“Mankind… that word should have new meaning for all of us today.”
— Independence Day
When I was a teenager, I loved this movie. Didn’t everyone? My best friend Megan and I must have seen it six or seven times at Mohawk Mall — back when Saturday matinees were four dollars and you could still smuggle in a Coke and chips in the pockets of the JNCO knockoffs you were rocking to impress the skater bois.
But, I digress.
This speech gets me every single time, despite Bill Pullman’s unrepentant (and appreciated) scenery-chewing. And, in the mire and muck of our increasingly fractured political feelings and religious drives, it’s one to remember. We’re all the same. We’re all human. We are all deserving of the same dignity and the same respect. Color should not divide us. Class should not divide us. Faith should not divide us. Because when the slimy black aliens show up to blow up our most sacred landmarks and send us running like ants from their fortresslike space-discs of doom, we’re going to need each other.
We need each other now.
Seriously, everyone. In the light of tonight’s fireworks, look around and see the beautiful diversity of our country and realize that it’s not something fear. It’s something that makes us better.
Happy Independence Day.
– – –
Featured image: CC license stonedsmeagol@deviantart
