And how much it matters.

I  have strong beliefs on politics and religion but those are two subjects that I will never cover here.  Mostly because subjects so controversial can lead to serious verbal sparring, if not outright rudeness and hatred, and I am endeavoring to invite only compassionate and intelligent conversation here.  Though lively is always fun!  Back to the matter at hand.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us are passionate about life, the existence of it, how we spend it, with whom we share it, what it means, and all sorts of other nuances that define our own lives and life in general.  I also think most of us value life, certainly our own, and understand why everyone else values theirs.  A lot of that has to do with the fact we don’t know if we get to go on after this, that perhaps our existence is, in fact, it.  Because that is the niggling fear in the background, we take steps to cherish what we have, to tend to our families and friends, to care for others, more or less, depending on how altruistic we are as individuals.  Over the centuries, countless treatises, morals of stories, commencement speeches get to the point:  live life to the fullest cuz you just never know.

With that noted, it is clear life not only matters to us all, but all life matters.  I don’t understand what has happened in the last few years where we are all of a sudden faced with statements like “black lives matter”.  It’s quite true.  Obviously so, in fact.  Black lives do matter.  But all lives matter.  And a black life does not matter more than any other life.  I will not argue that the black population suffers more at the hand of prejudice than does the white population, and that is an awful fact, more so with each passing year where one would think prejudice would begin to fade, but letting one injustice lead to illogical anthems is not the answer.  No one should be threatened, abused, murdered or wronged.  As a society we need to prosecute the people guilty of hate crimes, or racial crimes, of crimes against any human.  And we certainly can’t kill the protectors of our laws randomly.  How will that avenge the wrongfully dead, black, white, pink or whatever?  The wronged are just that, and justice should be sought for that particular event.  A person that protests violently, and acts in the same heinous fashion towards law-abiding citizens of the “offending” race, whatever the case, is becoming the very being that in fact thinks black lives don’t matter.  That life doesn’t matter.  An ethical and thinking person knows this.  A young black man is viciously shot in his car by an officer for what seems to be no good reason at all.  Horror and horrible.  Unforgivable even.  But then another youth takes it upon himself to murder five white police officers who had nothing to do with  it.  This is an atrocity, does not prove that black lives matter, widows families, robs the world of five lives that matter.  Escalation after escalation.  I know it is the few that are committing crimes against either side, but marching up and down streets hailing that black lives matter emboldens the deluded killers, draws them out and makes them act.  Fervor breeds fury, and fury in the wrong hands only means the death of innocents.

All our lives matter.  Even advanced beings from other galaxies watching us from a safe distance as they shake their heads sadly–know all our lives matter.

By Narcissa Lyons