Philosophers and writers have spoken and written billions of words in hundreds of languages for thousands of years regarding the nature of human beings and their place in the world. In an unabashed quantum leap of egotism, I now distill everything heretofore spoken or written on the subject into one sentence: We humans are all the same species.

That's it. That is the wheat in life's chaff. Everything else is a function of cosmetics or immature thinking brought about by the content of one's character.

The concept of character content, as expressed in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" address, is the most powerful phrase encompassing man's emotions, his methods of thought, his dreams, his nightmares, his preferences and his prejudices ever uttered. Consider that the second unabashed quantum leap of egotism in a mere couple of paragraphs.

Yet, there is a third. The greatest statement regarding the rights and responsibilities of humankind can be found in religious works. The most commonly known one in the Western world is the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12, which in the New International Version reads "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." It more commonly is translated "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Similar statements can be found in religions as diverse as Islam, Hinduism, Native American spirituality and Wicca.


It doesn't matter if it came from God, from Buddha, from interpretation of nature or from a one-eyed herpetic rat with delusions of grandeur and a greater-than-normal vocabulary. That single commanding sentence makes more sense and delves deeper than volumes of opinion before and since.

If we can accept that we are of the same species (and the science is there to back it up) and we can accept that our primary personal responsibility is to watch out for the rights of others as we watch out for our own, then it is unquestionably the second concept above, that of character content, that has led to so much grief.

When we single out any group, be it for decisions they've made - religious preference, perhaps - their ethnic background -Serbs versus Croats - or the outward signs of minute genetic encoding - male versus female, black versus white - we are doing so from a failing in our character.

Ironically, when such singling out occurs in a negative light, it is viewed as discrimination; when singling out occurs in a positive light, it is viewed as providing equal opportunity. And in the short-term, it can be argued that ideas like affirmative action; legislation that defines and crafts greater penalties for hate crimes; and other programs and laws that accentuate minor variation in our species, provide benefits for those segments of society facing discrimination.

The trouble is, attempting to enforce a level of maturity on society by singling out portions of it, setting them apart, and warning the rest that the group in question is a special case will only deepen rifts that already exist and do very little to forward a more natural maturation process - already occurring - that will eventually allow everyone to recognize our inherent similarities ahead of our insignificant differences.

This process has been ongoing for a couple thousand years. It got a great boost from America's system of government, created to protect the people from it rather than protecting it from the people. Such a guarantee of personal freedom has allowed the maturation of our thinking - from the ideal "all men are created equal," despite rules against women, nonwhites and others outside the Founding Fathers' world-view of equality - to a point where we can reasonably debate the content of a given person's character without immediately needing to target the cosmetics of it all.

We're not there yet, though it's difficult to have patience. We still live in a country that must note that Condoleezza Rice is the first black woman to hold the post of Secretary of State, or that Alberto Gonzalez is the first Hispanic man to be Attorney General. The day such distinctions are not made, and no one misses their exclusion, is the day we will have attained a far greater maturity level in the content of our own character. Then we can get on with the work of truly treating all others as we'd wish to be treated.

Forney is editorial page editor for the Lebanon Daily News. He can be reached at: