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Jack.is Empathetic: Salute to the Shunned

I salute those shunned by society.

I salute those branded outcasts, criminals, evil, unnatural, and dangerous, though they have done nothing to deserve such labels. I salute those who, despite rejection by the world at large, carry on where many would break down, whether because they must or because they are fortunate enough to be unaffected by it. I salute the shunned.

I salute the truants, who realize the futility and even the evil of compulsory education and seek to avoid if not fight it. I salute the runaways, who find themselves suffering only increasingly unbearable treatment in the one place in the world they should expect to find peace and comfort, and leave home in hopes of finding something better. I salute the young revolutionaries who, before they ruined themselves by settling down and securing themselves to the normal life, had great visions for this world and dared to act on them against overwhelming odds and opposition. I salute the shunned.

I salute the prostitutes, who seek not to deprave society, marriage, or our youth; to spread disease; or to be a blight on our streets, but only to make a living, to sustain themselves like any other person wants to and, if they can hack it, to live a comfortable life. I salute the paedophiles, hebephiles, and ephebophiles who wish anything but to harm our children, who, even if they are never outed, live life in internal conflict over their feelings because we see fit to dictate who may love and be loved, and who may enjoy a good fuck. I salute the zoophiles, who alone among us can truly understand love for an animal, and know the love that it returns. I salute the gays, lesbians, trangenders, gender-queers, transsexuals, and whatever other odd and glorious sexualities I have no doubt forgotten, who, for all the progress we have made, still encounter prejudice, harassment, rejection, and persecution, and carry on. I salute the bisexuals, who all too often are accused of being indecisive, falsely broad, or simply curious. I salute the pansexuals, who are attracted to people, not gender; personality, not genes. I salute all others who find themselves rejected, harassed, threatened, or anguished because of feelings they did not choose to have. I salute the shunned.

I salute our military servicemembers, who join for myriad reasons -- it's jail or the Army, it's the only secure job they can guarantee themselves, they believe in this country and its principles which our government freely ignores, they want to take Uncle Sam for all the overseas vacations they can get, or maybe they believe that they can make a difference in whatever likely illegal conflict we're currently in -- and find themselves used carelessly in a selfish war not for anyone's rights or freedom, but for oil. I salute our veterans, who should be highly respected simply for willing to place their country -- not a piece of land, but the values which guarantee in it a truly free life -- above their lives, but are instead spat on and thrown out by their brothers and sisters, and denied any adequate help or recognition. I salute the shunned.

I salute the homeless, the vagrants, the tramps, the hobos, and the bums, who, whether of their own will or by circumstance, found themselves outside the circle of well-fed, housed, employed, comfortable society, and dared to make it on their own, though they are supported only by passing obligatory sympathy and held down by laws and societal attitudes against being down and out, or nomadic. I salute the shunned.

I salute the rebels, the vigilantes, and all revolutionaries who dare to fight injustice in their neighbourhood or in their government, who give themselves to the greater cause of freedom and equality for all. I salute the shunned.

I salute the anarchists and all their variants, who dare to imagine a society that is greater than government, and are met with opposition by people who will not be bothered to understand. I salute the socialists, who strive for a modicum of economic equality, and are laughed away by people who must have it all for themselves. I salute the shunned.

I salute all those people, those human beings, who have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a right to love and be loved, seek justice in all levels of their society, and to do what they know is right, who are struck down by the pen or by the sword, because they do not agree. I salute everyone who ever suffered in the name of education, purity, morals, or some idiot's idea of a good, clean society.

I salute the shunned.

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