I confess. I have a weakness for human beings. I've been this way since I was a kid. Laugh at me, blog about my naivete or ignore me all together, but I have never been the sort of person to take humanity for granted. Maybe it's some internal, biological thing. Or maybe it runs deeper than that. Maybe it's something that impressed itself on me, back when I was impressionable, and has been with me always.

When I was in elementary school, I believed in heaven. My mother started me off in Catholic school from the time I entered Kindergarten until the end of second grade. But Catholic school got too expensive, and so while the rest of the kids prayed, I saluted the American flag at the William Ellery Channing School. But the idea of a (god) and a specialness of all humankind stayed with me. I still believed I could get into heaven.

That elite club in the sky where only true believers and superheroes from the bible went. All I needed to do was trust in humanity and keep the faith. (And pray they had cable.)

When I was 9 or 10, I realized I wanted my own spaceship. I wanted to traverse the Universe, searching for signs of life. Not once did my belief in extraterrestrials interfere with my nightly prayers. As far as I was concerned, God lived in a giant mothership and she was as bad ass as Wonder Woman. (Even if there were occasions when 'she' was a 'he' and he looked like Sean Connery.)

But then, I grew up. I started to see that every which way I went, either people believed in God and only (g)od, or people devalued humanity. There were massacres in foreign countries and genocide in others. Women were mutilated and subjugated in opposite ends of the earth and there I was, 14 years old and praying every night for Superpowers. But not once did I want to be anything more than human. I still believed humanity was capable of great things. Hence, the need to be superhuman vs. superhero.

The reason I am writing this is because 2012 is fast approaching, and far be it for me to judge anyone who actually believes the end is nigh. Believe what you want. It's your right. But seriously, have a little faith. In humanity. Because everywhere I look, the robots win. The aliens win. The zombies win. The vampires win. Everyone but the humans.

Worse still, people hate each other.

We are so desperate for saviors from 'other' worlds to come down and right our wrongs, that we don't even notice the saints in our own back yards. People judge and disrespect celebrities for speaking out on behalf of those who have no voice. People rant about Politicians who can't clean up a mess that took years to make, in a matter of months. People expect everything another human being does to be perfect or not done at all.

Which brings me to the world of the Esoteric. Stanton Friedman may still stand behind the belief that UFO's and EBE's are from space, but what gives anyone the right to scold him for it? Where is your proof that he is wrong? Where is your proof that you are right? For that matter, just because you never saw a Bigfoot, that does not mean Loren Coleman does what he does in vain? (And I don't care who you are or how many degrees you have up the ass, if you can't definitively prove to me that Unicorns never existed, than seriously, please stay out of my way.)

The world is replete with unethical treatment of humanity. Forget trying to save the animals for the umpteeth time. What about your neighbor who can't afford to heat his/her home? What about the kids in Africa who travel across the desert in the dark, so as not to be detected and killed? What about sex slaves in 3rd world countries? What about women scholars in the middle east who were forbidden to even use their intelligence while you had the freedom to buy an ipod, play on your wii and drunk text your ex?

The people around you are not foreign entities from Zeti Reticuli? They are composed of the same ingredients, progenitors of the same hominids... sisters, brothers, mothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandmothers and grandfathers just like yours. The hate we feel for each other is thousands of years old and, dare I say it, comes from ancient propoganda.

For those who read the bible know that it is 'we', the humans who will judge the Angels. And the story carries on in all ancient texts containing tales of gods from the sky who tried to rule the earth and lower humanity to a state of disgrace and species hate. Because it is species hate to look at someone sitting next to you and expect them to fail.

But realize this: If we do not stick together, we fall together.

It's a domino effect. Whether this hate of our own kind was propogated millions of years ago to keep us from the truth that we, being the only known inhabitants in the known universe are special. That we are here for a reason, however old and cosmic. Why else would WE be here, above all possible outcomes in the universe? Why us? Ask yourself that the next time you watch the news and falsely accuse humankind of the destruction around you. For yes, we are capable of many horrible deeds... but we are also capable of many great things too. And some how, somewhere, sometime ago...when we started believing in false gods, we stopped believing in ourselves.