I really don’t care about anybody.

A Point of View
I really don’t care about anybody.
By Paul V. Montesino, PhD, MBA.

You know me by now. I like to make confessions once in a while. Good for the soul as soup is for the body. Here we go again. I have come to the conclusion that I really don’t care about anybody. Yes, I really don’t. Let me state my case. For instance, I really don’t care about the color of your skin. Whether you are white, black or brown, it does not matter a bit to me. I lose no sleep about it. And I don’t care either whether you are poor or rich. Of course, I wish you riches, but when I meet you I could not care less either.

And then there is the issue of gender or sexual orientation. I don’t care if you are male or female, straight or gay. That is not any of my business. Be whatever you are. “I am what I am,” as the famous Popeye the sailor character used to say. And when it comes to religion, whatever you want to believe, if it is fine for you it is also fine for me, and I could not care less. I am not fabricating or supporting any dogma to save your soul. Saving mine is enough work, believe me. We spend too much time worrying arguing and killing about deity versions we don’t know or have seen with our own eyes that in the end do not depend on us to exist in whatever version we like or dislike. Why is it that the moment we see someone practicing another religion that person also looks ugly to us?

I also don’t care about your place of birth. Born in the fifty states? Fine and dandy. Born elsewhere? I care not where. So my belief about your worth as a human being does not lie on the passport you carry in your pocket or even the language you learned while you grew up. You did not choose your language anymore than you chose your parents or birthplace, so why bother? There are over six billion people on this planet and many dissimilarities between those billions so, why should I be bothered by what you are? And now that I think of it, I am realizing that many of the problems mankind faces come from folks who claim to “really care” about you. They are always trying to change you, criticizing you or trying to set your point of view straight. It is as though they have a responsibility to make you whole on their terms, not yours.

So you see, when I say that I don’t care about your choices I don’t mean to say that those choices are negative or that you are a poor choicer. What I mean is that your choices are only relevant to you and I don’t have any right to condemn you for them any more than you have a right to condemn me for mine. I also mean that neither you nor I have the right to impose them on each other or the guy or woman next door. Approximately two thousand years ago someone asked an angry crowd of the curious if anyone felt free of sin enough to throw the first stone.

I realize that choosing certain things in our life may have an aesthetic effect that others find objectionable. Beauty, as they say, is in the eyes of the beholder. So is lack of it. And I don’t mind those standards that society has determined and established for the good of others. I am sure you and the law of the land know of many things we can’t do without interfering with our neighbor’s right to exist in peace. But unfortunately we practice certain choices in a way that eventually harm those we disagree with.

And to complete my thesis please read: “Ad hominem” is a dialectic practice in which our arguments are based in offending or destroying the reputation of the person we argue with and not the ideas they represent. And there is no better example of that fallacy than the political campaigns in which we decide the future of our nation. If you need an example go to your television set and turn it on.

As I arrive at the end of this short article I realize that not caring about anybody really means that I care about everybody and hold animosity or prejudice to no one. I care about our dignity as members of the human race and I respect whatever position you are at any moment on this brief time we have to walk over the surface of this planet. We are many and as we walk we have to be careful not to step on each other’s toes or crush the seeds that might eventually grow to flowers and trees of mutual respect and understanding that will give us fragrance and protection.

And that is my Point of View today.