Kudos to The Pope

I have been sitting around waiting for something to break my anti-writing lethargy that has gripped me over the past couple of years. Facebook status updates have sated me in this regard, but it's time I pulled myself together and got the blog rolling again. You know, because there just aren't enough blogs out there right now...

I thought the anti-government protests in Iran a few weeks ago had me going, but I am going to jump back in on a more positive subject, though it comes on the heels of some nastiness coming from my Dad's home country. Anti-immigrant tension is rising in many parts of the world (see: The United States of America) and nowhere is this more true than in Southern Europe. Southern Italy saw its share of turmoil in recent days (see the link above for story details), but I was struck by the poignancy of The Pope's official response to the violence and subsequent protests and continued threats: "An immigrant is a human being, different by background, culture and tradition, but a person to be respected...Violence must never be a way to resolve difficulties...To look at the face of the other and discover that he, too, has a soul, a story and a life. He is a person and God loves him just as He loves me".

Kudos to the Pope for a great message. The Pope scares me a bit in terms of his general fundamentalist stances, but this is a message any of us should heed regardless of our religious backgrounds. None of us got to choose our parents, where we were born or what color we are. To consider someone inferior or hate someone because they are different is stupid. Please note that I am skipping straight over right and wrong and going directly to intelligence (or lack thereof).

If you are inclined to hate, which I don't recommend, hate someone for what they have done to you - not for how or where they are born. If you were lucky enough to be born to affluent parents in a developed country, this does not make you a superior human being.

[Currently Listening: Bob Marley and the Wailers - "Coming In From the Cold"]