Inclusion

Much is made these days about inclusion. Politically correct bourgeoisie bow their heads at words like "multiculturalism" and "diversity". The allegedly ethical religious Americans are always going on about food banks and "helping the homeless".

Actually including people in a society means actually doing something to include them. Lip service is cheap.

• Including the uneducated means educating them well in well-funded public schools. 
• Including immigrants means requiring them to access provided (by taxpayer money) language and acculturation methods.
• Including chronically mentally ill (homeless) means providing actual homes and treatment.
• Including lesbian/gay/transgendered people means respecting their right to control their own bodies.
• Including people without children means not always asking them if they have children or miss having them.
• Including people of various races and ethnicity means not always focusing on their difference from the perceived majority.
• And so on.

U.S. society is increasingly media-driven. Audio-visual media are not real life. They are representations of real life concocted by the perceptions of journalists, writers and musicians. These perceptions are most frequently the illusions or projections of an upper economic class, from which these journalists, writers and musicians spring or to which they have climbed while motivated by greed.

Inclusion begins with me, in my everyday life. Practice encompasses the inclusion of each person I meet into my life with consciousness and compassion. This is a goal of a work in progress, not an accomplished skill. I pay my taxes without trying to cheat in order to support public inclusion. I try to be open on the street. I try to be respectful in everyday interactions with whomever I encounter. I try to encourage the disheartened. I give what I can. I take only what I cannot achieve with my own labor. This is my way of promoting inclusion of all people in society.