TEXT D We come in different colors: red, black, white, yellow and brown, have a variety of political systems, social systems, religious views or none at all; we are different intellectually, have different educational systems, different socio-economic classes; psychologically we are normal, abnormal, neurotic, psychotic, we speak different languages, and have different customs and costumes. Studying human beings biologically and physiologically leads us to very different conclusions about how alike or different we are from each other. Very different indeed, every human being on the planet, all 5.3 billion of us, has the same number of bones, of the same type, serving the same purposes; each of us has 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent, and these chromosomes, genes and the DNA and RNA of which they are integral parts, are in every single human being; every cell, every membrane, every tissue, and every organ is the same everywhere. We all have a heart, a circulatory system, 2 lungs, a liver, 2 kidneys, a brain and nervous system, a reproductive system, digestive and excretory systems, musculature, in short, we are the same biologically and our bodies perform the same functions everywhere on the planet. And as we learned in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, if you prick us, any of us, "do we not bleed" Of course we do, andwe bleed red blood no matter what the color of our skin, or the language we speak, the clothing we wear, the gods we worship, .or our geographical home. Man is of a Piece biologically; all equally effective organisms whether Amazon Indian, Australian aborigine, Parisian artist, Greek sailor, Chinese student, American astronaut, Russian soldier, or Palesfinian citizen. Well then, you ask, how is that so many groups of people disparage other groups, persecute them, and claim superiority over them Why is it that some groups of people still hunt animals, wear little or no clothing, have little or no technology, while others are very sophisticated in their technology, industry, transportation, communication, food gathering and storage It is, of course, a matter of culture and the civilization that emerges and evolves from it. Though man is man everywhere, where he lives, when he lives there, with whom he lives there, all affect how he lives: that is, what he believes, what he wears, his customs, his gods, his rituals, his myths and literature, his language and his institutions. These are man-made artifacts that each group develops over time, living together, facing the same problems, needing and desiring the same things. They axe his culture, his identity. The interactions of two powerful forces in all human life: nature (biology) and nurture (culture and civilization), shape us. Each culture has its own distinctive ways of seeing, feeling, thinking, speaking, believing, and just as no two humans are identical in all respects, so no two cultures are identical in all respects. But, wherever humans have lived and live today, there is culture with all of its elements embedded in a civilization that expresses that core of thought and feeling in its language, its institutions and other social organizations. All civilizations and the cultures that nourish them have hierarchies; social institutions, language, art of all kinds, religion or a system of spiritual beliefs of some kind, laws, customs, rituals (other than religious) and ceremonies. A study of anthropology and make it very clear that humans have created divisions and exacerbated superficial external difference for their own ulterior purposes whether political, social, economic or religious. The truth is that we are much more alike in very basic ways than we are different. If you wear one type of garment and I wear another, we both wear some kind of garment. Our culture demands it. If you speak one language and I another, we both speak so that others will understand us; we must communicate with each other. Nothing is gained by overemphasizing differences, but much is lost. If we understood our differences as cultural variations of our basic, universal humanity it could restore sanity and peace to this often turbulent world. Muslims and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Serbs and Croats, blacks and whites, we are all human and need the same things to survive and to thrive. Different does not mean inferior or superior; it does not mean better or worse; right or wrong. It means only that artificial distinctions have been made by society, and these have denied our universal humanity that is cell deep and incontrovertible. Differences produce variety Of thought, feeling, and action and that can be very stimulating to peaceful and creative solutions to human problems. Can we accept our biological brotherhood and put aside our man-made, artificial, cultural enmities What men have made, their culture and civilizations, men can tmmake, can improve. What would be gained if we did that What would be lost