I’d rather live next-door to someone who crossed a desert to become an American, rather than an American who wouldn’t cross the street to help a foreigner.

How far outside of your own country have you ever traveled?

When you were in a foreign country, did you have troubles with language, navigation, or anything else that is a prerequisite to just getting by?

In the United States, a large volume of our citizens, have never ventured outside of the country.

This lack of exposure to other people gives them an unnecessary anxiety that triggers a xenophobic response. If you have not ventured into somebody else’s territory, then when you are seeing people venturing into your own territory, it feels all the more foreign. In their ignorance, they become very afraid of what that ultimately means.

Humanity has been artificially subdivided between religion, politics, territories, nationality, and so on. This continuous combination of unfamiliar stimuli, continuously generates and uncalled for ill will towards people who do not share the same political belief, religion, or any other characteristics.

By the time a language barrier is inserted into the equation, we discover increased rates of xenophobia escalating as a result of people not being readily able to communicate with someone else.

If these people have never traded places, and found themselves in a foreign country in which they were struggling to comprehend whatever variable they were dealing with, then the acquired humility that derives from such a life experience is entirely missing in the overall internal library from which a more secluded person operates.

In the quiet of their sheltered life, anything that bears resemblance to a definitive problem, which could be easily measured as a disparity in languages being spoken, gives them cause to become instantly suspicious and afraid because they do not have any basic life experience upon which to relate.

Adding to the fuel on the metaphorical fire, organized religion, and it’s potential prejudice against alternate religions adds an even deeper concern to an already tense scenario, such that those who are experiencing newcomers in their midst might feel an additional unnecessary trepidation for the misunderstandings of how, and why a different religious belief arose, and whether or not, there is an unfounded misconception, that because of their belief system, they automatically hold someone else’s belief system in contempt.

If I had one wish for humanity at large, it would be for the world to finally awaken, and discover that collectively, we are one. One specie operating on a planet that has been artificially subdivided by region, race, religion and territory in such a way as to create a very basic us versus them perspective.

Add to this the western cultures continuous need to pit ourselves in pools of polarized groups, such as one professional sports team versus another, and you have the prerequisite for a melting pot of xenophobic conflict that only needs compassion and understanding to resolve the issues and reduce the overall friction.

Happy Wednesday!