homes, is as complex and beautiful as my own.

I’m pro-decency.

I am a fierce fighter for joy; for belly laughs and warm embraces and well-earned smile lines around eyes who have seen wonders and beheld beauty.
I am a fierce warrior for unearned acts of kindness, for gentle words for people who are hurting, for unsuspecting blessings from strangers.
I am a relentless defender of a goodness that finds no joy in exclusion or separation or injury to another.
I believe I was fortunate to be born where I was born, and with all the privileges and advantages I have because of it—and I have a responsibility to share and not to hoard these things as some divine birthright or earned reward or sign of my superiority.
I want to leverage my talent and resources and voice and abundance, to make this world more compassionate and loving and kind than when I arrived.

That all of these beliefs almost always leave me in direct opposition to the GOP is a sad indictment of who they are.

That living for these things, invariably necessitates me fully pushing back against them, says far more about him than it does me.

I’m not anti-Republican.

I’m pro-Muslims and Asians and immigrants and refugees and Christians and Atheists and young black men and veterans and transgender teens and poor families and sick children and single parents and undocumented neighbors.

I’m joyfully, passionately, perpetually pro-all Humanity.

That’s the real story here.

That’s who I am.

 

 

 

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