THE DANGER OF LABELING HUMAN
BEINGS.
By Amparo
Jaramillo-Restrepo
My mother, a wise woman, always
cautioned me against labeling human beings. Born in a small
Colombian town where the parish priest condemned liberals to hell
every other Sunday, grandma cried herself to sleep fearing her
beloved husband Felipe will suffer that terrible fate. That quaint
memory comes back to me in a different age and latitude when I
witness the political scene before elections time.
I know for example that if I
oppose the cruel Cuban embargo which doesn’t hurt Castro but has
doomed several generations of Cubans, I’ll be called Communist; if a
I favor a universal health care system, I am a Socialist; if I am
Pro-choice, not because I like abortion but because I believe that
nobody has the right to impose on a woman the burden of an unwanted
child, the Liberal label will hunt me, like a scarlet letter.
Those who oppose the war are
Unpatriotic. But somebody has to remind us that the same suicide
bombers we call Terrorists, are called Martyrs depending on their
faith and culture.
The Republicans call themselves
Conservatives and Pro-life, because they fiercely protect a fetus
even during the few hours of conception, but some of them don’t care
if our soldiers come back maimed, traumatized or inside wooden
boxes; neither they care if some of our youth at home are homeless,
uneducated, neglected, abused, jailed, jobless or killed, as long as
their friends, the war hogs, laugh all the way to the bank, because
wars are not only the dirtiest, but the most lucrative business in
the whole world.
The irony is that the Pro-life
people oppose every single program to promote and finance sexual
education and birth control, the only sensible way to get rid of
the abortion tragedy. I want me readers to know that because the
shortage of funds, the scores of children bearing children are
growing within the displaced population in my country Colombia, and
the rest of the third world.
But on top of the fact that they
call them conservatives, and Pro-Life, even when they fight for
their right to buy assault weapons, some republicans have taped to
themselves the label of Christians, to attract those who believe
that Liberals are religious pariahs. How can you be a Christian
while spreading death, and injustice throughout the world on the
altar of their only god: GREED?
I felt a moral
responsibility to write this article after some of my friends told
me
they were afraid of the Liberal
Democrats. Because that is the problem with labels. They stick to
your name forever, and the other band use them to terrorize those
less informed or insecure. I hope that my children and
grandchildren in due time, will learn my mother’s advice: “don’t
label human beings”. You have to judge people for their deeds, and
go beyond the labels. And before you go around calling other people
evil, look at yourself and think if you have the right to throw the
first stone.
No, Sarita, the label
you found on a soda bottle when we were at the JFK airport
Didn’t mean anything: it was just
a stupid label with the word “NAKED”, to attract people’s attention.
How can a soda be naked? But by showing it to me you gave me the
idea for this article. I love you.
I wrote this piece a few years
ago, in Florida. But things haven’t changed much here in my country
or in the Unites States, though I celebrate the fact that young
people are reacting to those stereotypes.
And about the miracles of a war
economy, American citizens have learned now, that even if the
military industry helped people to become millionaires, the country
at large was left in ruins, not to mention the tragedy of death and
destruction left around the world
