Taking Care of Our Own

Someone recently made the comment to me that we should take care of our own.  I agree, we should take care of our own.  But who do we consider our own?  Is it just the people in our immediately family?  Is it our extended family?  Our community, our state, our country?  Does our own include our relatives who still live in the lands where our ancestors migrated from?  And what about the areas where all of our ancestors have lived?  Do we think we originated here and that our only responsibility to the world is to take care of the people we are connected to?  How many of us would be living where we live right now if none of our ancestors would have ever migrated.  Where would we ALL be if Moses had never left the promised land?  Am I the only one who thinks like this?  Am I the only one who sees that deep down we are all basically connected, that no matter what our beliefs, location, race, social status, that underneath we all originated from the same source.

I literally cringe when I hear of any human in pain, not just "one of my own", any human suffering feels wrong to me.  Recently the news made a big deal out of 2 Americans being declared dead in Japan.  My heart cried out...why should we be more concerned over these two than the other thousands.  Is one human life worth more than another just because of where they happened to be born?

I love my country, I feel blessed to have been born here, I was raised by a man who's parents worked hard to migrate to this country, my own great grandfather migrated to this country, my dad fought in WW II to defend this country, so I do understand the importance of being where I am, but I don't feel that being an American makes me more important or higher than any other human on this planet.

As long as we continue to see ourselves as separate, as long as we use our beliefs, our race, our location, our gender, anything at all to separate out one human from another, the more difficult it will be for our world to truly live in love and find peace.  As long as there are people on this planet who aren't able to provide the necessities of life for their families, there will be a need to rise up. As long as anyone is using their power in any manner to harm and control others there will be suffering and war.  If we can understand that we are all one and work towards having the basic needs of every one of us met, then we can find what we say we all long for and that is peace.

Once we can look out at the world and see that everything we see is a part of us and with this understanding we  take care of our own, then the rest will begin to fall into place.  It's that simple.