We All Have DNA

In response to my Terrorism Genes post last week, a reader wrote, “For God’s sake. You can’t use genetics to explain everything.” And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could?”

We all have DNA. From prehistoric fossils (geobiology) to bacteria to plants to animals to humans, DNA is what ties us together as living beings. There is nothing else that we all share and the similarities in our DNA are often astounding.

Humans come in all shapes and sizes. Some have more money, more education, and more opportunities. Others have more love, more friends, and more happiness. The unfortunate have more grief, more violence, and more oppression. Life is different for everyone and neither fair nor equal.

If genetics could explain everything, we might remember that underneath all of life’s trappings, we are humans. Today I sit in an air conditioned apartment with my beloved husband and son. But it might just as easily be me wearing a burka living in extreme poverty in the deserts of Afghanistan.

Many things are beyond my control. Not being religious, I’m not sure what determined the kind of life I was born into and the paths that were open to me to get to where I am today. If I could see that just one base change in my DNA made all the difference, then I could just as easily understand that just one more mutation the other way could have taken me to another place all together. Not much separates us from each other.

I know there are plenty of eugenicists who would use genetic information for evil. But I’d like to think there are enough of us to slap them down. Why do we let the war mongering minority speak and act for the rest of us?

What I’m trying to say is that there has never been anything that united the people of this earth. Nothing except our DNA.

*I realize my argument is far from complete or thought out. This was written with only good intentions and believing that we are essentially good, not evil.