We're Only Human

 What does it mean to say, "We're only human."? It's human to display inquisitive behavior. It's human to lust. It's human to have weaknesses. In colonial times and the slavery era (much of one in the same), EuroAmerican people didn't consider Africans or Native Americans as humans. They were primitive, savages, animals, that didn't belong in proper society. To admit that they were human would mean to admit that they deserved to be treated with some amount of respect and decency, and they were entitled to rights. It's much more convenient to write them off as nonhuman, don't you think? Look at how so many humans still treat animals. That reminds me of a similarity I haven't thought of before. We know what Michael Vick did to dogs. Priests at a boarding school for little Native children did something similar. They disciplined a child by making other children, their schoolmates, beat him, or they would suffer a beating themselves. The two situations differ not all that much, unfortunately. So it seems human to rule over something that can be controlled - whether it be animals, the environment, money, or other humans. Cohabitation doesn't exist. Reservations prove that. Animals lose more and more of their home as humans drive them back to make room for their homes. Cohabiting with the animals, that I believe have as much right to be here as any human does, is farcical. What if the big bad bear ate little Timmy? Well, that's only nature ( ;. Other animals face that same fear. As I tend to do, I strayed from my initial question. 

What is it to be human? Does it mean to have fingers and toes and opposable thumbs? Monkeys have those things, and not all humans do. Does it mean to have a more developed brain? That we can reach a higher level of thinking than any other species? Then why do we act so stupid? Why do we kill each other, impose our morals on others, make war with each other, destroy each other and the earth in which we need to live? Why can't we cohabit with other animals as all other animals seem to be able to do quite nicely, except when they're hungry? Native Americans did. They lived right along the deer, bears, wolves, buffalo, and all other animals. So did (and still do) all indigenous peoples. Or is it our ability to communicate? We created languages and the written word. Whales have their own language(s), as most other animals. And I've seen an elephant paint. I actually think I've seen a chimpanzee draw letters much like a kindergartener. So are they human, too? If a woman lives in a cave, eats squirrels and berries, and doesn't talk, does that make her less human than me? Less of a woman than me? Isn't "Nell" about something like that? Never did watch it, obviously. Actually, she sounds like someone out of "Deliverance." How about the human's ability to build grand edifices and mansions to live and work in? Ants and bees build abodes that most humans can barely fathom. So what makes us so much better than them?