All People Deserve Love and Respect

When it is said that all people deserve respect, they often mean that they deserve to be seen and treated as human, as equals. However, I extend this further: all people deserve love AND respect. Consider these words from Chinese philosopher, Mencius, "To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets." It isn’t uncommon for many women, and youth living at home, to feel loved but not respected. It tears them apart to be seen and treated this way, because they either are always fighting an injustice, angry and trapped living amongst a threat to their self-esteem, or they internalize how they are treated as the way they deserve to be treated. They see themselves as less worthy and spend much of their life trying to please others, to try to earn their worth.

This is a similar outcome for those people that society feeds but doesn’t love. Think of the homeless, and how it makes many people feel good to “give back”, yet they avoid the unhoused in public areas and demean them in their words when considering policies to be voted upon. While mental health is certainly linked with homelessness, it isn’t always mental health problems causing one to be homeless. Often, it is homelessness that is causing the mental health struggles, because these are people who have been rejected and abandoned by everyone, and either feel resentful towards the world, or ashamed to take up space. If you find yourself with wanting to argue with my thought, coming up with reasons why everyone doesn’t deserve love and respect, consider why that is. Is there internalized racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, or any other unseen bias at play?

"To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets."

~ Mencius