I worked in government enforcement of the civil rights laws for 11 years and it never ceased to amaze me how deep biases were based and how totally ignorant people were to what their actions produced. I did not burn out in that line of work like many of my colleagues and I did not leave cynical about the future of equal rights. But I can tell you this one impression that I did develop and to this day will stand by: no matter what the reason, whether it's geographical territorial ownership, skin color, religion, nationality, physical ability/disability, gender, sexual orientation, or the color of nail polish a person wears, it is human nature to seek out and find something, ANYTHING to create a division over and eventually escalate it to the point of armed conflict. I do not believe that human beings in general have evolved to the point where they can co-exist peacefully. Period. That is one impression that I do not wrestle with in my quietest moments, in the early morning darkness, or anytime. I accept it as a given that will not change in my lifetime or in any lifetime in the near future. There are always individual exceptions (I count myself as one). So please do not think that I am grouping all human beings together. But as a whole, this is the way I see it from my experience.