Organizing for Equality was started earlier this month as a way for different organizations to come together and organize in the community for goals which all of us are undeniably connected to. Those opposed to the beauty of freedom have a way with division. They build, so perfectly, a wall among the oppressed; a dividing force among those that for so long have been cast into the second-class citizen status. Every brick they build that divides us is made with the same hatred they've been recycling forever. This wall they build between us serves not for our good, but for theirs, paving the way for their perpetual denial to us of our civil rights. We must stand up for all of our brothers and sisters across the country, and the world for that matter, who still suffer in the heat of oppression.
In America, we must defend our LGBT brothers and sisters because they too are an inherent part of this great country. In no way is it acceptable to define differences among people's personal lives and use that to discriminate against those people and segregate them from the general population. LGBT people are not animals.
The community is full of people raising families and living lives not much different from yours if at all. The only difference is who they love and even how they love that person; how they connect with that person on a spiritual level, is the exact same process a heterosexual would go through. We must defend our LGBT brothers and sisters because they deserve everything heterosexuals deserve; rights wise. They deserve to be protected from hate crimes.
They deserved to be protected from job discrimination and housing discrimination. They deserve to be able to serve in the Armed Forces openly and proudly. They deserve to get married and give their children that stability that marriage brings to a family. They deserve acceptance and love.
We must also take the time to defend our immigrant neighbors who come here seeking a better home. No one denies the fact that illegal immigration is in its nature, illegal. What I dispute is the belief that somehow, these people aren't just as human as all of us. I don't like calling undocumented people "illegal aliens" because it dehumanizes the condition from which they came. The subject is an intensely cultural and an intensely passionate one and there are valid arguments to both sides.
However, so many people who are vehemently against the issue fail to put a human value to it. Most undocumented workers come to the United States with their families and just want to live an honest, hardworking life. As portrayed by those same hateful, wall-building forces, immigrants are all gang bangers looking to run new turf in America when that simply isn't true. We need to make sure that we are guaranteeing their rights in the United States and their protections here as well. They need to know that as long as they're working or getting an education or taking care of their families, we will not hunt them down as in the past. We need to make sure that we guarantee their children not a blank check as has been characterized, but the right to a college education via the DREAM Act or some form of it.
For those in our community that are "disabled", or differently abled, we need to make sure we are watching out for their interests as well. I find it appalling that there are still Americans who don't support equal housing opportunities and employment opportunities for differently abled Americans solely based upon that specific disability. It is an unfortunate part of this great land (but a part which we can eradicate) that there are people who feel that differently abled Americans are somehow lesser than themselves. I do not think that because my friend has a studder or that my other friend has a mental disability that they are not as good as I or not as entitled to the American dream. That is disgusting. We need stronger protections and stronger advocacy for those who are differently abled.
For the women who still are not paid equal to men, know that we are making great strides on that front. We passed equal pay for equal work legislation earlier this year, which was groundbreaking in its own. We need to make sure that there isn't a stigma about powerful, successful women in this country. We need to make sure that women, young women especially, know that they have every opportunity that a man has and that their gender is no determent for success. We need to make sure we look at the issue of abortion with a human approach and take all of the personal emotions and politics out of it. We also need to make sure that women (and men) who are finding themselves in domestic situations they need help in can get that help.
For the working poor and homeless in America, a growing and alarming segment of the population, we need to make sure they still matter to us. In Colorado, we have some of the highest rates of children and families going to bed hungry every night, but also one of the highest incomes in the country. Does that make sense? Homeless people and the working poor need to know that they can vote and need to be registered to do so. They need to be sleeping under some roof at the end of the night. They need all of these things or at least an infusion of hope and support to help them get those things.
For the religious groups; the Jews, the Muslims, that still face bias and hatred, our support must be with them as well. It is not our belief in God that makes us better than one another. It is our belief that somehow, no matter who or what you worship or if you even worship at all, we are all equal to each other. We must crack the glass ceiling and realize that religion has the power to be not a hateful, divisive institution but a uniting, benevolent one. Hate crimes, bias, and discrimination based on religion is appalling and must be stopped at every turn.
And for those around the world who suffer as we do in the United States and sometimes more so, we must be conscious of them. We can not turn a blind eye to the genocide in Darfur or the earthquake in Haiti or the oppressive regimes around the world that thwart the people's rights. We can not remain neutral in times of human suffering.
I would ask all of the readers to answer this question: "How are these issues and these people not all connected together?" There is no answer to that question, because they are all connected. They are bound together by the same binding force that came together to form this country; to fight for abolition and universal suffrage and civil rights; it's the force of freedom. It's the force of equality. It's the force that those who are building walls between us are so afraid of because they know we are stronger together than they ever could have hoped to be. For every brick the opposition lays in hopes they are conquering us, they lay it with a small amount of fear knowing that only time separates us and that one day, we will come together and fight for a shared purpose. Let's make that day today.
All of these things will not be solved in the first month of first year of Organizing for Equality's work. It will take a long time, but we can get there. We can achieve that state of equality so many people have yearned for for so long. This will take a large coalition of like minded citizens and groups willing to work for the common good among brothers and sisters from all walks of life; but we can do this.
How long will this take, you ask me? I think back to a civil rights organizer who was asked that same question 45 years ago, "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Joseph M. Soto
President and Lead Organizer, Organizing for Equality
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