WE ARE THE ENDANGERED SPECIES

Today, May 20th, is "Endangered Species Day."

And we are the endangered species!
The "we" I refer to are all the members of that most inconvenient and always unpopular minority group of intelligent, well-educated, well-informed, outspoken, people who are non-chauvinistic in regard to country, politics, religion, or sex. Those poor benighted folk who are willing to endanger themselves by not being docile, non-thinking "sheep." Those ridiculously idealistic anti-war, sensitive, honest, caring, sharing fools who actually believe in and practice the Golden Rule. Those Don Quixotes who constantly tilt at the religious, political, and corporate windmills of those who are determined to destroy our fragile environment and the "unalienable" rights of all people, both male and female, to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Hitler found our particular species of humans inconvenient and eradicated us along with millions of others he found inconvenient because of race or religion. Stalin had millions of us murdered. Mao Tse-Tung had even more millions of us murdered. Then there were the killing fields of Cambodia, where we were shot down and buried in mass graves simply for wearing glasses -- since that meant we could read, and therefore might think.
The examples of repressive religions and totalitarian political systems persecuting, torturing, and killing us can be found throughout history. The Spanish Inquisition is not just an abomination of the past. It still continues in one form or another today, and we are all potential victims.
Famous individuals, with far more courage than most of us, who paid the ultimate price for having the audacity to think for themselves and criticize the prevailing mores, beliefs, and actions of the majority,
include Socrates, Jesus Christ, and a very long list of other brave souls throughout history, including, more recently, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
The problem seems to be that thinking beyond the "little box" they were "brain-washed" to think in by their family, friends, schools, neighbors, and local customs, politics, and religion, is anathema to most people, the majority of whom do not have the time, the inclination, or the desire to really THINK. Or it might be more accurate to say: the majority of whom are afraid to think or say anything that would make them unpopular, lose employment, lose customers, be ostracized -- or worse!
Therefore, if you are one who actually is brave enough to think outside your given "little box" and exercise your freedom of speech, you are bound to be unpopular, inconvenient, and are most definitely on the endangered list.
The irony is, of course, without enough people like you speaking up and bringing about much-needed change, all the "little boxes" on the wall will take a great fall, and not only you but the entire human race will be endangered.
Happy Endangered Species Day!