What Really Unites Us?

As I sit here, thinking about my life and my past, I've suddenly started thinking about my heritage.

I am quite a mongrel, born from a plethora of oppressed people. On my father's side, I have Kale Gypsy. On my mother's side, I have Irish and Polish peasantry, as well as French aristocracy.

My maternal grandad was from a Polish family of farmers. He saw his whole family being butchered by the Russian Red Army. His mother's last words to him were to tell him and his brother, Nicholas, and their sister to run for their lives.

As he reached the edge of their farm, my grandad turned around to see his sister had been caught and was being gang raped by the Russian soldiers. He was too far away and too outnumbered to do anything. He could only run with his brother and hope to keep him safe, at least.

The two of them were chased out of Poland by the Russian Red Army and then hunted across Europe by the Nazis. (My grandad was also engaged to a Jewess.)

My grandad later saw Nicolas getting shot, taking a bullet for him. He had nightmares about it for the rest of his life.

My maternal grandma was half Irish and also had ancestry going back to the French aristocracy who'd fled for their lives to England, during the French Revolution.

On the Irish side, we also have lineage linked to Oliver Plunkett, who was burned at the stake.

(Both the Gypsies and the Irish races have also been persecuted in various parts of their respective histories.)

I can't help but notice how much of my ancestry features oppression, suffering, and/or persecution.

But the thing is, as horrified and pained to my heart as I am to think about the plight of my forebears (especially my grandad's story, which always brings me to tears), I owe my life to their sufferings and sacrifices.

If those things had not happened, I'd not have been born!

But the thing is, this is true of just about every human on the planet today.

Had it not been for the tyrannies, conquests, and atrocities of the Romans; Genghis Khan; the Vikings; The Spanish, French, Portuguese and English colonialists; the Nazis; the Communists; etc., neither you or I would be alive today. We are each the product of the sufferings that happened during one of those periods of history.

And, in a strange kind of way, this is something that unites us all, regardless of our race, colour, or ancestry.

We are all the product of oppression, war, and/or atrocities.

If any one of us were to go back far enough, we would eventually find an ancestor who was born as a result of a war, conquest, oppression, or some other persecution or displacement of their people.

That is a very sad fact of human history - oppression and conquest have shaped our existence.

But, as I said earlier, this is something that I believe ought to unite us. It's a common denominator in all of our lives.

And I also believe that the best way we can honour the sufferings and sacrifices of our ancestors is to put aside our hatred, resentment, and differences. To unite as human beings.

Yes, I could easily turn to any Russian or German person I see and say, "Your people did this to my grandad's family!"

Or I could turn on English people and blame them for the persecution of my Irish and Gypsy ancestors.

I could hold a lot of hatred and resentment toward a lot of groups of people for the hurt that my forebears suffered.

But, to me, that would be illogical. It's not the fault of any person living today.

Nobody deserves to be vilified, ostracised, or punished for the sins of their forefathers.

And, in any case, how do I know that the person I was saying those things to or blaming, was actually related to or descended from the people who persecuted or hurt any one of my ancestors? They likely wouldn't be.

And it's unfair to blame every Russian, German, and/or English person for the sufferings of my forefathers.

To me, bigotry, hatred, racism, and intolerance are the biggest, most cardinal sins of humanity. They are the ugliest aspect of who we are as a species.

And yet, we are never born with these things. They are learned.

Ergo, they can be unlearned.

Conversely, the antidote and exact opposite of these things is something we are all born with; something that is innately part of every one of us.

It is LOVE.

However, even though love is an innate part of our essence, it still needs to be nurtured and cultivated.

So let's each do our part in cultivating love in the world, through compassion, forgiveness, and empathy.

Let's each live by these qualities and work to sow, cultivate and nurture their seeds.

We CAN learn from the mistakes of our forefathers.

We CAN forgive the sins of their oppressors.

We CAN honour the sufferings and sacrifices of our ancestors.

We CAN do all of these things through love.

So let's all cultivate love. True, unconditional love